Locals, Weak local rider/moto count at tracks across the country Options

[JAF2]

It is an odd situation that the Nags and the Pro's are, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant. I wonder if the factories and the sanction have realized this. They have reduced cash flows, if they have any at all, and yet their "paid" employees either through choice or direction refuse to go where their customers are. Again, its hard to figure out if this is a plan or it just happened like this.

Weird!

You know, one of the easiest, oldest, and most effective business techniques that still works well is to look back in the past to see what your firm was doing when it was booming. Compare the two and see what is different now. Simply put, just identify what worked in the past and do more of it.

This is what troubles me - the fact that today's BMX looks nothing at all like it did in past periods when the sport boomed. The Pro's don't come to the track, the Nags can't be bothered, you can't bribe a top bike shop to carry BMX racing inventory, and money flow to the Pro's is bad. See the people, see the people, see the people - or see the customers, see the customers, see the customers.

Even though SX and National racing is very high quality and not very related to "average" racing anymore it's imperative for the firms to maintain a high profile at the potentially huge local level. When the company reps aren't connecting with the one thing that could expand sales that can't be good.

All the Best

PS : If the pro's and the Nags can't get out to their local tracks once or twice a week to "see the people/customers" while they practice then why would I spend my corporate dollars on them exactly? I do know that BITD when Pros ( and some Nags) made a salary that all but a very few can dream of today you could see them weekly at the tracks in Cali and Texas. Seeing the customers.

Another angle. I am pumped!

[Bill Curtin]

Fair enough, but I am not really talking about the 1% (if that is indeed the correct percentage of NAG ranked riders vs. the general USABMX membership population). If we are only talking about the NAG ranked riders from the previous year, the impact of "forcing" them to qualify by racing locals would have a minimal numerical effect on moto counts.

What you are proposing would add no more than 1% ridership to a local track in a perfect scenario. Being that there are 360 tracks and about 308 riders in the NAG point standings, your proposal would add less than one rider per track. Pro riders, to an infinitesimally small amount

While the thought can be commended, the logic is not there that it will fix the problem. The problem is, why does a rider come to a track, try it once or twice and never come back. Answer that question and you've doubled ridership overnight.
The rest are tire kickers and while we can throw all sorts of money at the problem, it isn't broken. It is a matter of a sport that is meant not for everyone.

My parents bought my brother several racing bikes. They took him to races, he had me to look up to to and yet, BMX was not a fit for him. He was successful at lacrosse, baseball, and hockey. BMX didn't spin his top. It did mine and I stuck with it for most of my life. Why is it that two brothers had different interests when we were both brought up in the same family with the she mindset?

Forcing national level riders is not the fix. Growing your ridership is. National level BMXrs do not race locals because there is no challenge for them. Same for a major league sports athlete playing pick up games.

[JAF2]

What you are proposing would add no more than 1% ridership to a local track in a perfect scenario. Being that there are 360 tracks and about 308 riders in the NAG point standings, your proposal would add less than one rider per track. Pro riders, to an infinitesimally small amount

While the thought can be commended, the logic is not there that it will fix the problem. The problem is, why does a rider come to a track, try it once or twice and never come back. Answer that question and you've doubled ridership overnight.
The rest are tire kickers and while we can throw all sorts of money at the problem, it isn't broken. It is a matter of a sport that is meant not for everyone.

My parents bought my brother several racing bikes. They took him to races, he had me to look up to to and yet, BMX was not a fit for him. He was successful at lacrosse, baseball, and hockey. BMX didn't spin his top. It did mine and I stuck with it for most of my life. Why is it that two brothers had different interests when we were both brought up in the same family with the she mindset?

Forcing national level riders is not the fix. Growing your ridership is. National level BMXrs do not race locals because there is no challenge for them. Same for a major league sports athlete playing pick up games.

Based on the math you are 100% correct, less than 1 NAG rider per track will have no impact on moto counts. But there are many "other" riders who are not in the NAG point standings, who choose not to race locals but do race their closest National. Collectively, this is a much larger group. Would the perceived value of a local race increase if A) their was more competition and (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) the race counted toward a higher goal?

[edwards]

Would the pre-race double at permanent tracks be considered a local? I understand the issue but maybe it should be up to the riders sponsor to mandate local racing for better exposure for rider, team, and kids looking up to said NAG rider.

[Elvis]

Okay, good, we got some hard numbers to chew on.

The proposal is a situation based upon inducing (forcing, whatever) 308 riders under the umbrella of mother sanction to show up at the track three times a year.

308. 3 times.

Would it not be more useful to grow ridership by introducing new riders to the sport? Would not the resources be better utilized than those used for the NAG/local tracking function?

I'm not saying the proposal is not without merit, but I am saying that worrying about what 308 riders are doing, why not just grow the sport overall?

Based on the math you are 100% correct, less than 1 NAG rider per track will have no impact on moto counts. But there are many "other" riders who are not in the NAG point standings, who choose not to race locals but do race their closest National. Collectively, this is a much larger group. Would the perceived value of a local race increase if A) their was more competition and the race counted toward a higher goal?

Okay, but this skews your proposal a bit, so let's look at this from the same angle: Why are those racers hitting the nearby nationals instead of racing locals? I propose that an environment where locals are the only outlet, those riders would leave the sport. They would do this because they don't want to race locals. And while they'll give you a laundry list of justifications, it -- generally -- comes down to the level of comp. The 16x Death Punch just doesn't get much out of gates with 15i. And, and pay attention here, you can use logic to show to Death Punch the err of his or her thinking, but have you ever used logic with a 16 year old who's mind's made up?

Talk about wasting resources!

The sport grows from the bottom up. It's a simple system and it works well. Noob shows up, tries it, if s/he likes it gets a membership, if life's fortunes keep the flame of joy lit they keep racing. They work there way up, get sponsors, hit some nationals, up and up, one day they're in the starting gate for the Olympics.

What you're proposing -- and again, it's not without merit, but -- is to put a loop somewhere around the center of that process by a rule book change. Now it's gone from a fairly simple, linear, system to one, well, loopy.

And here's where I'm really concerned: Anything about "We need to change the rules so _______" has a cost, and it's almost unfailingly a cost in unexpected areas. At least one thing I see from putting this loop in is the surge in "Track operator's kid / ghost rider / to get the point / NAG plate / stupid rule" threads. The law, as I'm sure you're aware, of unintended consequences.

I'm saying tools to induce the more-skilled to show up at locals exist. They're subtle, and take some finesse on the part of a track operator. But most importantly is the track should be focusing on bringing new people into the sport. Nationals aren't killing the local scene (to use a long-popular phrase), nationals are keeping more experienced and skilled riders in the sport longer.

And this being typed by a guy who's rolled way back on nationals this year specifically so he could spend more time at locals. (Not that I'm a target demographic, or especially skilled.) (Seriously.)

ps. "Mother Sanction," we need to use that more.

[JAF2]

Okay, good, we got some hard numbers to chew on.

The proposal is a situation based upon inducing (forcing, whatever) 308 riders under the umbrella of mother sanction to show up at the track three times a year.

308. 3 times.

Would it not be more useful to grow ridership by introducing new riders to the sport? Would not the resources be better utilized than those used for the NAG/local tracking function?

I'm not saying the proposal is not without merit, but I am saying that worrying about what 308 riders are doing, why not just grow the sport overall?



Okay, but this skews your proposal a bit, so let's look at this from the same angle: Why are those racers hitting the nearby nationals instead of racing locals? I propose that an environment where locals are the only outlet, those riders would leave the sport. They would do this because they don't want to race locals. And while they'll give you a laundry list of justifications, it -- generally -- comes down to the level of comp. The 16x Death Punch just doesn't get much out of gates with 15i. And, and pay attention here, you can use logic to show to Death Punch the err of his or her thinking, but have you ever used logic with a 16 year old who's mind's made up?

Talk about wasting resources!

The sport grows from the bottom up. It's a simple system and it works well. Noob shows up, tries it, if s/he likes it gets a membership, if life's fortunes keep the flame of joy lit they keep racing. They work there way up, get sponsors, hit some nationals, up and up, one day they're in the starting gate for the Olympics.

What you're proposing -- and again, it's not without merit, but -- is to put a loop somewhere around the center of that process by a rule book change. Now it's gone from a fairly simple, linear, system to one, well, loopy.

And here's where I'm really concerned: Anything about "We need to change the rules so _______" has a cost, and it's almost unfailingly a cost in unexpected areas. At least one thing I see from putting this loop in is the surge in "Track operator's kid / ghost rider / to get the point / NAG plate / stupid rule" threads. The law, as I'm sure you're aware, of unintended consequences.

I'm saying tools to induce the more-skilled to show up at locals exist. They're subtle, and take some finesse on the part of a track operator. But most importantly is the track should be focusing on bringing new people into the sport. Nationals aren't killing the local scene (to use a long-popular phrase), nationals are keeping more experienced and skilled riders in the sport longer.

And this being typed by a guy who's rolled way back on nationals this year specifically so he could spend more time at locals. (Not that I'm a target demographic, or especially skilled.) (Seriously.)

ps. "Mother Sanction," we need to use that more.

I agree with a big chunk of your thought inducing input and glad to see the contributors to this thread are passionate about the sport and their ideas. Thanks to all.

[Sprite - Caffein...]

Honestly though, I don't see why so many people are intent on getting the national caliber riders to race locally.

Since they allow ALL skills set to race the nationals, ALL riders are national caliber riders.

This one line I quoted speaks more to the solution to the problem then all other comments combined. IMO

[Bikemonkeys]

It is an odd situation that the Nags and the Pro's are, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant. I wonder if the factories and the sanction have realized this. They have reduced cash flows, if they have any at all, and yet their "paid" employees either through choice or direction refuse to go where their customers are. Again, its hard to figure out if this is a plan or it just happened like this.

Weird!

You know, one of the easiest, oldest, and most effective business techniques that still works well is to look back in the past to see what your firm was doing when it was booming. Compare the two and see what is different now. Simply put, just identify what worked in the past and do more of it.

This is what troubles me - the fact that today's BMX looks nothing at all like it did in past periods when the sport boomed. The Pro's don't come to the track, the Nags can't be bothered, you can't bribe a top bike shop to carry BMX racing inventory, and money flow to the Pro's is bad. See the people, see the people, see the people - or see the customers, see the customers, see the customers.

Even though SX and National racing is very high quality and not very related to "average" racing anymore it's imperative for the firms to maintain a high profile at the potentially huge local level. When the company reps aren't connecting with the one thing that could expand sales that can't be good.

All the Best

PS : If the pro's and the Nags can't get out to their local tracks once or twice a week to "see the people/customers" while they practice then why would I spend my corporate dollars on them exactly? I do know that BITD when Pros ( and some Nags) made a salary that all but a very few can dream of today you could see them weekly at the tracks in Cali and Texas. Seeing the customers.

There is a bunch of truth in this. I can almost tell what frames will be popular at the local track each year by what each local teams are running and the "National" riders are on. If the "National" riders don't come out often, no one is going to run out and get one. The "National" kids that do come out often, there's usually a following of kids looking to get on whatever they're on.

[JAF2]

Since they allow ALL skills set to race the nationals, ALL riders are national caliber riders.

This one line I quoted speaks more to the solution to the problem then all other comments combined. IMO

Would you elaborate? Thanks.

[Bikemonkeys]

Would you elaborate? Thanks.

Looks like he's saying, since they allow all racers to attend nationals without any form of qualifying, all racers that have a USABMX membership are by default "National" racers.