Giuseppe Luongo's Response

            Just in case you need to be brought up to speed on what has been going on in the sport of motocross lately, here’s a quick recap. Basically, since the AMA officially decided to get out of the role of promoting races back in September, they have been opening seeking eligible companies for the job—most notably the National Promoters Group and Youthstream. A few weeks ago we brought you an interview with Youthstream’s President Giuseppe Luongo and last Friday we posted an interview with the NPG’s Director of Operations, John Ayers. In response to Ayers’ interview, Luongo sent us this open letter about his thoughts on the U.S. Nationals, the World Championships, and Youthstream’s plan should they come to America.

            When there is more to report, we will be sure to bring it to you, and keep you well informed about both the NPG and Youthstream.

            If you want to get caught up on the other interviews that were posted about this same subject, here are the links.

Ayers Interview:

http://www.motocross.com/articles/article/news/20071214/john_ayers_interview-6278.html

Luongo Interview:

http://www.motocross.com/articles/article/news/20071207/giuseppe_luongo_interview-6121.html

GIUSEPPE LUONGO REPLIES AND ADDS

I have read the recent John Ayers' interview and I feel I have to clarify some of the points he makes, especially when talking about Youthstream and the work we do with the FIM Motocross World Championship.

I think Youthstream and NPG have 2 different visions because we are a Championship promoter and NPG's members are track owners. We have different interests, but the final goal is fortunately the same and that is to make Motocross bigger and the most well known possible, and my belief is that the promoters and organizers have to work together because each of us are specialized in different things.

As we are in competition for the same goal, I cannot comment on NPG, but I do want to say that if the AMA allows Youthstream to work with the US Nationals, for sure we will give first option to participate to the NPG, the current circuits and the people already involved in the US Motocross.

I really don't want to create polemics with John, or anybody else for that matter, because in one way or the other (MX Nationals, US MXGP and/or MXoN) we will work together in the future, so my goal is really just to clarify some details. With John we have worked together already, at the Motocross of Nations in Budds Creek he did a great job for us with the merchandising. But that can't prevent me from saying what follows. I find very hard to accept what John says about Youthstream not helping the young (I really hope he has just not been well informed). Actually, I cannot accept that at all. Let me explain how things really are.

Aside from the work we do for the MXGPs, which everybody knows very well that it's not just TV and press (I don't want to repeat myself again in the way we manage this Championship—Budds Creek and every GP is proof of our complex work and success), but what some of you maybe don't know is that together with the European Motorcycle Union we also manage the UEM Continental European Championship where we have 53 events covering 21 different countries during the year. At those races run by us there are thousands of riders participating and from those races most of the young come to enter in the FIM World Championship and some also to enter the AMA Supercross and Motocross Championships.

(Photo Above): The Motocross of Nations track at Budds Creek.

Youthstream offers financial support for young talented riders when they are capable to pass from a Continental Championship to the MX2 World Championship and also to the winner of the Junior Cup and for young promising riders of the Motocross World Championship.

Youthstream pays the top MX1 and MX2 teams 140,000 USD of bonus and we also pay the cost of travel and freight to the top 30 riders for each overseas Grand Prix, which comes to 320,000 USD per overseas event.

Some of the best US Supercross riders have grown at the UEM European Championship and FIM World Championship: currently they are Chad Reed, Ben Townley, Grant Langston, David Vuillemin, Christophe Pourcel, etc.

I am surprised to see continuous talks about World Championship prize money. That was an issue 4 years ago and it is no longer an issue, as proven and as predicted. It is not an issue because all the riders see that everything is more professional and they make much more money than 4 years ago. They have many more services and infrastructures at the GPs, and that, along with a total of 950 millions of TV spectators and 500,000 fans at the events, helped them to increase their salaries to more than the double and those salaries continue to increase with the sponsors we are attracting to the MXGPs with the massive visibility we give them and with the elevated quality of our events.

Now, there is something that I am really sorry to have to say but I'm tired of being pictured as the 'bad guy' and I think it's time now to start help the fans and the industry to open their eyes and to see all the truth of our sport.

We have done such a good job for the GPs and everyone sees that and the industry itself recognized that our plans were right. We delivered what we promised, probably a lot more than that. And I still have to listen the same broken record about comparisons between the MXGPs and the US Nationals and how good the US Nationals are for the privateers. Are the US Nationals the real dreamland for the privateers?

I had to ask myself that question after I got to read some of the US MX races data. It is, by the way, all material that is available to everyone on the AMA's website. Let me share some of that with you.

Every rider who wants to enter an AMA MX National round has to pay an entry fee. If you put the numbers together you will immediately see that 60% of the purse is financed by no one else other than the riders themselves. I was honestly surprised when I noticed that.

But that is not all. If you analyze carefully you will see, as amazing at it sounds, that the privateers are paying for the top riders: prize money is paid until the 40th place per moto (the last positions receive about the same amounts as the entry fee), but riders from 41st to 100th (one hundred is the maximum number of entries per class) take nothing in return of the fee they have paid. Their fees actually go to the riders who make it to the 40 among which there are also all the great names we all know.

This means that between 50 to 60 riders per class (more than a total of 100 riders) pay to race and these are actually the riders who obviously need the money. The top riders do not really need that money (with their prize money they just fill their expensive cars up with gas). But the top riders and the rest of the top 40 get all the money from those who are eventually excluded from the races.

So, as there has been some confusion over this point for quite some time, I just wanted to say this to put things straight.

The next question should be: How much is the entry fee for the FIM World Championship and the all the Motocross Continental events managed by Youthstream? The answer is for everyone the same: zero. Nobody pays an entry fee at our races. I hope this is clear now and it will help those who like to make comparisons.

Youthstream, in fact, likes the principle of amateur races, and in USA this is fantastic, but we don't like the principle of having 700 or 800 (or more) amateur riders to race for 20 minutes on the Championship race track, on Saturday, where the Pro have to race the next day.  We don't like that idea for 2 reasons:

1. We don't think it's fair for an amateur rider to pay 200 USD or 300 USD (numbers may vary but for sure they do not ride for free) to ride for 20 minutes on the 'Nationals' race-tracks.

2. 700 riders (or a lot more) racing will destroy the circuit. Budds Creek was a good example of that, the amateur racing was held on a separate track so that the MXoN track was preserved for the professional riders and the result of such a decision was great.  Jonathan made a superb job in creating a separate track for the amateurs so they could race all the day before, they also had the mini Supercross during the evening, which was a fantastic idea.  In this way they could race a lot more during the weekend.  We believe amateur racing must continue and even it has to be improved, it's the base of the pyramid of our sport.

Coming back to the professional side, we think our job is to before show our maximum capacity and the maximum potential of our sport to attract the sponsors. For that to happen it's up to who manages the sport (the promoter and organizers) to make the investment first. It would be too easy to ask for money before and improve after.

We have more than 80 people working full time for Youthstream at each event; we have 12 semi trucks moving to every event.  Results do not come with hope and talking, they come with hard work, investment and passion - the results are there.

Another point to be cleared up is why some World Championship riders leave to go to the USA to race. The answer is simple; they go to ride Supercross.  They do not go specifically for Motocross. USA Supercross is, out of question, one of the greatest sports in the world with an average of more than 50,000 spectators per event with a very professional promoter who does a wonderful job to promote its sport—the money in this sport is huge, the notoriety for the winning of top riders is enormous, and the infrastructure and accommodation are fantastic. Who wouldn't like to be there?

A manufacturer who pays a Motocross World Championship rider EUR700,000 (about 1 million of dollars) will pay the same rider (if he can be amongst the top) for Supercross between 3 to 5 times more. This is the reality, they don't go from the World Championship to race the Nationals—with all respect I have for the Nationals.  Sure, it's obvious, thanks to the Supercross series the Nationals benefit too; once a rider is participating at the US Supercross his contract still includes in most of the cases (but this is changing fast as they want to do more and more Supercross) also the participation at the Nationals.  No riders who specialize only in Motocross leave the World Championship for the Nationals, all the riders who leave the Grand Prix are very good Supercross riders and arrive in the United States with one goal: to become the US Supercross Champion.

Something else I would like to clarify; America has 58% (not 52%) of the global off-road market because it's the richest and biggest country in the world with very large spaces for riders. A bit like Australia that, with a population of only 19millions of citizens and huge spaces to ride has 10% of the world market (which in relation to population would eventually have the biggest off-road share of the world market).

The off-road market includes Enduro, Motocross, Trials, SuperMoto, Rally and ATV - Enduro is the largest. Europe has 22% of the world off-road market.  Consider also that until not very long ago Europe was divided into about 40 countries (half rich and half growing), with 40 different importers, this itself created great troubles for the teams to put together a good budget because every importer is willing to invest money in its own country and in the end the (big) European budget is split into many little local budgets.

The United States off-road budget is one, a big one and this makes it much easier for the manufacturers to invest into big factory and support teams.  We are working hard to go in this direction in Europe as well and step-by-step we are getting there.

We see the reasons for the success of US Motocross in mainly:

1. The fantastic work and investment of the manufacturers, not only for what they do for the factory teams and riders but also for the millions and millions of contingency bonus' they put in for all amateur and privateer riders. In this obviously the market plays a huge role.

2. The unbelievable success of the Supercross series

3. The fantastic American landscapes which are beautiful and where there is a lot of space for riders to ride and race.

4. All the organizers around the country covering the complete territory (not just those known on the East and West Coasts), who organize many races every weekend and help to develop the desire of many fans to race and to bring those fans close to our world.

I agree with John when he talks about the 2 series being good but different. Therefore the formula of Youthstream will be to put the best of the 2 together and make something exceptional where all parties involved can make their benefit. AMA, manufacturers, sponsors, teams, amateur and professional riders will benefit from the advanced infrastructures and hospitality, the top-notch professional structure, a much larger media and TV coverage (live and highlights). The media will have a professional media centre with all the modern tools and services as it is done at the MXGPs already and there will always be an honest and open dialogue with them because we have nothing to hide and we like to share our ideas and projects. The amateurs will continue to be able to race on parallel tracks with more time on the track and better value for money they spend to be there. The traditional US Motocross atmosphere and enthusiasm is an important tool to the success of Motocross and we never want to take that away. Fans will find a venue with more facilities and more comfort. Organizers will continue their business and they will surely get more income from sponsors and general admissions, and they will be able to improve their venues and, not less important, to increase the value of their property.

I would like to conclude this message by saying that we had the same problems with the World Championship some years ago and we managed to solve them. Our goal is exactly the same for the US Motocross Nationals.

Yours in sport,

Giuseppe Luongo