I’m a big fan of American Sports especially Ice Hockey, Baseball, American Football and of course a big fan of BMX racing. When I saw a post on Instagram that implied that Connor McDavid of The Edmonton Oilers was underpaid compared to other sports it got me thinking. How could that compare to BMX racing’s elite?

Let’s not kid ourselves, there’s no way that a BMX racer could live off winnings alone. And while many of our sports best might have sponsors there are very few BMXers world wide that could make a living 100% off their income from BMX racing.

I’m not privy to riders income but there can’t be more than 10-20 pro racers that could make a comfortable living from BMX racing alone without some subsidy. (I’m happy to be proven otherwise.) But I’m not about to name names, that’s not what this article is all about.

So let’s compare BMX racing with pretty much any mainstream sport.

Revenue Streams for Mainstream sports

• Media Rights for Television and Streaming services
• Ticket Sales
• Merchandise
• Sponsorship
• Betting

Revenue Streams for BMX racing

• Rider entry fees
• Sponsorship
• Media Rights for Television

You can see already obvious differences. Even within sponsorship you would have betting, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, fast food and other industries that are everyday sponsors of mainstream sports, and they are some of the biggest spenders, but really aren’t a good fit for BMX racing.

I’m not sold that our sport gets much revenue from TV, but when you want to watch the live stream from the world championships or the World Cup events and find that you can’t through YouTube, it’s because the TV rights have been sold in your area. There is a real benefit to getting our sport on mainstream media, it doesn’t happen often enough.

Of course BMX racing is on in almost every household when the Olympics come around every 4 years, give or take. And I have heard it said many times that BMX racing is the most watched sport at the Olympics, but it generally comes from BMXers and I am yet to see any proof of that. Actually if you search most watched sports at the Olympics you are more likely to see basketball, soccer, swimming, athletics, even table tennis top the lists. And you are right in thinking they are more mainstream sports.

So how do we make it possible for a BMX racer to make a living exclusively from our sport, and well … should we?

There are events like the Pro Spectacular at the USABMX Grands that are real show stoppers. High on entertainment, lots of action, and lots of drama. People pay good money to sit and watch it live. It’s the same with the World Cup rounds, while it might not always generate massive crowds, the crowds that are there are generally happy to pay to watch it. Could we create more events with more of a pro focused spectacle and give the BMX racing fans something they would want to pay money to watch? Why not?

The thing about BMX racers is I believe they would watch a live stream if it was free or if it was a pay per view service. I’m not saying we should price the viewers out of the market, and I’m not saying we should line promoters pockets. Additional revenue through subscriptions and more advertising could go a long way to help prize pools for our elite who quite literally put life and limb on the line in pursuit of  glory.

Is BMX racing capable of tapping into mainstream sponsorship from outside the sport and can that sponsorship contribute to more money for the elite riders?

It’s unrealistic to think that the manufacturer’s in the sport already would be able to support athletes from sales alone. BMX racing is a small niche, and right now there are more brands of race frames than ever before. It spreads the money very thin. When BMX was at it’s peak in popularity you were looking at rider counts that would be 3-5 times the numbers we see today, in Australia at least. That’s 3-5 times the number of BMX race bikes sold, which is 3-5 times as much money in the sport for sponsorship.

There are a number of reasons BMX racers are the most underpaid athletes in sport, and one of the biggest things holding them back is our very own culture. I love it, I love the ability to be able to walk straight up to the best riders in the world and talk to them. How many other sports allow you to do that? The problem is it devalues the elites, people won’t pay to see them because they don’t need to. To make things worse we don’t have magazines that really used to create the personalities within the sport, and raising the profile of our sports best.

I truly believe that if we want to help more BMX racers live the dream we are going to have to make some big changes to our sport and the culture. I can’t see there being any other way.

How do you think we can make BMX racing a viable career option for the elite racers in our sport?