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AMA NEW SCHEDULE

I think SuperbikePlanet reported last year that the average AMA race was watched by around 80,000 fans in the U.S. on SPEED. MotoGP was something like 87,000. However, Deano didn't provide a source for the numbers so...well shit I don't know. :laughing We don't have anything to compare his numbers to from past years or other networks.

If Soup's numbers are accurate (road racing is a niche sport in the U.S. afterall) then 61,000 doesn't seem to bad for live streaming that AMA Pro Racing didn't even announce until a couple of days before the event. One thing about streaming is that they can know the exact number of connections vs. estimates from the old TV model.

Another way to look at this is. TV is going to change dramatically in the near future. Streaming is likely going to be the only way to see most road racing in the U.S. We just have to wait for major advertisers to understand and adapt. In the meantime, I'll take free streaming with no commercials and access to playback on YouTube (also free).
 
what i wanna know is wtf is this shit:

the event experience for race fans instantly changed on March 14 when three developers built and launched FansChoice.tv in just two weeks using Microsoft Azure, a cloud-based web solution.
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management needs to be fired if they think that level of resources and that timeframe is acceptable for any product. sure, they pulled it out of their asses, but that level of commitment to the product doesnt bode well for further developments.
 
That and that shit was buggy as hell. So yeah, they pulled it out of their asses is exactly right and it looked like it was built off of the platform that NASCAR was already using themselves. If that's the case, it isn't like they built it themselves from the ground up.
 
Really bad. They had the engine for weeks too. They should have let this one stand...
 
Bummer for Wyman but good for the local boys. DQ coming so late with no explanation as to why is nutty.
 
Thats some bullshit. Why jerk around one the biggest team in the XR series. Wyman offers an "arrive and ride" package for this series and has put a lot of bikes and racers on the grid. I really doubt he was cheating. Watching the race and looking at the practice/qualifying times and top speeds, its obvious Wyman didn't have any advantage over the field.
 
:facepalm

Why is it DMG is absolutely bound and determined to destroy the series?
 
Ozymandias said:
:facepalm

Why is it DMG is absolutely bound and determined to destroy the series?
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Nothing new. This the same shit the old AMA Pro Racing regime used to pull.
 
DogBoy said:
Nothing new. This the same shit the old AMA Pro Racing regime used to pull.
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Sure. They were on record saying repeatedly that they were doing things like NASCAR as the most successful series... blah blah blah. And it seems DMG is just more of the same. Hence why I said can't they hire some former racers at consultants or something to help with what fans actually want? I would think they have a better idea since they were on the front lines and talking with quite a few of them.
 
Sportbikes are losing market share by the week…it makes getting attendance figures back to where they were not hard, but impossible…in that course, there's the 10K pound gorilla in the room looking to increase market share, or at least hold what they have. It's not gonna happen and lots of bad decisions usually result…

It sucks, but we're seeing a pretty strong contraction of sport bike racing in the USA which is not DMG''s fault, even though they may become a casualty.
 
There are definitely low sales still right now but they are steadily climbing. Here's the citing but this is MC total sales, not just sport bike. Sales are above 1998 values which was the start of the dot com bubble which was followed directly by the real estate bubble which sales crashed immediately after.

Bikes are a luxury in the U.S. compared to other countries. So we have to take that into account. But what happened to "Win on Sunday sell on Monday"? Aside from the fact that most dealerships are closed on Monday. :laughing

I'm sure you would agree that racing is THE sales vehicle for sport bikes. Without a good "show" there's nothing to attract the U.S. buyer. This is why I'm ALWAYS on about how DMG is treating the MC road racing fan like a second class citizen that doesn't know what they want. We DO... we also know the kinds of things that push us and those like us away.

Don't get me wrong, I'm so sad this is happening and I really wish there was something I could personally do to (re)solve it. Having owned a small business for over a decade now, I know how difficult it can be to juggle making money, providing a good product, not ripping people off ... you get where I'm going. But I also know that if I don't understand a new market, I research the SHIT out of it rather than just trying things and hoping something sticks. What they keep doing now has been a lot of the latter with zero attempt at the former. :dunno They don't seem to understand that MC road racing fans are not typically NASCAR fans and NASCAR fans are pretty much "If it ain't a Harley, it's a shit bike!" kind of people so you can't use the same approach.

That's all I'm saying. Hell, I would almost be willing to take a job steering the boat, but I'm probably not the type they would want in the position. Hell, why don't they hire someone like JU to steer the ship? :dunno Probably the same problem.
 
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I agree with most of what you said Paul, except for two things: Nascar IS a market where sport bikes would (And do, absent a connection to DMG) sell well. Everyone recalls why they got a sport bike; they wanted something quick and couldn't afford a car. Affordability is a fairly large problem with sport bikes these days and that means not only price, but financing. Japanese rates and credit requirements are pretty strict, hence the low sales numbers.

Premium brands are selling well; KTM, Harley, Ducati, MV…but the Japanese brands (everyday guy/ girl) are suffering. That's likely due to the lack of discretionary income of consumers these days and not knowing how their tax returns are going to work out. But overall, the days of leveraging the house to go sport bike riding are largely done…and that's a problem for the Japanese market. IMO, of course...
 
Ozymandias said:
That's all I'm saying. Hell, I would almost be willing to take a job steering the boat, but I'm probably not the type they would want in the position. Hell, why don't they hire someone like JU to steer the ship? :dunno Probably the same problem.
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What's the "same" problem?

I worked along side AMA/DMG for 2 years and I saw a lot, experienced a lot, and left with a sour taste in my mouth (to some extent). A lot of good and a lot of bad. So I'm curious here.

Holeshot said:
Everyone recalls why they got a sport bike; they wanted something quick and couldn't afford a car.
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I disagree and marketing survey's said otherwise as well (when I was researching). Most people who own a motorcycle own it as a secondary vehicle (with the primary being a car)

I will say the cost of a new bike has increased rapidly and that has affected overall sales.
 
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