Sparkplug 38

Alright, I’m laying it on the line this week, no holds barred. I’m talking about motocross on television in America. And the reason I’m talking about it is because the situation sucks and it has sucked for too long now.

“What situation?” you ask. “Didn’t Clear Channel report that ratings for the supercross series have been great??” Sure they did; you can read it for yourself here at Cycle News Online. In fact, they’re saying that this “…series has been watched by more fans this season than ever before in the sport’s history…”

But did you see the actual ratings numbers? 1.5! That’s “one-point-five.” As in less than two. So what does that mean? According to Yahoo, “There are an estimated 110.2 million television households in the USA. A single ratings point represents 1%, or 1,102,000 households for the 2005-06 season.”

So according to the Nielsen ratings (a scam if there ever was one, but that’s another story), the Amp’d Mobile Supercross series was able to draw an audience of 1,635,000 viewers for just one broadcast. In fact, that rating is high enough to put the show in the top ten list of sports programs for the week… not counting the superbowl, of course. Well shucks, where’s the champagne?

But here’s the kicker: network television is dead, Jim. Been dead for a while. The networks have been hemorrhaging viewers to “other” forms of media for over twenty years now. So getting real excited about these network ratings NOW is a little bit late. In fact, it’s my opinion that the only reason we’re seeing MX on a network now is because they’re, basically, desperate. Particularly the so-called “Tiffany Network”, CBS, which does not have an X-Games or a Gravity Games to appeal to the much-sought after extreme sports audience.

So to the ratings gods, we hereby sacrifice our sport: “Oh god, please let us get a 1.6 this weekend! We’ll do anything… we’ll… hire announcers that have no working knowledge of the sport! How’s that for a good idea??”

Yes, I took a round-about way to get to what’s really bugging me: Ralph and Krista. But my problem with them goes beyond the fact that they’re basically unqualified for their positions. My problem is that in this country, motocross/supercross has such low self-esteem that it has historically accepted the worst possible television packages. Put another way, if the sport were a nerdy elementary school kid, it would be the one that gets beat up by the school bully everyday and gets their lunch money taken each time. And when the bully finally tires of the beating and just demands the money, the kid, our sport, is actually grateful that the extortion continue “because it used to be much worse.”

You hear it all the time: “Why are you complaining about the CBS broadcasts, jerk? Why, I remember when we used to wait SIX MONTHS for ABC to air the U.S.G.P. at Carlsbad!” The entire motocross industry has been bullied by the American media conglomerates. ESPN used to say “You’ll take these weird timeslots and last-minute schedule changes and LIKE IT!” And that’s just what we did. And when this year’s joint CBS/Speed Channel coverage was announced, with (brace yourself) NEXT DAY COVERAGE… well, we collectively soiled ourselves in excitement.

And for those few still willing to complain… about the fact that the 250F class is omitted from network coverage, about the fact that editing of the program leaves a lot to be desired, about the fact that fully two-thirds of the announcing crew are not qualified to announce a local PeeWee race… ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE SPORT DESERVES AND DEMANDS LIVE COVERAGE… well, we just get bashed for being unreasonable and ungrateful.

So back to my pet peeve. Look, there is no way in hell that CBS would put a rookie announcer in the lineup of ANY OTHER SPORT THEY AIR. Think about it. CBS airs a lot of different sports; can you imagine that they would show an ice skating event using announcers with zero experience in the sport? They certainly wouldn’t do it for any of the stick-and-ball sports. Hell, they wouldn’t do it for girl’s collegiate basketball! So how is it possible that it is acceptable for the greatest form of motorsport in the world? You want to know how? I just explained it: because this industry is just happy to be in the game. We’ll take whatever scraps they throw at us. We have no pride, our sense of self-worth is truncated. And somebody needs to stand up for this sport and demand that we be treated with respect.

Back to the ratings issue. It is my fervent (yes, I said “fervent”) belief that supercross can garner network ratings of over 5 points. The sport is dynamic; it is visually stimulating; it has a rich history and it is populated by great characters. But it needs to be treated with respect as a legitimate sport, as legitimate human competition. To steal a line from Lance Armstrong, “It’s not about the bike…” Now, I’ll give credit to the current series in that they seem to be playing the human aspect of the Big Three well, but this sport is more than RC/Stewart/Reed. That may be the storyline for this season, but it’s not the story of the sport. This is a great sport!

But the single biggest change that HAS to happen, that will trigger a MASSIVE audience, in my opinion, is live coverage on Friday or Saturday nights. We don’t have to broadcast the entire show; we can show highlights from the heats, etc. But we have to show both classes LIVE. It will become a must-see event, because supercross is naturally compelling. Sure, there are a lot of people who couldn’t care less… we don’t need them to get a 5 rating. We just need to put the sport in the best possible timeslot, keep it there consistently, promote it properly and use experienced pros to create the broadcast. Then we can sit back and watch this thing takeoff like those fireworks in the opening. It’ll be awesome. And that's just the start...