“He must have brought some money?”
A pilot who buys himself into a team is still a huge taboo in motocross. Many motocross followers even despise the teams that allow it and view it almost as a bargain with the devil. Yet the truth is less black and white.
In the economic landscape that we know today and in recent years, it is very difficult to make a team entertaining all by yourself. The reasons for this are the obvious rising expenses and disappearing incomes. The expenses we are talking about include the registration fees for the World Cup, the trailers that are getting bigger and bigger and due to the crisis, the income from manufacturers and sponsors has shrunk considerably. As a result, teams had to look for a third pillar to ensure their own budget was correct and they ended up with the pilot. The pilot who, if he wants to contest the entire World Cup, needs a team.
The pilot, in turn, searches for the requested, agreed sum in different ways. There are the good sub-toppers who let their loyal and not so small sponsors step into the breach. In addition, you have guys who are heroes in their country and can therefore count on a fan base and some small sponsors. They then jump over, supported with money from their fan club and their loyal sponsors from around the corner, almost a bit like in the 70s. The last group is the group that finances it with their own private assets because no one believes in it (anymore?).
Now the only question is who benefits from this? We must be honest and recognize that in our sport there are people and therefore also teams that mainly hunt for the latter group of pilots. The boys with rich parents, parents-in-law, grandparents, so to speak, the people with gold on their hands, which you can squeeze for a long time because they dare to dream.
On the other hand, there are also the people who got into our sport because they are full of passion. They still feel embarrassed when they have to negotiate a purchase amount with a pilot. It is these people who give the second group of national heroes and the “not yet boys” a place in the hope that it will turn out to be an investment later.
The sub-toppers who can secure a spot in a good team through their private sponsor(s) usually do well. With good engines and accessories, they can earn a nice living through starting fees and prize money in national championships.
Behind all this you might be wondering: Is this something typical of the Motocross World Championship? The answer to that is no. Two people, one journalist & the other the father of a pro pilot, told me that this also occurs in the American motocross scene. They did not mention a huge number of cases, perhaps because of the open qualifications and the manufacturers' bonus system that provides money for well-performing private pilots, but it still happens there too.
It therefore appears to be a worldwide phenomenon driven by the economic situation. Because spin it and turn it however you want, at the end of the day the budget has to be right and it is irrelevant who makes it right.
Tekst: Matthias Van Eeckhoven
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