Even sheep get cold feet.

The Parliament of Sheep met yesterday to determine the fate of the National Bicycle League. Would it become part of the ABA, creating a single national BMX sanctioning body, or would it continue to serve as an ATM from which USA Cycling could withdraw vast amounts of cash at will? The Sheep of USAC had a big decision to make, and one in which they could not possibly lose, because they would be paid millions of dollars either way. I wasn't there, but I imagine it went something like this:

The Head Sheep clambered up on top of a rock. "Fellow Sheep", he intoned, "some years ago we managed to talk a bunch of chimpanzees into giving us the revenue from the nation's second-largest BMX sanctioning body. Since then, we have used this money in any way we desired, all the while stringing these silly chimps along with promises that we would 'evaluate' their riders and 'accept letters' containing their riders' addresses. In the meantime, we have managed to hand out half a million dollars per year in compensation to OUR people!" Wild cheering erupted, but the Head Sheep waved a hoof for silence.

"Now we have a decision to make. Do we take $2.5 million dollars from the ABA, or do we continue to make money off the NBL just the way it is, tossing the occasional Olympic dream in from of them, much as our friends the Donkeys are led across the desert by carrots held ahead of them on sticks... carrots which they will never reach! Either way, my fellow sheep, we will get MAD FAT CASH!" More cheering... and then it was time to vote. And the sheep raised a single voice to the sky, saying,

"The sale to the ABA would be..."

"...."

"BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!" And just like that, Clayton John's effort to rescue the NBL from a road cycling organization was stopped dead in its tracks.

I heard the news approximately ten minutes before a Pat Metheny Group concert here in Columbus, Ohio. Those of you who know me well know that nothing short of nuclear war could stop me from enjoying a PMG gig - and even then, I'm not sure that would do it, unless Pat's tour bus was blown up in the process - so I didn't worry about it until I got home that night.

Approximately sixty people emailed me to find out what I thought about the decision, including one NBL Trustee who sent me a somewhat deranged rant about his personal "victory" over me. The correct response to all of these people would have been "Who cares what I think? I'm an old fat guy with a website." My massive ego prevents me from being that honest, however, so what follows are my observations on what we can expect in the future, and what we need to do to preserve BMX for the next generation of riders.

Let's start with a little "Last week on, 'As the NBL Turns'", just to acquire perspective.

• USA Cycling obtained control of the NBL. There is much speculation as to how this was done, and how much various people were paid. All we can say for sure is that local tracks didn't see any extra money and entry fees stayed the same or went up. So, if anybody benefited, it wasn't the rider body.
• USA Cycling apparently uses NBL funds to make up shortfalls in their operations. The focus of USA Cycling is to promote Olympic road cycling. USA Cycling spent a couple of million dollars per year to coach cyclists. No BMX riders received the benefit of this coaching.
• "Letters" and "evaluations" aside, BMX is no closer to being in the Olympics today than it was when Scot Breithaupt was handing out old motorcycle trophies in the early Seventies.
• The USAC's deep-seated contempt for BMX eventually caused them to contemplate selling their cash cow to the ABA.
• The ABA indicated that they were willing to buy. Remember, USA Cycling went to the ABA to get rid of the NBL.
• Everybody went nuts. Florida threatened to break out its own sanctioning body. A Florida attorney circulated a letter designed to terrify those of us who never finished the eighth grade into thinking the ABA would make us buy three dollar water bottles at every race. A bunch of people whose closest normal contact with the law was watching "Judge Mathis" in the afternoons declared their intention to sue somebody, anybody, if the NBL was sold.
• The Board of Trustees sent out a letter pleading against the sale, noting that since USA Cycling had agreed to accept letters containing the names and addresses of top BMX riders for consideration, we were pretty much in the Olympics and therefore shouldn't upset the apple cart. The letter asked us to support "NBL Business", confusing the heck out of those of us who thought the NBL was a nonprofit, and possibly causing other confused but earnest people to visit their local ABA tracks and demand that those tracks cut moto and rider count, break the starting gate, and incite more on-track BMX-parent fistfights in order to conform to the "NBL business method".
• The USA Cycling board voted not to accept the ABA's proposal; rather odd, since USA Cycling was trying like heck to dump the NBL prior to the vote and it must be admitted that $2.5 million dollars is a lot of money for a failing BMX sanction. What was the USBA worth a few years before it closed its doors? Not $2.5 mil, I'll tell you that.

Which brings us to the present day. I will break my thoughts on the subject down to Observations, Predictions, and Advice.

Observations

• The NBL needs to get out of USA Cycling at any cost. In the made-for-TV movies, when the wicked foster parents start beating the foster kid while simultaneously telling the neighbors that the kid is "just fine", that's when the foster kid needs to get out of the house pronto. Same with the NBL. If $2.5 million dollars isn't enough to sell, that indicates to me that USAC plans on bilking NBL members out of more than $2.5M in the near future. Bottom line: We're locked in the basement and Foster Dad is sharpening his chainsaw upstairs. It's time to break a window and climb out. Which leads me to wonder: Would the self-proclaimed "attorneys" who tried to kill the ABA sale work equally hard to help the NBL out of this bind? Don't hold your breath.
• The NBL is failing fast while the ABA gains. Last year the ABA opened 65 new tracks while the best the NBL can claim is a break-even from 2001. If you compare the amount of races and entries the ABA has compared to the NBL, there is no comparison - the ABA claims to be running three times the number of races every year, on more than twice as many tracks, and I have no reason to doubt them. Once upon a time, the ABA and NBL were neighbors in the BMX business; today, the ABA is building a McMansion while the NBL begs for change in the streets. If this trend continues, there won't be an NBL left to sell. There's a certain number of tracks needed to support a sanction and a national season. It might be one hundred, it might be fifty, it might be thirty - but when the NBL falls under that number, it will implode.
• The ABA doesn't need to pay USA Cycling to control BMX in America. With a total war chest of $2.5M over five years, the ABA could offer each NBL track in America $25,000 to switch sanctions, and most of them would take the money and switch. The average local track could really use ten grand in equipment and assistance. What would they do for more than twice that? After all, most of the kids out there don't care if their license says ABA or NBL - a fact pathetically ignored by the self-absorbed bigwigs on the NBL Board. If the ABA took over five more states and fifty more tracks, the NBL would be one-sixth the size of the ABA. At that point, would an NBL #1 plate mean anything?
• Florida is the tail that wags the NBL dog. There are a lot of great people, great riders, and great tracks in Florida, but I don't want the Florida State Commissioner running the NBL as a de facto dictator. My sources theorize that Florida opposition killed the ABA deal. Why? What are the Florida people afraid of? How could having a great nationwide BMX program hurt them? Would they be willing to kill this sport just so their kids don't have to face California's best riders?
• A lot of people prefer NBL BMX to just plain BMX. One thing that became clear from reading email and message boards was that many NBL riders hate the ABA more than they hate the WTC terrorists - even more than they hate Jeff Gordon! The message boards crackled with bizarre accusations against the ABA. It's like being in the USSR in the Fifties and hearing that the United States tortures children or something. People, please - go to an ABA event if you haven't already done so. ABA riders are just like NBL riders, except they expect races to start on time. They may have the transfer system, but at least they don't have the bizarre National point rules the NBL has, where you can lose one moto in a National season, win the main, and still be the #2 rider.

Predictions

• The NBL will never have 150 tracks again. The sun is setting on NBL local racing and nobody seems to care. Five-moto locals are considered normal "NBL Business". The only purpose the local program seems to serve is to supply the National circus with fresh meat.
• Unless drastic changes are made, the NBL will not survive the next decade... and I'm not so sure about the ABA either. In order to survive, BMX must find tens of thousands of new riders per year. In an era where local tracks can't stay open, and kids would rather stay at home and play GameCube, I'm not optimistic. BMX might end up as a small traveling National sport with perhaps fifty tracks nationwide, which is right where we were in the early Seventies. That's progress for you.
• BMX racing will never be in the Olympics. Faced with a choice between a dying sport torn to shreds by infighting and, say, X-Games-style dirt jumping, I wouldn't a bit surprised if the US Olympic Committee chose the latter. They are having a hard enough time getting people to watch the Olympics on TV without adding BMX racing to the mix.
• A lot of riders will have a lot of fun racing despite everything above. When I started racing, seventeen years ago, I didn't know a thing about the NBL, ABA, or USBA. I didn't care how many tracks there were. I just liked racing... and most young riders are the same today. The difference is that we now have to fight skateparks and trails to get those riders, to say nothing of rollerblades, skateboards, and scooters. It will be fun while it lasts. Personally speaking, I had a lot of fun at the fifty-moto Nationals of the early Nineties. In order to make this fun available to as many potential riders as possible, however, we need to do better.

Now we come to the last section, Advice, where I make suggestions on how to make the best of a bad situation.

• The National Championship needs to be unified, as does the World Championship. I don't care if we do a Super Bowl, I don't care if we have a unified National season... but we need to stop this fiction of two #1 riders in every class. It makes BMX look cut-rate and small-time, and it keeps a lot of #1 riders from being truly happy with their accomplishments.
• Both sanctions need to cut the number of Nationals and focus on local racing. I've been saying this in print since 1990, but it bears repeating. Local racing is the foundation of our sport. Without a strong local program BMX cannot continue. The ABA "gets it" but they are afraid that without a large National program they will lose the big spenders to the NBL. We need to stop this arms race NOW.
• We need to recapture the "cool factor", and big jumps won't do it. Right now, BMX in general and NBL BMX in particular just looks... lame. In a half-hearted and unsuccessful attempt to woo dirt-jumping dropouts, we've spread jumps and created dastardly rhythm sections... and only succeeded in hurting kids and cutting moto numbers. The kids want to race. Young riders don't want to spend five years mastering the track before they can feel safe enough to push against their competition. They want to get out there and compete. If you watch any race from the Eighties, you will see eight riders going together into the first turn. Today, the race is already won by then. Jumping's an important part of BMX, and we can emphasize that with big tabletops, interesting sections, and difficult turns. The best jumpers will always have an edge... but we need to keep the pack closer to keep riders interested. We could take a lesson from (I hate to say it) NASCAR in this regard. People like competition, not a long string of tired kids bumping over stuff.
• We need responsible action and guidance from our Trustees. Instead of composing hate mail to washed-up B Pros, (I mean A Pros, of course... because we imitated the ABA and changed) the Trustees need to be out at races, dropping gates if they are capable of doing so, and talking to people. I've met Mr. Tedesco, I've met Mr. John, but these Trustees hide in the shadows. Hey Trustee dudes - don't tell me about Competition Congress, because I'm not going to waste a productive work week to fly somewhere and hold your hand while you blabber away and work through three-martini lunches courtesy of my membership fees. I want to see you at the track paying attention, not dozing away behind a desk or working as an industry toady somewhere, taking glamour shots of skatepark riders. Get in the ring.

Fixing BMX is easy, if the people involved are willing to put aside their personal interests long enough to do it. November fifth was a vote for more mediocrity, more of the same, more misery... but it can be the kick in the hind ends that we Donkeys need to get moving. And this time, we can do it without the help of the bleating sheep at USAC.