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No offense taken. my point is that we need to show case the best, make the kids have heros and get them involved. The TV viewing audience doesn’t want to watch the 6 rookie class, even if it IS the FUTURE of the sport. With TV coverage and exposure, and bringing the Pros into a level where they at least feel like pros, and don’t work a part time or full time job plus have to race. As ar as clips, well if people wanna talk about skills, through em in the garbage!!!!
For the record nobody said screw novices. I think the idea was make the nationals legit, only the top riders. Also, nobody said former riders or parents should make all the rules. What both the NBL and the ABA need are people with specific expertice. In the case of the NBL, a marketing profesional, and a computer/ web master.
the argument of nationals not being legit is dead on— i’m sorry– i’ve been an athelete my entire life, and nationals were a big deal… not just a big hit to the wallet. any other sport, you have to earn the right to be at nationals. if novs and rooks wanna race nats, fine. but make them have to earn it,as well as the experts and pros, and i dont mean by cutting grass and saving up $100, i mean make some sort of qualifier. less nats and more qualifiers, guess what, we just made nats legit and the silly sanctions didn’t loose much money– cause they still run thier nat plus the qualifier. supercross is run that way– but they only have a 16 race season, the week before the national they have a qualifier for that national. you either make it or you don’t. if not you have the next national to try. and guess where they guys that didn’t make it to the national will be racing the following week– at the local track— not “track closed for so-and-so national”
i could go on and on—
Take the Worlds level and reverse engineer it.
Attendance:
Worlds: Pros and Experts. No Novice or Rookies.
Nationals: Pros, Experts and Novice. No Rookies.
Regionals: Pros, Experts, Novice and Rookies.
State/local: Pros, Experts, Novice and Rookies.Champions:
Worlds: Pros only. (You can not be a “World Champion” in the Expert/Challenge class. You are just the winner of the world challenge race)
Nationals: Pros and Experts
Regionals: Pros, Experts and Novice
State: Pros, Experts, Novice and Rookies.That last line really hit home. I am finally ready to get on the bike after a WAYYYY to long layoff, and it rains last sunday. that i can see. But i am sure THE WHOLE FREAKIN STATE is not going to south park. Maybe i might take a ride to eht so i can “roll in the dirt”..
not “track closed for so-and-so national”
Ant –
EHT does not race again until July 11th on Tuesday night. They are closed this Tuesday for the holiday. Sorry to burst your bubble.
I asked someone at HC BMX about closing the track for P-Burgh, and they said it was because most of the volunteers, etc, have kids and/or are racers going to P-Burgh, so there is not enough people to run the track.
Now, I do not know enough yet about the going-ons in this state, but my thought is there has to be enough people who would want to race a local that could have pulled off a race at HC this weekend if the word was put out there. Maybe they could have posted a “race pending” notice of some sort. As of now, due to stuff beyond my control, I am flipping my schedule to go to P-burgh. If some things had not come up, I would have gone to Woodbridge instead and would have gladly helped run a race at Flemington this weekend.
And MacD, I see you are new(er) to some of the veteran threads where we air it out. Let me assure you that most of us are not looking to turn back the clock, though we do miss certain things that made our glory days what they were, but most, if not all, of us agree that this is 2006 and a certain amount of evolution is inevitable. Still, I am not a big fan of clips. I think they are too dangerous.
This topic is interesting..I have my opinion and it usually gets me in trouble but since we have a nice friendly site here I will give my .02 cents in a few short sentences…
The powers that be in both the ABA and the NBL are simple, blue collar minded people. That is a very very nice description…Basically they are not business people, they are at best little league type of people. Here’s the motto they go by…Have as many nationals as possible as we charge more and can make more money, while were at it lets have 40 classes so we can get everyone from the 5 novice to the 50 plus cruiser rider and everything in between. The result of this is it completely undermines the local programs and the local scene dies off as a result. Bob and Clayton as well as his boss Bernie Anderson the owner of the ABA are to greedy and stupid to see this and they also do not give 2 $hits about the future of our sport. Here are 2 guys (Bob and Clayton) making over $100,000.00 per year as company heads that could not make that much or even close to that in corporate America. They are over paid, old, tired, narrow minded and affraid of change. Heres the solution….Create a new sanction and do it the right way, let the NBL and ABA putts along while the new sanction just makes good decisions and markets our sport. If the NBL and ABA have not figured it out in 25 years they are not going to get it anytime soon…I have not been to a national event in about 2 years and I do not miss it..It’s sad, these people are killing off our sport and we all sit back and watch it happen..It sucks! I have my opinions and given the chance would jump on the opportunity to get involved in doing something to change our sport..Who knows maybe one day, but for now it’s a sad deal..The Pro’s seem content to ride for nothing a month and at the same time ask the ABA and NBL to cut the amount of races back so now you can actually hit up one of your favorite National events and not see your favorite Pro…I have heard so many Pro’s complain about having to many races but at the same time they are making less than $40,000.00 per year..Do your sprints and squats and can’t make your mortgage, 30 plus and live with buddies because you cannot afford to buy a home because you ride for nothing a month…Bitch about it but do nothing about it, this is your typical AA-pro these days Im sorry but again it’s just my opinion…
If we don’t take the sport into our own hands it will not change, not ever..Ok….That’s my vent session, back to your regulary scheduled drama..
Peace
So much for the few short sentences…
There’s a few short sentances in there. They are just hiding among some really good thoughts. 🙂
The biggest thing is finding insurance that will bill per rider, per event.
Interesting note:
The largest single points race, non-national (Presidents Cup) last year had 1,249 registrations. That is over $55,000 in one day of registrations. Include the two national days that followed and it is over $150K.
We cant even get the management at a certain south jersey track that will not be named but is in egg harbor to listen. The State director Quitand the nbl cant or won’t do anything. This state is in shambles
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What are we supposed to be listening to? What does Egg Harbor have to do with the State Commish quiting and the NBL? Also what does EHT have to do with the “state being in a shambles?” EHT is just 1 of 3 tracks in NJ. We do not run the state. We do not control the state organization. We are just a piece of the whole picture. I am on the board, and believe me no one track calls the shots. There are board members from every track and we work as a team for the betterment of NJBMX not for our home tracks. The only time a track gets to say “we want this” is when we are planning the qualifiers. They then get to say we can do this weekend, but not that weekend.
Please explain. I am part of the management of EHT and have no clue what you are talking about. I am there every race day and I have had exactly 0 people come to me with any suggestions, complaints or whatever. So if we are supposed to be listening to something let me know.
I am more than happy to listen to anyone as long as they are being constructive, not destructive.I’m pretty damn angry right now. I get so tired of people bitching about this track, that track or whatever, and yet they are the people sitting in the stands or wandering around the parking lot bad mouthing the people, tracks etc of NJBMX. We work our asses off for the kids and riders of NJ and all the other states that come to ride in NJ and all we get is back- stabbing, bitter, vindictive diatribe against everything we do. Basically what I would like to tell the people who tend towards the above type of behavior is to speak up, step up or shut up!
EHTBMX gives more back to its riders every year than any other track in this state and possibly in the northeast. What more do the parents of the riders want? Somebody mentioned the old spring series and we reinstated it. Somebody mentioned a 16 & over series and we offered one. Not much success on it this year, but we’ll keep trying. Everytime we are approached with a viable, constructive suggestion, we try to implement it. Last year people had a hard time with registration times, we changed them, wanted double races to make up for rain outs, or shortages for the State Series, we ran them. We do whatever we can FOR THE KIDS!!!!!
EHT does not race again until July 11th on Tuesday night. They are closed this Tuesday for the holiday. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Craig but i thought that you could ride eht anytime cause it is a state park? besdides i wanted to test out the new bike. it is almost done.
You want an example? Ok. last year my son was hurt. He was cleared on the thursday before the east coast national. I called the track… nothing. I went to the website… nothing. I drove the hour and a half only to be told that the track is closed! When I asked why there was no posting I was told that they(les) didn’t think they needed to tell anyone. When I explained the situation I was told, rather roughly that there was no way my son could even get on some part of the track. Not to mention the woman who would not come out from behind the trailer while I was speaking to Les, She had a lot to say also. Mr. Behm even tried to speak to someone but was told no.
How about another example… how about a race called because of heat. This has happened at eht. The problem with that is that they raced earlier at fleminton and blue diamond, and the next day at both central jersey and bensalem. Again no notice, people just did not show up. Unbelievable but true.
How about another example… Two years ago the times for races were at 6pm. This was great, we could go up to flemington race there, then make it to egg harbor. Then last year the times changed. No warning, no explaination, they just changed. Then at the start of this year the times were even earlier. I guess someone complained because the times went back. Great.You know I was there for the “meeting” that was really a screaming fest after the national. Right at the picnic tables. Nice touch I thought. I had to walk away. I am not the only one who has problems with this track. As you said the parking lot has its fair share of offenders. Funny thing though, We go to central jersey and while I don’t say that there are no problems, any are kept well hidden.
I am not saying that all of the people who help out at eht are a problem, There are some very helpfull folks, what I am saying is that the majority of the complaints seem to be directed there.
As to why the state is in shambles, maybe I overstated it a bit to make a point. I am willing to say that this year was better than last. Two examples of things happened at the past two presidents cups. Two years ago we had to buy a jersey from someone in florida, and we were not the only ones. It was a disgrace, I think we had mabe 12 riders, and more than one did not have a jersey. Not only that but we were very unorganized. This year as I walked around I saw whole sections of people from the same state sitting together, some had areas where you could go , and most had at least some state meeting. This all reflects very poorly on the state.
I am sorry that you are offended by my comments but a state that can boast as many national champs should be just a bit more organized than that.
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