Factory Teams Going To Fade Away?

[weimedog]

With all the fall out of this year, loosing JGR & Geico, and hearing reports Kawi & Suzuki are ailing, just wonder if this a quickening of a process already happening. Sales of Dirt bike alone no longer justify the expense of a full factory team. What do they gain when they win vs. cost over time? Having to design or upgrade based of the whim of a fickle customer base?  Super Cross being different as the cost is mitigated as its entertainment same as something like hockey, so folks wanting TV or other media exposure have a reason to support a team even if they aren't in the industry. Just hope out door doesn't become a side show. Thoughts?

[Mongo134]

Hard for sponsors to commit when they are unsure of the future of events due to Corona 

[ah665]

If Outdoors goes away and SX is the only attraction, along with manufacturers not seeing fielding teams as an option financially, you'll see Feld (or whoever will runs Supercross at that time) basically take all the teams in house and run everything, similar to Monster Jam. That or the whole sport just downscales. I could see both things possibly happening, at some point. 

Edited November 19, 2020 by ah665

[OUTERLIMITS]

1 hour ago, ah665 said:

If Outdoors goes away and SX is the only attraction, along with manufacturers not seeing fielding teams as an option financially, you'll see Feld (or whoever will runs Supercross at that time) basically take all the teams in house and run everything, similar to Monster Jam. That or the whole sport just downscales. I could see both things possibly happening, at some point. 

I will go back to restringing fly swatters if that ever happens

[redrider144]

2 hours ago, weimedog said:

With all the fall out of this year, loosing JGR & Geico, and hearing reports Kawi & Suzuki are ailing, just wonder if this a quickening of a process already happening

These are not unconnected events and aren't all even necessarily recent.

• JGR had been losing $$ for several years.  Never had great results, chose a bad platform with the heavy blue 450 and turned it into a Franken-bike.  Suzuki has been phoning it in for several years as far as keeping their bikes relevant.
• Suzuki - already mentioned above, has been phoning it in for several years.  They stopped caring.
• Kawi - very possibly a restructuring for tax purposes
• Geico - they also pulled sponsorship of the Germain Racing NASCAR team

You're reading a bit too much into this.  I saw JGR coming a long time ago.  Same with any team connected with Suzuki, which of course is JGR.

Edited November 19, 2020 by redrider144

[mog]

2 hours ago, weimedog said:

With all the fall out of this year, loosing JGR & Geico, and hearing reports Kawi & Suzuki are ailing, just wonder if this a quickening of a process already happening. Sales of Dirt bike alone no longer justify the expense of a full factory team. What do they gain when they win vs. cost over time? Having to design or upgrade based of the whim of a fickle customer base?  Super Cross being different as the cost is mitigated as its entertainment same as something like hockey, so folks wanting TV or other media exposure have a reason to support a team even if they aren't in the industry. Just hope out door doesn't become a side show. Thoughts?

Sales are up on Mx bikes 

[mxaniac]

It's my understanding that Feld has series sponsors that limits what the teams can do.  Say Toyota sponsors Feld and a team gets Dodge to sponsor them, Feld won't let Dodge be given recognition.  Secondly, the podium speech is the only time the sponsors get mentioned which is a huge problem since that's only 3 guys.  I don't actually watch other forms of motorsports much, but I'm told that when a vehicle is being shown in other sports the sponsors logos are up on the TV screen too.  Changing those things might make a big difference in the sport, but the AMA is so pathetic it's been replaced with a corporation that is trying to make it's own profits at the expense of the teams.  I will give NBC a big kudos, as it turns out they had a lot to do with making racing happen under covid. 

[weimedog]

I was a rep for a motorcycle company years back and got to know the dealers in this part of the world and so many are gone. Gold Sport Suzuki , a main stay of the dirt bike world is now gone replaced with a rental center. CNY Power Sports another larger dealer for off road, a Honda, Yamaha, KTM dealer well...was. Got rid of the dirt bikes and motorcycle side of there business.  I haven't seen any new dealers come and Motocross in general around here is stagnant at best. Hare scrambles on the other hand stays strong. Part of the issue here is land use...where when I was a kid we had places to ride. I have a 260 acre farm and have hosted Motorcycle events on and off for years and for a while had a good sense of the push for places to race & ride. Can tell you there are less dirt bikes in this area, more quads and side by sides; so they must be selling somewhere else.. 🙂

[JBBR]

nah, heard factory 'support' was part of peloshi's next 'stimulus' with saving the tadpoles of greater s. cali, free citizenship for any illegal asking, and premium ice cream for everyone.  What's wrong with that?  fascist. 

[DBMX 925]

2 hours ago, JBBR said:

nah, heard factory 'support' was part of peloshi's next 'stimulus' with saving the tadpoles of greater s. cali, free citizenship for any illegal asking, and premium ice cream for everyone.  What's wrong with that?  fascist. 

And I didn’t want to get political......cheers!

[JBBR]

3 hours ago, DBMX 925 said:

And I didn’t want to get political......cheers!

Lol, sorry, couldn't help it! 

[Piney Woods]

1 hour ago, JBBR said:

Lol, sorry, couldn't help it! 

You did fine. Too many have their heads in the sand. Ugly things are happening.

[TDW]

On 11/19/2020 at 10:22 AM, OUTERLIMITS said:

I will go back to restringing fly swatters if that ever happens

Fly swatters matter.