John Ayers Interview

Story and Photos by Brendan Lutes           

            Last week, we filled you in on the story behind why the AMA is openly accepting bids for promoting the National Motocross series in 2008 and beyond. We also posted a video interview with Youthstream’s Giuseppe Luongo about his thoughts on promoting the Nationals. This week, we bring you an interview with another promoter bidding for the job. We spoke with the National Promoters Group’s Director of Operations, John Ayers about his thoughts on the current situation.

            As the longtime promoting partner of the AMA and the Nationals, the NPG has been a part of making motocross what it is in the United States for over 20 years, and doesn’t plan on giving up promoting the series easily. With a detailed game plan in place, Ayers hopes that the NPG will be able to continue it’s partnership with the AMA, however, only time will tell if that will actually be the case. Read more to find out what is happening with the NPG, and how things could change in the coming season.

(Photo above by Matt Ware)

Tell us about the NPG and their role at the Nationals…

The NPG is made up of the 12 promoters that own an event on the schedule, and it originally started to supplement the AMA. When you look back on the history of the sport, Supercross finally became a real series when someone bought it and ran all the events. Back at that time, the AMA owned the motocross series and each promoter owned their own event. There was no series sponsor, no series coordination, no series announcer or anything like that—nothing was the same. After watching the success of a couple different series out there—one was Supercross and one was GNCC—with one consistent format and one consistent promoter, things really got better, and that has always been the goal of the NPG. Our goal is to simulate a single owner, instead of having 12 tracks that have different sponsors, their own announcer, and all their own buddies at the events. The NPG was to bring all the promoters together to have one good series, and it has worked quite well.

Over the years, how has the NPG changed into what it is today?

It’s grown in what we handle and what we do. In the beginning, it was just small little steps. We worked with the AMA, it was the AMA’s series and it always has been; we were just behind the scenes doing things. The tracks agreeing to hire Tim Cotter as the series announcer for example, or agreeing to open the pit gate at the same time, or agreeing to hire my company to park the trucks, those things are what the NPG has orchestrated. When we started, it would take five or six hours to park the trucks, and now we do it in about five or 10 minutes. All of our work has always been about the small things that can make it better for the teams, riders, and the families that attend.

(Photo Above): The tracks could look much different next year.

If the NPG gets the promoting position for the Nationals, what are some of the other responsibilities that would go along with that?

We would be in charge of sponsorship, advertising the series, and the TV package. We are hopeful that what would come along with that is that we would have a little more freedom to manage the series. For instance, it took three or four months, and a lot of hard work, to get the 2008 schedule approved, and it was a great step forward. We get along with the AMA, but they are kind of a big company with a lot of people there. The NPG is a lot smaller and much more reactive. We’ve always helped the AMA, but always as a helper, not a leader. Up until now, they’ve been the leader of the series and we’ve been the support in helping them make their series the best that it could be.

After so many years of working together, what are your thoughts on the AMA searching out other possible promoters?

I don’t know. I think the AMA is trying to look at all avenues to do the best that they can do, and I think that there are a lot of different philosophies out there. I’ve talked to people that want to chop the series up, move it to NASCAR tracks, have one moto, and everything be totally different. There’s that type of management style, and you can look at what Youthstream does, what Supercross does, and what other people in the world do; there are a lot of different ways to go about it. We’re proud of the motocross series and what it is today. Like I was telling someone the other day, you reap what you sow, and we really invested in motocross over the years; that’s why we have the largest and best motocross series in the world. We have the best attendance, the best racetracks, the best riders, and the biggest and best teams. That’s what we’ve invested in. Some other organizations have invested in other things, sometimes it’s press, sometimes it’s media, other times it’s whatever. In the U.S., we have a little different market than what some of the other people do. Right now, we like where motocross is, but we would like to see it improved. We would like to have better sponsorship, and a better TV package. Right now, we think we have great sponsors, but we believe that we can do better if given the chance, which is what we’re hoping for. We hope that the series doesn’t get chopped up and sent to different countries or different venues.

What are some of the changes that you would like to make if given the chance?

We would like to have all first-class facilities, a live TV package for ’09—I’ve already started working on that five months ago, and have already planted the seed—you’ll see continued upgrades for 2008, and you’ll see permanent structures for the finish line and pit areas. Right now, we take two semis on the road to haul all of our equipment and assets. Next year, we’re planning on going to three. We also plan on stepping the press package up. We’ve had the area at the AMA truck for two or three years now, but next year we’re going to go a little bit higher and also have a satellite with high-speed Internet. We want more consistency for the teams and the riders—just some simple little things. We want to be able to separate the mechanics and riders from everyone else to give them a little more access. We’re just trying to make it a little bit more fluid. Obviously, the big changes that we would like to see are really the content [from the events] to be spread out more throughout the world, whether it be on the Internet, live streaming from the tracks, or a TV package. We’ve always done a webcast, and we will continue doing that, and I think we will improve on that as well in the coming years. I think that has been a big part of the outdoors.

(Photo Above): The NPG has always focused a lot on the riders.

What are your thoughts on Youthstream possibly becoming the U.S. Nationals promoter?

I think Youthstream does a great job, and they are a great company. I think Guiseppe, Guido, and Greg Atkins all do a great job, but I think that their mission statement is a little different than ours. They go to a different country every week, and you don’t really build the sport of motocross that way. Our country is just a little bit different. In their package there isn’t an amateur program at all, and you don’t really have a lot of riders contesting the series like we do. We have 200 riders a weekend, while they have 80 or 100 at the most. The package that they do is just different than what we do. For us, we have a great Amateur National Championship, and a great Pro-AM series that builds our riders. If you look at where the good riders come from, there are good racetracks, and that’s why when we all get together at the Motocross of Nations, the Americans win. It’s because we have great racetracks all year round, a great amateur program, a Pro-Am Championship, and we’ve invested in motocross. I’m not saying that ours is better than Youthstream or worse, I’m just saying that it’s different. For them, it’s all about TV. They go to a different country every weekend; they spend a lot of money on press to make sure that people know that event is going to happen. Our events have been around for 20 years, so people know it’s going to happen. Because of that, we spend our money on a purse. We have a lot of privateers traveling around in their motorhomes, and our privateers really need that money to get from event to event. When you go to Europe, there is no purse, and there are no privateers; it’s just a different market. Again, I’m not saying that their way is bad and ours is good, I’m just saying that it’s different. I think it’s easy for us to look at their business plan and say it’s flawed, and it’s easy for them to look at our business plan and say it’s flawed. To me, when we have the largest motocross market in the world, the biggest teams, the best riders, and the best series in the world, how bad can it be?

Where do you think the NPG stands right now?

Nobody knows. Nobody has a clue. We’ve spent 20 years building these races and have been a great partner to the AMA. I think there have been a lot that has been built and depends on what we do, and we’ve always been a good partner to the AMA. The NPG as a whole, whether it’s been amateur racing, GNCC racing, or anything, we’ve always worked with the AMA. Any request that they have, we’ve always helped out. Even at the end of the year banquet we’ve done things to help, and we have always been a good working partner with the AMA. We’ve had it a little bit tough and have been here a long time, but a lot of the people haven’t. We were there when Scott Hollingsworth [of the AMA] came and went and we are here now with Rob Dingman. Needless to say, everyone is reading all the press about the changes at the AMA with the hirings and firings, but we know that they are doing their best to do the best job that they can, and that’s what we’ve always done. We’ve always done the best that we can to support them, but now we are ready to take the lead. We want to bring a live primetime TV package to increase the sponsorship, and a good long-term contract would really help us achieve that.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion about the current situation.