What's the benefit of "growing the sport "

Spartacus
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2/24/2016 6:30am Edited Date/Time 2/26/2016 1:02pm
Yeah, yeah, yeah, more money, more sponsors the sport gets "bigger". What's the up side of that to me?

Will it reduce the cost of bikes?

Will it open more riding areas?

Will it put a Monster Girl in every garage?

Will a grown sport help me with a 60' table top?

Other than those that stand to gain ($$$$$$) from growing the sport, I don't see the up side to the average rider and I don't buy that *insert your brand of bike, gear or accessory here* making more money helps me in any way.

Dirt bikes were huge in the 70's and look where we are today. Yeah, it's on TV live BFD. I'd take bikes and riding areas everywhere over watching TV any time. More "entertainment" based fans in the stands or sitting on their couch watching isn't going to help me one bit.

If you do stand to gain monetarily from growth, I get it. The rest of us, I'm not sure what we gain.

Carry on.
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hillbilly
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2/24/2016 6:32am
Concussion lawsuits

Environmental lawsuits

Child endangerment lawsuits

Lawsuit lawsuits
bish153
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2/24/2016 6:34am
None...higher prices and less riders!
Dtat720
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2/24/2016 6:36am
Late 90's, early 00's, we had our choice of tracks each weekend and never drove more than an hour. Now, there are 5 within 3 hours. Ive seen 10 tracks close in the last 5 years and another one is up for sale now. "Growing the sport" allows these tracks to stay open. It sucks to load up and drive hours, unload and ride a couple of hours, load back up and drive for hours again. I rode both days this past weekend and 2 different tracks. Put 500 miles on my truck, spent $300. Kinda stings. My land deal cant happen fast enough... Have 3 tracks to choose from in my backyard..
TheGetFresh
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2/24/2016 6:36am
More people showing up at local events would be a major upside.

The Shop

Grieby54
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2/24/2016 6:46am
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means:
- More people trying the sport out
- More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn, hopefully means better facilities)
- Potentially more new tracks popping up to meet the demand (which would be great)
- More people buying bikes and encouraging manufacturers to continue to invest in the sport
- More external sponsors creating more factory teams (which, in turn, hopefully means more competitive racing)

You guys will find a reason to be bitter about anything, though.
h&m_cycle
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2/24/2016 6:50am
Too hard to gamble on it... all ready know who's going to win... Sports you can gamble on... both legally and illegally is where growth will always be...
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JackLHyde
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2/24/2016 6:53am
The biggest growth the sport will get is if the MSRPs would drop. Imagine Yamaha selling their YZ-F line for 1K less in 2017...
bish153
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2/24/2016 7:10am Edited Date/Time 2/24/2016 7:16am
Grieby54 wrote:
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means: - More people trying the sport out - More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn...
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means:
- More people trying the sport out
- More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn, hopefully means better facilities)
- Potentially more new tracks popping up to meet the demand (which would be great)
- More people buying bikes and encouraging manufacturers to continue to invest in the sport
- More external sponsors creating more factory teams (which, in turn, hopefully means more competitive racing)

You guys will find a reason to be bitter about anything, though.
Okay so with this thought process we will take NASCAR as an example... which is most larger, much more fans, much more people interested in the sport, much more sponsors, much more money...how many people do know you that can afford to go drive nascars on the weekend? How many new local nascar tracks are built each year? So why grow our sport in every aspect to this level?
hvaughn88
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2/24/2016 7:12am
JackLHyde wrote:
The biggest growth the sport will get is if the MSRPs would drop. Imagine Yamaha selling their YZ-F line for 1K less in 2017...
Don't dealers usually end up doing that anyways, haha
Darryl916
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2/24/2016 7:26am
Spartacus wrote:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, more money, more sponsors the sport gets "bigger". What's the up side of that to me? Will it reduce the cost of bikes...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, more money, more sponsors the sport gets "bigger". What's the up side of that to me?

Will it reduce the cost of bikes?

Will it open more riding areas?

Will it put a Monster Girl in every garage?

Will a grown sport help me with a 60' table top?

Other than those that stand to gain ($$$$$$) from growing the sport, I don't see the up side to the average rider and I don't buy that *insert your brand of bike, gear or accessory here* making more money helps me in any way.

Dirt bikes were huge in the 70's and look where we are today. Yeah, it's on TV live BFD. I'd take bikes and riding areas everywhere over watching TV any time. More "entertainment" based fans in the stands or sitting on their couch watching isn't going to help me one bit.

If you do stand to gain monetarily from growth, I get it. The rest of us, I'm not sure what we gain.

Carry on.
You hit the nail right on the head. Exactly what I have been saying for a while, growing the sport only hurts us little guys. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

I loved the sport more when is was more of a private little secret community. The closer it gets to formula 1 (or monster trucks, depending how you see it) the less accessible and fun it is for the weekend family base.
fidiot
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2/24/2016 7:42am Edited Date/Time 2/24/2016 7:43am
If more people want to ride, then opening up an MX track to provide those people with places to ride becomes a desirable business to more people. On the flip side, the legal system/insurance companies and environmentalists are destroying the hobby.
Dezerted
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2/24/2016 7:45am Edited Date/Time 2/24/2016 7:46am
We'll have so much more to complain about!

Seriously though, if you're not growing then you're falling behind. There will always be issues, took me forever to figure out how to use these god damn handheld computer phones and I hated them for a long time but now I sit here dropping a deuce and typing something on intranet. It's god damned amazing. My opinion is its best to embrace change. With all the environmentalists and lawyers, shit was going to close irregardless of what this sport was doing tv wise etc. Prices of bikes have to rise, as well as gear prices. Manufacturing costs rises, rent rises etc and with margins tight to begin with a failure to grow might cause issues you would deem worse then what you're "hating" on now.

mattyhamz2
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2/24/2016 7:45am
I don't see bikes, tires, gear or accessories getting cheaper with the sport growing. I think most companies will look at it and say, "hey we've got all these new people wanting to do it now, why don't we raise the prices and make more money?" People getting into the sport don't know the cost behind anything yet so why wouldn't they raise their prices? I mean Seven charges over $300 for a set of gear. What would stop Thor, Fox, ANSR or any of the others from doing the same? It's bad enough we already have to pay $100+ for a rear tire. I don't see that getting any better with the sport growing.
mx617
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2/24/2016 7:47am
Grieby54 wrote:
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means: - More people trying the sport out - More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn...
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means:
- More people trying the sport out
- More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn, hopefully means better facilities)
- Potentially more new tracks popping up to meet the demand (which would be great)
- More people buying bikes and encouraging manufacturers to continue to invest in the sport
- More external sponsors creating more factory teams (which, in turn, hopefully means more competitive racing)

You guys will find a reason to be bitter about anything, though.
Asking a question to improve understanding does not equal bitterness. I think it's a legit point to understand what we're trying to accomplish rather than blindly growing for the sake of growth.
Dezerted
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2/24/2016 7:49am Edited Date/Time 2/24/2016 7:50am
Without knowing the costs of the materials, space to manufactuer, shipping, min wage increase etc you really don't know if they're raising prices, just to raise them or because they need to raise them. People expect companies/businesses to take the hit, it's a really selfish and unfair expectation

mx_563
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2/24/2016 7:55am
I just posted in another thread that MX going mainstream is not something I like. So I’m going to sound like a hypocrite but I have to admit that one potential benefit of growth might be access to riding areas. I started riding a skateboard in the 80s and grew out of it in the 90s. I never had access to a skatepark. Now they are in every town. I can’t help thinking that going mainstream is what helped bring this on. So perhaps if you combine the rapid development of electric propulsion with mainstream popularity, you might actually end up with more tracks near urban areas someday. Is that too farfetched?
Micahdogg
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2/24/2016 7:55am
bish153 wrote:
None...higher prices and less riders!
agreed. Being able to get Fox boots at walmart would be cool though.
Dtat720
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2/24/2016 8:03am
mx_563 wrote:
I just posted in another thread that MX going mainstream is not something I like. So I’m going to sound like a hypocrite but I have...
I just posted in another thread that MX going mainstream is not something I like. So I’m going to sound like a hypocrite but I have to admit that one potential benefit of growth might be access to riding areas. I started riding a skateboard in the 80s and grew out of it in the 90s. I never had access to a skatepark. Now they are in every town. I can’t help thinking that going mainstream is what helped bring this on. So perhaps if you combine the rapid development of electric propulsion with mainstream popularity, you might actually end up with more tracks near urban areas someday. Is that too farfetched?
Skateparks in every city is attributed more to the Tony Hawk foundation than anything else. Skaters came together, put their money on the line and sold it to cities. City leaders bought in to it and skateparks began showing up everywhere. The big name skaters did it by selling a safe place for skaters to enjoy and getting them off the streets. Doingg this with moto would be a hard sell...
Zaugg
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2/24/2016 8:08am
YEAH!!! We should leave the sport small and secluded so our technology stays stale, our bikes never improve, local track owners fail, the thousands of people in the motorcycle industry loose their jobs, and we can stop watching motorcycle companies and promoters make money while we sit behind our keyboard machine guns spewing venom and drinking beer.

I bet you only liked the first Nirvana album huh?...you know, the one no one has heard of...the one before they sold out and released Nevermind. Oh wait...you probably like Nickleback. My apologies.


Moto810
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2/24/2016 8:23am
One would think that growing this sport would mean lower prices yet I will point out that since 2007 when the economy dropped out of the bottom the prices in motocross have increased a great deal! Why? One had to wonder being that overall in the US people make less money than they did in 2007. So why would it cost more to race at a track? Why would bike costs go up being that labor costs are less than 2007? Oil cost would be one thought but now the oil is low will prices drop? No I don't think so.

It seems to be that there are less riders now than before in the general public. With less riders that means the races have less turnout and thus the tracks want to increase the cost to still capture their same profits? Bike builders are doing the same. Parts companies also I would guess.
Micahdogg
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2/24/2016 8:23am Edited Date/Time 2/24/2016 8:26am
Zaugg wrote:
YEAH!!! We should leave the sport small and secluded so our technology stays stale, our bikes never improve, local track owners fail, the thousands of people...
YEAH!!! We should leave the sport small and secluded so our technology stays stale, our bikes never improve, local track owners fail, the thousands of people in the motorcycle industry loose their jobs, and we can stop watching motorcycle companies and promoters make money while we sit behind our keyboard machine guns spewing venom and drinking beer.

I bet you only liked the first Nirvana album huh?...you know, the one no one has heard of...the one before they sold out and released Nevermind. Oh wait...you probably like Nickleback. My apologies.


I for one thought we had plenty of tech, doo-dads like launch control and switchable maps, and fuel pumps and injectors and lithium ion batteries, and air fork gimmickry, etc... But going more mainstream will give us even more crap to work around on the bikes!!?!?!? Suh-weeeet!

IF we could somehow jam like a 3rd camshaft into the engine, but keep the same HP and TQ I would really welcome that addition. Oh, electronically controlled cam timing with glitchy phasers would also be badazz
Dezerted
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2/24/2016 8:26am
Moto810 wrote:
One would think that growing this sport would mean lower prices yet I will point out that since 2007 when the economy dropped out of the...
One would think that growing this sport would mean lower prices yet I will point out that since 2007 when the economy dropped out of the bottom the prices in motocross have increased a great deal! Why? One had to wonder being that overall in the US people make less money than they did in 2007. So why would it cost more to race at a track? Why would bike costs go up being that labor costs are less than 2007? Oil cost would be one thought but now the oil is low will prices drop? No I don't think so.

It seems to be that there are less riders now than before in the general public. With less riders that means the races have less turnout and thus the tracks want to increase the cost to still capture their same profits? Bike builders are doing the same. Parts companies also I would guess.
Labor costs have decreased since 2007!? As a small business owner someone has seemed to not pass those lower costs on to me
kkawboy14
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2/24/2016 8:27am
They will sell more magazines!
Moto810
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2/24/2016 8:33am
Moto810 wrote:
One would think that growing this sport would mean lower prices yet I will point out that since 2007 when the economy dropped out of the...
One would think that growing this sport would mean lower prices yet I will point out that since 2007 when the economy dropped out of the bottom the prices in motocross have increased a great deal! Why? One had to wonder being that overall in the US people make less money than they did in 2007. So why would it cost more to race at a track? Why would bike costs go up being that labor costs are less than 2007? Oil cost would be one thought but now the oil is low will prices drop? No I don't think so.

It seems to be that there are less riders now than before in the general public. With less riders that means the races have less turnout and thus the tracks want to increase the cost to still capture their same profits? Bike builders are doing the same. Parts companies also I would guess.
Dezerted wrote:
Labor costs have decreased since 2007!? As a small business owner someone has seemed to not pass those lower costs on to me
That is what the IRS says? I am a business owner also. I pay well though so my costs have increased also. I think they are talking about numbers in general across the board. Many jobs that once paid $25 a hour are now less. Who knows.................but that is what they claim.
cslacker
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2/24/2016 8:38am
Grieby54 wrote:
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means: - More people trying the sport out - More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn...
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means:
- More people trying the sport out
- More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn, hopefully means better facilities)
- Potentially more new tracks popping up to meet the demand (which would be great)
- More people buying bikes and encouraging manufacturers to continue to invest in the sport
- More external sponsors creating more factory teams (which, in turn, hopefully means more competitive racing)

You guys will find a reason to be bitter about anything, though.
Do you really believe that any casual observer of Supercross will go out and buy their kid a bike after watching it?
Grieby54
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2/24/2016 8:41am
Grieby54 wrote:
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means: - More people trying the sport out - More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn...
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means:
- More people trying the sport out
- More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn, hopefully means better facilities)
- Potentially more new tracks popping up to meet the demand (which would be great)
- More people buying bikes and encouraging manufacturers to continue to invest in the sport
- More external sponsors creating more factory teams (which, in turn, hopefully means more competitive racing)

You guys will find a reason to be bitter about anything, though.
mx617 wrote:
Asking a question to improve understanding does not equal bitterness. I think it's a legit point to understand what we're trying to accomplish rather than blindly...
Asking a question to improve understanding does not equal bitterness. I think it's a legit point to understand what we're trying to accomplish rather than blindly growing for the sake of growth.
Apologies mx617 - my bitter comment was more about the responses you got. I don't think there's anything wrong with the question.
Grieby54
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2/24/2016 8:43am
Grieby54 wrote:
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means: - More people trying the sport out - More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn...
More people interested in the sport, in my mind, means:
- More people trying the sport out
- More revenue to local tracks (which, in turn, hopefully means better facilities)
- Potentially more new tracks popping up to meet the demand (which would be great)
- More people buying bikes and encouraging manufacturers to continue to invest in the sport
- More external sponsors creating more factory teams (which, in turn, hopefully means more competitive racing)

You guys will find a reason to be bitter about anything, though.
cslacker wrote:
Do you really believe that any casual observer of Supercross will go out and buy their kid a bike after watching it?
Maybe one in a thousand will get into moto because they saw it and decided it looked like fun. How many thousands of people to we reach now? Obviously that's not based on anything other than a guess.

Do you think nobody gets into the sport because they saw it on TV and wanted to do it? That's how I got started...
Grieby54
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2/24/2016 8:52am
bish153 wrote:
Okay so with this thought process we will take NASCAR as an example... which is most larger, much more fans, much more people interested in the...
Okay so with this thought process we will take NASCAR as an example... which is most larger, much more fans, much more people interested in the sport, much more sponsors, much more money...how many people do know you that can afford to go drive nascars on the weekend? How many new local nascar tracks are built each year? So why grow our sport in every aspect to this level?
That's a pretty horrible comparison. Can you buy a NASCAR car? Are there any tracks that are open for an amateur day? Do you honestly think that if our sport grew people would stop buying dirt bikes and going to the track?
cslacker
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2/24/2016 8:55am
Grieby54 wrote:
Maybe one in a thousand will get into moto because they saw it and decided it looked like fun. How many thousands of people to we...
Maybe one in a thousand will get into moto because they saw it and decided it looked like fun. How many thousands of people to we reach now? Obviously that's not based on anything other than a guess.

Do you think nobody gets into the sport because they saw it on TV and wanted to do it? That's how I got started...
1 in a thousand is a huge overestimation in my opinion. Kids can't even walk to school or go to the park without the "helicopter parent" now... Headers are being outlawed in kids soccer...

Supercross is about putting on a show to make money, and there's nothing wrong with that. But to say it increases local track attendance is a bit of a stretch in my opinion.
Dezerted
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2/24/2016 8:55am
Let's use plane racing then.. How many people do you know that go to their local air track and take the race plane out on the weekend?! Blink

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