Industry Insight: IEG’s Yarrive Konsky
MotoOnline.com.au speaks about the 2012 supercross calendar with IEG’s managing director.
International Entertainment Group has a huge task ahead in 2012, taking over the Australian Supercross Championship from Global Action Sports.
In many ways it’s a thankless job, but a vital one that will have to work if the sport is ever going to return to full strength on a domestic level. IEG is going back to the basics in a lot of areas, but has a reasonable plan in place to build the sport in the years to come.
MotoOnline.com.au spoke to IEG managing director Yarrive Konsky about the calendar release, and more, to find out what competitors and fans can expect when the series commences this October.
MotoOnline.com.au has spoken to IEG's Yarrive Konsky about Supercross 2012. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.
Congratulations on releasing the 2012 supercross calendar. Does it provide a good platform for the future in your opinion, considering IEG only took on the promotion of the series in May? Was that the plan?
We have worked extensively since April when we were told the supercross championship may go to tender pending Global Action Sports continuation. We researched demographics, geographic reach, sustainability and affordability. The calendar is the coming together of extensive research. We are confident we have the right mix and a great foundation to grow from.
We predicted that the series would race alongside the MotoGP World Championship round at Phillip Island, which is a mega event. What benefits do you foresee with that kind of cross-promotion?
The MotoGP round, which we are working to finalise in the coming days, will be enormous for the sport. We are engaging a new audience and reaching national and international corporate sectors that previously weren’t possible. It’s also a great way to profile our Australian champions. Cross brand pollination is key to growing the sport.
The opening round looks to be a two-day event. What’s the plan there?
Rounds one and three, possibly four, will have an Australian Arenacross series attached to it. We need to ease riders who have never competed in supercross into it and build big track with safer hits (jumps).
We need to encourage new competition for the years ahead, so we will capitalise on having the venues there and the dirt and run full blown Areanacross events on a decent track the day after the supercross events.
At this point, we understand it’s early in the game in IEG’s case, but what other information can you share as of today? What kind of tracks, formats, classes, etc, could we potentially see?
Supercross will run Pro Open, Pro Lites, Under 19s, Junior Lites and Junior up to 150cc (85cc two-strokes and 150cc four-strokes). The tracks will emulate American Supercross tracks and the formats will be traditional.
We are trying to cross brand some other dirt events in and amongst the championship and hope to widen our audience appeal.
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