AUSSIE ISDE TEAM FUNDING: MA EXPLAINS

We ask MA’s CEO, Peter Doyle, to explain how Australian representative teams are funded, and why only the Aussie Women’s team is going to this year’s ISDE in Argentina.

A couple of weeks ago, when we published an article about Motorcycling Australia’s (MA) contentious decision to only send a Women’s team to the ISDE in Argentina this November, it caused quite the furore. And when we subsequently posted the piece on Transmoto’s Facebook channel, people sure weren’t afraid to offer their opinion – much of which unloaded with both barrels on MA!

But was this indignant and often angry reaction justified? Was it based on facts or misinformation? How does MA’s financial assistance model work when it comes to Australia’s national teams competing in international motorcycle racing events? And what was the actual basis of MA’s decision not to send either of the men’s teams to the Argentinean ISDE this year?

This week, we posed those questions and more to MA’s CEO, Peter Doyle, and here’s a transcript of that revealing conversation…

TM: G’day, Peter. Did you get the chance to cast an eye over the comments on Transmoto’s Facebook page; the reactions to MA’s decision to only send a Women’s team to the ISDE in Argentina later this year?
I try not to spend too much time reading that stuff for the simple reason that there are a lot of self-professed experts in this sport, but many of the people making those comments are misinformed. And unfortunately, they don’t realise that because they don’t ask questions.

Hence this phone call, Peter. We’re here to throw some relevant questions at you on their behalf.
I appreciate that because giving people a broad overview of how funding works in this country for our national sporting teams – and how the allocation of that funding has changed over the years – will put things in perspective and address 99 percent of those misinformed comments.

“Since 2016, the Australian Sports Commission really only funds Olympic sports. Olympic sports became the focus for a greater majority of the funding, and money received by all other sports was cut back significantly.”

Okay. So, broadly speaking, how does funding model work for athletes and teams who represent Australia at international events?
Back in the heyday of the government handing out money to everybody – and I’m talking around 2015 – MA received about $700,000 from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) for the year. And that was used primarily to fund Australian teams competing at international events. These days, however, the ASC really only funds Olympic sports – to a higher level, anyway. This massive change to the federal government’s funding took place back in around 2016. It meant Olympic sports were the focus for a greater majority of the funding, and money received by all other sports was cut back significantly. If you have a look at the current funding MA receives from the ASC , it’s only $100,000 this year. And honestly, we need to spend about half of that just to be attached to the Australian Sports Commission. So, in reality, non-Olympic sports actually aren’t getting much funding at all. The government’s argument is that Olympic sports have a much broader participation base than motorcycle racing. Which is not always the case. In fact, it’s clear that some sports are receiving funding that’s disproportionate to what they should be getting, so maybe people should be lobbying the Australian Sports Commission about the level of funding for motorsport in this country; asking them to consider the fact that motorsports’ contribution to the economy is superior to many of the Olympic sports. As always, to get more funding out of the government, you’ve got to have a broad base of people constantly lobbying them.

Are there strings attached to the funding that MA receives from the ASC? In other words, does the ASC dictate how and/or where MA spends it?
Absolutely there are strings attached. Motorcycling Australia is obliged to spend that money in a certain way, and none of that has anything to do with assisting our national teams at international events. It only involves areas such as accreditation schemes, education, training and database management. It’s called ‘Participation Funding’. In other words, there’s no longer any link between funding for non-Olympic sports and sending our teams to international events. International participation is just not part of that funding.

“In 2015, MA received about $700,000 from the Australian Sports Commission. In 2023, that funding sits at around $100,000.”

Meaning MA’s funding for Australian representative teams is an allocation determined by MA itself?
Correct.

So, how much funding had been set aside by MA for Australia’s ISDE effort in 2023? Less than the $120,000 back in the pre-2016 heyday you mentioned above, right?
Right. But you’ve got to remember that when Motorcycling Australia was spending 120 grand on the ISDE, they were also basically insolvent at that time. The ISDE budget for 2023 was just over $100,000 plus some support in-kind, and that’s up on recent years’ ISDE budgets.

What’s the “in-kind” component?
Well, there’s a lot of in-kind put in by MA staff and other people, and that’s not charged against the ISDE budget. It includes things like people on the ground at the event, FIM licences that we might be able to fund from an athlete support budget; that sort of thing.

How does that level of financial assistance for the Aussie ISDE teams compare with funding from other countries’ federations?
Well, take a look at how it works for the American ISDE team – who, like the Aussies, have won the event a couple of times in recent years. American riders pay for everything, and they pay for the privilege! This year, each American rider must pay the AMA [American Motorcyclist Association] over 4000 US Dollars to be part of the team, and then they pay their own expenses on top of that. Take the trouble to read the ‘Letter of Intent’ form that American riders need to fill out if they want to be selected on Team USA for the ISDE. They even have to agree that they’ll wear an Arai helmet in the event because Arai give the AMA money for that. The AMA tip in exactly zero to their team’s ISDE effort. In America, if you want to go and represent your country, you pay for it. Same goes for the MX of Nations. You may have seen something that Eli Tomac posted about it costing him more than 20,000 dollars to compete in the MXoN last year. And that event was staged in his home country of USA! Hopefully, that American example will help Australians put their expectations about our ISDE team funding in better perspective.

“MA’s ISDE budget for 2023 was just over $100,000 plus some support in-kind, and that’s up on recent years’ ISDE budgets.”

So, talk us through how the decision was subsequently made to not spend all of that $100K ISDE budget this year, and only send an Aussie Women’s team to the Argentinean event.
All the riders who were potentially going to be selected were canvassed. That included the guys who told us they were unavailable and/or their equipment was unavailable, along with riders who were interested and could get equipment but weren’t prepared to self-fund. After that process, the recommendation from the Management Committee – the Australian Enduro Commission, who it’s important to point out are also general MA members – was that Australia should not go to the Argentinean ISDE at all.

But our Women’s team is still going! How’s that work?
Ultimately, the riders from the Women’s team put forward a very good case to MA. They made it clear they wanted to go and had the ability to go, so MA made the decision to support an Australian Women’s team.

The women have set a target of $60,000 for their personal GoFundMe fundraising efforts, but they’ve told Transmoto it’s likely to cost a total of $80,000 for the three of them to compete. And that’s doing it on-the-cheap. How much is MA looking to contribute?
I can guarantee you MA will be their biggest sponsor. We’re working through exactly what that support looks like, and the budget is not yet finalised. But I would say that MA’s support for them will be somewhere between 25 and 30 grand, plus in-kind. Which is a significant level of support.

In which case, what does MA plan to do with the ‘unused’ portion of the initial $100,000 ISDE budget for 2023?
The Management Committee has proposed it is spent on forward-planning to set ourselves up better for future ISDEs. Broadly speaking, the plan is to upgrade the infrastructure and equipment in Australia’s shipping container, which is what’s been used to transport bikes and gear to and from previous ISDEs. Partly funded by this year’s remaining budget, that container will be sent off to Europe, and that will put us in a much better position to prepare for the 2024 ISDE in Spain. The freight quotes we received – including Carnet documentation, etcetera – for our shipping container’s return trip to either Europe or South America got as high as $70,000 at one point. To put that in perspective for you, that’s two or three times the cost prior to Covid!

“MA’s ISDE budget for 2023 was just over $100,000 plus some support in-kind, and that’s up on recent years’ ISDE budgets.”

How does the $100,000 ISDE budget compare with what MA spends on other Aussie national teams competing at international events?
MA supports Australian teams at five international events – ISDE, MXoN, Speedway of Nations, Trial of Nations and Junior World Motocross – for a total budget of close to $300,000. In other words, the ISDE gets a very good share of that overall budget – about one-third.

Did the rumours a few months back that the Argentinean ISDE may not go ahead play into MA’s decision not to send Aussie men’s teams this year?
I’ve been a long-time team manager in several racing disciplines and I’m open to racing all over the world, but it’s been clear for some time now that taking the ISDE to South America this year was not a popular decision for many nations, mainly because the post-Covid costs for teams to get there is horrendously high. From a freight and airfare perspective, it’s especially high for Australia, given where we sit geographically. For Australia to compete at the Argentinean ISDE, even at a relatively low level, we would need $300,000. That’s what it would cost for Australia’s three ISDE teams, comprising 10 riders, to compete with the other comparable national teams. That’s why you’ll find that many, many countries are not sending full-strength teams to Argentina. For example, the Poms, Italians and Scandinavians are all sending B-teams or reduced teams, so it stands to be one of the weakest ISDEs ever. In a way, it’s a good thing that the European countries will now get an idea of the post-Covid costs and logistics involved, because most ISDEs – conveniently for them – are held within Europe.

Plus, from what we’ve heard, a bunch of manufacturers have completely withdrawn support for their own contracted riders to attend the Argentinean ISDE.

It’s true that manufacturer and distributor support for the event is very low. And I get that. Why would a manufacturer here in Australia want to spend money promoting the sport in South America? I also know that a lack of European-based manufacturer support has meant that their contracted Australian riders contesting the World Championship were unavailable to race this year’s ISDE. The same goes for the two leading riders in Great Britain’s ISDE team, and Great Britain are reigning ISDE champs.

“MA supports Australian teams at five international events – ISDE, MXoN, Speedway of Nations, Trial of Nations and Junior World MX – for a total budget of close to $300,000. So, the ISDE gets a very good share of that overall budget.”

Having Aussie riders on factory-backed teams has always complicated things at the ISDE and other international events, hasn’t it?

Yep, it sure has. There’s a world of difference between sending an Australia-based rider and a GP-style rider – no matter what discipline you’re talking about. If you take a guy such as Daniel Sanders a few years ago, he could jump on a bike that he picked up in the ISDE host nation, take some bits and pieces to personalise the bike for himself, and race the event. When you’re a contracted GP rider, however, you’re not allowed to go anywhere without your race bike. And when it’s your race bike, it’s also your team staff and your regular mechanics – not a mate who you bring along to help out. That’s where costs really start to escalate. On top of that, you get in situations where sponsors are not able to support the national team because there are conflicts with GP team riders’ sponsors.

No doubt these issues apply to MXoN teams too?
Absolutely they do. Let’s say we decided to send Dean Ferris, Nathan Crawford and Kyle Webster to this year’s MXoN – that’d make it much easier for us to organise our team. But when you start talking about the Lawrence brothers, for example, you’re then dealing with HRC and American Honda, plus team owners and rider managers. In other words, putting yourself in the best position to win the event makes the process a whole lot more complex. I don’t want to be critical of riders, but my advice is that any rider likely to be selected on a national team should ensure there’s a clause in their contract to the effect that, if they’re selected, then the team will support them at that international event. It would certainly make things a lot easier – for the rider and for their national team – if that formed part of their contract.

Thanks for your time, Peter. It was great to get a snapshot of the funding model and numbers for Aussie teams, and to put that in perspective relative to other countries and other disciplines in Oz.
My pleasure, Andy.