Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Interview Supercross/R Race Promotor DanM y oad urph RENAISSANCE a good afternoon at tha t tim e of the year might actually w ork better than an evening even t, where things ge t a littl e chilly in Novembe r. We th ink it's a g reat aft ern oon family activ ity to d o. But that wa s a concess ion yo u had to make. (Laug hs) Co ncess ion is such a poor cho ice of words. (La ughs) Let me put it th is w ay . The neighbo rhood associa tion s su ppo rt havi ng it in the afte rn oo n, versu s at night. . Have you gotten any rea ction fro m the people at PACE? A- I invited Gary Becker, Charlie Man cuso an d Mike J-\. Kid d to the Wo rld Su pe r bi ke a t La g u na Seca . Th ey're getting into the road racin g world in so me fas hion, and I d on 't think any body knows the defin ition yet of what "some fash ion" is. I've had a very strong relationship for so me tim e with Mike Kidd, and consi d er him a friend, and part of what they do in road racing is going to fall un d erneath Mike. So at the end of the d ay, w e I think extended an olive branch, that w e're willi ng to help, an d wan t to help them beco me good roadacing promo ters in wha te ver capacity tha t ha ppen s to be. Th ey' ve been coo pera tive so far in ou r effo rts to be a su pe rcross promoter . Q A What's the pu rse money? TI,e pu rse is d one a little d ifferen t. It' s a four -race series, so yo u r purse is paid more over how yo u finis h for th e whole cha m pions hip. The Actio n Grou p has pu t up on e million doll ar s for the four- race cha mpio nship. es p is se secOIoDthi nkit eyotheretitl e, thseries .rieswishatconsi d eredLon go ndary to the AMA A u' correct. I thin k Giusepi By Paul Carr uthers and Chris Jonnum n an age of sp ecia liza tio n, Dan M u r ph y is a ra re specimen of diversity. Within the seem ingly narrow co nfines of being a businessman in the motorcycle ind ustry, Murphy has ma naged to apply h imself to widely varying ta s ks, sta rti ng off in television, where he works as president of Speed visio n Productions. He then bran che into prod motion, puttin g on Su perb ike races at Lag u na Seca Raceway and Road Atl an ta - the former of whi ch- wi ll co mbi ne FlM a nd AM A ra cing on the sa me weeke nd next Jul y. o w, Murphy is involving himself in su percross promotion, wi th th e World Su percross ro und in Pasa dena , Ca lifornia , o vernber 20, serving as his first event. Our recent con versation wi th Murphy focused on his su perc ross fora y, and th e co mbined World /Nation al . Cha mp ions hip road race. An exce rp t follows: RM SUPERCROSS ROUND HOW d id you come u p w it h the Rose Bowl as a venue? When yo u p ick a ve n ue, especially w he n you're only go ing to have one event in that country, yo u need to start with ha ving that ve n ue in the st ro ngest market yo u can, which is the state of Ca lifornia. Once yo u ge t it down to determining that that 's probably the best ma rket, and also probably the ea siest for the manufac tu rers to participate (in), because it's in th eir back ya rd , th en what stadiums a re availab le? You get the Coliseum, you get the Rose Bowl you get Dodger Stadium. You get th a t list, and then yo u determine who wants to host an event, w ho can host an event, what are th e availa ble d ates? Then you obviously look at th e fina ncial sid e and what works ou t the best. We ended up picking the Rose Bowl, because for an international event we wanted a very prestigious place, and we felt that the Rose Bowl had mo re prestige than , say, th e Col ise u m might have. The other sta di ums th at are AMA Su pe rcross stadi ums, most of tho se alrea dy had excluQ A Gi ~ '" g. C/) 20 sive a rra ngemen ts w ith PAC E, so that elim ina ted the Anaheims and Qualcomms . Will your lack of supercross experience make this . Q d ifficult? ln a certai n sense it' s easi er. It has .some u nknow ns, w he re we ' re going to have to hire so me particular expertise. The specific unkno wns, w here w e d on 't hav e any expe rtise, are designing the cou rse, w hich is ac tua lly done by the Wo rld Supercross San ctio n group. After that, it actually becomes easier, because one of the cha llenges of roadracing is yo u' re promoting an event ov er three days. You have a two-a nd-a-ha lf-mile course, you have all sorts of safety standards, yo u have all sorts of co ntro l issues, co nt ro lli ng ho w the peo ple get in and out. It's mu ch more difficult to put o n a roa d race once you ge t pa st the pa rt o f actua lly d o ing the tra ck. You w alk into the Rose Bow l w ith a ticket. There's a ticket taker, ther e's so me body. who's cou nting peop le. It's just , a ton eas ie r th an a t Lagu na Seca , where as yo u ca n imagine so rnebod y' s driving u p in his ca r, a nd three guys are showing ba d ges and one guy' s hidi ng in the tr u n k, and o ne guy' s riding h is mo un tai n bike ou t around the o utside of the circuit. I think we 've got a good boilerpl at e in that PAC E is a very good promoter, an d they' ve d one a good job w ith the Su pe rcross Series. So we 've go t so mething to loo k at and say, ther e's a very successful gro u p. If you do eig ht out of 10 things that they d o, yo u' re probabl y going to d o th in gs pretty well. But th er e are probably tw o or th ree things tha t w e're go ing to do that will probably be a fres h pe rs pective. We 're working with EA Sports on an idea where as th e fans co me in they' ll be abl e to en ter an EA Sports contest, w here we will have 16 fans that will be se lected. Between heat races, up on the big screen , four people will actually co m pete with eac h other on an EA Spo rts su percross game. Of those 16, yo u'll have four , then two, then o ne. We' re goi ng to mak e it an af ternoo n, day event ve rsus strictly a night race. Th e first heat races will sta rt so me whe re in th e neighborhood of 3:00, wi th the main event so mewhere in the neigh borhood of 6:00. We th ink A J-\. has done w ith the Action Grou p is to try to do exactly tha t - elevate it w here it's perceived as a tru e in terna tional se ries, an d not just a secondary, off-season, fun little thi ng to do. 1 think if yo u look at what they've done and how they' ve packed the sta d iu ms the last severa l yea rs over in Europe, you w ou ld say tha t they' ve mad e a lo t of p rogress, bu t yo u ca n't really make a lotof progress until yo u have an event in the United States, and un til the Eu ro pe an rid ers come over to the United States and are competitive. s o uthern California fans are accu st omed to seeing supercross races in Janua ry and February. Will they come in November? I thin k that that' s one of ou r marketi ng challenges. It's good poi nt. Yea h, yo u' re go ing to have to ed ucate the fan s, that a) the event is ha ppening, and b) more im po rtantly, it's go ing to be worth th eir $25, $35 to come ou t and wa tch t.ris int ernational race. I thin k we ' re goi ng to have a marketing plan that's goi ng to be ab le to convince them to do tha t. Q A a A lot o f that seri es' su ccess has been based on paying appearance money, which has in the past d issuaded U.S . p romo ters from pulling on World Supercross munds. l' m not privy to those negotiatio ns. My deal is with th e Ac tion G ro u p . Part of m y ag reeme n t with Action Gro u p is that th ey have to bring the top AMA rid ers. How Actio n Gro u p mak es th ose de als w ith tho se rid ers - w he the r they just a ttrac t them with the full million d ollar s, or wheth er they d o ap peara nce mon ey, I'm not priv y to that piece of information. (It's) very simi lar to ho w I d o it w ith Flamini Grou p . We pay Flamin i Gro u p of World Su pe rbike a fee; they bring the show. That' s the sa me situa tion here. Q A Q HOW will yo u market the event? ln event promoti be successfu l, yo u to A going the be very on , to on .toIf be usuc cessful. have' ve .. have basic foundati yo don't have those, it's to difficult You go t to start with television . We have CBS coverage, so we have a good, so lid building blo ck wi th tha t. Then yo u' ve go t to ge t so me strong spo nsors hip dollar s so that you can afford to spend money in a market of th is size for marketing. Toyota has alread y signed up to be our title spo nso r, so we've got TV and a title spo nso r. Th en you have to have good promotional pa rtners. We ha ve three ve ry stro ng print pa rt ner s. In ad d ition to those print partner s, w e're obvi ously a televisi on net-

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