At the year end meeting, the IDEA of raising the gate fee was brought up. There were lots of folks with ideas and thoughts on it. We decided we would create a forum to discuss those ideas.
Land is getting harder and harder to find to ride motorcycles on. Landowners invest a lot when they let us come play especially when it rains and looks like Timber Rush. I'll let Travis go into further details with why it was brought up in the first place. I'm just here to start the discussion and give my 2 cents.
Here's my thoughts. If you are going to raise it $10 across the board, you are going to hurt families with multiple folks racing, and we are a family friendly series. I do not want to see that change. I think most folks agree with that. What if there were a car load discount? Not just for families and folks with kids but for everyone. Y'all car pool together, then you get a better deal. This reduces the amount of vehicles tearing up the parking area, but still increases the gate fee to entice a landowner to want to host a race on their property.
My suggestion: 6 & under 60 & over remain free
$10 per person or $30 per car load - if you have 5 people, then you pay $30 whether they are kids or not.
I mirror Ruth's thoughts. I feel like in order to keep races there has to be an increase. I'm ok with paying $10 in order to ride. But if you are bringing a car load of people, it can get expensive quick. Especially if you are bringing a whole family of racers. I think a car load discount would be a good idea.
The increase, again, may bring new property owners into the game. I have heard complaints from people that a trail is too beat out or its the same old trail, blah blah blah. If we can get enough venues to rotate every two years, it should give those trails time to recoup. Plus, we all like riding new trail. And, being a farm kid, I know how much it sucks when the majority of your field is torn up after a race. That causes additional financial problems down the road. And it gives a little back to the landowners as basically thanks for letting us ride.
Its still as cheap as getting into an MX park on a race weekend at $10 a person.
$10 a person is alot when you have 3 kids and 2 of them that race. After it is said and done 5 per head family of 5 plus the race fees adds up. I see the point but 2 or 3 of the promoters dont want the increase. Car load discount would be okay with us 30 a car isnt bad with my family only 5 buck increase total. Either way ill still grip but we will show up.
Cwhite wrote:$10 a person is alot when you have 3 kids and 2 of them that race. After it is said and done 5 per head family of 5 plus the race fees adds up. I see the point but 2 or 3 of the promoters dont want the increase. Car load discount would be okay with us 30 a car isnt bad with my family only 5 buck increase total. Either way ill still grip but we will show up.
I believe it was mentioned at the meeting that kids 6 & under would remain free while older kids would stay at the current $5 fee.
Brandon Harp suggested this here. “To help the land owners out and yes I'm all about it but still need to make it that a average family can still compete, how about $5 a head and $5 a parking spot. So at least that'd be an additional $5 for every car or truck there. That'd be better than nothing”
I'm writing on behalf of the XC3 team who promoted the last two races of the year. Earlier in the week there was some discussion on Social Media about landowners making thousands of dollars and we know that is not entirely correct. A few may, most don't.
The team discussed it over and we decided that we would share our balance sheet with everyone. We were careful to save receipts and track our expenses. There are probably some racers who have not given much thought about what it takes to put on a high quality race and so for your benefit and to further inform the discussion here is our balance sheet.
Revenue Revenue Item
$1,155.00 Gate Fees
$300.00 Practice Fee
$2,457.00 Big Bike Race Fees
$1,190.00 Small Bike Race Fees
$1,800.00 T-Shirts
Now consider what is not shown on the balance sheet.
1) Our landowner spent half a day mowing/ prepping the camping / parking field. That field was supposed to be cut for hay and due to rain beforehand they couldn't get in there with the hay equipment. So he had to bush hog the hay, which was a loss on that field. He spent his Saturday towing folks into the field, and on Sunday towing out of the field with his tractor and fuel. The following day he spent the day dragging the field with his tractor to smooth out the ruts.
2) Not shown on the balance sheet is our labor. Let's entirely leave off the hours that we spent surveying, mapping and cutting the course. Instead to keep it simple let's just use minimum wage and the hours preparing for race weekend. All of this work involves arrowing the course, stringing up ribbon, mile marker signs, staking for arrows where needed, mowing the camping area, and setting up the starting field. Two of us arrived on Wednesday and worked 6 hours (12). On Thursday we started at 6 that morning and went until 6 that evening. That day we worked 11.5 hours apiece leaving out a 30 minute lunch break. (23) On Friday 3 of us worked roughly 6 hours apiece. (18) On Saturday we had practice from 12PM to 5PM so we'll just count that time only, for 3 of us (15). That rings up to about 68 hours x $8.50 per hour = $578.
3) Not shown on the balance sheet is our food, transit fuel and generator fuel to run for 4 days. Also not shown, nor accounted for is the vacation days from work two of us had to use, and one of us is small business owner and can't take off work without coverage, so he had to pay wages to a backup employee to cover his shifts during his absence.
4) We did most all of our course cutting during the winter months. We didn't track our fuel expense for those trips but let's conservatively estimate $60 a tank for our 3 pickups. We live about two hours from that track and made at least 10 trips over there to cut and prepare the course. (($60 x 3 tanks) x 10 trips) = $1,800 in fuel to and from the track for preparing.
We decided together that we were not promoting races to make money and we accepted the risk of losing money. We are as torn as everyone else is about the possibility of raising the gate fee. On the one hand it takes a serious investment of time and money from promoters and landowners to put on a high quality event. We also did not account for the 8 to 10 volunteers who helped us cut the track, and our volunteers time on race weekend. If we added up all of our real expenses and included labor time we lost money. On the other hand we want our family friendly Series to be an affordable choice for your disposable income.
We felt it would benefit everyone in this discussion to have a full and transparent accounting of at least one race so you can see the numbers for yourself. We are just highlighting a VERY IMPORTANT point that Andrew Judy made earlier. No one is promoting a race to make money. We are just passionate about our sport and enjoy the fun it brings to us and everyone that attends. Please don't begrudge the Series for having this discussion. Without landowners and promoters there is no racing. They must be modestly compensated.
Just adding in some additional information. Hwy 89 raceway is located near Mayflower in central Arkansa and attracts a number of MX riders in the area. They recently made this announcement on their Facebook page.
“Changes coming for 2019. After more than 5 years we are going up on our day fees. Starting January 1st, 2019 it will cost $20 per rider. That also means if one bike and two riders show up both riders pay the $20. This is more in line with what other tracks and facilities are charging. We have been more consistent with track maintenance and prep so we feel it's warranted. Feedback is welcome. Thanks y'all.”
I’m writing this in response to some of the questions and comments arising on the forum, Facebook, as well as some of the discussion at the Year End Members meeting for those that may have missed it.
This is a touchy subject to all involved including the leadership of AHSCS. This is not a topic we are taking lightly. So why are we having this discussion and we have a 13 race season 2019?
Why, with so many races on the schedule, are we concerned about locating land? This doesn’t look like an emergency yet.
Most of the feedback we receive from our members prefer more races instead of a small season. This allows for a sizable amount of riding and racing even if you need to miss a couple for various reasons. Around the country, and in Arkansas, we see closing of public and private land, and/or trails are being converted to UTV trails. Other various off-road racing series across the country are held more often on private land every year. Private land use is the future of our hobby!
Yes, we have 13 races as of now for 2019, 4 of which were on the bubble at some point when talking with promoters this season. These numbers can change rather quickly as well as promoters. Promoter burnout is a real thing and often comes with loss of a riding area that requires replacement.
As any series should, we look at other series around us. We must, but decisions can’t always be based on what others do. As far as I know, AXC is not making any changes to either gate fee or free membership fees, but I have no idea for sure.
There are several off-road series in and around Arkansas. AXC is one of those. I am confident that all of them make their decisions based on what they think is best for them. I do not question or speak for their approach and wish them all success. I can lay out some of the differences and why AHSCS makes some of its fee-based decisions.
AHSCS is now well over 20 years old, and it is our job to prepare the series for another 20 years. That is the fundamental viewpoint on these matters.
Membership fees: Some series charge for membership, and some don’t. Why do we choose to?
AHSCS is a non-profit organization. Our collection of membership fees helps fund and pre-pay our insurance for the series and other operational expenses necessary to provide our racers a long lasting, quality series. If our series goes financially negative, we will cease to exist. We are unable to write it off for 2 or 3 years as a loss. There is no long-term capital reserve in savings. This volunteer run Series operates on a checking account. At the end of each year the Series reinvests its revenue into annual awards and then carries over just enough cash to pay the season startup costs. We do not have personal capital to keep it alive. “For profit” series may or may not have the capacity to do so.
Paid memberships assist with fair class points competition. When competing for class points you are only competing against other members that at least intend on competing in the series. You shouldn’t lose your 1st place points for a race when sand bagger Bob AA rider out of Kalamazoo is an automatic member then enters c-class for the plaque and win for the day.
Insurance
As for insurance, I am not sure where our surrounding series stands on this topic, but I know all do not have insurance for their series.
AHSCS carries liability insurance for the members, directors, promoters, and property owners. This insurance is partially paid by the series and promoters.
AHSCS intends on existing many years from now, and this insurance coverage is an integral part of that long-term success. Unknown to most, our insurance has been tested at least once in recent history. All race waivers were filled out by the racer, but that did not prohibit them from filing a claim. Our insurance did not pay out against the claim. What the insurance did do was handle the entire potential claim, lawyers’ fees, time, research, and whatever else they do to protect us. If we did not have this protection, the legal fees alone could completely take out an unprotected series and any involved. It is our opinion waivers alone are not enough. That is why the insurance is such a strategic investment, and as you might guess, that cost over time has not gone down.
Gate fee: What got this stirred up, and why now?
Feedback from land owners - For 3 years I have been seeking a location to replace Japton’s on Fire. From the initial building of the track I knew its minimal acreage, forest density, and layout would not hold up for very many seasons. I have had a few conversations with some members in the area mentioning their properties. I almost always ask them to send me an email or text mentioning general property description and their contact information. Most never respond back. By the way, if you have a lead on a potential property, or would like to be a promoter, please contact a series officer with that information.
While on the hunt for a large enough parcel of land to host a long-term, multi-year, quality track close to home, we found a few locations that were worth exploring. Upon initial discussion of possible income potential, the gate fee was brought up as the compensation for use of land for a weekend.
Gate fees typically range, depending on weather $750 (150 attending) to $1,750 (350 attending) through the gate. They all asked if we were insured and if I could guarantee them $1,250 + then we could talk. As much as I love the series and think I can bring enough racers in, I just can’t risk that kind of money on the weather. Since 2015 we have had bad weather races with under 40, 60, & 70 big bikes turnouts. Thank goodness my current landowner is reluctantly willing to see if 100% of gate and 100% of practice works for him for 1 year and a new trail.
The Central Arkansas guys have been searching for the last three years for more land in that area to bring another race back to central Arkansas. They almost gave up for the exact reasons listed above.
Other food for thought; A couple months ago I was contacted by Kevin O’Laughlin the owner of another respected series close to us Oklahoma Hare Scramble Championship Series “OHSCS”. He and I had over an hour-long discussion about our respective series back in September. Topics we discussed were: insurance, attendance, land acquisition, and promoter burn out. We were bouncing ideas off each other for the future of the sport.
Sadly, I was informed on Saturday just before our year end meeting that OHSCS will no longer have a series. I called Kevin today to thank him and his crew for 10 years of hard work and thankless effort providing riding areas for us motorcycle off-road enthusiast to play on the weekends. Our discussion of course arose again, and I asked his permission to write what we discussed in September and today.
The reasons for their decision in non-specific order, as we both agreed were almost equally important.
-Burnout management standpoint (Owner operated series): Everything was on about 3 people’s shoulders for 10 years. I would hope to think our multi-officer leadership that gets voted in and out over the course of time is very healthy and helps provide some cushion for leadership burn out.
-Race promoter burnout: This speaks for itself. Often there’s not enough help. We also discussed pluses and minuses of work points.
-Insurance: Although expensive, in our opinion it is mandatory, but we both understand and respect the view point of the race release waiver and why some feel that is adequate.
-Last but not least land acquisition: Over the last few years he has had a very difficult time keeping land. His average payout to the land owner he said, was around $1800 or less. In today’s world he also thinks that is not enough for most property owners to allow us to invade their property for the perceived liability and possibly property damage. He was down to 9 races possible for 2019 several of which were going to be co-sanctioned.
I asked Kevin directly if raising the gate fee would be a positive in the long run for the sport and worth the risk knowing others may not follow suit. Our gate fees are 20 years old at $5. He said, “if we don’t and stick with only the $5 fees paying the modern land owner, the sport will die”, better to stay ahead of challenges than to get behind.
In closing I know this is very lengthy, but the membership deserves a detailed explanation for the reasons why we are looking seriously at this issue. As leadership of this series we are doing our best to look at the future of our series. We have your best interests as racer riders in mind. We know all will not be happy with any change, if a change is made. We also will do our best to put forth to a vote by officers and promoters the minimum impact to the racer while trying to help the goal we are seeking.
As far as I know only 2 tracks have actual promoter owned property who could directly receive an increase with their vote. If the remaining promoters voted positively it would be benefitting the landowners with who they are leasing or directing the gate fees now.
Thank you very much for your time and your input on this difficult topic,
AHSCS President Travis DuPriest
2014-2017 Vice President
2016-2017 #341 B35+
2014-2015 #541 C35+
2013 #741 D35+
2012 #851 Beginner Vet
At our end of year meeting during the open discussion one of the other ideas that was a good compromise for large families was to tier the gate by ages to lessen the impact on families with several kids. The idea being the kids under age 17 are still living at home and reliant on their parents financially. So kids age 17-7 the gate fee could remain the same. Kids age 6 & under remain free. Adults age 18 and up could be at a higher rate of $10.
2019 Proposal for Gate Fee Structure
Age 6 & Under Free
Age 7 to 17 $5
Age 18 & up $10
Although I can't vote as President of the series. I would absolutely vote for that proposal if I could. I believe this would work towards our goal of increasing potential income at the gates to assist with property owners. Minimizing the negative impact on our racers with large families or children.
2014-2017 Vice President
2016-2017 #341 B35+
2014-2015 #541 C35+
2013 #741 D35+
2012 #851 Beginner Vet
