Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

What is going on with the s u p e rcross television package for the near fu ture? We are continuing to negotiate with the major cable companies. We have had good relations in the past wi th ESPN and continue to talk with them, bu t the co ncerns we have raised wi th ESPN are the same concerns that many spectators have, like the time slot and the number of times the show has bee n pre-empted for other programs. On e of the d ifficulties is also the fact th at if you are on prime time on the West Coast as w e are, you're on VCR-time on the East Coast. It' s a d ecision that the netw or k makes, not us . So we have to p ick one coas t or the othe r. Some of the region al ou tfits like PRIME Ne two rk have mor e flexibilit y, but you don 't always get regul ar broadcasts with them . I th in k that we are fortunat e to hav e been on th e premiere sports network (ESPN ), but we are looki ng at a number of othe r opportunities in add ition to ESPN to ens u re th at w e h ave the ve ry best dea l and exposu re that we can get. Is there any chance for any live television broad casts any time soon? I think those are exciti ng possibilities, and we h a ve been tal kin g w ith Seals Communication s abou t th e logist ics of doing such broadcasts. Last summer the Pe ori a TT w as s how n li v e o n CBS, which was a pretty big deal. O ne of the p roblems we have wi th our program is that it' s a little leng thy at just over three . h ours, s o d o ing th e e nti re p rog ra m mi ght no t be possib le, bu t do ing the last third of the p rogram wi th jus t the main even~ mi ght be more rea list ic. That' s what they do w it h the Paris Supercro s s. Th e y co n de nse a ll the qualifying for a sh ort s egmen t to op en the sh ow and go ri gh t in to the ma in event live, which is b roadcast all acro ss Europe. But Europe d oesn't ha ve th e same market competition that we've here in America. The y don't ha ve the NFL, the NHL, the NBA, Major League Baseball or any of the other major league sports. Plu s ther e's the formidable presence of college basketball in the first and second q uarter o f th e y e a r, which is w hen su percross runs in America. To try to find weekend time slots that do no t conflict is really difficult to do when you're going up against stick and ball sports andNASCAR. It wa s recentl y announced that NASCAR is go ing to Japan th is year. Is there an y chance o f expanding the supercross series outside of the U.S.? We h ave discussed with the AMA the possibility of taking the AMA Supercross Series off-shore , but we were never able to get it put together. We know that there's a stro ng interest in bringing the American riders to Eu rope based on the fact that the big European races are built ar ound th e presence of the Americans. Still, there's nothing planned short-term outside the Ll.S, What do you think about the World Supercross Series? There's a lot of talk made every year about the huge purses, the start money and all that. Why are such things not possible in the States? Well, one of the first difficulties is the cost of producing th o se e ven ts. We don't have the ability to sell our tickets for what they can sell them for in othe r part s of th e worl d . Fo r ins ta nce, th e Pa ris- Bercy even t is said to ha ve h ad 33,000 peopl e over th ree nigh ts, p ayin g abou t $75 a ticket. Unfo rtunately, we have to be realistic in our ticke t p ricing and at man y of our events we have lowered tick et prices to $10 for the upper deck and $5 for kids in order to attract families back to supercross. I think that th e World 5X progr am m ay be a b it ove r ra te d as fa r as co m pe titiveness goes, and that the U.S. 5uper cross progr am is the premi ere series in the world. The only reason th at these other events are as stro ng as they are is because they ha ve talent that's been developed here in the U.S. but marketed in these other coun tries. Has there been anything thrown up on the idea board ab out how to ma ke th e opening ceremonies a little better and how to keep th e crow d a littl e more en te rtai n ed betw ee n h eat ra ces an d th e like? We are alway s h ying to co me up with new ideas on how to improve the pagean try of su p e rc ro ss , a n d w e ' ve always gone wi th proven entertainment like fireworks and such. I think tha t the bes t opening cerem onies a re the on es that are sim ple and well-organized and that just present th e top riders to th e crowd and ge t the program under wa y. I don 't think that it' s ne ces sa ry to do so me of the pageantry that exists at the international events. The intimacy is n't th ere a nyw ay, because most of those in ter n a t io n al even ts are in small, covered stad iums, not the huge football sta di ums we hold them in here in America. A "Wil d West Show" works in a s m all a rena li ke Paris, but it probably wouldn't work at centerfield in Anaheim Stadium. That's right, and I don 't think people understand that at tim es. Bercy is a very small building, comparab le to the build ings we run arenacross in here in th e U.S. Such small buildings lend themselv es to that kind of openin g. The y also have the resources to d o th ose th in gs based on their high tick et prices. We also don' t wa nt to detract from the real reason that we are there, and that is to showcase the racing itself. That's what's important to us . As for intermission, the y are mandated at most buil d ings so that the stadium can sell their hot dogs, sodas and beer. Promoters don' t share in the revenues from concessions in America but we are requi red to p ro vid e intermission. We ' have go ne both ways to fill those time periods, sometimes giving folks a reasonto stay in their seats and watch wh at's on the floor and other times just taking a full tim e-out to work on th e track or whatever and let people stretch th eir legs or hit the restroom. We do n't kno w which is best, so w e've been try in g to find a balan ce. We've used minibike riders in th e p a st and all sor ts o f o ther stuff, so me of which were p robab ly less than en tertaining. Okay, w hat was the all-time low as far as intermission entertain ment goes? I would have to say the gu y wh o was laying on a bed of nails at Seattle three or four years ago. Then he picked up a car batt ery wi th a coat han ger that was goi ng th rough the hole in his tongue. I think that was the all-tim e low . I always liked minibike ri d ers .and I a lways enjoyed it wh en La rry Mai ers w ould interview the kid s afterwards. But we're always looking for wa ys to improve the show an d give more quality en tertainment. Th e key to ou r succes s is to be curr en t and com petitive w ith the other typ es o f enterta inment t hat a re ou t ther e. Wh at about t hi ngs like jumping contes ts? They' re huge in Eu rop e and in a lot of arenacross contests in America. Th ey certain ly are, but the problem wi th that in su percross is, one; I d on 't thi n k the fa ctories w ould a llo w th eir rid er s to participate in extracurricular activi ties during the ra cing season for fear that the y would get hurt, and two, The AMA h a s very s t ro ng con cerns abo u t things like jumping contests and wh at th e y m ight d o to our liability insu ra nce cost s. That' s why they cu rrentl y don 't allow those activities to be included at our su percross even ts. W ith four r aces left to g o i n th e series, I g uess one could s ee where Honda and th e AMA would be a littl e co ncern ed abou t le tt in g Jeremy d o a "Su perman" durin g intermission on a U.S.-style triple jump. What about th e tracks for next year? Do you guys h ave anything new a nd exci ting up your sleeves as far as making th e trac k s more competiti ve? The big theory is tha t th e tracks are so techn ical that McG rath and only McGrath can ma ster them, so it' s useless to build the t ra cks t o challenge h im at th i s po int in hi s career. I think that's true. I think that we've painted ourselves into a comer as far as th e technical aspect of the tracks have gone these past few years. I feel that we ha ve the premiere track-builder in the world with Rich Winkler and his crew at Dirt Works, but one of the problems we have wi th him is that he has a desire to always make it better . If a track was this good th is week, then it h as to be th is much better next week. an d so on and so forth . So we got ourselves into a situation where we tried to challenge the very top riders but lessened the com petitiveness of some of those middle-level riders. One of the th ings that is absolu tely critical is that we need to enhance the ability to pa ss on a race track . I'm afra id that with high ly technical tracks we've taken away some of the oppo rtuni ties to ge t a lot of good side-by-side raci ng. I th ink tha t th e spectators w ill be surprised when they see the tracks for 1996. In so me pl ac es we are goi ng to ha ve whoo p sections ~tha t go the len gth of the buildin g. We are very se ns itive to th e comm ents we' ve heard an d th e letters we'v e recei ved concerning the designs of our race tracks. We want to be sure to provide th e best, safes t tracks we can . We wan t to be sure th at we ar e doing the best we can at providi ng adequate take-o ffs-an d la ndings and to con nec t those jum ps w ith obstacles that provid e a n entertain ing experie nce wh il e enco uraging the opportunities to get out there and compete. If we are goi ng to see better racing, we are go ing to have to ton e d own the race tracks a little bit. I don 't kn ow if I'm alone in that position, but in our d iscu ssions with th e AMA an d our dirt con tractor, that is the direction we are go ing in 1996. You probab ly aren't alone in th at b eli ef b ecaus e last year there was a fai rly high casualty ra te in su percross, We l ost LaRocco, Albertyn, Lamson, Reynard, Gonzalez - a lo t of guys, and a considerable part of their seas on was lost to inj u ries sus tained in th e sta di um s . N o w n oth in g can b e en tirel y blamed on the tra ck s b ecause there ar e circu ms tances to every crash but don't you think the tracks had som ethi ng to do wi th it? Well, in Albe rtyn's case when he was injured in Orl ando it wa s on a very simple, u n com p licated, and short d ouble that he cam e up short on, and then he was reinjured on a pres s day when he was su pposed to be out there just rid ing easy. H e was trying to m a ke up for some lost time after having sat out a few events, and he w as a bit more ag gress ive than he needed to be on a press d a y. But we're re a l co n ce rned about having the riders ou t th ere in a co ntrolled and ap p ro pria te environment. We want to avoid injuri es and we will do all that we can to assure that. What would you do to improve the s p o r t of supercro ss? You ' ve b een around for a long time in an official capa city and y o u'v e s e e n a lot of things, but what if you were ju st a gu y si tting in the stan ds watching su p ercross - what's your dream race? My dream race is to recreate th e Atlanta SX that's run for the past several years. It al ways see ms that in Atlanta we get some of the best racing o f the season every year. The dirt just seems to lend itself to great traction and a great track. There's always three or four guys still in the h unt on the last lap . To me that ought to be our goal as far as the quality of the event goes . Jerem y ' s dominance over th e past couple of years ha s created a situation where there are a number of guys out the re w ho are racing for second place instea d of first place. I hope th at the re's some gu ys tha t are going to step up and give him a challenge. Wh en he stepped out of the pack three years ago I don't kno w that anyone had any vision that he was going to become so dominant so - - -......,.- - - - Continued on page 31 21

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