Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

CCE Arenacross' Mike Kidd A Yes. I k new it would , because ou r first race in Fo rt Wo rth was a c om p let e sell out. That was without really und er st an d in g wha t we we re do ing . We had to trim some thi ngs and add some t hings to kee p it a ll o n the min ds of ev ery bo d y, be caus e Su percross wa s also on a growing st age. To try to compete agai nst Supercross, si nce we were both run nin g in w inter, it was har d to get th e co verage that we needed because everyo ne w as conc entr ating on Supercross. Q A How did that first race in Fort Worth go ov er? T he fi rst one sol d out, like I said . It was tota ll y different, tho ugh . We had amateurs and pros . It was one night on ly, o n a Saturday night , and we expected 100 t o 12 5 riders , but we got ov er 400 entri es, and we weren 't staffed for it. Th e fir e m arshal ca me up at about a q uarter to eig ht and said it' s a complet e sellout, and we ca n't allow any m ore people in . We weren't st affe d fo r th e sellout either. It bombarded us. Instead of finishin g at 10 o 'clock, we ran until midnight. That was in '84 . Q A How has the seri es ch anged in tw o dec ades? I would say th e b igg est cha nge is th at it has actually become a sport. It's someth ing that the riders look forward to , and people look forward to A renacross co m ing back to their m ark et . The motorcycle industry supports it now . With our amateur pro gram on Sunday, yo u get companies like PJ I , Scott and Th or - they realize that Sun day is the place where they sell all of their prod uct. Frid ay and Satu rday nights, that's their opportu nity to get the ex pos ure , but th ey sell prod uc ts on Sunday. T he co nti nge ncy pr ogram is cl ose to two million dollars, so it's becom e a sport. It' s ta ke n a while to get here , but I k new it wo uld take tim e, and it arrive d in the m id -'90s. Q A Wh at d id it tak e t o get the fact ories involved? I th ink ge tti ng the cove rage helped , and we had a TV pac k age we introduced in 1996 - that was a big p lu s. Just to get the exposure - to have sellout crowds . A nd if yo u look at it , we'r e o nly sec ond to Supercross fo r to ta l ti ck et s sold for a m oto rcycle series . At Fort Worth , we 'll have 19 ,0 00 peop le here ove r three da ys. Sac ramento, too . Those are hu ge number s once yo u start adding up all of the eve nts. -1 Mike Kidd talks about where Arenacross has been and where it's going By S T EVE Co x ik e K id d is the m an who sta rte d the Na t ional Aren acro ss Seri es 20 years ago, and it wasn't until rece ntly (the last seven or eig ht yea rs) that the series beg an getting acclaim as a t op professiona l series. Champions and competitors includ e J im m y Gadd is, Dennis Haw thorne, Buddy Antunez, Denny Stephenso n , Guy Coop er , Robb ie Reyn ard , Ivan T e d e sc o , Brock Sellard s , J osh Demuth , Ph il Lawrenc e and soo n J ohn Dowd . So w hat is it that m ak es this ni che series tick ? Is it th e ti ght (someti mes rou gh ) racin g? How close the fans are to the actio n? Th e fac t that the series hi ts m ar k et s that m ay be superc ross doesn 't? In a word , Yes. Mike Kid d exp lains. M 18 NOVEMBER 1 9 , 2003' C II C I e n e Q T O st art w ith , co ng ratu latio ns on 2 0 ye ars of Are na cross . I guess t he o b vi o us q uest io n is , Did yo u think it would last 20 yea rs back then , much less get this big? lt went by fast. I did think it would last 20 years. I kn ew that it had the o ppo rtunity to grow, and I knew that it wou ld grow fast once it caught hold. A nd about th e m id -'90s , things really st arted to mov e forward - attendance st arte d goi ng up , we st arted gettin g m ore cove rage fr om th e m ag azines, and once th at happ ened , it was ju st like a snowba ll - it j ust go t bi gg er an d bi gg er. A Q vv D id you think it would get thi s b ig ? s Q A Q So how ma ny rac es have yo u bee n a pa rt of? Well , if I had t o gu ess, probabl y cl ose t o 400. W h at w as yo ur proud est m o m ent o f t hos e 400? T h e fi rs t o ne is pr ob ab l y my p rou dest bec au se I didn 't ex pect it. Now the o ne th at sta nds o ut is when we di d a li ve show for Speedvisio n back in about 1997 . We had to hit th e ma rks between comme rc ial b reaks , and we had meeti ngs with the riders and said the re ma y be times when we had to hold t hem at the st arting gat es , and I asked them to c oo pe ra t e becau se it wa s goin g to be li ve o n TV , and I had never been a part of a live show. A nd we st arted o n the m arks and ended o n the m ar ks , so it wo rke d o ut ve ry well. Getting to go to Sw itzer lan d with t he Aren across series was someth ing else, too . It's not reall y a rac e, it's a bi g A

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