Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

still enjoy myself. But the thing is we put so much into this . For example, let me tell you a couple of things we're going to do this yea r. I sat down at Anaheim (last yea r) - I had just fallen off my road ra cer at Willow Springs at about 100 mph and I had to have six shots of cortisone and pain killer in my spin e just to go to the event . .. I was like a zomb ie .. . And this was the first time I had a chance to watch the event , because I'm usually in the control booth going crazy ... And I said, "This is exciting, but why am I excited?" Then I noticed too many colors on the field ; the jackets of the field workers and the banners would blend with the riders and your eye was distracted. So I designed a program which will be partially implemented at the L.A . Coliseum - not completely - but it will make a vast change. What's amaz ing is if we didn't have this interview , nobody would know why they enjoyed it more, but they will enjoy it 20 to 30 percent more. We'll have a pair of high- level spotlights - carbon arcs that will follow the leader. That way , you'll always be able to pick out the leader, so you ,ca n always know where he is. There is a corner sign with a number on each corner, so we can say "we 're going through Corner Three, Corner Four; the leader is now goi ng through here." We've said "now he's going through 'I nsanity Ridge" in the past , but a guy can't remember where " Insa n ity Ridge" is. But when the sta rt goes, each on e of the comer boxes will be filled with balloons. When we go through Turn One, we'll release t he balloons. All through the 19 turns we'll release balloons , so people can id entify those , right? Now the thing we probably won 't have for the Col iseum event , but we'll have for future events - everyone on the field will be in a green coverall to blend in with the grass. Like the groundskeepers in a baseball game, or something like that? Right. The other thing we'll do , whe re they don't have grass in the infield is we'll spray the brown dirt gr een , so it gives you a contrast between the green and the brown , restricting the ground field workers to the 10 feet between th e track and the green area , so you have a corridor that goes around. When we do the whole change, the show will be 50 percent better]! I mean it '/l blow you away! Those are the kind of things that excite me about doing a better job in su percross. Think about it ... I'm supposed to build a stage for the riders, they're the performers . . .and if we all want spec· taror dollars, we better realize that we're all performers, including myself. I'm going to be a good stage man ager. We reduce the number of people on the field, a nd believe me a lot of people get hot at me for being tight with field passes. We gotta be , because all those 100,000 people, they depend on me being tight , because I don 't want to distract Mr. and Mrs . Brown and their kids' eyes; I want them to watch that race, to enjoy it. ... 26 The other thing: We've got great cooperation from U.S . Suzuki, and I hope we can get it from other manu facturers, to put a giant number plate on the front of their bikes. Honda 's been working on it , see? Nobody's ever recognized that with outdoor morocross, you 're right by the fence and you can see the guys' plates. So I went to them last year - and the AMA was very cooperative, also - and said that the average line of sight in a stadium race is 140 feet - we need a bigger number platel How big will these plates be? Only 50 pe~cent bigger; they ~on't be obtrusive. . . . . , ._- - -- --~ '.-_ . -- - _.. You say that by doing all of this you are setting a stage. It seems that by doing that, you're either elevating or reducing the elements of Supercross to theatrics, with the spotlights, number plates, the balloons - all the exaggerations that go along with theatre. Why d o you th ink the NFL has succeeded so well? It may not be so ob vious , but you've heard of so me of the behind the scenes th ings they do , like delaying the kick -off for television. I don't like the word " t hea trics" as much as I choreograp h things. We want an end result; we want those fans standing on their feet , cheering, the last 20 minutes of the race, Whatever I can contribute to the staging of the thing, yes, I will do it. But do you think, or have you received any input, that this takes away from the true element of racing? It enhances it! Not everyone is going to agree with me; I can do only what I think is right after consulting with people whose opinions I respect ... I want to see this country get to the plateau that it can achieve with Supercross first. And use that as a stepping-off point for the rest of the world? Yes. There will , someday , be a World Grand Prix of Supercross. That was one of your ambitions five years ago. but in spite of what success that may befall Supercross in the future, even what success it enjoys now, there is apparently this schizm between Supercross and outdoor racing. I think that can be bridged . How? M oney. A motocross right now is not a financiall y feasible th ing for a pro· fessional to promote in most cases. So , consequently, you're not going to get a company like mine, or Pa ce Management , to get int o outdoor motocross , What we need to do is develop what I ca ll th e " b ush leagues," wh ich is out door (motocross) . First of all, we've go t to hav e BMX , amateur, pro, outdoor and Supercross. And I make no bones about it : I want Supercross to be the epitome, the end result. I think that we can even have two circuits of Supercross, somed ay down the road, Then you're going to see a dozen or two dozen riders make a quarter of a million dollars a year. Then , maybe , there's the next level of riders who ride both Supercross and outdoor for the National Championship. Then there's another level of riders that's graded for only outdoors , Then your amateurs, and so on down the line. The way to do that is get a big sponsor, like Coca -Cola or Schlitz, who can benefit' from owning that by having them subsidize outdoor racing, so they can own the entire program, How can you convince the outdoo~ promoter that you have this 't remendous national sponsorship, then to have them sit down and talk so you can work something out? There's no problem doing that, but I don't want to waste their time, You many ' false alarms know how promoters have had in the last 10 years from everyone about all the big sponsors that are coming out? "We've got so and so in the bag for you?" I want to wait 'til I have something before I sit down with the guys. In other words, I don't think it's fair to go to the oudoor guy and say , "Tell me what you'll do for me if I get you something," I want to get them somethingl Five years ago, even though you had . three or four Superbowls of Motocl'OllS - under your belt, you were on the outside looking in, Now, a lot of people look at it the other way around, that you're on the inside, surrounded by Supercross, while everybody else '.~ ~~.o_n_tJt~.o~!Sjdc:: .'_ .',".'.",".'... I don't know how to comment on that , except to say that probably the motorcycle industry is a very cliquish industry. When anybody's aggressive and brash and loud and pushy as me comes into a new industry , it takes a whil e for him to get accepted , You know promoters are a dime a doz en, and people need to kn ow that this guy delivers. I have no doubt that they know I deliv er. I'm a 'Very principled person. If somebody screws me , I sue 'em. People don't like that. But on the same token, I deliver. In fact , with a couple of my sponsor contracts, they didn't deliver, and I feel that they have as much an obligation to deliver as I do. There will always be these rumors flying around that "don't do business with Goodwin, he'll screw you. " I'll screw anbody to the wall if they screwed me, But I take to a fault, unfortunately, " tha t it says that in the contract; we have to do that. " So, you play fair, but you play hard. "Fair" is a bad word. What you interpret as "fa ir ," and what I interpret as "fair" may be worlds apart. So you're talking about honesty? Yes. I play by an agreement, Frankly, I have mellowed in the last four or five years; I haven't sued anybody in quite some time, I feel that my time is more valuable now , creating new things than going back over somebody who took advantage of me. I just won 't work with them again , Fortunately, the caliber of people that we're now dealing with They're up to your caliber? They're probably above my caliber! It gives me something to strive for. What it means is that you can't always shop price , you' ve got to shop quality . I read in a magazine article that implied that the basic relationship between Supercross riders and promoters is one of exploitation. Have you ever been accused of exploiting riders? Not until now, I can see where someone can take that observation , except that I have very little contact with the riders . All of our negotiating is through AMA and they keep things like that from happening. They don't let you get away with paying too little of a . purse. Somebody who might be exploiting them is if the rider has an agent. I can see where some kids could really get ripped off. But since I have so little dealing with riders, and certainly so little to do with the new riders, by the time a guy gets so he negotiates with me, he's been through the battlegrounds a little bit. Do you think that Supercross has been beneficial to motocross riders, in terms of experience and finance, and that the risks have not overshadowed either? If you want to go check what a rider made in 1972 on the average versus what he makes now , their earnings have far , far outstripped the inflationary spiral. I mean the guys are making tons of money, and the reason they're making money is because the manufacturer can make a lot of motorcycles from Supercross, It boils down to an event that attracts 50,000 will sell a lot more motorcycles than an event that attracts 5,000. Safety-wise, the worst injury we had at the L.A . Coliseum , which is sup' posedly the toughest one of all, is a broken ankle. We've had some really horrendous crashes, bu t a broken ankle! That was six or seven years ago. This is for pro riders. On the other hand, Supercross tracks have been less than forgiving to amateur riders. They have not been good to amateur riders. We don't run the amateur events oursevles: we lease the track out to one like CRC. But there was a fellow who was paralyzed, who was at the Sup~rb~!,:!.~ wo,y!~ rs .ag~ ~ r!t~ .u.n - fortunate thing there was in our contract (a provision) that the promoter was not supposed to let them ride up and down the hill. I understood that the kid fell after coming off the peristyle. In Anaheim , one year, a kid was killed . What we've done now is we charge in our fee when we rent to the amateurs , to knock down the jumps and change the track before they go on . But when something like that happens, are there any fingers pointed at you? There certainly must be. Yeah, we get accused. In fact , I'm going into a deposition , I think , to find out if I should be included in that lawsuit (the paralysis case). What could you see to top what you're doing now? Will you forever be in Supercross? , ed My .goal lies in three stages: continuity of sponsorship, going into 24 stadiums nationwide - which will bring along with it national television. The next step after that is the world-wide Supercross, That's what my long. term goals are. I Frankly, as a side-view, I've thought about spending a lot more time with my real estate so I can finance these grands prix, world -wide, myself. You'll buy your own stadium, maybe? No, no. I don't think that you can run more than one event per stadium per year. They're too much of "'"a spectacular, there's too much charisma because of the one-time on1 deal. Five years ago you were getting involved in a lot of research and development things, consulting with Steve McLaughlin, working with ~ puters on frames, suspensions and things like that. Most interestingly, though, what ever happened to that portable motocross track that you were talking about? The portable motocross track has come a long way. Is it still in testing? It 's come to the point where we've taken bids on it, but it's going to cost us almost $2,000 ,000 to build, Until we're into 24 stadiums, it woV advertise itself off, so that's one of my grea est reasons for getting into 24 stadiums. Is it still top secret? No~ but the details about it are, It's basically a modular track that's transportated around in SIX semis. with a rubber surface that simulates the traction properties of dirt, You ' go to stadiums and put it together like an Erector Set, One of our greatest problems right now is that most stadiums won't let us in during baseball season. because we ruin the grass, With this portable track. we can get it in in 72 hours and get it out in 72 hours, It opens up broad vistas to us . But will it still be motocrOllS? Totally! And it will be better motocross than you've ever seen. Every piece will have been computer designed. You notice how we build a berm in the dirt? It's right and sometimes it's not, We've done cross section studies and it will always be right, because it will always be the same berm, When do we plan to see it? I've quit making predictions. Throughout this interview, your comments have been augmented with things like demographics, percentages, dollars spents, projections and tables of figures, even the amortization required of a portable motocross track. But, you put all these numben together, and it makes you appear to be sterile. It makes you sound so far removed from motocross, that it's like you're sellinlt soap instead. Let me concur with you: Perhaps the greatest evolution over the past five years is that I've come to realize that you prove something by trying to figure what the system is you need to comply with to prove it and . ." . ..... ~ ':.

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