Dave Prater | COVID-19’s Impact On Supercross

INSTAGRAM | @supercrosslive

The COVID-19 crisis has had a major impact on the Monster Energy Supercross Series and over the last few weeks, we’ve seen announcements of canceled rounds and intentions for makeup dates at a later time in the year. Dave Prater is the Senior Director of Operations for Two Wheel activity at Feld Entertainment and has been one of the key people working out possible solutions, including the current plan to resume completion in September, after the conclusion of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. But as you’ll hear in our conversation, there are a lot of factors that must be taken into consideration, mostly what venues will be available and when, and what could happen with the mainstream sports that will be going for similar dates.

During our conversation, Prater explained the chain of events that led to the Indy Supercross cancellation and then the other dates, plus the current plan for the Fall races. As you’ll read, there’s still a large sense of uncertainty in regards to the 2020 schedule and when-where those seven rounds could take place, because Supercross will be vying for time in the same stadiums as major league sports that are full-time tenants of the venues. Will the Monster Energy Cup become a round of Supercross? That’s certainly possible. Do they have to run all 17 races? No, there’s nothing that states the series must run a certain number of races to constitute as a “championship.”

When did the COVID-19 issue first land in your lap? Was this something that you were aware of for a while or did it come on suddenly?

Like everyone, we had been following it, not necessarily closely over the past several months, but we had been seeing it and watching the news and hearing how it was affecting the rest of the world. It hadn’t become an issue, at least here as far as venues were concerned. We had been talking to venues throughout January and February, even into March, and everyone was under the assumption that it was business as usual. Then as we all know during that second week of March leading into the Indianapolis weekend, things escalated quickly and from there it’s only gotten crazier. I think we, along with the rest of the United States, were taken aback at how quickly this happened and how quickly things changed. Obviously, China, Italy, and the rest of the world saw it a month or so prior to us, but that’s really when we were forced into the situation, that week at Indy.

With Feld being an international company, were there other tours in the building that had been impacted internationally?

We were looking at from the Supercross point of view because we don’t do any international rounds at the moment, but there were some tours that were affected internationally. I don’t know those tours right off the top of my head, but we as a company were affected by all of this prior to the Supercross races, definitely.

When we were at Atlanta, the race before Daytona and the last “Feld” race, it didn’t seem like a big issue or like anything was going on at all. At that point for you guys it was business as usual, right?

Yeah, it was business as usual. I went to Daytona and that’s really when we started hearing the stories that were coming out of Seattle and things started to escalate quickly. I was getting multiple texts from teams, sponsors, and other partners. We were in communication with the stadium in Seattle and at that time, it was business as usual for them even prior to the Indy week. I don’t think that anyone expected it to escalate as quickly as it did. We didn’t from the Supercross perspective.

One thing I’ve wondered about since all of this started was that Thursday before Indianapolis, with how fast everything changed from that morning to that afternoon. Can you give me a timeline of what started?

I hadn’t made it to Indy. I was actually driving to the office in Florida at 7 AM when I got a phone call from Lucas Oil Stadium that requested a conference call at 9:30 AM. I asked what it was about and they wanted to talk about the COVID-19 situation and the potential for restrictions on public gatherings. That was the first that we had heard about it. Sean Brennen, our Press Relations Manager, was actually at a local television station in Indianapolis promoting the race for the weekend. I arrived at the office, assembled a crew to work together, and started going through potential scenarios. At 9:30 AM, we had a conference call with the venue and they explained to us that they believed the governor was going to put restrictions on public gatherings and they were unaware at that time of what time he would speak and what it would be. I don’t know exactly the timeline, but it was around 12:30 PM that we got word they wouldn’t allow public gatherings of more than 250 people, so Mike Muye, myself, and the team here went back to the drawing board to figure out a plan to race with fewer than 250 people in the venue. We put a conference call together with the teams and OEMs and explained to them, “Hey, we’re going to go racing in Indy, but we’re not going to have any fans in the building.” We got off of the phone with them around 1:30 PM and then got a phone call back from our folks that were on the ground in Indy. They said the governor was going to come back on at 3:30 PM and tighten the restrictions even more, which made it impossible to run the event, even without fans. At 5 PM is when we ultimately canceled that round. It was a crazy day, literally leaving my house thinking it was going to be business as usual and by 5 PM we had canceled the event.

When you were going through at Indy, were you already making decisions for Detroit and the rounds after that? Or did you have to see how things played out day to day?

It was such a fluid few days, if not a week. Once we made the decision to cancel the Indy round, for lack of a better term, we were naive to the fact that this would go on longer. We started making plans to get round 11 in during the next weekend in Detroit, and that’s when you started to hear rumors of doubleheaders. That was our initial thought, “We had to cancel Indy, but the next weekend in Detroit, we’ll just go run Saturday and Sunday and get round 11 in after round 12.” We were making plans for Detroit on Friday, after we had canceled Indy on Thursday. Over the next day, if not week, we came to the realization that this is a serious situation, along with the rest of the world, and that it was going to cause us to postpone the entire championship.

That had to be a fully unprecedented measure for you guys because Supercross as gone on forever. I cannot think of a time that a race was canceled or postponed anything, even with the weather issues or other political issues that have happened in the past, like the Iraq War that started in the middle of a season. This is an unthinkable issue that you guys have faced, and I cannot believe what we’re in now. For you, how hard was it to come to the decision and totally stop everything for the time being?

It was tough at the time. It was not a decision that any of us wanted to make, but it quickly came to light that it was the only decision that we had. There was no going forward until the world gets a better handle on the situation. It was terrible and not something that any of us thought we’d have to make in 2020. But once we were presented with the facts, there was no other choice.

The one thing I had kept hearing in that week after the first races were canceled was this moving target of Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. We’ve heard a lot of speculation and rumor, but what was the reality of that situation and what were you trying to do?

We were trying to get our heads around the magnitude and reality of the situation. We had been in conversations with both Las Vegas and Salt Lake City and they were both confident they’d be able to events on those dates, which was April 25 for Las Vegas and May 2 for Salt Lake City. Everyone is probably aware of watching the news in those days, but I would go to work, go home, come back to work, and something had changed. We were going from meeting to meeting and in the half-hour or hour between meetings, things were changing. It was a such a fluid situation that when we initially came out with the statement that canceled Indy, Detroit, Seattle, Denver, and Foxborough, those were the five venues that said it was going to affect us, that they were not going to be able to hold the events, and that we should cancel now and that we would re-evaluate going forward. I don’t know the exact timeline, but as of that Monday and Tuesday, speaking with Las Vegas and Salt Lake City and they were confident that we’d get those events in.

Another thing I had heard at that time was multiple events in Vegas and Salt Lake City, like, “We have seven races to go and we want to get as many of those in, even if it’s at the same venue back to back.” Was there any truth to that?

Everything was on the table at that point and everything is on the table at this point. We’re looking at how we can continue with the championship and planning on how we complete these next seven rounds. Because things were closing all around the country and there were restrictions on gatherings, we were looking for pockets where we still had the availability to go in and hold an event. Las Vegas was available and Salt Lake City was available, so I think that’s where those rumors started, the fact that those areas were still not considering putting limitations on gatherings, and obviously over the next few days that changed.

Anything and everything is on the table as far as venues and dates. There’s such a sliding scale and factors that have to be taken into consideration, especially now, because Major League Baseball has postponed the start of their season. We don’t know when they are going to start and if they are going to shorten their season and end in October or if they will have the same number of games and have that bleed over into November and December. Obviously, the NFL, college football, and Major League Soccer start up in the Fall, so there are many variables that are going into this as we go forward. Once we get the all-clear to get back to it, there will have to be a lot of pieces that fall into place for multiple leagues, including us, before things are solidified.

Every time something happened and was announced, I would reach out to someone at the AMA. Because even though you guys are the promoting body, they are the ruling body. I kept asking to see if there was some sort of thing in the rulebook that says you need to get a certain number of races in. From your understanding, is there a minimum number that needs to be done or is this more wanting to get a full championship in any way that you can?

There’s no minimum number but we think it’s important, as the stewards of the sport, to the industry as a whole to complete a 17-round championship. All of the feedback that we have been getting from the OEMs, the athletes, our partners, and the industry is that they have the same desire, to finish the 17-round championship like we started. It’s not over. That’s our desire and our goal.

To answer your question, we could have called it after Daytona. There have been four of five different years from 1974 to today when there were less than 10 rounds, so it is plausible.

In talking to teams and riders about this, everyone’s cards are on the table right now. It’s a situation that we’re all in together and it’s something that Feld, the teams, and the riders are working to find a compromise that will get everything they need. You guys want to get a series in, the teams to get what they need in, and the riders to get races in. Good on you all to work on this together. Because someone could perceive that Feld is holding all of the power in this situation, instead you are doing all that you can to make sure this is a good agreement and arrangement for everyone.

It’s important that we work together and through this. We’re all a part of this and without each one of us, the sport doesn’t exist. We have to work together. We have bi-weekly calls with all of the OEMs and race teams, same with the AMA and with our sponsors. We’re trying to get everyone’s input and keep them informed. Just like the rest of the world, we’re waiting this out and hoping and praying for the best, that it’s sooner than later.

One thing that I have to make mention of is the layoffs at Feld Entertainment. So many companies in our industry and the world are going through the same struggles, furloughing employees and doing cutbacks. I need to hear from your formal position as someone at Feld that this is not the end of the company, that you’ll come back from this.

Definitely. With widespread government-mandated closures of public gatherings, we were forced to shut down all of our tours, not just Supercross. There was Monster Jam, Disney On Ice, Marvel Universe Live. It forced us to make difficult decisions and we reduced the size of our workforce, companywide. But we will be able to produce events when that time comes and Supercross will be back, along with the rest of our properties. We will resume operations soon, we hope because there’s no assurance of when that will happen, but it’s going to happen and we’re going to get these seven events in.

There is no set date on this, you guys will do everything you can to make it happen, but when and where remains to be determined. Right now, how is this looking? It sounds like it’ll be after the Nationals, so that’s September and October. Will the Monster Energy Cup becoming part of the series? Does anything go right now?

Unfortunately, anything goes right now. It’s a fluid situation. “Fluid” is my new word it seems and I feel like I use it nonstop but there’s nothing else that fits it. The Monster Energy Cup is locked in, but again, we’re at the mercy of Major League Soccer there. If this affects the MLS season and they shift somethings around, the LA Galaxy is the primary tenant and we’d have to work something out with them. We don’t know. At this point, anything and everything is on the table and we’re waiting for a few more pieces of the puzzle to fall into place before we can plan.

Right now the main focus is on 2020, trying to get the seven races in when and where you can, but 2021 will be on your radar immediately after that. What has been thought about for next year? Is it still start in early January or is everything still so uncertain that you cannot pin a date on that?

The funny thing is that I’m more certain about 2021 than I am 2020. Mike Muye and I have been working while we wait and see how the rest of 2020 pans out. Once we see how things pan out in other leagues and when they come to the table with their schedule, like the NFL is planning to release their schedule April 16 or 17 and hopefully, if that goes down we will get a clearer picture. As things progress and a clearer picture of venues and dates, we will get on 2020. But right now, we have 2020 at the top of mind but we’re full speed ahead on 2021. When we get these seven rounds in, we won’t have much time to plan for 2021, so we’re using the time now to plan for 2021 so that we’re ready for that and aren’t late in the game.

What has been the consensus on you can invest in the sport? This is a completely unexpected offseason we find ourselves in, so we have a chance to look at things from a different perspective. Or can you not do that because this is such a big program?

That’s definitely on our minds. First and foremost, we need to get through the crisis and then look at re-investing. I think that it’s going to be important because it’s going to hurt everyone, it’s hurting the world at the moment. The beauty of this, if I can even use that term, is that it brought us all closer together, both as the small industry we are part of and has a world. I can tell you from experience over the last few weeks, in phone conversations that I’ve had with people in the industry, I think it’s brought us much closer together and made us realize how important each of us are to the puzzle. I’m hopeful that once we get back to normal and move forward, we’ll all be even more willing to work together.