Since the 2015 mini Villopoto ‘Boom’ and a burgeoning European Championship support card MXGP Grand Prix circuits have become busy places and the capacity turnout in Switzerland last weekend further proved that ticket prices and risky weather still will not deter fans old, new and hardcore from embracing top level motorsport events. Race attendances might swing up and down and ebb-and-flow through the years but to measure real growth then MXGP promoters Youthstream recognised well over a decade ago that the FIM World Championship needed live television broadcasting and a wider shop window for sponsorship and marketing. Currently MXGP boasts figures based on 2015 research that totally almost 4000 broadcast hours to an audience of 1.42 billion thanks to networks and partners on pretty much every continent that either show live or highlights packages. The projected distribution share for 2016 was placed at 47% for Europe, Asia/Pacific at 22%, North America with 12%, Latin America with 10%, Africa /Middle East on 9%.
The promoters took a step again with a strong social media push three years ago and a proactive approach to a Youtube channel with a plethora of incidents, accident and outtakes to entice the tablet/device ‘demographic’. Over 34,000,000 views had been clocked by the end of 2015 and it is easy to see the up-to-date data online now.
Youthstream have looked at the TV model, and internet avenues to explore further expansion but the truth is that MXGP is hampered by the format that means four races and a viewing period of an entire afternoon to get the full gist and experience of a Grand Prix. Tony Cairoli finished fifth in the second race of the Swiss Grand Prix but the podium ceremony showed the Sicilian avidly celebrating his third overall victory of the season. The offering of magazine-style reports, live chat shows, start gate interviews and more means that any motocross fan get pretty good value for their buck through ‘The Box’ or a source like MXGP TV but for the casual viewer and potential future follower catching a second race might not make much sense.
Possible evolution and modernisation – not necessarily words always associated with ‘improvement’ – constantly hang over motocross, and in fact most sports. It is a question worth asking now and again in the paddock to see just how MXGP might move into the third decade of the century.
“When we brought the sport on the television it was to have the largest possible audience and [attract] people who are not experts in motocross,” said Youthstream President Giuseppe Luongo in a sitdown chat about the subject at the German round in June. “It means the two race format is complicated. But [to change] is a problem for people to accept that a guy who has finished second twice and has done a good job over the weekend does not win the GP. We try to modernise our sport but inside – for many reasons and some people just don’t like change – we face a lot of resistance, believe me.”
“Motocross is a world that comes from amateur racing,” the Italian goes on. “It is not Formula One, that was born professional – OK, there are many different types of car racing but from the first moment F1 was professional. Also MotoGP is another level. So we are coming from amateur roots and thanks to our work and that of the manufacturers we are in a position where MXGP and MX2 is 100% professional. Still, around the world, there are a lot of amateurs and followers that think we don’t have to be professional.”
Changes might not satisfy the figure of almost 600,000 people that are paying to come through circuit gates each season but the fact that promoters and people inside the sport look at and discuss different versions and forms of MXGP has largely to do with the ill-fit for television and the endless search to make the sport bigger.
“When I am not at a race I am always in front of the computer or the television and I am in contact with my people and it is clear that it is too much,” says Luongo. “Frankly I don’t know [the best route] because if we take away one race from television then the fans that want to be informed anyway will be against us. If we make one race only then we leave behind the history of motocross.”
The FIM Motocross World Championship ran a one-moto format for 125, 250 and 500/650cc classes between 2001 and 2003 in an effort to try reach the mainstream. The timing wasn’t right and it was an unpopular strategy. Youthstream came in for 2004 and established the four-stroke MX2 and MX1 (now MXGP) formula back with two motos per class and now twelve years on little has changed apart from trimming the race time to thirty minutes instead of thirty-five and fall totally in sync with the AMA Nationals. TV offerings – that cannot be easy to sell for a niche motorsport – have ranged from full-bore coverage to one-hour specials and even live packages that focus on the second races. “For many big TV networks we do it like this,” Luongo reveals. “For example with CBS Sport Network we give them the second race and a two hour show with a short highlights from the first race and the full podium presentation from the second race. We already have this format. The sport channels [however] want the full show.”
British Champion Shaun Simpson was in the strange predicament of missing a Grand Prix this year due to a broken hand and watched the Lombardian round at Mantova from his home. It was the first meeting the twenty-eight year old Scot and eleven year veteran of MXGP had sat-out since 2009. He was a good port of call for an assessment. “I was cycling for an hour and a half and missed the MX2 races but watched both MXGP motos in full and even by the end it was a bit like ‘zzzz – oh wait! There’s some action between Gajser and Cairoli’,” he explains. “I’ve thought more about the Grand Prix format and I think that [a change] is the way to go. A one-two hour TV slot where it is like Formula One – live pit chats, a Brundle-style cruise set-up around the paddock or the gate, a short replay of the first moto – and then into the moto that is the main ‘Grand Prix’ would be pretty good. As a rider you want to win the Grand Prix which (for TV) would be one race…how the teams manage the bonuses and wins in respective races is another story!”
Moulding MXGP to best service both new potential fans and older hooked followers is the toughest part. “It is very complicated and it is a long-term discussion,” confides Luongo. “We have a sport that is great for television because it is a great show. On the other hand we have a sport that has a tradition and with an industry inside of sponsors, manufacturers and so on. To keep this balance of respecting the tradition and older generation of fans and also looking after the interests of people that want more television and more coverage as well as providing for those that want information about the whole scene is complicated!”
“If you simply look at the sport as a ‘show’ for television then it is very easy: one race,” he adds. “But then you go completely in contrast to the roots and the history of motocross. Many things have been tried: a one moto format, a SuperFinal…and every time we face one problem with one ‘part’ of our ‘world’.”
“It is difficult to change anything because historically motocross has been about man and machine and the durability of man and machine,” muses HRC MX General Manager Roger Harvey a former GP and Nations racer with over forty years experience in the industry and paddock. “The durability of the machine is what we as manufacturers are all here for; to make it better for the customers. The durability of man used to be across forty minutes and two laps but times change and we are now down to thirty minutes and it used to be about getting your bike and body sorted in a short period of time to go and prove something again. It is a different thing completely if we are talking just for TV…You have to be open to see whether something can change and be devised. I’ve often wondered why you can’t have two races on a weekend and have them as ‘world championship races three and four’?”
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