The Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) is sanctioned by Motorcycling Australia, International Entertainment Group (IEG) is its promoter, and Viking Group is signed on as the official sponsor of the eight round (in 2011) motorcycle racing series hosted at venues throughout the continent. On the surface it would appear that the racing business Down Under is doing fine, especially based on attendance but, underneath the shiny veneer, it appears that we may need to refer to Motorcycling Australia as troubled.
As most of us know, ASBK has brought many world-class motorcycle racers to the world’s series and circuits, and it has provided many hundreds of hours of intense entertainment and nail-biting finishes for racing fans everywhere. However, the data available, which comes from now removed meeting minutes posted to the Motorcycling Australia website, paints a dire picture for the people doing the work to make the competition a reality – Motorcycling Australia and IEG – and further demonstrates that it doesn’t stop there.
Motorcycling Australia may lose Supercross support
In fact, the documents which speak of Motorcycling Australia’s troubled financial situation do not limit themselves to road racing alone, remember that MA also sanctions Supercross. According to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, chief operator in that discipline, one Super X Australasia PTY Ltd, is “Under External Administration and/or Controller Appointed” at present – not good.
Even more news coming from within the Australasian Supercross series has major backer Chad Reed severing ties with the series. This would not only detract from the ability to draw crowds from Reed’s superstar halo, but the break would likely do serious damage to their public image. Bringing additional trouble is the recent report which has Super X owing already troubled Motorcycling Australia a rather large amount of money.
Motorcycling Australia’s revenue problem
According to the same meeting minutes PDF from which much of this information was derived, Motorcycling Australia’s budget deficit issomewhere north of AU$334,000 (US$359,000). Evidence found there also points to an operating loss for their insurance arm in fiscal year2010. Of course, some of this can easily be attributed to problems arising from the Great Recession which has had a severe impact on all business in Australia, and around the globe, but not all.
Some talk in the minutes states that both major manufacturers supporting ASBK, Honda and Suzuki, may decide to pull their support from the series and move over to the rival Formula Xtreme Championship. Manager of that event, Australian Road & Track Rider Promotions, is also very likely to be behind efforts to keep ASBK away from certain circuits with which they also happen to have a business partnership – can you say ‘unfair business practices’? Both of the Japanese marques have issued denials of their intention to split with Motorcycling Australia.
ASBK requests funding from Motorcycling Australia
Another fact coming out of the referenced document concerns the Australian Superbike Championship appealing to Motorcycling Australia in a quest for more financial assistance. IEG, who handles ASBK finances, has flatly denied that this appeal applies to the 2011 season as the financials for this year are already in place; they claim the new funding will be for the 2012 season.
The slow economy is certainly a likely contributor to the problems with this side of Motorcycling Australia since outside interest in the business is still low and has not yet seen any of the rumored ‘recovery’ we are constantly told about. If the sponsors don’t see rear ends in the seats, deals could dry up even faster; this needs to be reversed with innovative new programs or else it will continue to spiral downwards.
Motorcycling Australia denies problems…sort of
Motorcycling Australia CEO David White released a statement recently which apologized for the meeting minutes being posted to the website – though there is a section of the website seemingly dedicated to such releases entitled “MA Reports & Meeting Minutes.” He did not deny any of the content, but did say that the public should withhold any judgment until the official MA Board Report is released. Fair enough; it is wise to await proclaiming downfall until all the facts are in.
Other than this one mention there is very little other information available. One blog post has gone into some detail on this and even posed some strategies which may be applied to solve some of the problems. The rest of the moto-media has been relatively quiet on the subject, so maybe Mr. White’s call for not drawing hasty conclusions is being honored by much of the press. Nice if true…let’s all hope!
