Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

PACE Motor Sports Vice President Mike Kidd Mike Kldd (right) shakes hands wnh Gary Becker, sealing the deal that sees Kidd seiling his Arenacross Serie s to PACE Entenalnment Corporation. Kldd was also named Vice Pres ident of PAC E Motor Sports , of which Becker Is the CEO. thr ea t to th e cont inued s u ccess o f su pe rrress? By Scott Rousseau 20 It wasa 100lg way from thedusty dirt tracks to the corporate offices of one of the largest, most successful promotional organizations in the United States, but Mike Kidd made it. Kidd, a 1981 AMA Grand National Champion, rode his way to his greatest success not aboard a motorcycle, but rather aboard a motorcycle series - his own arenacrose series, which he established in 1984 and nursed into a flourishin g circuit that consis ted of 13 AM A -sanctioned National events in major and seconda ry markets , and played before some 300,000fans during the 1996-97 season. Kidd's PJ1 Nationa l Arenacross Series was attractive enough to get the attention of PACE Entertainment Corporation, the parent comfJllny of PACE Motor Sports, which now produces all but one of the events in the AMA Supercross Series . A< of June 19, a deal was struck wher Kidd sold his series eby and his rnsion to PACEand, as the new Vice President of PACE Motor Sports, he will continue to run and manage the P/1 National Arenacross Series as well as assist with the continued development of both series. Mike Kidd sold his dream, but his vision remains unchanged, and it may bejust the thing to give both arenacross and supercross increased credibility in the sports world. Prio t th is y e ar, the re wa s no re al relation ship between the two series. But with you r a cquisitio n by PAC E, ob vious ly there is goi ng to be one now. What rol e will arena cross p la y w it h regard to the supercros s series ? For the first yea r, nothing is goin g to change. We' U bring out some new sponso rs, but it will still be called th e PjI National A renacross Series . In the future, a re na cro ss may playa part as som e type o f qu alifying system for supercross, b u t I' d say that's two o r three years dow n the road. For the first yea r, yo u wo n' t see any change at all. The arenacross series w ill be run out of the Fort Worth (Texas) office, and Lance (Bryso n) and I wi U assist in su percross when we can. What immediate changes w ill we see in the arenacross series? The only changes that yo u will see is in th e one th ing that PACE brought to the table that I couldn't do, and that's have a variety of venues to go to. Our choice of cities was limited, mainly due to basketball sc hed ules, hockey, ci rc u ses, mo nster-t ruck shows, whatever. PACE does abou t 85 to 90 m o n s te r -t r u ck shows. Those monster-truck shows are held in venues where we could run an arenacross, and there are certain markets where they've been playing monster trucks for quite a few years, and the market's kind of bu rned out. Arenacross would be something new a nd exciting. So we can expand the series easily now : Instead of me calling an d tryi ng to get a building, we can ge t better facilities easi er . Do you have any citie s in mind where you migh t be moving now or in the ne-ar future? I can give you states. States that would be real good would be Michigan, Penn- sylvania , Ohio. The Midwest wou ld be real good. There are a lot of cities in the Midwest that we' d like to go to. Woul d these be i n add ition to o r i ns tea d o f s o m e of the cities on the se ries sche du le now? Right now, there will always be the PJI Nati onal Are nacross as the premier series. Th at will always be somewhere between 13 and 15 events. You will see, so me w here in the fut u re , o the r arcna crosses tha t we wi ll be do in g that wo n't be tied into the Na tional se ries . Hypot hetica lly, we could be in Albany, Ne w York, w ith the Na tio na l Arenacross Series and have ano ther event, sa y, in Tu cson, Arizona, that's no t part nf the Na tio na l Are nacross Series, ye t it's an arena cross, like more of a reg ional event. • Is it po ssi ble thaI we'll eve r see the arenacro ss series split into an Eastern and Wes tern Regio n. like the 125cc superttDSS series ? I would say that anything is possible, but 1 w ould not wa n t to see that. I wou ld like to see it stay as one series. Bu t there has bee n talk - even before we were wi th PACE - of doing an East and West (series), because the Cow Palace in San Francisco was always very successful . But I think tha t part of that su ccess was that it was bei ng hel d in conju nc• tion with the mot orcycle show, the consumer show. When they moved to the fairgrounds, I wa s a little afraid to do a San Francisco market without the sup po rt of a motorcycle show, bu t that's no t to say that we cou ldn't come back an d put toge ther a Cow Palace, a Seat tle or wherever else, and put togeth er a series on the West Coast. As far as PACE and/o r supercross w ere concerned, do y ou th in k th at a re nacross was perceived as som e sort of a I don't think th er e was a threat, but I think that there was definitely go ing to be, so me w here down the road. a co llision force . We (a ren ac ro ss) were definitely on a gro wth pattern. Maybe the y were lookin g at arenacross to get into, but I was also looking at supercross to get in to . I'm not a fra id to sa y that I always said I could do a supercross . With the success that we were having, I did n't quite thi nk th at it was time to knock o n the A MA's d oor a nd say, "Okay, I wa nt to do a superc ross," bu t I knew that time was coming. So I think that the timi ng was perfect for bo th of us - for them to buy me out and put me -in the po sition where I could achieve the goals that I wa nted to do , and tha t is to take the arenacross and continue with it and also step into supercross. Wh at is the feeling of th e AMA toward th e merger? What have they had to say or no t say? The only one who I have tal ked to personally on the phone is Ed Youngblood. I felt it was appropriate to call Ed and let hi m know what was going o n . I know that Ga ry Becker and Charlie Ma ncuso (of PACE) had bo th spoken with Merrill Vander slice to let h i m kn ow what was going o n, a nd I will eventually talk to him, but I want to do it face to face, so I'll probably be going to Ohi o within the next couple of weeks and let them rest assured that nothing drastic is going to cha nge, that this is really for th e betterm ent. One thin g tha t I wanted to let Ed know is that this was not a forced bu y out. Nobody from PACE called me and said, "Either sell or we're going to put you out of bu sin ess ." It was totally the opposite . Gary made a call a nd sa id , "We have some ideas and we'd like to d o so mething with you, whethe r we pa rtner events or bring you on our staff or buy half of you r co mpa ny." I to ld him that he did n't wa nt me as a pa rtne r because I make a terri ble partner, so the only way to do it would be some type of acquisition. He sai d he' d put together some numbers, so we did. Are you ha ppy with th at num ber? Yes . Very happy. It' s so meth ing th at gives my family fina ncial secu rity to the point w here if I wa nted to wal k away from it, I could. But I've also got a longterm employment ag reement with PACE to come in and assist them. It's not a one- or two-year deal, it's a longterm dea l. I'd like to retire with PACE. I th in k they're a good com pany . I've known them for 22 o r 23 years, fro m the days when 1 used to race at the Housto n Astrodome and I d id all the PR for them . So I've kno wn Alle n Becker for 23 years, a nd I've known of Gary . We 've crossed paths over time . I would not have sold out to a company like United Sports, which would be a conflict wi th PAC E because they are in the monster tru ck business . That' s not the ty pe of co m pany tha t I would have sold to , be ca u se m y com p an y wasn' t for sale. And three years ago, th er e would have been no way, even if you were in the same position, because o f all the various en tities involv ed in su pe rcross at the time. rACE and I had talked thr ee years ago,

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