Infront Moto Racing and the future of motocross
The sale of Youthstream to the Swiss-based multinational sports marketing consortium 'Infront' brings back memories of the sale of 'Action Group' to 'Dorna'. What will this promoter add to our favorite sport and will she be able to boost its popularity again?
Infront is based in Zug, Switzerland, and is known for marketing the media rights to the Football World Cup. Infront also advises renowned football clubs. In addition to several winter sports, Infront was and is also active in motorsport, including as marketer of the World Sports Car Championship and the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. From 2007 to 2012, Infront acted as promoter of the Superbike World Championship.
Infront also offers services such as advertising for sports venues, hospitality and event management. The company has 39 offices worldwide with approximately 1000 employees. The media company Infront emerged from the former KirchSport AG, which was acquired by a consortium of investors in 2002. In 2015, the Chinese 'Wanda Group' acquired 'Infront Sports & Media', which was later integrated into 'Wanda Sports' and renamed. Infront is a multinational consortium of globally active investors.
The company is headed by Philippe Blatter, himself a dedicated extreme sports enthusiast. It is the first time that the promoter has entered a new market: i.e. that of action sports. We then have to look forward to the philosophy that Blatter will apply in this category of sports and more specifically motocross.
What consequences will this takeover have? Organizers and teams will continue to negotiate with Giuseppe Luongo. He will continue to act as general manager together with his son David. Daniele Rizzi remains responsible for operational activities as COO (Chief Operating Officer). At first glance, everything remains the same. But: Infront obviously not only wants to make money, but above all also wants to increase revenues. This could lead to higher prices: For organizers, teams, advertising partners, caterers and ultimately for the viewers.
But the sport of motocross is already facing enormous financing problems. The factory teams are visibly reducing their efforts and Suzuki has already left the world championship at the end of 2017. Smaller teams today hardly have a chance to finance the entire World Cup season. Private teams have to cough up enormous budgets to be able to ride the overseas GPs.
Compared to sports like football, motocross is small fish for Infront. It is a commitment that will hardly play a role in the company's overall balance sheet, even if it is loss-making. Maybe it's even an opportunity for the sport. Perhaps Infront can reverse the trend and make the sport of motocross more popular, acceptable and accessible again.
With the takeover of Youthstream, a piece of sports history is being repeated. As a reminder, Luongo's first marketing company, 'Action Group', which acquired the marketing rights for the FIM Motocross World Championship in 1997, was sold in 2001 to Dorna of Spain, which holds the marketing rights for Moto GP. After only 3 years, Luongo bought back these rights with his newly founded company Youthstream, because Dorna's expectations were not met.
One of the most important tasks of the new marketer will be to attract more spectators to the circuits, because motocross is just like football: only the emotions make a sporting event unforgettable. The spectators at the edge of the course play a decisive role for emotions and enthusiasm. Motocross undoubtedly has the potential for this.
We have no idea about Infront Moto Racing's vision, but it is inevitable that they will reconsider some things that were decided years ago. We then think, for example: to reintroducing prize money and starting bonuses for pilots. Infront is a company that needs to make money. It will therefore have to be inventive to make money in a sport that has been gaining momentum for years. For example, there are the problems surrounding noise standards, the environment, the development of electric vehicles, expensive entrance tickets and the general negative perception surrounding the sport. In Switzerland they will be allowed to tighten the throttle to bring this story to a successful conclusion.
Photo: Gino Maes and Infront
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