Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

concerts for: The Turtles, Janis Joplin, Burt Bacharach. There's a certificate for Eagle Scout ("I was the youngest; 12 years, 10 months"). On a wall are posters from the SuperBowl events. In a comer is a layout of the "American MX Finals" to be held in Angel Stadium at Anaheim. There's another set of shelves next to Mike's desk w ith more files. Beneath the shelves is a caricature statue of a man forever fro zen in the act of pushing a large rock. The day is reall y beautiful, and Mike is tuned into it as he calls up clie nts. Every time he calls, he says, " It's reall y great out here today . . . so goo d , I 'm almost tempted to take the da y o ff and go out diving . .. " He says that all day . The phone is his instrument, like anartist's brush or a musician 's hom. He knows how to use the 12 lines effectively and with the greatest precision. His life is wrapped up in the Deal and the Contract with Guarantees against the Percentages - or is it the other way around? It 's the way Mik e ~ets ahead and makes money. ("Money's just a way of keeping 'sco re." ) He's constantly taking situations and molding them to the best possible advantage for his operation. And most of the time it works. The deals flow smoothly to his satisfaction , which charges Mike up as the day progresses. I ask him a question about the philosophy behind his operations, and Mike puts the rest of the world on hold for a while to give me an answer. "Ir's a tragic situation," he says, "because everybody forgets that we're doing nothing more than entertaining people. Now, if we want motocross to stay small and a pure sport, we can stay out in the hills, right? With chemical toilets, and hot beer, and cold hot dogs, dust and PA systems that you can 't hear. But nobody 's going to go out to it. Attendances at major A.'\1A motocrosses since 1971 have declined. Saddleback Trans·A.\lA draws 8400 people for what is supposed to be the biggest race except for the Grand Prix. The only way to judge success is the number of people that go . It 's the market place syndrome: supply and demand. "So we got to make a choice whether we want it to be fun and pure the rest of our lives, or whether we want to try to get a mixture and sacrifice a bit on the courses, because I know that th e stadium MX courses are less desirable. But that way we can sell more motorcycles for the manufacturers. The manufacturers, they invest more mo ney into their racing teams , the promoters in tum when th ey sell tickets can put up a bigger purse, so in the end everybody benefits from it. The spectators enjoy it a lot mo re. "Our SuperBowl grew fro m 27,760 the rust year, to 38,800 the second year, to 47,230 the. third year, to over 50,000 people this year. We're by far the biggest motocross in the nation. It's not that we did it, it's a fact because California loves MX, but not the conditions that they 're asked to go through when they go out doors. "If the sport wants to continue to grow, we have to have more of these stadium events. We've got to get exposure in front of 50,000 people if we want to grow. We have got a sport that is one of the most exciting. I can guarantee someone three hours of non-stop adrenalin the whole time they're at the Super Bowl. If we can get more people to come out to these things that are not sports enthusiasts, they look at it and say, ' Ah , maybe well go out to see the outdoor events, too; maybe we'll buy a motorcycle,' because we're introducing them to a new sport. And it's really starting to bloom because we 're getting national TV recognition, national sponsor recognition , a nu mber of things like that. "And it bothers me that a number of people are short-sighted that say, 'We want ·it to be pure out in the mo untains.' Everything is a compromise. If you move the track in so you get a lot of people, the track is not as good; you mo ve it out, the track's better, but .yo u don 't have the people. So you have to decide which one you want." We talked some more about the pros and co n s o f natural versus artificial MX tracks. Here, the natural variety is suffering while it still flourishes in Europe, probably becau se that's where it originated. Mike sees that the success of MX depends upon advertising and marketing, because there is lots of competition for the entertainment dollar in the U.S. while in Europe there is very little. In Europe an event can be held in either the town square or the town dump and probably still draw a crowd, no matter what. Over here, motocross must compete against car races, the horses, TV, movies, rock co ncerts , and the stadium sports like ba sebal l and football. He also bro ke to me the my th of the huge European crowd that's supposed to att end a race. Most people still believe that any European MX will draw up to 40-50,000 people, while in reality, Mike Goodwin says, the average event draws less than 10 ,000, except the really big races. Mike said that there's only one country where an MX drew over 100,000 people, and that was Russia. "Maybe they were required to . go ," he commented. Taking care of b usiness is the ke y to Mike's success. He conducts his Media Max operations as a business with a high degree of professionalism and nothing less. Anybody o n any level in the co urse of putting an event toget h er is dealt with in a businesslike m an n er, with none of the screwing around that has been the style of other promoters. His efforts to bring this quality to the sport have, for the most part, always rubbed against the grain of those manufacturers and contingency representatives who demand all sorts of free considerations. He told me the story of a motorcycle co mp any that failed to give any support to their World Champion rider when he rode in this year's SuperBowl. So the rider packed his engine in his suitcase, flew to L.A., put the new eng ine in his old 500cc works frame, and rode that in the main event with no other support ex cept for the team manager, who shoe-stringed along as his mechanic. Before the SuperBowl however, the company asked Goodwin for a block of free tickets, which immediately made h im wonder why they had the nerve to do this when they wouldn't support their top rider - a World Champion, no less. lie promptly told them to go shove it. At the SuperBowl, the champ whom Mike had paid a lot of money for - didn 't even place. Mike had to resume dealing again. That .was okay, 1 had to heed the call of nature. The bathro om across the hall had a toilet whose de sign harkened to so mething out o f Bu ck Rogers. A Venusian e lectric chair ? A Tralfamadorian sex changer? No, just a weird loo king piece of p orcelain to hang a dum p into. It was a stark contrast to the more serene designs that I am accustomed to. Mike's toilet has interesting reading material, too. Stacked before me as I sat was CN's special road racing section, under that was a copy of "The Carroll Shelby Story" (Mike is very involved in sports car racing in the SCCA. All day he was making calls trying to fight a technicality in the rules so he could compete in the national finals at Road Atlanta. " Jt 's worse than a heroin habit," he says.) . There was a copy of "Winning Through In timidation" beneath that, and a few copies of "Plavboy " on the very bottom. On the toilet . behind me was a copy of the "New Aerobics' on top of a pile of Hus tin- magazines. oo n we have lunch: BLT sandwiches and milk. Diane ~dls Mike that he has some importan t sponsors to meet. That means dressing up. So he does, packs his attache case , and we leave in his big white Caddy. The Cadillac seems as big as the narrow road it has to slink down, but we do it in style . The car is all po wer. Power steering, power brakes, co nvertible , power windows, power radio antenna, climate control, power door locks. It 's an extension of Mike 's personality and drive for success. We get on the San Diego Fre eway toward Costa Mesa where Mike is due to talk business with some important S When it eomes to mail ordering parts from Valerian's, there's onl~ one number ~ou need to remember: (213) 475-4541. W~"'~.!~~A~!9~:~t!: Telephone: (213) 475-4 541 Sa les - Service - Accessori.e s - Parts - Leathers HUSOVARNA . CZ . SUZ UK I . PEN TON. M IKUN I CARB URETOR K ITS ope n mond ay through sat urday WE HAVE SOME ROUGH CUSTOMERS. LIKE KENT HOWERTON, STEVE STACKABLE, DICK MANN TERRY CLARK: TOM UPP, MARK BLACKWELL, '0 SONNY DeFEO, RON SELF, DAVE LONGCOR AND MIKE KESSLER. 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