Matt Bates, the promoter of the Arenacross Tour in the UK has been putting together brilliant events for years now and his passion for the sport and motivation to see the sport grow has always been one of his main goals. Sure, promoters need to make money, but he has also invested in the sport and his latest venture might be his biggest achievement yet.

With dreams of a World Arenacross championship and also a better grass routes system in the UK, we thought, it might be time to give him a call.

Little did we know that Bates is looking at a much bigger picture as he looks at possibly even running a round of the MXGP championship in the middle east and inviting riders like Jeffrey Herlings to be involved in the future of his World Arenacross championship.

For the UK riders and fans, expect an SMX type event for the British championship and Arenacross competitors. Exciting times as Mr Arenacross heads to Abu Dhabi for the next month to sort out some of his future plans, which he hopes also one days means an MXGP round in the middle east.

MXLarge: Obviously, the big news is Abu Dhabi, because that is huge for the series, its huge for the sport and as we have seen with boxing, football, golf and many other sports, that region of the World is becoming the hot bed for sports. You have a series that runs perfectly, and I can imagine you wanted to grow, as you have mentioned in the past. How did it come about the whole Abu Dhabi deal?

Bates: What is interesting, we have been talking to Abu Dhabi for a number of years, but we needed to wait until the built the Etihad Arena, so from our side, we had to be patient. We know the guys there and we have known the guys for years. The opportunity arose and similar to the UK, you have a music venue, and there were some questions, can this venue be used for Arenacross and World supercross. You don’t build an F1 track and just run one race on it, so this works the same with this stadium. It has always been my ambition to take the Arenacross Tour abroad and you know that Geoff. I think this is just the start and I am spending a month out in the middle east and hopefully, we can launch one or two more events out there as well.

MXLarge: Wow, sounds fantastic. There are so many sports going there, I often wonder why we don’t have a round of MXGP in the middle east and I do know that Infront want that and are busy with that. Maybe there is a waiting list like you were in. I love my boxing and its huge in the middle east now as are many sports. Do you deal with locals or Brits?

Bates: It is actually interesting, because the expat community is rather large there and there are a lot of British and American people and the locals are very westernized and dealing with Etihad Arena you are dealing with people who have maybe worked at Silverstone or Wembley Stadium and they are working with Government supported events, but actually delivering an event is rather difficult, because as you can imagine, they are getting offers from every single sport, because the World is naturally greedy and all the sports want to be part of the Abu Dhabi sporting frenzy. You need to get your event over the line and signed on the dotted line, and that is one hell of a task.

MXlarge: You run a great series, and everyone feels the Arenacross is run perfectly, but I can imagine doing the international route was also important to keep you motivated, otherwise it might be easy getting a bit bored doing the same thing year after year?

Bates: That is exactly it. As much as Arenacross has been around for 10 years, as you know, I have been doing a lot of supercross events and other events for 24 years and I think I have done 200 nights of indoor motocross. There comes a point, at 52 years of age, that I want a challenge, and I want to enjoy myself doing it as well. All these young men, that I think are grafters, and technically so good, you want to give them a stage to perform on and that they are paid well. I was an average motocross rider, who didn’t earn a lot of money out of the sport, yet I have dedicated my life to it. There are so many cases like that and if I can do my bit, top help the likes of Jack Brunell, or Tommy (Searle) at the end of his career and they can still make a living from it, then, that ticks a big box for me. That second tier of supercross riders, that World supercross are getting and we are getting, they can prolong their career.

MXlarge: Even this new Indian league. I think it’s a fantastic time for riders who are mainly indoor racers, but not good enough to maybe be top ten in AMA supercross and they can still make a good living. You know, I look at even somebody like Jeffrey Herlings, who might race high level motocross for another two or three years, but somebody like him, with his talent, could easily race this level of indoor events and be successful for a number of years?

Bates: I actually messaged him, maybe four or five months ago and I mentioned to him, I would love you to come and race Arenacross, and it doesn’t have to be today or tomorrow, but in the future, when you GP career is done. Fair play to him, and what a good guy. You can message riders, and they don’t always reply, but he replied straight back and said, he would love to in the future, but not just yet. I hope by the time somebody like Jeffrey comes along and races our series, that the series will be a fully-fledged World championship. That is my goal.

MXlarge: A round of the World supercross championship, or a full Arenacross World championship?

Bates: I want to pick a few of the events of the British rounds and then all our international events and then I want that to be an official FIM World championship. Maybe, we can be smart about it and work closely with the guys from the World supercross championship, because I think we can both help each other for the good of the sport. I have made it clear to the FIM and they are receptive, and we need to land a few more international events.

MXLarge: I was speaking to Kurt Nicol a while ago and as you know he is now involved in the World supercross championship and Kurt mentioned how good the MXGP and MX2 riders are now technically and any of them could race indoors and be successful. I think MXGP tracks have helped make that progress and we see it with how the Grand Prix riders now are the best in the World.

Bates: Totally and if you look at the sport, 30 years ago, at the high in the 1980s and 1990s and funnily enough, whenever there was something a little bit supercross like on a track, he would be one of the first to have that taken out (Nicol for those that don’t know was a multiple World number two in MXGP). Now, you fast forward 30 years and look at what MXGP have done, the circuits are supercross tracks on steroids. That skill level is now the same as supercross.

MXLarge: You have the British rounds, and you have perfected that so well, what can you do to make it more exciting?

Bates: At the minute, it would be nice to save some costs and all we have done is spend a lot of money. You cannot sit back, because the World is changing so much, and I get a thrill of seeing people who stand up and get excited. Next year we have a lot happening and the way I see it, it is easy for me, I hold my hand up, we are Arenacross, but we are 50% racing and 50% a show, entertainment. What makes me excited is to see the show evolve. I want the people to enjoy the experience. The thing that is important is, Arenacross tracks are rather easy, and you don’t see the huge parity from the better riders to the mid-level riders, so the racing is always good. 50% of our crowd are not motocross fans, they are just out for a good night out and they might know Tommy Searle at the start of the night, but they know him at the end of the night and are cheering for him.

MXlarge: Tell me about the changes?

Bates: The first round in Birmingham and the last round in Manchester will have international riders, and those rounds will count for both the British series and the World series. We will have two finals for each series, so an international final and a British final. We are currently working with teams for these international riders and that final round in Abu Dhabi, the top twenty riders, we take them to Abu Dhabi for the final. A true British championship and a true World championship. On the other classes, we are cutting back the youth classes, but putting in a new 125cc class, so like the Arenacross lights class. We have so many great kids in this class, and I think if a few years, we will see some good riders coming from the 125cc class.

MXLarge: Obviously we see the changes in the British motocross championship next year, with the ACU taking the series back in house, but Paul Irwin running the series, which I think is brilliant, because he really knows how the make a series work and is also 100% behind making the sport better. What is your feeling on the change?

Bates: Paul and I have been friends since we were 10 years old, and we were actually at a meeting with the ACU, and we are on the same page. I am giving them the shop window with the Arenacross series in the winter and then you want some of those fans picked up and taken to the motocross series in the summer. Within 10 minutes talking, we both went to the youth, what we need to do with youth racing and have a platform and also about grass routes and with falling bike sales, we need to get into the electric bikes, because there are 1000’s of them and we need to have them racing. We are also working on the Arenacross series and the outdoor series in the UK and doing something similar to the American Supermotocross series. If I can help them with that, then I am all in, because it benefits everyone.

MXlarge: MXGP started the pyramid system, and you see Worldwide that more series are using that system now. MXGP is in my opinion the most professionally run series in the World. What do you think?

Bates: I think MXGP is brilliant, everything they do with it, the way the series is run, the television, the way they work with promoters, there are no negative, but of course, seeing 15 riders on the start doesn’t look good, but that is a problem it doesn’t matter what system you have in place. We also have it with the Arenacross series, getting riders on the line. For me, if you look at MXGP, AMA, World supercross and us, the closer we can work together, the better everyone is for it. Given the chance, I would love to run a round of the MXGP championship and if somebody asked me to run MXGP, I would take it, so I must be a fan of it.

MXLarge: Unfortunately, the filling gates thing is a problem Worldwide, in England, in Australia in Europe.

Bates: As I said, we have the same problem. I can attract guys like Tommy Searle, Conrad Mewse and others, but then we have a big gap in the middle. I struggle to get all the British riders, but our track team are building track, the same as our Arenacross track for the first round and next week, we have an open day for all the top British motocross riders to come give it a try. So, they can give it a go and be a part of it and don’t turn it down. We have around 35 riders coming, and I struggle to get 10 or 12 of those guys to an Arenacross. Tommy Searle is behind it, and it was actually Ed’s (Tommy’s mate) idea.