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Yes, there are differences with stick and ball sports vs SX/MX. My point was that calling someone an amateur just because the guy can't race/play for 15 years, leave the sport on his own terms, and retire for the rest of his life is so incredibly disrespectful. If you get paid to compete, or are competing for money, you are a professional. Whether that covers your bills is fairly irrelevant. There are many small individual sports out there that the best in the world (but not top 5-10) dedicate their lives to yet still have to find other ways to make money (bowling, rock climbing, darts, pole dancing, many action sports, etc..). They are still professionals. They are competing against the best of the best for money.
On top of that, there is the fact that the sanctioning body issues a license to compete in their professional events.
Well done sir. Well, fucking, done.
The Shop
Yes, 3rd string Joe Football is a professional. In fact, he's an underpaid professional. If Jesse had been signed to a team, was a top 20 guy in the 450 class, and was making $90k a year and still didnt think it was enough, he'd actually have a better leg to stand on here.
Every NFL player on a 53 man roster is a necessary component to that league functioning. Even the guys who dont play in games. There are no wasted roster spots (except for white QBs but that's another debate). NFL owners are some of, if not, the greediest motherfuckers on the planet. They're not in the business of paying people for no reason (well, except for certain white QBs, but again, Ive digressed).
The only amateurs that arent amateurs, but get paid like amateurs, are NCAA athletes. That's a multi-billion dollar business that doesnt pay it's labor force.
If Ken Roczen is the equivalent of an elite NCAA basketball player for Duke University. That makes Jesse Wentland the starting goalie for the women's field hockey team. One very much is an amateur in that analogy. The other is a pro who doesnt get paid.
Curious, why is Ken the Duke b-ball player (pro who doesn’t get paid) and not Jesse?
Jesse is not the show. If Feld was forced to pay out the privateers better or drop them from the program, you know which route they'd choose.
Without those privateers we don't have: qualifying practice, heat races, or LCQ's. They may not have big names or a million Instagram followers, but many people around the country that are into the sport are rooting for them. When guys like Wentland have races close to home, they have an entire family entourage and friends buy tickets. Then those people go tell their friends and they buy tickets. Ronnie Stewart alone sells out 2 rows of seats sometimes.
The all day supercross event, with party in the pits and etc. is now a stretched out over blown commercial show with a free practice and a main event of factory riders racing each other.
For the people who just go see dirtbikes? Well, they don't care regardless. They want their moneys worth, watching a free practice and then watching 15 factory riders race each other in one race and going home at $75's a ticket is a joke.
Regardless of what you think of Jesse.. you can't ignore an imminent problem in the sport. It's growing, yet everything internally is stagnant or declining. It's pretty ridiculous a local A rider who sweeps the pro classes at a local Midwest fair race or pro-am can walk away with the same (if not more) amount of purse money than a 250 main winner.
The money has to go somewhere...
That said, privateers are a dime a dozen. I'm watching the races for the top talent, not for who is getting 15th in said race. Is anyone going to stop watching now that Jesse isn't racing? Was anyone ever watching before? I don't mean that to be harsh, but if we keep up the stick/ball comparisons he's like the 4th string WR, but he makes way less money. Maybe fantasy SX really is the answer here.
Pro racing is not dead. And if it was, we should be directing our attention at 4 strokes. It's not PEDs or FELD, it's 4 strokes for sure.
I guess we'd have to talk to someone in the know. Im sure they have some data on how much the privateers cost and how much revenue they bring in. I'm guessing it's a wash tbh. All those practices and day qualifying requires a lot of track maintenance.
Im also theorizing that the "show" gets a lot better if the product is more focused. The practices could be more focused on the riders of the teams. It doesnt have to be stretched out all day for fans to feel like they got their money's worth.
Your last paragraph I dont disagree with at all. I do think there are problems. I just dont think further diluting the resources is the answer. Paying the privateers more $ is a extension of the same philosophy that enables the current system of 6 premier classes in the sport. THAT is what is hurting things. No other motorsport operates that way.
Imagine this sport if all the talent (riders, teams, venues, mechanics) were all packaged into one product (series). A true world championship with all of the best of the best in one class. All media directed towards it. Everyone in that series would be getting paid better. And the media exposure it would allow for would be 6 fold what we have today.
Does that help the privateer? No. It eliminates them from premier class racing and forces them into a true meritocratic feeder series where they'd have a better shot at showing their talent. What Im proposing is so much more efficient. The best of the best should get paid what they're worth and the lower tier riders should have a series they can show their worth. Purses and payout wouldnt even be necessary.
Purse payout is not the same as revenue sharing for it's teams. And this sport does not have revenue sharing. Take care of teams and you will have a healthy sport. Take care of riders and you are pissing money away.
As a privateer, you used to have a good shot at making money doing by being a bounty hunter to local events that have purses, but those events have seemed to dry out. I remember in norcal in early 00's there were a half dozen events that offer a few thousand in purse money. I havent seen anything like that in years
As for a union, they do need something. I think what Trey canard is doing is something they have needed for a long time. They need someone looking out for their safety and well being, there have been many cases when riders brought to attention an issue with the track and it was never changed and caused crashes.
the future for the sport is getting dangerously close to Monster Jam rather than Nascar or football. Its being dealt with more and more like a "show" and not a competition.
If the riders as a whole do not make a stand and group together then they will be reduced to paid performers and you'll only 20 guys each weekend and racing as a privateer will be reduced to pro am events and local racing..
Why can there be a very succesfull F1, when there is also Le Mans and DTM and Nascar?
Why can there be a very succesfull Motogp, when there is also World Superbike?
Why can there be a very succesfull Premier league while there is also a Bundesliga, Serie A and Primera division? (soccer)
Why can there be a very succesfull NFL, when there is also college football?
I don't think that having multiple competitions in a sport is a reason for none of the competitions to become a enormous succes.
And i certainly don't believe there is much if any impact of MXGP on the success of Supercross, and vice versa.
Our sport isn't big enough to spread out the talent and money like we do, i think that is the argument.
Yep agreed, and also something you see in most succesfull sports (f1, motogp, nfl, soccer, etc.).
However, what you also see is that those team unite themselves to force the promoter to get a position and for example share revenu. As long as that does not happen nothing will change in SX.
Pit Row
That'd be news to me. SX has traditionally had to pay for it's TV slot and then sell it's own advertising. Like most TV programming.
Something like that anyways.
Edit: It's this thread. Check page 8 for the article.
LeMans is endurance racing. It's a different genre than F1. Im not making the argument that World Enduro is taking away from World MX.
Im making the argument that their are 6 different series/classes that are pulling from the same pool of MX riders. F1 isnt sharing TV time with it's feeder series either. Just the simple fact that Supercross in America televises the 250 class while the 12th place guy in the "premier" class is underpaid is gross mismanagement. They've effectively made a FEEDER class a "premier" class by giving it equal TV exposure. The sport cannot afford it. That is time that should be given to the 8th best team in what should be the premier class.
Let me shoot holes elsewhere in your argument....
FIM gave Dorna the promoting rights to WSBK and the first thing Dorna did was ensure WSBK was to no longer be in competition with MotoGP. WSBK is clearly a tier down.
Soccer... nothing wrong with domestic leagues. But there is only ONE Champions League right?
Football... yes, technically 2 pro leagues. They never schedule games on the same days. They are working together and it is clearly tiered. So they both grow. You would NEVER see the NFL network put more effort into marketing a college football team than it does one of it's own 32 teams. Yet in SX, plenty of 250 teams get more TV time than some of the bottom 450 teams.
You really dont think MXGP and SX arent in competition? It's literally splitting the talent pool of the riders in half, in a sport that already has a much smaller talent pool than Soccer or the others. It also splits the OEM's budgets. Monster Energy is sponsoring the series on both sides. That money should go into ONE series so it has a better chance at reaching the mainstream. They could buy a better TV slot, get more exposure, and then get bigger sponsors.
That puts an even bigger premium on the production value of the broadcast. It's no longer Monster Energy's money that Feld is pissing away. No wonder they are playing with a 3 main format. They dont want to blow this deal with Fox.
50% revenue share (standard in most sports) would be $2m on the TV alone (not counting merchandise and concessions). Let's just stick with $2m flat for the sake of conversation and the huge unknown costs of running the series.
$2m divided by 10 premier class teams = $200k per team to start the year off with.
That may not seem like much, but it is significant. Especially for the bottom teams.
But of course, the teams would have to force this situation on Feld.
Also, revenue sharing would not be divided equally. Just like F1 the oldest/premier team would receive the bulk of the money and the lower tiered teams would get less. Regardless, the only way to have revenue sharing is with TV deals. The bigger the better.
What ever happened to the privateer award? I seem to remember that at one point or another the privateer that scored the most points was rewarded with something like 25K. Pretty sure there was a truck as well.
In the NFL, every NFL team gets a equal share of the TV money. It's the proper way.
And it's not just TV deals, it's all revenue.
Feld would resist. Just like everyone thought the NFL was crazy when they originally developed their revenue sharing platform that looked after small markets like GreenBay. It has proven to be the best system. Yes, it's socialism, but on a small scale, everyone pulls their weight.
As a business guy I realize the guys who work for me have to make a living wage, if they can’t live off of what I pay them, they will have to leave even if they want to stay.
With less guys making the night program with the triple crown more guys will drop out because they have to.
When Jam and Clear Channel went thru their deal CC miraculously found more money for payouts because they had to.
Feld has 3 choices, continue the way they are, payout more each year or give the riders a better platform to secure sponsors because of having tv time (which is what Feld claims to be the value they are bringing to the table)
Maybe instead of watching stupid videos of people watching the race with miss sx that time could be doing a Monster Pit Crawl and highlighting the privateers.......I know dumb idea right?
Spend that time you suggested highlighting the smaller premier class teams. That would be productive.
Feld is making changes. That is why they are experimenting with the 3-moto format. And it was a success despite what the mob on Vital thinks. A guy like Brayton (who is on a real team) got massive "legitimate" TV time for his sponsors. So did Anderson. Eli got the win. Roczen was a focus. Barcia got airtime. The media exposure was spread out better than in any race Ive ever watched. Dont think this 3-moto format is going away, sponsors are going to favor it.
Dropping the "night show" qualifications & resulting payout is going to hurt dad & son racing. Oh well. This is not amateur sports.
And it's not like their isnt a feeder series they can go to. Arenacross is there. Im sure their is good contingency bonuses. The privateer has chances to make a living. Catering to them tho, is dragging down the premier events in the sport.
In fact, I'd suggest sending the entire 250 class to Arenacross. Let SX be 450 only. One class, all the premier teams.
Factory Honda
Factory Yamaha
Factory Kawasaki
Factory KTM
Factory Husqvarna
JGR Suzuki
PC Kawasaki
TLD KTM
FC Honda
MC Honda
That is 10 elite teams right there. Focus all the media on them and give them revenue sharing. MotoGP is doing very well following this model. Make the grid spots valuable so that the OEM's are forced to support their satellite teams in order to keep them.
This isnt radical theory. It's proven in other motorsports. Heck, it was the model at one time when the motocross GP's were the premier series in the world.
But I don’t tune in to see people watching sx on their bikes in their living rooms, I would prefer that time to be anything rider related.
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