Results 1 to 1 of 1

Thread: The MRA and AMA Sanctioning - Survey Coming Soon

  1. #1
    President Expert
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Nunya
    Posts
    4,441

    Post The MRA and AMA Sanctioning - Survey Coming Soon

    As you may have heard recently, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) has changed their rider eligibility policy, and is now requiring club racers who want to race in the MotoAmerica series to “come up” through an AMA Sanctioned club. At present, and for at least the last decade, the MRA has NOT been an AMA “sanctioned club”, yet we have maintained our Charter status with AMA since the MRA began back in 1974. In fact, I believe we have the distinction of the oldest and longest standing chartered club in the country.


    For many years the MRA maintained both our AMA Sanctioning and Charter because the affiliations and relationships the AMA had forged with vendors allowed clubs access to the best insurance products available - which allowed the MRA to put on, and insure our events with the best insurance at the best price available. They also offered “rider accident insurance” which was an option for riders as either primary or supplemental insurance in the event that they were injured during competition – but you had to be an AMA member to get it (of course). These were huge benefits to the club and our members, and at many times over the years the ONLY way we, or our members, were able to acquire insurance for our events at an affordable rate – if at all. The fact that AMA membership had individual perks was just an added bonus.


    In or around 2008 all of that changed. The financial and economic downturn nearly killed ALL club racing in the United States, and the AMA insurance products were no longer competitive in the market. As one of our many initiatives to keep the MRA solvent, we opted to buy our event insurance “outside of the AMA” which ultimately saved us tens of thousands of dollars in the first year alone. Because the AMA membership was no longer “required” – the Board chose to make personal AMA Memberships optional for our members.


    In that moment, we needed our racers to spend as much money with the MRA as possible and - the board needed to spend as little as possible on events. This was the recipe that we followed to keep the club alive. The money that would have gone to the AMA ultimately was spent with the MRA instead. This was a smart business decision, and it among other significant changes are key factors in why the MRA still exists today. We have continued to purchase our event insurance outside of the AMA as it has consistently been a much better option financially, and until now, there has been no detriment to our club or our members.


    Now that the AMA/MotoAmerica is requiring AMA Sanctioning of clubs for riders to participate, the MRA has a difficult decision to make. We would certainly continue to purchase our insurance outside of the AMA if it remains the best option, but we would have to pay the “Sanctioning Fee” for every event along with a requirement for ALL racing members of the MRA to become AMA members at their own cost, which is currently $49 annually. This is a significant additional expense each year for literally a handful of our racers to participate in a few of the AMA/MotoAmerica events. This in a time where 65% of our members choose to participate in fewer than 4-5 of our events each year, partially for financial reasons making organizational decisions that increase costs is a pretty big ask of our members at this time.


    The UtahSBA has recently announced that they will begin being AMA sanctioned again in 2020. They, like us, abandoned sanctioning some years ago because it did not offer any benefits to their organization or members. With this decision from the AMA and MotoAmerica it makes sense for them to return to the Sanctioning model since they host a MotoAmerica round at Utah Motorsports Campus.

    The MRA Board of Directors is anticipating launching a member poll in the very near future to determine whether or not to pursue AMA Sanctioning for 2020. Like the UtahSBA we believe that we are too late in 2019 to make this change for this year. We would appreciate your participation and input once the survey launches. Also, feel free to respond to the post here or on the MRA Facebook group with any questions or comments - https://www.facebook.com/groups/2791...6447880449830/
    Last edited by JimWilson29; April 11th, 2019 at 03:03 PM.
    MRA #29

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •