Danny Walker is 100000% correct

He closed his dealership a year or two ago.

 

Ferracci retired. Aside from personal involvement, I've never seen an FBF-backed team other than on TV. He did back a rider, tho'...Fred Hoess on Husqvarna. Never saw TV coverage of his events, but that's not to say there wasn't any.
BTW, Fred Hoess is an hero. Family man, full-time job, twice runner-up in the National Enduro Championship, GNCC for ages, and 25 ISDEs. You'd think riding was his full-time job.

 

I think a lot of that has to do with whether the media team is any good at social media. Something MotoAmerica is getting better at.

 

Lord, I remember arguing this with Frank.

 

I wont make assumptions, but I was at a lot of rounds this season and I can tell say that at no point were there 11k people at NJMP at one time. Like indicated, the weather was shit. Cold and rainy. At best, there were a few thousand people there watching the races. And by a few, I mean 2-3. Tops. Utah had very light spectator attendance, too. But that's kind of to be expected there. Based on that, my guess would be that the numbers given are three day totals. It definitely seemed like a lot more people were in Wisconsin, but definitely not 20K+ at one time.

Point being that when comparing to FT or SX numbers, that has to be considered. In the article I posted, Michael Lock (CEO of AFT) said they'd sell about 125,000 tickets this season. That's 125,000 humans because they are singe day events. If you take the COTA and Laguna Seca round numbers out of the equation because they were combined with GP and WSBK numbers, and give them a value of 10-15k per round like the other rounds averaged, you're right around that 125k mark. But that's not individual humans. That's cumulative. Then divide by three and my very flawed math puts three sets of eyes on every flat track race for every set of eyes on a MotoAmerica race (in person). Again, that REAL fuzzy math, but it's worth noting.

 

That was the argument. That 1 ticket put 1 set of eyes on the same banners, 3 times.

 

I’m not disagreeing with anything you’re saying but if you look at 125k tickets sold for AFT vs “125k” tickets sold for MA, then realize MA has fewer event but close to the same number of “days” while AFT has more events but they’re all 1 day. The AFT schedule has those guys moving around A LOT!

Promoter math or not, MA is trying to grow the sport/bring more sponsorship in.

 

There is no part of me that doesn't believe that everyone at MA is doing the best job they can.

I know a little bit about some things. I know MA is renting the tracks at least some of the time. That makes a big difference.

I think FT had maybe 15-18 events. Motoamerica had less. Someone else can work out that math. But if motoamerica is paying for the tracks and FT is getting money, it adds a peach into the apples and oranges comparison we've got going on.

 

Ft in some cases runs their own races under the “AFTE” banner which is American Flat Track Events.

In other cases such as Lima and Springfield, a promoter comes in and pays the fee.

I would MUCH rather rent the track and do my own primitions

 

It is interesting in the article posted by Metricdevilmoto, that the short event time was mentioned as attractive. How much better would a series of short heat races be for the fans and races, compared to superpole and just 1 longer main event? I think 3 or 4 heat races to set the grid would be better and fun. Get big enough fields and you could have an LCQ.

 

There's a tipping point, no? How much does it cost to rent a proper flat track for a day? Because most of the motoamerica tracks are at or north of $15k/day.

 

I couldn’t tell you that. I only know of the tracks I rent which are most likely cheaper than the ones AFT uses and clearly a lot less overhead.

 

Thing about flat track is exiting to watch. 2-5 guys sideways all together is exciting to watch live or on tv (hell even on an iPhone). MA racing in the premier classes is kind of a snooze fest, let’s face it, there are a good battle or two per race but one may be with 2 guys for the lead and one is a few guys fighting for 6th. I was late to the flat track party and really got serious about following it about 5 years ago. Now I don’t follow sx as much but I never miss a flatvtrack race.

 

The last flat track I watched the leader had a straight lead over 2nd, who had a straight lead over 3rd. First place ran out of gas, second place broke. They had lapped up to about 10th on a mile track during a 15 minute or so race. Not exactly what I'd call close racing. They also don't seem to "get sideways" like they used too.

 

If every grid was full of close competitors and there was tons of passing and dicing through the whole race like in many of the Moto3 races, then we would attract more fans which would drive more sponsors which would keep these racing teams going which fills the grid with close competitors. The circle of racing! But one shitty electronics package can upset the balance and throw the whole thing off. Right? Or maybe multiple things throw it off and we need a multi-pronged approach. Fair, competitive, and available electronics is one part of that I would agree but shits gotta be exciting or why bother watching?

 

Yup. I’m not a big fan of horse miles. They are phasing them less and less from my understanding. You’re exactly right. They kinda suck.

But then you got Springfield.....

 

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news...ncluding-new-rules-for-superbike-electronics/
Can we get the rrf team back now?

 

That's almost like kicking sand at Danny at this point.