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Location
Acworth, GA
US
This professional sport is crazy. Seeing all this talent over the years especially the last five to ten just go to waste because they can’t get a ride because of injury or poor results because of an injury or something else got me thinking.
What could be done to the sport to help prolong riders Careers and make it more comfortable for them to stay employed and not have to worry so much about losing their career?
Is it just the Nature of the beast? Are you really just as good as your last race? Is there anything that really can be done?
I would think to prolong the sport into the future some of these concerns should be addressed. Maybe I’m wrong and they already are or it’s fine the way it is.
I understand the business and sponsor side of it and you want a rider that can win but where does it stop? What can the sport do to prolong a riders career with good pay and should it be done at all?
There is no doubt the cream of the crop should get paid more and they generally do but seeing so much talent go to waste because of lack of rides and resources is tough to watch.
I think it’s really simple though it’s all about the money. If the sport had more money then they could afford to have more riders and have more resources and more bikes and pay higher salaries but the spots are limited. The other part is there is just a limited amount of riders to fund because it’s not a large competition. It’s just 20 riders and one series so you go after the best at the time.
Not really sure if there is a discussion to be had about this or if there is a problem at all and if it’s fine the way it is. The beauty though is getting people’s opinions and a discussion about it to hear other people’s thoughts on this.
What could be done to the sport to help prolong riders Careers and make it more comfortable for them to stay employed and not have to worry so much about losing their career?
Is it just the Nature of the beast? Are you really just as good as your last race? Is there anything that really can be done?
I would think to prolong the sport into the future some of these concerns should be addressed. Maybe I’m wrong and they already are or it’s fine the way it is.
I understand the business and sponsor side of it and you want a rider that can win but where does it stop? What can the sport do to prolong a riders career with good pay and should it be done at all?
There is no doubt the cream of the crop should get paid more and they generally do but seeing so much talent go to waste because of lack of rides and resources is tough to watch.
I think it’s really simple though it’s all about the money. If the sport had more money then they could afford to have more riders and have more resources and more bikes and pay higher salaries but the spots are limited. The other part is there is just a limited amount of riders to fund because it’s not a large competition. It’s just 20 riders and one series so you go after the best at the time.
Not really sure if there is a discussion to be had about this or if there is a problem at all and if it’s fine the way it is. The beauty though is getting people’s opinions and a discussion about it to hear other people’s thoughts on this.
Newsworthy event), how often do you hear about former football/baseball/basketball players?
The difference between what the top guys are earning and the last guys are earning is HUGE! Too big. Close that up and you have your wish.
However, like it or not there isn’t going to be a sudden influx of money coming in to this sport, so the only way to do it is be realistic and cut the top riders pay. Distribute that more evenly down the field.
Instead of Honda having having one bike out there that they’re paying $5m dollars for, they could put five bikes out there that they’re paying $1m each.
It won’t happen. But that’ll be the only way to do it.
More needs to be done to help reduce the severity of the injuries. I thought canards idea of working as a voice to help guide the track builders and promoters was a sound idea but seems to have gained zero traction unfortunately.
The Shop
I get it that RV and Dunge (in recent years) have got out with healthy bank and fairly non major injuries but still some pretty big get offs.
All I've ever done is bounce off the roof of a truck and my broken foot bothers me every day 20 years later.
The odds are against these guys for sure, even if you do everything right the risk is phenomenal.
Is it really any different in other sports , or for life in any other profession?
If you don't deliver the goods you are gone and occassionally someone tells a story about you or you end up in a "whatever happened to?" Discussion.
If somebody has a hard time with that, gofundme can help, or it can reaffirm how short most people's memories last.
The teams go on, but riders have one or two years and they are gone- you are talking about guys who spent their entire lives getting to that point. The sport does not breed a lot of personality in many cases, because the training and practice is so hardcore. And I don't know anybody that is loyal to a certain mx/sx team and roots for Geico Honda- people want to have their individual riders but the casual fan won't even see their face unless they podium. Maybe they should market these guys a little more individually instead of the clone approach.
I will say this, if they got professional and ran the teams and riders like adac (Germany sx) series I think it could be a good direction but I’m not sure it would happen. In German sx they have a set amount of teams with a set amount of riders per team, each spot the teams get paid I believe 800 euros each night start money that the promoter pays the team to MAKE SURE those spots are always filled. If your not on a team your basically not ‘invited’ to race. It’s clear cut and because it’s in order it allows the teams to be paid by the promoter and to have funding for that racer to have a bike and transportation and also a little money on the side start money. This allows the teams to focus a little more on the needs of the racer because they are basically being paid 1600- to whatever the rider agrees on with the promoter, there’s no reason guys are getting paid 10 grand start money in Germany but come home and can’t barely make it from race to race because big ol Supercross pays $975 and that’s ‘the best they can do’ it’s not the best they can do. For example what’s bigger and more profitable, American Supercross or the one off Supercross bercy in Paris? Who can commit to paying more for there riders to be there? Obviously the fim Supercross series here in America because it’s the biggest. Armed with that, why was I paid 40 grand at 15 years old to race bercy but not a penny to race Supercross here at home in front of a much bigger crowd? Just that same weekend another racer got paid $250 thousand (87 thousand per night of racing) and my bro $60k to race this event, yet Supercross has a purse under 70k for the 450 class entirely. It doesn’t make sense and there’s a lot of people that know it’s going on. Not one of them wants the open there mouth and ruffle feathers so they hold it in. I fact they hold in all kinds of information they know about to ‘simply not get involved’ when those things directly impact there opportunity to do better at the races and they just don’t get it.
If you think about it that way, I think there are quite a few with a "successful career", some that come to mind in the last 20 years (leaving out the elite of the sport) and obviously not knowing their bank account, but guessing they did okay in their racing years
David Vuillemin
Ezra Lusk
Nate Ramsey
Nick Wey
Tim Ferry
Larry Ward
Kevin Windham
Travis Preston
Ivan Tedesco
Michael Byrne
Andrew Short
Mike Alessi
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