Sisters are doing it for themselves

28 10 2014

In a bold move, the Elite Women racing the upcoming USABMX Grand Nationals are crowdsourcing a pro purse payout equal to the men’s class.

The Elite Women are raising these funds by selling t-shirts representing all the big names that make up the class: Post, Walsh, Pajon…the list goes on.

If you have been following BMX racing for any length of time you know that the women’s class has historically seen smaller payouts than the men.

Many reasons have been given to explain this: a smaller pool of riders, women’s racing being “less exciting”, etc.

All explanations that reflect a bit of circular reasoning…Could the fact that the pro purses are so much smaller be the reason that less women pursue a pro BMX career? Would bigger payouts make the racing more exciting…garnering more participants and closer, more intense racing?

I think we’re about to find out.

The Elite Women are really onto something here. Their goal is to sell 600 shirts…and I think they may just do it.