It seems the down turn in MX is nation wide.

Alex186 said:
I chalk this up to one of the big negatives of the internet. I've been around the sport my whole life, I've seen tracks come and go, happens all the time. Now that everyone is connected, we get overwhelmed with all this negative news of tracks closing. Then we immediately think the sport is declining.

Well, I'm looking at real numbers based off actual results files from every AMA promoter in the country, those numbers show a positive trend upward in participation... at least at the one thousand Motocross events we sanction a year. I was talking with a representative of a OEM, bike sales are increasing. Now these numbers aren't where they were in the mid-90's, but no industry/economy is what is was in the 90's (for the except of electronic/handheld devices).

Keep in mind, building and running a race/practice track, if you're trying to make money, it is a business decision. People make bad business decisions like building a MX tracks away from any population, investing money in their facility inaccurately, bad customer service, not willing to adapt with the changing market, unwilling to partner and work with others. Your right, great tracks go out of business, but good business owners don't.

Please take one thing away from my comment... participation in AMA motocross events is up and it's rising...
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Im surprised, Ive been around this sport quite a while too. I raced heavily in the 90's and early 00's and you are right about that, its not any where near those numbers. Maybe that is part of my view, comparing to what it was then. But I also see a decline in the class size I race in unless Im at a large event. Even so at the Battle race this year at Chilli there were only about 14 racers on the line in each of my Vet classes. There was a day this was the norm at a local race. Today Im lucky to race 5-6 racers in my vet class at a normal local race.

Im a little confused, you said the number of racers is up but the number of racers who attend more than one race is down? Thats an awful lot of new racers. Is there a report you can share with us to show these numbers? Im not being a smart ass here, I really am curious about this. It seems the AMA is in the minority on this topic. Like mx099 said, there was a 2 part article in Racerx, the posts here and on Vital, Talk among friends it all seems to point to a decline in racing.
 
Guys, there's nothing to see here. Oh wait, I just noticed in the Race Update Forum that one of the track promoters in Northeast Ohio canceled their race due to a lack of riders. Wow imagine that, now that makes three in NE Ohio that possibly will not be running races next year. But I'm not worried because Alex said that the races numbers are up, I'm sure it will be just fine.
 
BriarcliffMx said:
Yea, because he's at local events every weekend.......
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He picks which events will help his numbers.

I believe a lot of $10 forms from your race funneled his way.

LL will never suffer, there are enough riders in the sport with money that will be able to race at that level until the end of time. Is it going to just end up like Nascar? Car club with fans only (when in reality they'd still race if the stands were empty)
 
Original44 said:
I was told by the promoter that he was getting really bad turnout for the races. I'm assuming that what he means by taking losses.
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Chet and Nick have had a bad year, the weather prior to this past Sunday has impacted every practice and race event that they have tried to run. Now whether its trully affecting the turnout, or its the fact that motorcorss in NE ohio is in steady decline, I dont know. But I do know that they are very bummed about it, and really dont have the resources to put on the race the way that they would like to promote it. So instead they will finish out this year with scheduled practice and re-evaluate running OIR after that.

Heres your chance people, if you dont want to lose another damn track, maybe you should show them some support. Get to OIR for a practice, they need to see that the riders want OIR kept around, you could save the place.
 
BriarcliffMx said:
Heres your chance people, if you dont want to lose another damn track, maybe you should show them some support. Get to OIR for a practice, they need to see that the riders want OIR kept around, you could save the place.
Click to expand...

Yes!!!! Dead on with this post. OIR has always had a strong following, I was there Sunday and the place was nice! The prep was good but there were only 65 or so riders.


Alex186 said:
Keep in mind, building and running a race/practice track, if you're trying to make money, it is a business decision. People make bad business decisions like building a MX tracks away from any population, investing money in their facility inaccurately, bad customer service, not willing to adapt with the changing market, unwilling to partner and work with others. Your right, great tracks go out of business, but good business owners don't.
Click to expand...

This is what I have been trying to say and get bashed for. The last sentence sums it up perfectly. Now more than ever we need track owners that understand business and marketing. There are some perfect examples of both sides of the spectrum. I had a track owner tell me not too long ago that he didnt need to market his track, he said " Let the track do the talking". I dont think any profitable track has that type of marketing plan.
 
Here are the total amount of individual AMA racers that have competed in a AMA Motocross event by year... Keep in mind, you can see the decline of the economy and you can see the upward trend the past three years. This is consistent across the country.

2015 - 1330 (As of 7/28/2015 and we are mid-year)
2014 - 1387
2013 - 1276
2012 - 1080
2011 - 1190
2010 - 1761
2009 - 2054
2008 - 2063
2007 - 2016
2006 - 2102

Here's a thought... if every AMA racer that lived in the state of Ohio showed up to the same event and rode two classes... that's a 2,774 entry event (based on 2014 participation). That could possibly be the largest single event in the history of all two-wheeled racing events. One of the largest event (so far) in the Ohio in 2015, was the Battle event in Chillitown, which had over 700 entries, which accounts to 343 individual racers from Ohio. That's less then 25% of the total amount of racers that live in Ohio showed up.

There is a ton of potential to have quality events, but again marketing, value, customer service, weather, etc. play a role. The participate numbers are rising again, things are getting better.
 
Take chillitown for example, amazing turn outs. for what seems to be a month + prior to the event, I see flyers, facebook posts, photos to get you hyped up, promotions (free entry for random classes) etc... THAT is good business / marketing.

The post at 3PM the day before a race that says "hey were having a race tomorrow everyone come out"... not going to cut it.

We've lost a lot of good tracks the past few years. Those that have managed to stick around have not done so by luck... everything we have around us is a fairly decent track and ALL are MORE than capable of holding great events. I just feel like they dont all apply themselves and really do things to their full potential. Some because they are burned out and just dont care anymore, others because they dont know any better.

Its little stuff that are going to get people in the gate. Lets throw out some ideas, maybe some tracks will see some of them and try to use them?

GO.

A few off the top of my head.

Have a photographer on site for the day. We have plenty around that shoot photos all day for FREE. I"m sure some of them would happily dedicate a day for $150 or something to come do soemthing they normally do for free anyways... I'd be willing to bet if you advertised that you'll have a photogrpher there all day taking #'s to snap pics of and that they will be posted the next day... more people will show up. Everyone likes pictures, not everyone knows who the random people are taking them and how to find them.

Free lunch day.... seriously how much could a few giant packs of hot dogs and buns from samsclub cost? Advertise that on this saturdays open practice youll be providing lunch... im a fat ass, I will see you there! im sure that will draw in some people.

offer free practice if bring a 125 to ride for the day or something... yes it will suck to let some guys in the gate for free BUT how many guys bring their friends? I usually bring anywhere from 2-4 people with me when i go most places...

ok i have crap to do but am i off the path here or does this seem to make sense? Try to make some 'special" days.. to me it seems like common sense and i dont know s**t about marketing and i sure as hell dont ever want to run a track..
 
hershey said:
Yes!!!! Dead on with this post. OIR has always had a strong following, I was there Sunday and the place was nice! The prep was good but there were only 65 or so riders.
Click to expand...

That's because some of us were at a track that was holding a race. Don't support the tracks that are holding races, then they will go away. Plain and simple.
 
Original44 said:
That's because some of us were at a track that was holding a race. Don't support the tracks that are holding races, then they will go away. Plain and simple.
Click to expand...

I had planned on hitting 213 but I was sicker than a dog fri and sat as well as the boy. Woke up sunday feeling crappy still. About 11 I decided to take Austin to OIR to get some laps in. Only did 3 sessions myself and he only did 2. He felt worse than I did. Thats about half what I normally do.


Alex186 said:
Here are the total amount of individual AMA racers that have competed in a AMA Motocross event by year... Keep in mind, you can see the decline of the economy and you can see the upward trend the past three years. This is consistent across the country.

2015 - 1330 (As of 7/28/2015 and we are mid-year)
2014 - 1387
2013 - 1276
2012 - 1080
2011 - 1190
2010 - 1761
2009 - 2054
2008 - 2063
2007 - 2016
2006 - 2102

Here's a thought... if every AMA racer that lived in the state of Ohio showed up to the same event and rode two classes... that's a 2,774 entry event (based on 2014 participation). That could possibly be the largest single event in the history of all two-wheeled racing events. One of the largest event (so far) in the Ohio in 2015, was the Battle event in Chillitown, which had over 700 entries, which accounts to 343 individual racers from Ohio. That's less then 25% of the total amount of racers that live in Ohio showed up.

There is a ton of potential to have quality events, but again marketing, value, customer service, weather, etc. play a role. The participate numbers are rising again, things are getting better.
Click to expand...


2 questions

1. Can you remove the LL qualifier stuff?
2. What were you saying earlier about the number of racers doing a second race or more was down?

Ok 3 questions

3. Is there a demographic doing better than another? ie any distric, southern ohio mx, OMA , ect ?


TwentyThreeMX said:
Take chillitown for example, amazing turn outs. for what seems to be a month + prior to the event, I see flyers, facebook posts, photos to get you hyped up, promotions (free entry for random classes) etc... THAT is good business / marketing.

The post at 3PM the day before a race that says "hey were having a race tomorrow everyone come out"... not going to cut it.

We've lost a lot of good tracks the past few years. Those that have managed to stick around have not done so by luck... everything we have around us is a fairly decent track and ALL are MORE than capable of holding great events. I just feel like they dont all apply themselves and really do things to their full potential. Some because they are burned out and just dont care anymore, others because they dont know any better.

Its little stuff that are going to get people in the gate. Lets throw out some ideas, maybe some tracks will see some of them and try to use them?

GO.

A few off the top of my head.

Have a photographer on site for the day. We have plenty around that shoot photos all day for FREE. I"m sure some of them would happily dedicate a day for $150 or something to come do soemthing they normally do for free anyways... I'd be willing to bet if you advertised that you'll have a photogrpher there all day taking #'s to snap pics of and that they will be posted the next day... more people will show up. Everyone likes pictures, not everyone knows who the random people are taking them and how to find them.

Free lunch day.... seriously how much could a few giant packs of hot dogs and buns from samsclub cost? Advertise that on this saturdays open practice youll be providing lunch... im a fat ass, I will see you there! im sure that will draw in some people.

offer free practice if bring a 125 to ride for the day or something... yes it will suck to let some guys in the gate for free BUT how many guys bring their friends? I usually bring anywhere from 2-4 people with me when i go most places...

ok i have crap to do but am i off the path here or does this seem to make sense? Try to make some 'special" days.. to me it seems like common sense and i dont know s**t about marketing and i sure as hell dont ever want to run a track..
Click to expand...


Crute....stop making sense would you?


WTF happened to Knox? Its monday and he has to be bored at work. Alien abduction?
 
B Gotti said:
I remember in the 80's & 90's we raced 3 days a week all summer. Now your lucky if Ohio has 1 race a weekend.
Click to expand...

I counted 8 different races in July in Ohio on the Calendar tab above. Im sure there are races not listed there. I think there are too many choices if anything.
 
hershey said:
I had planned on hitting 213 but I was sicker than a dog fri and sat as well as the boy. Woke up sunday feeling crappy still. About 11 I decided to take Austin to OIR to get some laps in. Only did 3 sessions myself and he only did 2. He felt worse than I did. Thats about half what I normally do.
Click to expand...

I get that Hershey, just saying we need to support the tracks that hold races.

WTF happened to Knox? Its monday and he has to be bored at work. Alien abduction?[/QUOTE] Didn't he say that he was going to be down at the ranch? [QUOTE="Alex186 said:
Here are the total amount of individual AMA racers that have competed in a AMA Motocross event by year... Keep in mind, you can see the decline of the economy and you can see the upward trend the past three years. This is consistent across the country.

2015 - 1330 (As of 7/28/2015 and we are mid-year)
2014 - 1387
2013 - 1276
2012 - 1080
2011 - 1190
2010 - 1761
2009 - 2054
2008 - 2063
2007 - 2016
2006 - 2102

Here's a thought... if every AMA racer that lived in the state of Ohio showed up to the same event and rode two classes... that's a 2,774 entry event (based on 2014 participation). That could possibly be the largest single event in the history of all two-wheeled racing events. One of the largest event (so far) in the Ohio in 2015, was the Battle event in Chillitown, which had over 700 entries, which accounts to 343 individual racers from Ohio. That's less then 25% of the total amount of racers that live in Ohio showed up.

There is a ton of potential to have quality events, but again marketing, value, customer service, weather, etc. play a role. The participate numbers are rising again, things are getting better.
Click to expand...

Alex, not trying to argue with you, but what about the article in racerX?

TwentyThreeMX said:
Take chillitown for example, amazing turn outs. for what seems to be a month + prior to the event, I see flyers, facebook posts, photos to get you hyped up, promotions (free entry for random classes) etc... THAT is good business / marketing.

The post at 3PM the day before a race that says "hey were having a race tomorrow everyone come out"... not going to cut it.

We've lost a lot of good tracks the past few years. Those that have managed to stick around have not done so by luck... everything we have around us is a fairly decent track and ALL are MORE than capable of holding great events. I just feel like they dont all apply themselves and really do things to their full potential. Some because they are burned out and just dont care anymore, others because they dont know any better.

Its little stuff that are going to get people in the gate. Lets throw out some ideas, maybe some tracks will see some of them and try to use them?

GO.

A few off the top of my head.

Have a photographer on site for the day. We have plenty around that shoot photos all day for FREE. I"m sure some of them would happily dedicate a day for $150 or something to come do soemthing they normally do for free anyways... I'd be willing to bet if you advertised that you'll have a photogrpher there all day taking #'s to snap pics of and that they will be posted the next day... more people will show up. Everyone likes pictures, not everyone knows who the random people are taking them and how to find them.

Free lunch day.... seriously how much could a few giant packs of hot dogs and buns from samsclub cost? Advertise that on this saturdays open practice youll be providing lunch... im a fat ass, I will see you there! im sure that will draw in some people.

offer free practice if bring a 125 to ride for the day or something... yes it will suck to let some guys in the gate for free BUT how many guys bring their friends? I usually bring anywhere from 2-4 people with me when i go most places...

ok i have crap to do but am i off the path here or does this seem to make sense? Try to make some 'special" days.. to me it seems like common sense and i dont know s**t about marketing and i sure as hell dont ever want to run a track..
Click to expand...

Stacy, maybe you forgot Sundays were made for racing. LOL!
 
ha yeah.. i am definitely a pro practicer these days. once i get behind a gate i will return again... but im stuck in practice mode. idk what itll take me to want to show up and race. maybe free beer for like 8th place or something.. lol..
 
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