If you were to judge the sport of supercross on the results of Aussie sensation Jett Lawrence you’d have to say Australia is the breeding ground of the best supercross riders in the world. The fact is yes, Jett is an Aussie and the current AMA Supercross champion, but he perfected his craft in the USA and is not a product of the Australian supercross championship.
Chad Reed on the other hand raced his way through the Aussie ranks claiming the 2000 Australian SX Championship before taking on the USA at their own game, and beating them all to claim two premiere class AMA supercross championships. Reed regularly went to SX war with legendary American racers Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart. Chad Reed put Australia on the map in the realms of supercross.
Australia enjoyed a thriving supercross scene for many years, particularly from the late 1980s through to 2007 with the Supercross Masters under Phil Christensen’s Spokes Promotions. There were sell-out crowds at indoor venues such as Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, Sydney Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, often on back-to-back nights. It was a big deal with big prize-money and it was really something special to witness.
PROMOTOR’S DOOR
Supercross in Australia has struggled to find consistency since the Spokes Promotions days of the Supercross Masters. Different promoters have come and gone and it wasn’t until the Aus-X Open appeared in 2015 that there was a real buzz around supercross again in Australia. The Aus-X Open in Melbourne in 2019 was a sizzling affair and supercross appeared to be back on track.
Then Covid-19 put a pause on everything, particularly anything in Victoria, and the Australian Supercross Championship didn’t return until 2022. The Championship played out over four rounds in Wagga Wagga, Newcastle, Adelaide and Melbourne but the magic just wasn’t there, and although this was the first year since the pandemic it was more miss than hit.
The following year the Championship was pulled back to just three rounds held at Adelaide, Newcastle and Melbourne. The Adelaide round created a buzz in the air. The smaller venue generated some close and intense racing and the crowds loved it.
The Melbourne round was left wanting with minimal spectators making the big indoor venue of Marvel Stadium feel empty. It was a different story the following night for the WSX round at the same venue so it could be a case of race fans putting all of their fun-tickets towards seeing Ken Roczen… and fair enough. Two nights out in the big smoke isn’t cheap.
The USA is the home of supercross and like all things in the USA, supercross is big. The venues are big so the tracks are big and the population ensures the venues are full of passionate fans. It’s a super-cool sport with all the bells and whistles.
Australia is not the USA and selling out big venues that house big tracks just doesn’t stack up here. The problem is, hiring a venue then filling it with dirt, hosting the racing then packing it all up again is not simple and it isn’t cheap.
The NRL is big business but you rarely see a big crowd at the games unless it’s a final or the State of Origin. The Australian Supercar Championship is another great sport that doesn’t really pull a big crowd except for Bathurst. NRL and Supercars are awesome and both receive great television coverage but bums on seats at the actual games and races is not what keeps them alive. The same cannot be said of supercross. If the venues are not full of fans, the bills won’t get paid. Bums on seats is what it’s all about.
As a great man once said, “You’re better off being the biggest thing in a small town rather than the smallest thing in a big town.” The Adelaide round of the 2023 Australian Supercross Championship added weight to this.
ARE WE TOO BUSY?
Supercross is cool and I for one definitely want to see a solid supercross season in Australia but I think we need to look at where they are staged to make them viable. Core supercross fans will always be up for the action and buy tickets to the races. But fringe fans who like dirtbikes but are not necessarily supercross fans have options to get their two-wheeled fix elsewhere.
Freestyle shows attract the mums and dads treating their kids to an occasion. Unlike supercross, freestyle shows are much quicker and easier to setup and can be held just about anywhere. Then there’s the monster truck shows incorporating freestyle motocross. What kid with an ounce of petrol-head in the DNA wouldn’t want to see that? FMX is a spectacle and great entertainment, so I get the attraction, but I love racing so it’s supercross I want to see.
The other thing going against supercross in Australia is Jett Lawrence. The Aussie champion is dominating at the highest level, which isn’t here so we tune into the AMA Supercross to get our fix and it’s freakin’ awesome. So why would I want to go and watch Australian Supercross?
MAKING SX GREAT AGAIN
Supercross is great on screen but in-person it’s bloody amazing. The atmosphere, the sounds and the smells are sensations that motivate your soul. The nature of supercross is up close and personal so you can almost feel the action from your seat. You can’t get that from sitting at home.
Mick Sinclair is part of the AME Group who promotes the Fox Australia Supercross Championship and it’s not an exaggeration to say he lives for the sport and is primed for what is yet to come.
“After restarting in 2022 post COVID, 2023 was always about growth and building the foundations of the Australian Supercross Championship from the ground up with the right people involved, new programs, more industry integration and delivering three seamless events that smashed benchmarks.
“Some criticised there only being three rounds but it was a considered, strategic move taking on both industry feedback and the long-term good of the Championship. From the revival and success of 85cc CR22 Cup, introduction of the Privateer Support Program, and via our three events in Adelaide, Newcastle and Melbourne we accomplished a pretty impressive 77 per cent increase in gate numbers year on year, 10 per cent uplift in attendance per round, 80 per cent increase in broadcast minutes watched and greater connection with fans on social media – ultimately, more riders riding, highly engaged fans and more people watching supercross, and a better connected industry contingent.
“We are super excited to take this momentum in 2024, with the championship continuing to focus on consistently executing high quality events, while supporting the sport, with strategic initiatives and partnerships to deliver growth and reach new audiences. Rome wasn’t built in a day though – our focus is on doing it really well and professionally!
“From a championship sustainability point of view, we talk a lot internally about the importance of filling gates in each class but also supporting riders through the pathway – be it entering the 85 class, or transitioning up, through to holding strong relationships with the future generation of Aussie stars, this will continue to be a priority in 2024.
“Equally enhanced engagement with our fans (be it at events or online), fan experience at events, showcasing supercross to new audiences (through campaigns and unique partnerships) and having strong event partners will continue to create opportunities for the sport via increased exposure, prize money, sponsorship and broadcast.
“We’re really pumped for this year’s 2024 AUSX calendar too, with four huge rounds, including new locations, stadiums, partnerships, Australia’s best and an array of international riders battling it out on full-sized supercross tracks across all four rounds. The response from fans has been incredible which we expect to translate into tickets sales and crowds!
“Opening the season with Round One at Kayo Stadium in Redcliffe after a five-year hiatus from Queensland, into Round Two at Wollongong at WIN Stadium, and Round Three in Adelaide where we’ve partnered with the Repco Supercars Championship’s Adelaide 500 event, and the final round in Victoria to send the season out with a bang.
“From listening to our fans on locations, epic event partners helping promote and support each round, through to partnerships like Supercars, where we’ll leverage their reach and fanbase to showcase how incredible our sport is – we confident the future is bright, and 2024 will help cement any doubts that supercross in Australia is truly on the path to being great again!”
THE DACK ATTACK
Australian motocross legend Craig Dack was in the thick of the action during the heydays of the Supercross Masters. Dack was a drawcard for the fans and everyone knew who he was thanks to his consistent self-promotion and joint promotion with his Mr Motocross and Supercross Masters promoters. These days Dack runs the hugely successful CDR Monster Energy Yamaha Team that contests the Australian Supercross Championship so it’s interesting to hear his take on supercross in Australia.
“The Supercross Masters era was unbelievable for me. I went to a Midnight Oil concert at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and after the concert Phil Christensen, Alan Horsley and Phillip Harrison – who were all part of the Supercross Masters back then – they brought a bike in for me to ride around inside the Sydney Entertainment Centre for the venue management and the EPA to hear the sound of the bike and to smell the fumes because they had no idea about motorbikes. So I was part of it before it was even a thing and I went along for the ride with it. And it just exploded from nothing. The novelty of motorbikes running around inside an entertainment venue was all new. We filled the nights, Friday and Saturday nights and sometimes on a Sunday afternoon matinee. I rode the boom time of the Supercross Masters and Phil Christensen ended up taking sole ownership of the series and I worked closely with him for the good part of a decade and I have very fond memories and a very good relationship with Phil to this day.
“Phil is a passionate man about the sport but he is also a businessman. And when the numbers began to not work out, he went away from it. Then the sport floundered for some long time. Promoters came and went and some had big ideas of turning it into something huge but it never got any traction and it just wasn’t viable.
“I think over the past couple of years we’re finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel with a group of people, AME, a new generation that can get it back on track. The girls there running it know the contemporary way of advertising, they have the data of the demographic to target and they know the way of social media. I remember Phil Christensen telling me he spent up to $30,000 on a 10-second ad during the news. These days you don’t have to do that.
“This year we’re looking at four venues and maybe having five rounds with a double-header at one venue. I’m part of the AMG Group which is me, Yarrive Konsky, Mark Luksich and Kyle Blunden that helps sit between the sport, Motorcycling Australia and AME as an advisory group. We’re communicating better than we ever have and we decided, let’s not go for quantity, let’s go for quality rounds and let it start to build organically and that seems to be the phase we’re in at the moment. And you look at the guys racing supercross now. It’s pretty exciting. They’re pretty talented and very fast.”
