I had my mind blown yesterday when I chatted with a buddy who works as a rider agent in the industry. We were talking about Josh Grant’s move to JGR next year and somehow the topic of rider salaries came up. I think I asked him because he is one of the few people that have a good idea what riders are making from the top guys to those begging for rides. When I heard that Josh Grant was making somewhere around $850,000 I almost swallowed my tongue. I know that once you hit thirty you are considered a dinosaur in this sport, but this Big-Bellied Pingasaurus cannot fathom a team paying that much money to a guy that has yet to win a title. I guess each generation feels the exact same way about it. Bob Hannah probably put his fist through a wall when he found out how much money Jean-Michel Bayle was making when he was here. Ricky Johnson probably couldn’t believe how much money Lusk, McGrath, and Vuillemin were making when he was watching from a suite during the late 1990s. And Jeremy would be impressed by how much loot Stewart and Villopoto are getting paid right now. And in another decade those guys will shake their head at the salaries that Eli Tomac and Adam Cianciarulo will be pulling down. And when those guys are retired and we are racing dirt bikes on the moon in shiny silver suits with a big V on the front it will boggle their minds how much the top riders will be getting paid then. Although at that point it might be payment in oxygen credits or food capsules or some other valued commodity. And I’m sure Al Gore will have invented that, too, just like the Internet.
But even the guys that are struggling to make a name for themselves are getting PAID these days. I don’t want to sound like a bitter old guy but when I signed with Mitch in 1995 I got the starting salary for a rookie…$25,000. And I knew I wasn’t getting totally screwed because he paid
Ricky Carmichael the exact same amount two years later when he started there. Kids today are getting anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000 before they’ve even raced a pro national! Go ahead and gather up the pieces if your head just exploded. I’ll wait a minute… Keep in mind I’m not just talking about the
Nico Izzis and
Austin Stroupes here. Guys that have never been close enough to a podium to catch the sweat dripping off the winner’s jock are making solid six figures.
Hey, I’m not mad at them… I just want to be sixteen again.