Bombshell – Global Action Sports quits Super X promotion //

Global Action Sports has closed the doors on Super X, casting the sport's Australian future into doubt.

Global Action Sports has today confirmed that Super X, the Australasian Supercross Championship, will not go ahead in 2012 or future years due to a number of factors leading to a substantial financial loss over the past four years.

Super X exploded onto the Australian market in 2008, taking the profile of supercross to a whole new level.

Live television coverage of every round, which was a first for any series in the world, revolutionary new race formats, world class tracks at premiere venues around Australia and New Zealand as well as the biggest supercross crowds and international riders ever seen in Australasia, resulted in recognition around the world.

However despite the positive reception to the series, a successive decline in ticket sales from year one has left the series financially non viable after four consecutive years of losses and a multimillion dollar investment in the sport.

Managing director of Global Action Sports, Michael Porra, said he was incredibly disappointed with this outcome.

“It is with very heavy hearts we have made this decision, but the bottom line is that there are not enough paying fans to support the huge expense of putting this series on,” Porra said. “Even in year two with Chad Reed racing at every round we saw a significant decline in ticket sales where we averaged approximately 6000 fans per round.

“This trend continued in year three and in year four we averaged only 3,500 fans per round resulting in a seven-figure loss. Australia is a very competitive market for action sports as well as mainstream sport and entertainment, and this combined with a very poor economy has definitely played a huge factor in this unfortunate outcome.

“We had a very ambitious vision for the sport of supercross in Australasia and have invested millions of dollars into this series, but unfortunately there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel and we cannot afford to continue with these huge losses.

“I have very much enjoyed my time getting to know the sport and along with my team, we have done all we can to try and make the series a success. I really hate the thought of giving up, but I am left with no choice.

“I would like to thank Motorcycling Australia, Monster Energy, Williams Event Management and everyone who has contributed to the series over the years and wish them all the best for the future,” concluded Porra.

Motorcycling Australia today put out a release seeking expressions of interest for the 2012 Australian Supercross Championship series.

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bring back spokes bring back spokes

iMoto Guest

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15-02-2012 at 02:13:42 PM

Where is Christo when you need him. What has happened to the Sport we all love!! konsky is next
AG23 AG23

Posts: 2240

Joined: Feb '09

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15-02-2012 at 02:21:58 PM

Haha, thanks for the tip... got a source?? :-)

MotoOnline.com.au finally has signatures! Contact me if you have any troubles with the site.

Baz Baz

iMoto Guest

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15-02-2012 at 04:29:13 PM

GAS was stupid from the start, retards doing 5 lap races, who the hell were they kidding DROP KICKS! No crowds, no prize money, cost a shit load to enter, and my parents thought it was a shit show! Whip contest??? WTF? that was crap, hope the next promoter actually has something to do with the sport because GAS obviously didnt go back and run crusty or nitro freeloaders
outofbounds outofbounds

Posts: 181

Joined: Jun '10

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15-02-2012 at 04:35:45 PM

real shame we have been through so many promoters in such a short time! Whoever takes it on next better have been taking note on the mistakes that have been made in the past.

Karma Karma

iMoto Guest

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15-02-2012 at 06:05:00 PM

Baz, ....GAS won't be going back to run Crusty. They bombed that too. The Yanks had to step in and re-take Crusty by force to save the brand. Let's look at the events managed by this promoter, SuperX gone, Crusty gone, Uncle Tobys Iron Man gone, see a pattern?
spokes man spokes man

iMoto Guest

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15-02-2012 at 06:09:16 PM

The source is common sence; Konsk is the man for the job if MX nationals dont want it
Henry Young Henry Young

iMoto Guest

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15-02-2012 at 06:20:52 PM

Well this is typical isnt it. They had the right idea. apart from the stupid formats!!!!!!! Where was the advertising? Did you blow all of your budget employing dumb commentators who have no pronunciation skills at all! (look at America, the commentators can speak correctly!!!) Maybe they also spent to much money on buying macro lenses for all of the cameras they used for filming. why did they have to zoom in on one rider the whole time? Why did the series not try and crack into the mainstream market? Instead of aiming the product at bogans, no offence, they could have portrayed the sport as a professional and athletic based event. instead of an "extreme" sport. Nowadays superCROSS should be considered mainstream, why not? the boring V8 supercars get enough attention. Let me run the show and I will have the sport turned around in two years!
A. Smythe A. Smythe

iMoto Guest

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16-02-2012 at 09:33:17 AM

Why is everyone convinced Yarrive Konsky will save the sport of Supercross....?? Please someone tell me how he alone will save it?? I want to know. Advertising on TV and TV coverage will bring in larger crowds. As a kid i used to see the Peter Jackson Supercross Masters on TV and BEG dad to take me. The idiot box is the answer.
anorton17 anorton17

iMoto Guest

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16-02-2012 at 09:59:04 AM

Very sad to see this event go under but i am not surprised. I live in Melbourne and they even chose to skip us a few years back and last year it was so badly promoted my mate only told me the night of the event it was on. They advertise for those crappy monster truck shows better. He complains that there were not enough tickets sold.. that cause no one knew about it and it was a bit of a rip. They should make it a little more affordable and they could have sold twice as many tickets and at least had a decent crowd. Learn from the Americans. The fact they promoted JS7 coming a couple of years ago it was a kick in the guts when he bailed. This series should be a serious off season warm up for the Yanks. They all decided on Europe this year instead. One positive from this whole exercise is that I got to me one of my heroes Kevin Windham in Launceston in 2010. I am looking forward to going to the next series who ever ends up running it.
Kezz531 Kezz531

iMoto Guest

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16-02-2012 at 10:15:39 AM

It's obvious that gas had no idea. Hope konski if he takes it does well and has learnt from gas and the other mobs mistakes. The series he ran Previously weren't too far off the mark and from memory was premoted on tv and had decent crowds.
Gregs teddy Gregs teddy

iMoto Guest

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16-02-2012 at 10:18:25 AM

GAS. What a shame thanks for dropping by and running it into the ground go back to nitro and ruin that too!
motolife994 motolife994

iMoto Guest

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16-02-2012 at 11:30:31 AM

I remember when motocross was about love, not money.
Barry45 Barry45

iMoto Guest

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16-02-2012 at 12:35:06 PM

I don't think supercross has a chance at mainstream in Australia , motocross itself struggles as, I've noticed at race events, there's less riders and less crowds, it's not even the supercross that struggles with crowds, many other sports struggle to fill seats in the stadiums also in Australia .
peanut peanut

iMoto Guest

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16-02-2012 at 05:48:07 PM

Pora in an interview mentioned that Reed never put his own money into the SuperX like he made us all believe when it all started!
Cracker Cracker

iMoto Guest

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17-02-2012 at 08:22:07 AM

Get Sarge in to turn it around. Look how he turned AORC around from yocals in the scrub to a series with world wide recognition and talent. At least there would be good coffee!
BLACKY31 BLACKY31

iMoto Guest

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17-02-2012 at 11:56:30 AM

I think the problem is they advertise a lot of big names were racing in the first few years and they never showed up (bubba & poto) and in the end people just didnt beleave what they were saying so people stopped going. i no thats why i didnt bother i traveled 3000 ks to see bubba and he didnt show and never was gunna from what i heard.
Peters Peters

iMoto Guest

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17-02-2012 at 10:52:55 PM

Wtf Konsky in charge ripping off more people, I cant believe that he's not six foot under with all the people he owes money too...but Konsky in charge MX and SX in Aust will be done forever
SHARON SHARON

iMoto Guest

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22-02-2012 at 02:18:53 PM

Obiously previously stated numbers on how many fans was full of crap, now they are saying only 6,000. Go back to the magazines that told you over 10,000 were turning up, riders organised that never turned up!!! We travelled so far to see Bubba, devo after that! I agree with Baz & Karma !
Tanis Tanis

iMoto Guest

Quote

17-05-2012 at 05:24:20 PM

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