After the postponement of the MX of Nations Ernée’s Motoclub is ready to bounce back
Since the beginning of the epidemic that has hit the planet, the Moto Club of Ernée was in total uncertainty about the Motocross des Nations next September. After the announcement of the postponement of the event to 2023, the club is now preparing to bounce back.
Meetings have multiplied over the last few weeks, both internally within the club and externally with representatives of the state or the leaders of the FFM and Infront, the promoter of World Motocross. Each time the objective was the same, to analyse the situation and study how the event could be run given the health constraints imposed by the government, each one having at heart to do everything possible to ensure that Ernée vibrates for the third time – after 2005 and 2015 – to the rhythm of the most important event on the Motocross calendar. “We waited until the last moment to make a decision, and we studied all the possibilities before announcing the postponement of the Motocross of Nations in 2023,” confided President Philippe Lecomte. “With three months to go, we couldn’t wait any longer, it was really the deadline given all the commitments that have to be made for such an event. To the end our volunteers continued to work as if the event would take place in September, and I want to thank them publicly for their investment. But in the end, reason prevailed and we agreed with the MFF and Infront to postpone the event because there is still total uncertainty about the health regulations that will apply in September. »
A health and financial risk
The Motocross des Nations welcomes every year more than 30,000 spectators, a figure well beyond the norm of the 5,000 people that can be gathered on the same site. Will this standard change at the start of the new school year? No one knows, and the fact that the organisers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Motorsport have stopped selling tickets confirms the risk that this threshold will remain blocked. “To date the only existing basis is the decree of June 22nd which deals with this 5000-person gauge, and after several meetings with representatives of the state and ministries nobody knows whether this gauge will change or not in the near future. It is necessary to know that on such an event there are about 2500 people mobilized, between drivers, teams, media, organization staff, which would have left the possibility to welcome a maximum of 2500 spectators which is very very far from our needs to balance the budget of the MX des Nations as a French Grand Prix. We had worked by reducing expenses to a minimum in order to reach a sufficient number of entries to balance, but we would have been very very far from it! This decision is therefore the choice of reason in the face of a very significant health and financial risk. Beyond sport, an entire region is deprived of economic spin-offs and I have a thought for our partners, for the communities that have followed us for so long and for our usual event providers who are going through a very, very complicated period,” reports Philippe Lecomte who was able to find solid support from the FFM and Infront. “We worked really well with the FFM and Infront, there was a real cooperation between the three parties and Infront was very understanding. We have agreed to postpone the event to 2023, as commitments have already been made with other nations for MXDN 2021 and 2022. »
The activity must and will resume
Deprived of financial resources this year due to the cancellation of the MX des Nations but also of the 6 Hours ATV, the club has nonetheless carried out with the support of the communities major modification work on the Raymond Demy circuit. A circuit where the activity should resume this summer, once the new route is approved. “The near future goal is clearly to reopen the track and to operate it again as we used to do before, that is to say to host training courses and training sessions in August I think. We need to re-launch activities to keep the site and the club alive,” continued Philippe, who will now work with his team to plan for the future. “We’re giving ourselves a little time to set up a project for the next three years, since our goal is the MXDN 2023. We had to cancel the 6 hours of ATVing but it is clearly an event that we want to anchor in the calendar on May 1st; the 2019 edition had been a success, the 2020 edition was sold out two months before the event while we had increased the capacity by 50 crews. On the motocross side, we plan to relaunch with a French Championship event in 2021, then a Grand Prix in 2022. This would allow us to do a full-scale rehearsal before the 2023 MX des Nations Grand Rendezvous,” he concludes, looking serenely to the future.
