Homepage Forums Grassroots BMX Ideas, Innovations New Sanction for BMX Racing (and Freestyle)

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  • #25571

    Ok its not officially a sanction but I want to seriously start working on it.
    I want to accomplish these major goals.

    A) get more TV coverage and take BMX racing more big time.
    B) If possible insurance wise also offer freestyle, ramp and dirt jumping divisions so a huge outside investor like Mt. Dew or Coke can put ona huge TV Tour with BMX Racing being featured. I cant share all the views on this at this time.
    C) Build safer more fun tracks again where you actually have to pedal and gasp sprint to the finish line. If a track has any type of difficult rhytm section why in the world would you place that on the last straight when the riders are the most tired? Why when riders are not in any kind of rhythm or wamred up would you make the first jump difficult when you have 8 riders banging bars still?
    D) Clear Points, Points large enough to read and not 500 different divisions making each area less important. Most states would have just one or two districts.
    E) Smaller tracks, why not sanction tracks that have just a 2 or 4 man gate? So what if 20 riders show up to a small track up in the NJ mountains. You could still run races and have fun and isnt that what BMX is all about? Then with tons of tiny tracks spread around the country we could have large Nationals and bigger local double and triple pointers.
    The more places BMX racing is the better.
    F) Huge Local Pro scenes.
    G) Instead of Generic Nationals I want to bring back Nationals sponsored and co-sponsored by individual companies. The tracks will be done up like the ABAs with proffessional baners and metal towers. But I want to make them even more exciting. I have some ideas on how to do that without spending a ton.

    Please visit and register in the forums and read the site thru.
    This is not the final sanction site. I can pay to have a dialed one in that rivals ABAs and is better than NBLs. But I want to see what support we get from the community before puting money into this.

    http://www.bmxl.org

    So BMX League was officially announced right here, first, in honor of my New Jersey BMX roots.

    Remember not all my ideas, in fact most have not been listed.

    #35192
    RaidenHayden
    Member

    Erick, I agree with most all you said, with the exception of the amount of riders on the gate, I would keep it the same, jsut so if somebody comes from another sanction, it isn’t too much a shock. Otherwise it sounds good, we need to talk

    #35195
    BIGANT-DOG
    Member

    registerd already.

    #35197
    bmxer901
    Member

    I think it would be cool to have like 4 riders on a gate. That way scramble the races more so its unlikely that youll always have to race the same moto. Make it mor elike a mountain bike start.

    #35198

    Yeah the two and 4 man gates are not intended to replace traditional tracks.
    Just open more rural areas to more tracks. Ive built countless practice tracks and trails and they can be as fun as any real track. Just add some white chalk lines and go have fun!

    Like a national or Multi Point race would never be at a 2 man gate track. Just a way to get more tracks up and running in more areas.
    4 man gate tracks in rural areas could get a double pointer and still not draw 20 motos so that wouldnt be a problem. if things are going so well they can pull 20 plus motos we can get the track rebuilt to make it a full 8 man gate.

    Hayden your insight would be incredibly valuable. Youve all seen Bretts Zine, first rate and could easily be our newsletter if printed out. The sanction doesnt have to be flashy at first, remember how this all got started with Scot handing out trophies from Motocross races and Ernie Alexander sitting in his apartment running the NBA.

    Im sure a few volunteers wil put up some cash or sweat equity in return for part ownership. I can get banners and stickers made easy, I have a nice SUV and can buy a small double axel trailer (my SUV has a towing capacity of 5,000 lbs.) to pull stuff to races. My freind who does banners can do the graphics on the trailer. Maybe others also have a bigger truck or etc.

    This can all come together.

    #35199
    miken1973
    Member

    I wish you the best of luck. Its a tough uphill climb ahead of you but go for it!

    #35205
    TideyFamily
    Member

    Eric as the Newest New Jersey Transplant to the West Coast. If you need me to do anything out this side of the US please use me. I also have a huge SUV that can be a rolling billboard. I can put in the sweat equity. Let me know.

    #35209
    CrazyCraig
    Member

    …and Buddha’s got a lot of “equity” left to sweat off! :wink:!

    Just bustin’ Greg. 😀

    Eric – Brett had pointed out that in the past CJ used to race double sanction – ABA & NBL on different nights. Do you see that possibly happening again, maybe getting tracks to run BMXL on a different day? Could it be done?

    I know there was a thread on here about the contracts that a track has to sign, so we don’t need to rehash that, but just wondering if that is an option.

    #35213
    bmiddaugh
    Member

    Any idea to give riders more input for their sport is a great thing. This may be a good thing to bring up to that gent you saw in that mag over the summer Craig.
    And by no means should anyone think that this is what I meant by a “new direction” it just happens that Eric decided to take this task on and is looking for people to help. Much like the nba, aba, nbl did BITD.
    I’m just gonna keep doing what I do, try to help everyone.

    #35217
    CrazyCraig
    Member

    Yeah Brett, that guy has been on my “get to” list for too long, time to track him down.

    What Brett is referring to is an old high school aquaintance of mine got into sports marketing right out of college and is currently the CEO of a major sport franchise. He is on the business side with expertise in sales & marketing, not the player side. His #1 job is building the “brand”. I do not want to give who this is away, cause there is no guarantee just how far I will get with him once I do track him down. But, if I told you the deal he brokered that put two monster names together for an event that everyone on this sight knows about, it would blow your mind. No giving it away Brett.

    I know where he lives and I know where his office is located. I just gotta reach out to him in hopes of renewing an old friendship. If nothing else his insight could prove most valuable.

    I’ll keep you posted.

    #35232

    Erick, you’ve got some great ideas with this. With the hatred between the ABA and NBL in full swing out here, I’d love to be the stick in the spokes and start talking BMX blasphemy to both camps. My two cents, if it’s worth even that:

    TV coverage is tough. First off, other than Louisville, Pittsburg, Woodward, Orlando, are there really any tracks that are worthy of filming? And how many of these big, fast tracks can be covered with a small camera crew? John, chime in on this. You know much more about this than I do.

    The 2 man/4 man gate thing sounds a lot like mountaincross/dual slalom. I like the 8 man system,mostly because I’m used to it and it’s more fun having eight of your friends smack into you in the first turn than four, but also because it does differentiate us from the MTB scene.

    While I ldo ike the tracks of today, mainly because they’ve forced me to be a better rider, I do miss the sprinting aspect of the final straight from the old school days. And BAN those f**king clips! The MTBers are pretty clear that a mountain bike has gears (unless your into 24 hr. MTB rides) and front and rear brakes. Track bikes have definitive rules about their bikes being fixed gear. These rules define both the bike and the historical aspect of the sport. I think that we should make clear that a BMX bike is completely rigid, has only a rear brake, and NO CLIPS!

    If you can devise a points and transfer system that works and makes most happy, consider running for President.

    As far as the pro thing goes, pros need an incentive to show up to a local race. Enter the almighty dollar. Let’s face it, 100% payback with four or five riders, just sucks! If I was a local businesses and knew that I could get some mileage out of a modest investment, ie, banners, ad space in a BMX newesletter/website, etc., then donating a few hundred bucks into a purse would do wonders to get local pros off their butts and ride. Construction companies, for one reason or another, also tend to be good sources of pro donations. In Colorado, the pros here kept themselves busy by running their own 50/50 for the purse, and also held $5 clinics in order to help the youngsters and put some gas in the tank for the drive home, and relied on the sporadic generosity of a local business owner who wanted to see a few testosterone-laden kids tear each other apart for a few bucks. Maybe a local-oriented pro series, sponsored by a real estate agency, or something of the sort?

    The ABA has always outdone the NBL with regards to national events. The difference is that the NBL is bound to non-excitement (non-profit) status, and the ABA relies on capitalism. Compare the lower end of your FM radio dial to the upper end. Which do you listen to more often? What happened to the real War of the Stars series?
    I wore holes in the national event shirts I owned.

    #35234

    Thanks for all the feedback, please help get the new BMXL forums going, by posting inthere also 🙂

    Tidey, thansk for the offer and you never know. For those never been to AZ they have one of the nicest tracks in the world at Black Mountain north of Phoenix. But in my opinion its just gettting insanely hard. The first straight jumps are huge like maybe 15 foot tall if you nose clip one of them your falling from what 20 feet up at the shoulders- at full speed.

    Two Sanctions Yes and no. Obviously BMXL wont have issues with it though we wont sanction tracks I feel are dangerous and discourage beginners from sticking with the sport. I think both the NBL and ABA now have policies in place to not allow it but not certain on that.

    Promoting Very very cool Craig. I have some ideas on how to make BMX racing more TV freindly and offer BMXL a very unique spectator aspect. But the Alligator in the water pit i’m not so sure about. I also know a former racer that worked for GT many years after finishing college. He was one of the guys behind the scenes getting GT all those corporate sponsors. If I can find him I know he’d help us. I met him when he was 14x, been to his house back then, his parents to me to a race or two. Kapigian and me talked about it after Flemington back in May regarding BMX exposure.

    Clips I hate clips myself and dont use them. But Im afraid banning them would discourage a ton of racers who would race both sanctions as this would make them have to take their pedals off and maybe buy a new set even.
    I could see maybe for TV races or even all Nationals, require all the Pros to be on flats.
    We could also try weening peeps off of them, say we keep track cards and if you race 10 races without clips your 11th race is free or something.
    Then as we grew and had enough stability ban clips for everyone.

    Pro Payback If you read my site carefully you will see that BMXL will make every track offer a Pro Purse of 150% payback for locals and 200% for doubles.
    What I didnt write but you pointed out is added money from 50/50s. Each track can do as many 50/50s as they like but must do at least two, one for the Pros after they do one for the track. So that could easily bump the Pro Payout nicely.
    I have more ideas on state Pro scenes, but cant share them all at this time 🙂
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