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If Feld doesnt do anything stupid to the event they know it will be a lucrative night.
If they invest in expanding overseas, a WMX SX serie or things like that, then yes you have a point. But the Supercross series is a cash cow.
Remove all the expenses these top 15-25 riders have to cover and you will see some are well below social security or under the poverty rate in cali. In my opinion, anyone who make main events during 10 years should be able to buy a house, at least. (and also considering they probably spent 500k-2 million to make it to that level).
Manufacturers are not making much on mx bikes and they invest quite a lot in racing. Dealers on mx bikes, not much. Aftermarket parts, it depends but overall not much. Press, not much. Mechanics, not much. Riders, really little except the top 5-top 10. So who is actually a bit greedy i feel and is taking a larger part of the pie than it should ? I really think feld and luongo are abusing from their position. Just my opinion, sorry, i may be wrong but from my understanding, i don't think i am that wrong.
The Shop
That 2-3k isnt a for sure guarantee every week.
Here is another one:
"The world needs ditch diggers too"
All jokes aside, I am pulling for the guy!
It's no different than owning your own business.
Revenue - Cost = Profit
Once again I've never been good at math but this one is pretty simple as well.
What I DO find amusing is some of the same old comments and replies that always fill these threads. These include the "get faster"-- "train harder" --"find another career". Lol-- Ok ,first off, IF all these guys took this great advice and "found another career" we would eventually have 10-15 guys on a gate and maybe 20 at an Outdoor National. Attendance would drop (gate revenue with it) Tv coverage would cease ,or diminish (again along with revenue) , then whatever Manufacturer support we do have would be gone --why would they throw money at such a small sport ?? Not a glorious ending....
Now to address the "Get faster" "train harder" comments. Breece is getting flamed for blowing up his expenses by using such "Non essential" aids, such as the Lit Pro, his personal trainer , and practice tracks . Yet, these tools are today's mandatory items to all the guys that are actually trying to "get faster" and "train harder" aren't they ??
I'm also under the firm belief that a vast majority of these type of advice givers were never Pro card material and suffered from the Privateer blues, so they don't know the first thing about the difficulties making it from event to event.
The bottom line is that no matter how much faster and higher in the finishes you get ,there will still be basically the top 15 guys (whoever they may be at the moment) that are making a comfortable living while the other 25 making the night show ,or main gate at a National are scraping by. In a sport that takes sooo much skill, dedication,training ,fitness and natural talent with such huge physical risks thrown in as a bonus, it galls me to no end that other than the aforementioned Elite 15-20, that the other top 80 riders in the country aren't competing for a livable wage .
How can it be fixed ? % of gate, distributed based on finish? Manufacturer support ? Outside sponsorship ? Teams paying bigger base salaries ? (that one is doubtful since so many Teams can't survive more than a few years)
Should the guaranteed "start money" be bumped for making the night show or a National gate ? Yes,definitely . Who would foot that? The Promoter. Can they afford to do that ? Definitely. Will they ? Doubtful.
My opinion is Feld will ride this pony and squeeze all the juice out of it until it becomes a " cast aside" biz like they did with the 146 year old Barnum and Baileys Circus a few years ago. Actually seems very similar in most aspects.
Sorry for the jumping around and rambling , but its just not right that a guy can make more money and a better living racing local ProAms and Fairgrounds races than doing one of the National series' and being one of the top 40 guys in the Nation at your sport. Crazy-----
Also, all the above is just my opinion and I may be 100% wrong on all of it
Amazing the leeway people get because they are fast on a dirt bike. If I started a GoFundme for the Cadillac I have always wanted, you guys would rip me apart, and rightfully so. The guys qualifying for the night show are faster than I could ever dream. But, the fact remains that it is a very niche sport, and there is very little money to go around....especially for the guys who get 10 seconds of TV time while being lapped or in the LCQ. Donating $$$ to a rider begging on the internet is about as a good of an investment as the tropical townhouse I have got for sale in Pennsylvania.
Pit Row
And although I do not know Ryan Breece personally at all ,I have watched several interviews with him and he seems like a sharp, well educated, well spoken , dedicated young dude, and I'm pulling for him.
And you are also on the money with the " you can help him or not" no bashing is necessary.
I had to cut my racing short due to not being able to make ends meet. Being a hundredaire as a racer wasn’t worth the stress and shitty lifestyle I was living.
I actually worked in the Pecos/Carlsbad/Midland area in the oilfield for a couple years after racing and learned what hard work and sacrifice really is. 100-120 hours a week for 6 week stretches were the usual and the goal. That meant big checks were coming our way.
Some racers get the hint and get to work in the real world. Other continue to burn their parents or others money, suffer injuries and wonder why life is so hard for them.
I am shocked that there are people outraged he’s in this situation. Travel around the world or go to a bad neighborhood near you. You’ll see what real struggle and hardships are. Lots of people aren’t mentally or physically fit enough to even earn minimum wage. They would kill for a part time position.
Truth of the matter is there are much better guys who have left the sport because they weren’t making ends meet, or the pay was not worth the risk. Guys that would keep him from being in the main event or maybe even the night show.
Reality can be a tough pill to swallow. My late teens and early twenties were filled with days of me feeling sorry for myself or wanting help so I could live out my dreams.
How long is too long to keep trying?
The top 10 guys don't really need the organizers money ;
In my mind there should be a flat bonus for everybody that makes the 3 hours show.
Then it is up to the riders to negotiate bonuses with their employers and sponsors. The show is just there to give the opportunity to the riders to show their skills. I don't see why the promoters should pay more for Roczen or for Breece, they are both in the same race.
Anyone in the night show: 5k
Anyone in the main: 10k
Is it crazy to give 5k to a rider than can't make mains ? Well, locally the guy will be a star and the parents and the kids will look at the sport differently. They will start to think it is possible for their kids to maybe live while doing something they love instead of living like a homeless while risking everything. That is the solution to boost mx sales.
Or this sport is a professional sport. Or it isn't.
But that will never happen. Because as soon as they quit showing up, there will be plenty of rich guys still show up to fill the empty spots left by the others. So it's a catch 22. The promoter always wins.
The problem is when that impacts everybody working in this industry and on the market.
And just to be clear, i am not against promoters (i.e in my mind DC is doing great with what he can), it is a key element in the chain and not an easy job either, their jobs is to make it more mainsteam, but based on the power of corporations like honda, suzuki, ktm, etc, they also must understand where they stand. In hard words, they are just marketing tools. Some understand, some don't i think. Anyway i am just trying to defend mx and the riders, it is not a witch hunt, that is just an opinion from what i feel so you can also take a grain of salt in what i am trying to say. Last but not least, the federations are also so passive that it is quite suspicious, but that could be another topic.
Just FYI Ryan Breece won the king of Stuttgart and Chemnitz this year, overall his payout just from the promoter for each of those weekends was roughly $5000 euro each give or take. That's before any bonuses or salary from the team. He also won the championship which you would assume came with some sort of bonus as well.
Not enough to retire on but a decent nest egg to put aside to part fund a season.
I am not a socialist by any mean either. Just trying to show some balance and also that if you give all the "sales" power to 1 person, it makes 10 billion to 1 person and peanuts to the others.
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