Seriously, its all about selling. I do not care if its trackdays, motorcycles, apples or AMA pro racing, its selling. Everything in life is SOLD to somebody. Selling to potential sponsors to help get the AMA on track is all I had in mind. Never said I was really smart, nor do I want to run the AMA (I have a fun job) and NEVER have worn a tuxedo in my life. But I have only worked in the motorcycle industry my entire life, I know a bit about sales/promoting and just want to see AMA Pro Roadracing continue and prosper. Of course it is harder than it looks, So is selling Suzuki's current model line up, but we do it and we do it without giving them away. Its ALL about selling.......
Absolute fact. Still hard to make that meeting happen. On the other hand, although I can seldom recall taking free business advice, I have paid a few people a lot of money for their expertise. Maybe Motorin Mark needs to repackage his offering... Oops, there I go with the free advice
DMG's product is Professional motorcycle racing. They sell that product to promoters. The Promoter then sells tickets to FANS who want to see that product. As a side benefit, both the promoter and DMG sell advertising space on the basis that it will be seen by the Fans. Why do the race teams show up? Serious question.
That's a regular conversation in my company when technicians tell me they don't want to be salesmen. It's all sales, and it's all marketing... I'm not questioning your qualifications, or your ideas. Just saying that the hardest sale of your life is convincing DMG to listen. To be fair, I'm sure you're not the first guy to offer his two cents...
Depends on the team - Yosh and Yamaha are promoting their product. JU and CU are racers who love it and run teams because of that passion - they sell their riders and the promotional aspects of the series to sponsors. Well, when the series has aspects to sell and doesn't change things to the point where teams are breaking sponsor contracts. Others truly just love racing, others do it because they want to do it for a living, others do it for the fame/ego boost they get by saying they're professional racers. Basically there are many reasons as there are types of people out there.
Exactly, but DMG doesnt sell to the fans. Thats the problem. In the end it's their product and they need to market it for the promoters. Name a product that isnt marketed by the manufacturer to the general public so that the manufacturers customer (the store) has better success selling it.
Ok, that's been my experience as well. But in the past, there was an end game, a goal for guys like JU et al other than simple bragging rights. There was purse money to be had, contingency money, a chance to prove oneself (as a rider, mechanic, crew chief, etc) and advance through the ranks and make a living, etc. Sponsors were how a privateer paid for the privilege of going up against the biggest and baddest teams to prove their mettle. None of that exists today. So in the reality that is today's Pro race series its only "for the fun of it" that keeps people showing up to race. That makes it, quite literally, club racing and frankly there are other people doing club racing better and cheaper than DMG. I remember well the problems with when the OEMs were involved, but without them if this is the best that the US has to offer .......
Mongo, it doesnt pain me to say this in the least but like it or not WERA is now the Big Show in the US. Congrats!
Mongo go find the woman that hit Mega Millions, take Huey with you and let him charm her into investing in WERA Pro or y'all can just scare the sh@t out of her , she will throw a suitcase of cash at you and WERA Pro is up and running.
No idea right now. It'd take some time to build things back up, get the promoters on board, get a tv deal or deals and so on. Long term I think it could easily be profitable if the OEMs are on board.
I now present to you "The TOBC WERA Pro series"...one can dream is guess. Would love to see this though because that's what it would take, a real enthusiast to pony up that kind of scratch
