BSB: “People need to understand it doesn’t grow on trees” Nick Morgan discusses how Covid-19 is affecting teams

After opting out of the 2020 British Superstock 1000 season, MSS Performance boss Nick Morgan explained how teams like his are struggling to find the finances to complete the 2020 season.

Morgan’s MSS Performance outfit were forced to delay their return to the Superstock 1000 grid, after their title sponsor found themselves unable to continue their sponsorship. With the Covid-19 crisis affecting the financial situation of many businesses, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for motorsport sponsors to find the marketing budget to help fund racing teams.

“A significant number of companies aren’t going to have the disposable income. If you’ve had half your firm furloughed, and you’ve laid off another load of people, how on earth are you going to justify or quantify sticking hundreds of thousands of pounds into motorsport for marketing? It’s just not going to happen” Morgan explained.

The MSS boss told that the extent to which the crisis is affecting teams, is down to the structure of the teams themselves. Morgan explained that many teams like MSS are heavily dependant on a title sponsor.

After a 8 year hiatus, a contributing factor that put the MSS return on hold for another year was the added costs involved in starting a new project.

“Starting all over again meant my little firm had to stick the best part of £180k in infrastructure, such as trucks, trailers, everything. So it affected us quite dramatically in regards to that financial input. It came down to simple economics, if the money’s not there the money’s not there, that’s it. I’ve fallen into that trap over previous years of funding it and spending up to £400k a year, and I just can’t do it. People have to understand that it doesn’t grow on trees.”

A racing team is quite literally always racing against the clock. Nick Morgan also talked of how a team doesn’t have time to sit still. Certain decisions need to be made by certain deadlines, with the necessary funding in place.

“Regardless of this Covid-19 and the financial implications of that, you still don’t want to let your key people down. Which for us is Kawasaki Motors UK, but you have to have that cut off, hence why I announced this week, after making the decision on Tuesday, that that was it. We couldn’t see it going forward. Someone could come up next week with £100k, but for me next week is too late, I don’t have the time then to do what I’ve got to do. Speaking to Kawasaki about the decision was a little bit of a worry, but they were brilliant, as they are always brilliant. Kawasaki and MSS have a very strong relationship and we’ll still be attending every round for technical support.”

The next port of call for a team would be to seek support from new businesses, new possible sponsors. Morgan explained that this option is almost impossible for teams in the current climate of the Covid-19 crisis.

 ‘It’s hard to ask for money anyway, but at the end of the day that’s what we have to do cause that’s the industry we’re in. I spoke to a few people about possible sponsorship, and they were completely gobsmacked that I’d even ask in this time.”

As well as it becoming increasingly difficult for teams to find businesses with the marketing budget for sponsorship, Nick told that it’s currently difficult to sell a sponsorship package.

“You can give sponsors the best opportunities and the best value for money, and it will be, but then there’s no crowd at the first round so instead of having 35 thousand people through the gate at Donington, you’ve got no one. So how do you quantify the value of what you’re selling. The TV exposure is never 100% guaranteed, so what you’re trying to sell is the volume of people who are coming through the gate, because those people will see your motorbike and infrastructure, with the sponsors on display, regardless of whether you’re in 1st or 31st.”

The difficulties teams face are also being shared by their respective riders, who not only also rely on their personal sponsors, but rely on the teams themselves. In the case of MSS Performance, their decision to sit out the 2020 season has also meant their riders, Chrissy Rouse and Tom Ward, will have to do the same.

“For Chrissy, he was actually quite fortunate that the season did go as it did, as he absolutely launched himself and damaged his shoulder again, so he’s had to have a lot of work done on that again. I really feel for Tom as it was first opportunity riding for an official team, but it is what it is really.”

The intention is for MSS Performance to return to the Superstock 1000 grid for the 2021 season, with both Tom Ward and Chrissy Rouse aboard the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR.