Updated Post: Insider Says Cost Kept SPEED From Taping Monday At VIR

Updated Post: Insider Says Cost Kept SPEED From Taping Monday At VIR

© 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The cost of the extra day and the fact that it was already over budget for the year led Speed Channel executives to decide crews would not stay to tape the AMA races that were postponed from Sunday to Monday at Virginia International Raceway.

“If you think about it, we have 50 crew people. The majority of them are freelancers, (and) some of them had to work on Monday. So we would have had to source some new people. Plus you all of a sudden have to go to the hotel and extend it on a holiday weekend. Plus you have the (production) truck rental, the camera rentals, all that stuff. It’s somewhere close to $100,000 to run an extra day on Monday. Who’s going to write that check?” said one member of the SPEED Channel production team who asked to remain anonymous.

“SPEED Channel already lost money because they went three hours live for one, 12-lap (Supersport) race. So now they’re in jeopardy of losing another $100,000 on top of that, if the race did run (on Monday). So that’s really why those things happen.

“If you look at it, all of the races that have gone over this year, SPEED has stayed with them. The other factor too is we are at the end of the season. Any budget that was available to do something like this has been spent because we’ve gone over at Daytona and during the hours when a race has been red-flagged we’ve stayed. It’s gone an an hour 45 (minutes) sometimes or a two-hour program. So all those things add up.

“But you hear it all the time (from viewers and fans), ‘You guys are f**king a**holes!’ Look, it is a business. We’re not out there for our health, and we’re not out there to make sure Kurtis Roberts has a great career. It’s one of those things. The racers I’ve spoke with understood.”

Even if SPEED had stayed to tape Monday’s AMA Superbike race, airing it would have been another story, according to our source.

“When are you going to run it? There are already contractual obligations to shows to run on Monday. The programming lineup is full on Monday. So when are you going to run it? 2:00 a.m.? There are so many factors involved with other racing series, other television shows, advertising dollars. Some (advertisers) pay for very specific spots in very specific places. So that’s all under consideration.”


Reaction from a reader:

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

SPEED’S best excuse for not staying is that they’re already over budget?

Any business plan has a certain contingency factor based on the variables inherent in whatever endeavor you’re planning to undertake. Racing is an outdoor activity. The weather can affect your activities outdoors. If it rains, you may have to reschedule things. I’m quite sure SPEED executives knew this about racing as the 4-500 NASCAR events they televise daily occur outdoors as well. I’m fairly sure there are rain days figured into the budget.

They complain that even if they had stayed to tape the race, they wouldn’t have been able to fit it into the line-up? I’ve got an idea. How about bumping a couple episodes of American Musclecar or power boat racing that you’ve aired 12 times each that week already. As for the advertisers who paid to be in a specific spot at a specific time, Bulls**t! They paid to be aired during the broadcast of an AMA Superbike race because those are their target customers. Show it live on Monday morning and the viewership undoubtedly will be less due to people’s work schedules, but re-air it prime-time Monday evening with some teasers throughout the day and the advertisers will get their money’s worth. As an aside, when SPEED sells advertising packages to sponsors, these contingencies and many more you’d never even think about are covered in the contract.

I’m quite sure if they postponed a big NASCAR race, make that any NASCAR race, SPEED would be there to pick up the pieces regardless of any outside factors. Surely they would claim the popularity and income generation NASCAR provides as the reason, but how do they think NASCAR got that way? Major networks made a major commitment to covering their series in a comprehensive manner. Lo and behold, a fan base was created. This must be the way it happened, otherwise, I defy anyone to explain why millions of people will sit willingly in front of a television set and watch cars that all look alike going around in circles at an almost constant speed. Gee, I wonder if people might find motorcycle racing as exciting as NASCAR if it was presented to them in the same format i.e. professional quality broadcasts with informative (read non-Greg White generated) trackside commentary, rider personality profiles, and a look into the great and storied history of the sport?

To paraphrase one of your contributors on the website, it would be just swell if SPEED would stop torturing the sport and its fans and just admit defeat. SPEED, you don’t support motorcycle racing in any meaningful way and it shows. Give it over to someone who will at least make an honest effort to showcase this exciting and diverse sport.

The AMA is complicit in this poor showing also. They may not feel they have many options as they do not have the know how, budget or infrastructure to televise their own series, but this is no excuse to sit back and let SPEED air the series as an afterthought. Tell you what, AMA, I’ll even help bail you out of the jam. What say we set up some development meetings with the big three and pitch the series in a provocative manner? We could spend around 250K on a super slick demo reel and fly a few key executives out to some events for some VIP treatment. I’ll even chip in, but you’ve got to share profits down the road.

Have some faith in your own product and market it like any other business. You’re giving up multiple revenue opportunities. Remember five years ago when no one knew what the hell the X-Games were? Now you can buy Tony Hawk dolls for God’s sake! Is it unrealistic that a Ben Bostrom doll or a die cast Mat Mladin GSX-R1000 (with cooperation from Honda and Suzuki of course) wouldn’t work if properly marketed? Just imagine it… AMA racer trading cards, a Barber Motorsports Park slot-bike track with a little life-like Aaron Yates, the mind boggles…

Tony Shortman
Southwest Commercial Real Estate
Director of Land and Investment Services
Las Vegas, Nevada



More reaction, from another reader:

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

There has been an outcry against SPEED TV for limiting their motorcycle programing. SPEED cites ratings and economic issues as their reasoning. It is hard to believe that some of the shows that have replaced motorcycle programing on TV will have a bigger audience, and an audience that buys products like motorcycle owners do. Speedvision provided motorcycle programming at a level that had never been seen before. The new operators of SPEED made promises concerning keeping the motorcycle programming, then promptly broke them. So here we are today. This change in programming will have far reaching consequences beyond viewer entertainment.

SPEED has put out that they will only run races once. Unfortunately most races are run in the prime riding/racing season when many motorcyclists are not at home watching. The placement of “Two Wheeled Tuesday” in the line-up shows that SPEED wants failure of motorcycle programming, the show itself is proof that they want motorcycle programming to fail. In the winter, after the seasons are over, what will SPEED show? Will they show anything racing related? Will we at least get European speedway? Maybe this year. The “insider” letter put it plainly, SPEED will not make any more concessions then it already has for motorcycle racing. Motorcycle racing on SPEED then is in effect in a death spiral.

While the European circuits will be largely unaffected the AMA will feel it. The advertising value of AMA road racing sponsorship will diminish, so will advertising dollars. Event promoters will see less money for their events, less money, less promotion of events. The road racers themselves, even the well financed factory teams will feel the pinch. From the factory perspective if the overall advertising worth of road racing is decreased their efforts will decrease – fewer factory rides. The less-well-heeled teams will feel it first, many won’t survive the next few years. AMA road racing will return to a being a very large club event. What that means for track availability, safety measures, payouts, and participation is also bleak.

Television, for better or worse, decides the long-term viability of a sport in today’s world. SPEED has made it clear that there is no room for motorcycle road racing in their future vision. Some will say this is a good thing, that the sport became too big, too expensive. Well if the fans, the racing participants, the promoters, the motorcyle manufacturers, and the AMA don’t work together to keep the sport on television then it certainly will not be too big or expensive, we may even be referring to this time as the “last great years of AMA Road racing” for some time to come.

Joe White
Boone, Iowa



Yet more reaction, from yet another reader:

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

To add a little more fuel to the Speed TV fire, and I do hope they burn, I have given up writing e-mails to them because I realized it is a complete waste of time. I have written loads of messages over the past few months ever since I saw the bike programming boat start to sink and have never even received an acknowlegement let alone a reply. I have talked to Greg White face-to-face this year at Road America, Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio and I am pretty damn sure that he is very frustrated with this whole deal but couldn’t say anything because you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

I grew up in the UK where motorcycles are the norm, motorcyclists have rights and motorcycle racing has an enormous following. I’ve been here since 1977 and still cannot understand why anyone would be interested in NASCAR. I don’t like any racing where they only turn in one direction even if it’s bikes…BORING.

Having now given up any hope of ever seeing any decent bike race coverage on Speed/NASCAR TV ever again I think we should concentrate our hopes and efforts on getting them to give it up altogether and let Outdoor Life Network, or even the Wheels TV mentioned in an e-mail, have the contract. I hope the likes of you guys, the AMA and any other organization that derives income or enjoyment from motorcycle road racing will join us in the fight to get rid of any association with Speed TV.

And to Mr Carl Jensen, where have you been watching quote, “3 or 4 hours of the greatest sport on earth”? Sure as hell ain’t been on Speed TV lately. They make enough money off NASCAR that they could subsidize our entertainment very easily. Forget them…I’m for OLN or even Wheels TV (have to get more info on them).

Mike Hughes
Rockford, Illinois

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