We always have to ask the question when a series like the World Supercross Championship is struggling as much as it is, why is that? Let’s be honest, the World economy isn’t great and while news sources will tell you otherwise, I have travelled enough in the past 50 years to see severe cultural and financial problems throughout the World, in recent times.

It is also no secret that other parts of the World are in great shape, driven by the explosive growth of places like China. China is projected to be the largest and richest economy in the world by 2050, according to major long-term economic forecasts from institutions like PwC and Goldman Sachs.

I have mentioned it in the past, but when both promoters from AMA supercross and MXGP couldn’t make a go of World Supercross in the past, then nobody is going to be successful at it.

In 1998, Action Group organized the FIM World Supercross series with races in countries like Germany, Brazil, Italy, and France. Now, these were pretty cool events, but Giuseppe Luongo didn’t continue. 50.000 people did arrive at the opening at the Stad de France in Paris, but still, it wasn’t a viable series and rather than use his GP budgets, he pulled he win on WSX.

From 2002 until 2006, Clear Channel Entertainment (who ran AMA supercross) partnered with the FIM to run the World Supercross GP, holding events in the U.S. and international locations like Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Canada. It was a huge flop and having gone to both the Switzerland and Dutch rounds, I really struggled to get into it and obviously, either did anyone else.

I remember going to the media day on the Friday in Arnhem, The Netherlands one year, and the vibe was so bad on the Friday, that I even skipped the Saturday. With ticket sales to be rumoured to a few hundred people, I just didn’t want to be part of it. The event suffered from poor crowds and low turnout, which contributed to the discontinuation of the FIM/AMA European winter supercross experiment after just two years.

The Monster Energy SMX Riders' Cup (run by Infront) was a landmark indoor motocross and supercross event held at the VELTINS-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, which included riders like Jeffrey Herlings, Ryan Dungey, Marvin Musquin, Romain Febvre, Tim Gajser, Gautier Paulin and many more., but unfortunately, the crowd attendance was very poor and it was never run again.

Take a look at which countries now run major supercross races, hardly any outside of America and Australia. Crowds are down for both those series and while both are still healthy, it isn’t what it once was.

Outside of the Paris Supercross, Europe doesn’t run major events indoors anymore. Gone are the major events in Barcelona, Geneve and Genoa. Even the Arenacross in the UK has cut back its budgets and concentrated on less costly riders being involved. It has been decades since major international supercross races were run throughout Europe, or in Japan and there is a reason for that, it’s just not viable.

This most recent WSX series has been to some pretty cool places, from Abu Dhabi, Gold Coast in Australia, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Cape Town in South Africa, Vancouver in Canada, and many more, so the promoters really did their best to make it work, in really exciting towns, but we saw as many rounds cancelled as we did run.

Any talk of AMA supercross going Worldwide is also just crazy, because the market isn’t there for it. While we all rave about the AMA supercross and their 70.000 crowds, you have to also remember, AMA supercross is something like Monster Trucks, Nitro Circus or any other traditional sporting event that arrives in your city, once a year and the whole family jump into the family car and spend a night together. USA is probably the only country in the World that can attract big crowds indoors.

Even down in Australia, their national supercross championship might be selling good numbers to their events, but most of those rounds are held in stadiums of 10.000 people, although Marvel Stadium, the round for the AusX Open, does get around 40,000 fans, so there is potential down under.

For me, the better WSX disappears, the better for the sport. Lets also DNF the SMX series in USA and get back to the real series, the MXGP, AMA SX and AMA MX and let the riders breath a little. Or even better, drop the SMX and run a three round series which involves Infront, Feld and MXsports and get all the worlds best together, then we can really call that a World SMX championship, with some conviction.

That might work, with a round in USA, a round in Europe and a round in maybe Australia, China or some other cool place. Bring that baby on, because I am not sure anyone wants to miss that.