Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

oliseu m , the starting pl ace o f it all, n hospitable to Supercross, Goodin will stage his last event there on ul y 17. After that? We asked ... h is is the last Superb owl of Motoross. Where do you go from h ere? I li ke to think that th is really isn' t the en d of an era , but the beginn ing. For the past two or three years I ha ve been wo rking on a tim eshare co ndom ini um in Laguna Beach that has just been completed. It 's go ing to gro ss a bou t $22.6 million, so I' ve been payin g attention to that. Also I kn ow Su percro ss could be a gian t bu t I rea lly hoped somebody else would step forward and tak e the lead. You reall y need a central figu re, a spokesman , somebody that step s forward for Supercross when n obody else would . . However, in the pas t two or three years with only four or five events, "I really wasn't getting a ch allenge out of it. It was just repeat bu siness and I have such a darn good management crew. Mike DeStefano, my general ma na gem en t; Jeannie Sleeper my marketing director; John Bradley who heads my sales department, and I've just hired a new high-powered adm in istra tive director. It wasn' t a big challenge for me anymore because they were doing such a good job. But th en when I recognized that nobody else was stepping forward to apply for sanctions, and su percross was n 't growing - I'm kind of like a proud father, I want to see the th ing grown. Bu t I'd hoped I wasn 't the one tha t had to do it. Then last Nov em ber I saw the culm ina tion of my big project on the beach coming to pass. I knew I'd have a lot of spare time p ius some dough to invest in things and I star ted th inking again about wh ere Su percross could go , is it really capab le? So I sa t down and did a lot o f planni n g. No doubt in my m in d that Su percross can be the number one a ttendance mo torsport seri es in the co untry by 1985, but sornebody's got to ta ke the lead. So, I did a three- year pl an to go from 11 markets now to 24 markets by 1985. I went to Mill er High L ife, a big sponsor and said, " Wha t are you gu ys interested in do ing? Well , they wouldn 't confirm until th ey saw Ana heim but then they said , " We want Su percross to be th e largest mo torsport in the cou nt ry by 1985 and in 1983 it will be o u t largest sing le special promotion." They're reall y going p u t so me dough in to it. All of that turn s aro u nd and doesn 't just h elp me. Th ey promo te the sport . You do have to have co n tin uity. You can't have a Miller High Li fe here and one over here - th ey' ve got to know that they own it. Co nseq uent ly we also p u t them together with Pa ce Managemen t to try to get it so tha t we have continu ity o f spon sors so pe op le feel it's wort h p ro mo ting. Miller and Wrangler (an AMA sponsor) have said they want it to grow rea l fast. Particul arly they want New York. Coca-Cola has sai d, " We can ' t trea t it as a national program unless we get New York." I have to tell you , I really didn 't want to do business in New York but nobody else was doing it so I said OK , ca n we get a sa nction there? And th e sponsors con firm ed they wanted togo into Ne w York. We sold the dealer, and we ha ve a da te now at the Meadowlands, which is where the New York Gi ants play, for J uly 16 next year. In talking to AMA the y sai d , " If Su percro ss is going to grow we need to get your da tes in early by Aug . 25." This was really a surprise and cost me a lot of dough but it was worth it . They made th e righ t deci sion even though I resisted it. We pulled my marketing director, and my general manager off the Col iseum event. It cost us a lo t of dough to do that when they should be promoting that race, and we sent them to New York, P hoenix, and we were going to work with Pace Management on Dallas. They're doing th at one themselves. We spent a lot of time getting our dates in early.. We talked to T ampa , Boston , Chicago and Denver. What it was was that AMA wanted the dates so they could try to build the National circu it around th e Su pe rcro ss which is very wise. We went a step furthe r, though , and looked at the National circu it to p ick dates th at would fit into the rou ting . J u ly 16 works well because the y're back ea st for U nad illa. Same thing with P hoen ix. We really went overboard, spe nt a lo t of time and money crea ting a series where the routing was good. We put Phoenix in at a good time, I thi n k it 's Apr. 16, and again the fin al , final arrangements in these date ha ve to take place Aug. 25 which is a formality with AMA. Where will the event be held in · Phoenix? At Tempe. Sun Devil Stadium. Now that one is not 100% go yet. We don 't have the letter of confirmation. In New York we have the letter of co nfirm a tion . For Dallas there is a letter of confirma tion although Pace is doi ng it. Dallas Cowboy stadium? No, Dallas in the Cotton Bowl because they're going to do a big motorcycle show along with it. Now how does the AMA decision to crea te a Grand National Mo tocross Champion from combined outdoor and Supercross affect you? I thi n k fu ndamentally it's a good idea. In fact , I am emba rrassed to say that severa l years ago I used to tell AMA that they need a single national cham pion . I thin k it's a mistake to com bine Supercross with th e outdoor Nationals beca use th ey are so differen t. I thin k they need a single outdoor National champion and a single Supercross National Ch ampion. Bu t I'm not go in g to fight th em on it , that 's th eir deal. I h ope it works well. Do yo u see yourself getting into Class C? Harley Davidson, for a bo u t a year now , ha s been as king us why don' t we get into the Winston Pro Series beca use th ey spe nd a lo t of money on a race team. They want so mebody to spe nd a lot o f dough on it because th ere's not a lo t of promo ters in the flat tra ck circui t who do . Rob Powell at Wins ton, every tim e I see h im he asks, "when are you gon na do somethi ng?" We've half-heartedl y made efforts in the pas t to do a road race at Ri verside - and I don ' t know why because I know it 's going to lose money - but I thi n k LA need s a road race . Well now we ha ve a date set in mi d -August, to go at th e m ile race track in New York at th e Meadowla nds. So we come out July 16 with a big Supercro ss event which is easier to dr aw people to the first time. Then we promote the m ile off that and let them kind of benef it from each other. We also were talking to R iverside's Les Ri ch ter without a lot of success so far abou t a road race. The reason wh y is that ma ny p romoters don't spe nd th e kind of money we do - yo u can probabl y see fro m our advertising that we spe nd a lot of money and Les doesn 't beli eve, I guess , that we spe nd that kind o f money and we ca n' t make a goo d fin ancial deal with him thus far. Bu t even though I think it 'll lose money I'd like to do a road ra ce and I can see us ge tt in g in to numerous road race an d flat trac k projects over the nex t three to five years . Anot her big p roject which has been a pet of mine, alt ho ugh th is isn' t firm ; I've always felt tha t with o ur exce llent weather California wo uld be ideal for a Speedweek Wes t to fin ish the yea r like Daytona starts the year. We 've gotten Dodger Stadi um to agree that they like the co nce p t. Th e p ro blem is that they a lso like a rea l hi gh rental figure so we haven 't come to fin al agreement with them. But we 're loo ki ng at it and th is one is gonna tak e a lot of wo rking with AMA, to see if th ey're gonna let it happen. H ere's th e idea: The last week in October, on a Friday night, th e fin al Wi nston Pro Series TT of ' the year lik e they do at Houston. Saturday, all da y long, ATV and Odyssey qualifying to run a final halftime in the pro Supercross event Saturday night. Then on Sunday an amateur Supercross event wh ich will be the final one of the year to crown a champion with a whole amateur national circuit which will help AMA. It can help AMA get 20,000 new riders that way with the kids being able to see that they can get something. We'd have 100 outdoor qualifiers, semis at each stadium and the final at the final event of the year. But the thing is, not a lot of spectators go to watch the amateurs, right? Dodger Stadium has a parking lot with elevation changes, hills where you could put bleachers, so you could do a magnificent road ra ce. Then do an all-weekend long motorcycle show. Now I see something like that as being phenomonal. Now I've got to tell you, that's gonna ta ke a ton of support from th e AMA, th e manufacturers, everyon e beca use it's going to be so logistically difficult to do and so expensi ve. I really th ink they 'll go. There are a lot of real nice facilities here in southern California where there's a good market. Did you ever consider putting on a mile race at Los Alamitos? . Yes, we are in nego tia tions with two of the sou thern Ca liforn ia facilities a bo ut do ing a race a t one of them start ing in '83. A couple things to con der h ere is that Aggie's got three events and we don't wa nt to step on Aggi e's toes because he's really built AMA racing in south ern Cal ifornia but on the ot her hand ma ny people in th e industryfeel that we nee d more showcases, bigger facili ties so th at the riders can be paid higher prize money. T ha t's always a dich otomy . For exa mple, o utdoor motocross. We don't wa nt to ruin th e outdoor series, but, th ey pay a p urs e o f $ 10-12,000. Stadiums can pay three times tha t. Do we want to hit a ha ppy balance so tha t the riders can make more money? . It 's a philosophy decision . But AMA has m ade a decision , I u nde rs tand , to add four events a year, which is fine, and mold the Na tionals wi th it so tha t they wo rk together and complem ent each other. Same th ing with Ascot. You can see h istory. Aggie's built th e sport. At what point do yo u go to Los Alami tos th a t'll ho ld 21,000 fans where th e riders can ma ke a lo t of do ug h? Now that 's w hy we're so happy a bou t getting into New York because it puts us on th e ma p in the largest market in the country. We' ve already got a live broadcast television in terest with th e Meadowlands m ile. (We've got to be sure th at th ey bla ck o ut New York or it 'll kill us though.) It fit s right into th e AMA sched ule, they want to do it. Winston wants to do it. Harley wants to do it. So it 's for every body's good. We hope to do southern California at some point if we can work well with Agg ie on it a nd not have a problem. When you 're talking about national television are you ta lk in g about national network television or a possible cable deal? We're going to go abou t television th ree ways . The CBS show at the L.A . Coliseum last year was the number one rated sp orts show that weekend. A 24 share which should give us added in p u t tha t it 's going to be big time. However, the one problem wi th networks: N BC won't broadcast whe n CBS is goi ng to air. You know how hard it is for p ro moters to wo rk together but we 've got together with Pace and tal ked about co -financing, several hundred thou sand dollars each, a TV syndica tion nex t year where we 'll go on th e air and the announcer can say " tu ne back into this time and station one month from tonight to see the next exciting series in the Wrangler Supercross series." The next step to that, though , and I did quite a bit of research already .th is week, is that our July 16 event next year in New York, we feel will be our first closed-circuit telecast. There's two stages to that and we've already found out we can break even just broadcasting back to major areas, 3-7,000 seat theaters in the cities that already have supercrosses. I think we have a built-in audience there where people that have seen supercross will go out. Now if that works well then we'll go out and hire small theaters like the fights do in every market in the country. Our sport is so exciting when you watch it. The surveys show that 84-92% of the people that come to our events come back to them. Nobody gets that kind of return, nobody in the country. It sounds like the future is rosy. - I'm excited about th e horizon. Right now we 've got to get th e L.A. Coliseum thing going. The big thing at the Coliseum is that it will be th e last one. And I want to emphasize it is the last one at the Coliseum and it 's not a hype deal, we're o u t of th ere for th e' Ol ympics. There was an article, in fact , in the Los Angeles Times two weeks ago. They're p lanning some kind of sp ecial irrigatio n system that we hav e to be out for. There's a lot of sentime n ta lity associated wi th it. We've spent a lo t of dough on advertising but it' s going to be the best show you 've ever seen . Because o f the field being so protected , we're not putting any clay in the race trac k this year. So we 're not going to get a oneline track like usu al. We 've got a sa ndy loam in there because we can' t get di rt in th e grass stuff a nyw ay. This is my last event and I'm goi ng to go o u t with a bang. There'll be a laser sh ow, and less people on the infield. The leaders lap times , number of laps left, will be on the scoreboard all the time. La ser show, every time the leader passes, corner markers; in fact, one of the thi ng s we had planned for next year is flashing corner markers which we believe we 'll do with Miller High Life. When the leader goes by a corn er th e light comes on at the top . We 've done a lot of things for th e Coliseu m . We h ave an all day long chi li cookoff because of the tra ffic problems there; people can come at lOin the morning a nd drink beer and .have a good time. We have a fou r o' clock early entry dea l where yo u can go in and wa tch p ractice free of charge after you bu y a pair of Wrangler jeans. Open pits by Isuzu. You go in for a test drive and yo u go in the pits to see the riders. The key of this show will be Donn ie Hansen trying to wrap up the seri es, and th ere 's a few guys who are go ing to try'not to let him do that. The big thing about the Coliseum is tha t I don't know if we 'll ever find a stadiu m again where we can run up into the stands like that , which is the most spectacular th ing abou t it. It's going to bea helluva show. and ticket sales are up 241% over last year which will make it a real , real big crowd.• 13

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