News 10 Feb 2015

MX Nationals to run without title sponsorship in 2015

Monster Energy's exit as naming-rights partner made official.

Image: Jeff Crow.

Image: Jeff Crow.

The 2015 MX Nationals, Australian Motocross Championship, will be contested without a title sponsor, Williams Event Management (WEM) has confirmed.

Outgoing naming-rights partner Monster Energy has been removed from the series’ official website following a three-year association as title sponsor, with WEM now opting to restructure the program moving forward.

“It isn’t an issue for us and it didn’t come as a major shock,” WEM general manager Kevin Williams told MotoOnline. “While it would be nice to have someone throw a chunk of money at it, we’re quite happy for the presence to be more about the series as such.

“If you look at V8 Supercars it doesn’t carry a title sponsor, so we will be looking to build a strong platform through what we are doing this year with NRG TV and everything else to build a bigger round-by-round audience, with a view of being able to have individual round sponsors in 2016 as they do in America.

“We are looking more towards having a break in the title sponsorship for 12 months and then going to a program where the sponsors have more involvement in each event and to give them more bang for their buck.

“The plan is to have more personalised sponsorship per round, more activation and crowd involvement – not unlike the Clipsal 500 and that type of partnership. A number of other sporting events have individual sponsorships and it also means you don’t have all your eggs in one basket. That’s the business model we are looking at.”

Information on the MX Nationals’ partners for 2015 is expected to be rolled out over the coming weeks in the lead-up to the season opener.

Visit www.mxnationals.com.au for further information on the 2015 championship, which commences at Horsham in Victoria on 29 March.

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