While the Feld family purchased the promotional reigns of AMA Supercross in 2008, many of the same familiar faces stayed with the company through the ownership switch. The industry, riders, and media have long known supercross principals like Dave Prater, Todd Jendro, and Mike Muye, but rare is it for the media to get access to Kenneth Feld, the Chair and CEO of Feld Entertainment. Today’s announcement of the new SuperMotocross World Championship is a big deal, though, and Kenneth gave us some time on the phone to give us an overview of the motives behind the project, and the process it took to get there, and his take on the sport.
Racer X: First of all, and I think this is something all fans want to know, what’s your level of interest in supercross? Just give us your take on supercross as a sport and an entertainment property?
Kenneth Feld: Well, as you know, we acquired supercross in 2008, so 2009 was really our first season. I was really enthralled with the sport, as a spectator sport. I’ll just tell you that I’m not a rider, but to see this sport and the athletes, I don’t think they get the respect, outside of motocross and supercross fans, for the true athletes that they are. The performance level is higher than anything else I’ve ever been involved with. There has to be perfection, because there’s a lot more than just a missed pass or striking out if you get it wrong. Everything is on the line. I also think it’s very interesting, and it goes back to the origination of the sport, to see people working with machines. In this sport, it’s synchronized in a way you don’t see anywhere else. I was enthralled, so it was really motivating to me when we first got Monster Energy Supercross. My first thing was, How can we get more people to see this? How can we get more fan interest? That’s really been the mission at our company ever since the acquisition. It’s really interesting because we’ve been looking for ways to grow it and engage our partners at the OEMs more.
If you think about it, it’s sort of unique, because the first part of the year you have Monster Energy Supercross, through May, and then you have the whole summer with Pro Motocross with MX Sports Pro Racing. Many of the same people, same teams, same riders, same equipment, but it’s so separated. What we’ve found, because we’ve done a lot of research over the years, is a lot of hardcore supercross fans and hardcore motocross fans, they cross over, but now with the SuperMotocross, the playoffs, the World Championship, it ties it all together with a lot of continuity. Think about this: you’ve got 31 events over a 10-month period, so you satisfy fans year-round with the season. Every week we’re in a different location and different challenges come into play. We think this is the way to really enhance the overall interest in the sport, and have continuity from the OEMs, our partners, so they get the full benefit. The final goal, which is the primary goal, is to get more fans to appreciate what it takes, to appreciate these athletes, and then enjoy the sport.
The industry came together to keep the sport going two years ago during COVID. Sounds like that’s around the same time this plan started coming together. Talk about the process of keeping the series going.
I think with COVID, which was so devastating to everyone, I think we were the first pro sport to complete its season, with Monster Energy Supercross. Then to go in and make sure that MX Sports Pro Racing continued with their season. We worked together on that, we started to build a relationship, and we found so many commonalities. I would say the major thing is that you’ve got two family-owned private businesses. What happens is, and I’ve seen this somewhat before, but we take a very long view of the business. We want to grow the sport. Everything we’ve done in the 53 years that I’ve been involved in our business, is really grow franchises and have the long-term view. What I realized after having a lot of conversations with Carrie Jo Russell-Coombs, is that she and their family really have the same mission and the same goal. And that’s what they’ve done. When you look at the amateur side, with Loretta Lynn’s, that’s where the sport begins. That’s the future of the sport. So for us to work together, to collaborate, it was just logical. It allows us to work together along with our partners, the OEMs, and bring more value to the table.
I’ve talked to a lot of people for this story. The term I keep hearing people use is exponential. This is not just selling the two series together for a TV package and a media program. They’re telling me, to the outside world that doesn’t understand why we have two separate championships, it seems like adding the two together for a TV package adds up to more than just one plus one, it adds up to three, or more. So, from a business perspective, talk about how the two series being marketed together as one long season begins to build on itself.
Really what it does is give every fan a greater stake in the whole season, instead of just one sport or another. The fans want to follow it all year. There’s a real logic to why the riders would want to do their best in the whole series, and not just do one and drop out of the other. There’s going to be a Monster Energy Supercross Champion, and Pro Motocross Champion, and then the SMX (SuperMotocross) World Champion. They build on each other, with the way we’ve build the points system. There’s going to be a unified feeling to it. On the other side of it, because we know there are injuries that happen, we know there are certain people that take some races off, but it allows for the combination. It allows more equal footing, for people to go through the whole thing, get the points and get into the SuperMotocross World Championship. It’s not just one person winning the championship before the final race comes into being. I think it’s going to energize everything.
Talk about getting so many high-end people in one room. I know you’ve been planning this for two years now. You mentioned talking to Carrie (Coombs-Russell) and her team from MX Sports, you have you and your team, I know that Jim France and folks from AMA Pro Racing and the people from the AMA have been in these talks. Then let’s not forget the teams and manufacturers. You get all these experienced people on the same page. Is there the potential for something we haven’t even thought about yet coming out of having all these people thinking and working together?
I think the cooperation is there, and we’re going to have new discoveries on how we can work together. More importantly, how can we grow this sport together? Now we’re running a race, so to speak, with a common finish line. How can we make this one of the major sports in the world? That’s the key, and the opportunity is there. As we go through 2023, our first season together, we’re going to learn. We’re in constant communication with everybody. The OEMs have a lot of input and tremendous support. They can see, now, the vision. We all know it’s one thing to talk about it and another thing to actually do it. We’ve been in talks, really, for two years on creating the blueprint for what this is going to be. That’s really what it is. It’s so exciting for me to be part of it and to get the opportunity to work with some really smart people.
So the end goal is for the sport to get the respect it finally deserves? In the mainstream, maybe find fans that haven’t even discovered it yet. Does this package make it more appealing for new fans to discover the sport we already know?
It does. I go back to my own personal experience. I remember the first time I ever saw supercross at Anaheim. I was blown away. I don’t come from this sport, so first you look at it as a business. Then you see it and you’re like, “Wow!” This is something great for the fans. How can we make it a little bit better every year? That’s what we’ve been trying to do. This is a culmination of a lot of time. The headline is today when this news comes out, but the work has gone in over the years. It’s taken more than a decade to get where we are, and it’s gratifying to me. We have people working together, and that’s what it takes.
You know, when you think of COVID, and all the terrible things, but on the other side of it, it was very important for all of us to work together to get both of our seasons completed. It gave real credibility within the sport as to what we were trying to accomplish—we were working so closely with the riders and the teams to make sure this could happen when there was almost nothing else happening across the world.
Okay, thanks for the time. Fans have always wanted to hear your take on the sport.
Thank you. I’m looking forward to meeting you in person. I’ll be heading to Indianapolis for the Ironman in a few weeks.
That’s great, you’re coming to a national.
Yes. One other thing that’s important is that we’re retaining the absolute integrity of both series. We will still have a Monster Energy Supercross Champion, and MX Sports Pro Racing will still have a Pro Motocross Champion. The fans have to be happy, because they’re getting the best of what it currently is and then also getting something new. I think it’s going to work very well.
