Smoke and Noise #10:

What's the Deal with Team USA at the MXoN This Year?

Who Should be on Team USA?

Fans are already debating who should be on Team USA? This is good, and part of the fun. 

The dumbest suggestion out there is to avoid sending James Stewart because he has opted out of the nationals and gone SX only. Boohoo! He's still the leader of last year's winning team, and the fastest rider in the country. If he's not on the top of the list, some bullshit is going on (and there always is..)

Racing a series in decline like the nationals is every team's decision. Stewart made his decision back in 2007 and won it last year before moving on. He's still the SX champion, which is a longer season, pays better, has better media and organization. SX is the premier series and he's the top guy. Additionally, SX is FIM (like the MXoN) and MX is antagonistic to the FIM. MX is like the weak, angry little kid that can't keep up.

Is the US backsliding on the MXoN?

The US is back to waffling about the MXoN. 

In the past few seasons, the US had at last cut out the annual whining about "This race is not part of our marketing goals" etc and just sacked up and committed to participating in the greatest and longest running tradition in Motocross-the Motocross of Nations.

The US has assembled great teams, sent large red, white, and blue delegations, won the race, and even hosted it at Budds. But, even though nice things are said about it publicly, behind the scenes, 2-faced promoters have been working hard over time to sabotage the effort, mostly out of jealousy. 

Sometimes it's better to put business selfishness aside and put sport first, but it never works that way in the US. Fans never see the true story.

This has been a problem for many years, but in the recent past, it has improved. When the MXoN was in Ernee, France a few years ago, the AMA finally decided to stop the annual online circus and stop waffling and just go each year.

Until this year.

Sure, the world economy has taken a nose dive. Everyone is cutting back. Things like this trip and rider salaries, and even is racing worth it anymore, are all up in the air. But, like anything else, it's just a matter of priorities and who decides.

The decision is the AMA's. 

Now things get strange. There are two AMAs! One is the traditional AMA, in Ohio, and the other is AMA Pro Racing, which is now a private entity spun off to DMG. They took AMA Pro and moved it to Daytona. 

SX works with both, but is still FIM, and the FIM affiliate in the US was not for sale. The FIM affiliate in the US is the AMA in Ohio. There is no grey area here. They should decide.

It wouldn't make any sense for AMA Pro Racing or it's properties in Daytona to work on this race anyway. Now that business has re-shuffled, this private company is actually a competitor to the GPs, which own the MXoN. MX in the US works with AMA Pro Racing, because it was sold last year along with road racing, and it's working under a strange non-contract-wait-and see deal for now. (You might hear different, but this is the truth.)

The AMA in Ohio Needs to Keep the Vultures Back and Show Some Balls.

I don't know who should pay to send Team USA. Money is tight. Maybe Obama knows. Maybe he's a Stewart fan! Someone should ask him!

I know who shouldn't be involved-the people that don't want it to work. That would be Daytona's private AMA, because they are competitors. OK, they don't want it to work, only as long as they don't have a piece of the pie, and control of what is said and who says it. Money and control are always part of the equation with these people. (How American!)

As it stands now, the wrong people are involved. MX Spurts, the organizers of MX, is supposedly tasked with raising the funds, and speaking for Team USA. Bad idea. The AMA in Ohio is making a mistake here, but they are taking the path of least resistance. Spurts is aggressive and wants to appear supportive, but they can't be trusted, and never could.

Spurts is famous for saying one thing to the public, and doing the opposite behind the scenes. It's happening right now, same as always. They might find some support, they might not. The truth is they want the US to stop participating, and all this fund raising is half-assed. We still might get there, but if we do, they will stand in front of Team USA and not behind them. Bad idea.

Great traditions in sport deserve better. It may be tougher for Team USA if Ohio does the right thing and finds a better way to pay for this, but in the long run, it is the only way that really makes sense. Ohio should be working with the teams directly, not with people that are not doing it for the right reasons.