Yesterday I talked about AMA CEO Rob Dingman’s management style and his penchant for ingratiating those in charge of keeping him in power to his own advantage. Today I’ll review how Dingman has on numerous occasions, stretched the truth to put him in the best light, while making others look bad. Soon I will also look past the spin and prove that membership numbers have dropped dramatically since Dingman too the reins.
You may also note I’ve changed the title of these reports. I don’t want to get into personal attacks. This is simply about the concerns I have of Dingman’s management and he is not solely responsible for the current state the AMA.
Stretching the truth
Let’s see, where to begin on this one?
Well there was the whole AMA/DMG announcement where Dingman kept referring to a former NASCAR man who came in to save the AMA years ago. Here’s the quote:
“In fact, back in the late ‘70s, the France family sent an executive to the AMA, when the AMA was in a difficult time period. We had lost an Executive Director to malfeasance, and the France family was there to send an executive from NASCAR to come help run the AMA. Organizationally, we’ve never forgotten that. I’m just real pleased that we are able to continue the partnership. I’m just real thrilled that the France family thinks enough of the AMA to enter into this arrangement with us.”
Implying that it was NASCAR once again stepping up to the plate today to bail out the AMA, just as they had in the past.
Nice story, but it has no basis in fact.
OK Rob, maybe you didn’t know the real story, or maybe you just wanted to re-write history to your liking, but Lin Kuchler – the person you were obviously talking about – was a motorcycle man first and foremost. Kuchler worked his way up the ladder from Harley-Davidson factory tour guide to AMA’s head man, being motorcycle dealer and dealer association president in between before coming to the AMA. He did such a great job at the AMA that years later NASCAR hired him. Then, when Kuchler was retiring from NASCAR, the AMA asked him back to take over temporarily during a rough stretch. So it wasn’t a NASCAR man stepping up to save the AMA, it was a long-time motorcyclist and former head of the AMA who returned to help the organization. Big difference.
Dingman has described a previous administration of the AMA as the “dark days” simply because of a lawsuit brought by Roger Edmondson against the AMA back in the mid-1990s. I won’t argue that the Edmondson lawsuit was a low-point for Ed Youngblood’s (and the board at that time) administration, the fact remains that in spite of the results of that particular lawsuit Youngblood is still considered by many stalwarts of the industry, and in even some currently inside the AMA, to be one of the most effective leaders the AMA ever had. He was also liked and respected by the AMA staff and there was a reason for that. He listened to what they had to say and could tolerate and learn from opposing viewpoints.
I couldn’t hope to explain Youngblood’s legacy any better than Bill Amick, longtime AMA representative to the FIM, who wrote in a response to John Ulrich’s criticism of the Youngblood administration in Roadracing World:
Ed Youngblood was a key AMA leader — and a greatly respected one — for more than 30 years. He helped bring the AMA back from financial ruin in the early 70s, managed AMA’s government relations program in what history will show were its most productive and effective years, and served with distinction as AMA President. True enough, he was the President at the time of the Edmondson debacle, and that too will be part of his legacy when someone writes it objectively after we’re dead and gone. But to suggest that the Edmondson suit belongs squarely on Youngblood’s doorstep is simplistic and inaccurate. Actions by members of the AMA Board and of AMA Pro Racing’s staff factored big-time in that equation. Roger Edmondson is a shrewd guy. Shame on the AMA for falling into a trap, but it’s a trap Youngblood tried to get the AMA out of as painlessly as possible, not one that he created.
As for Ed leaving the AMA “in disgrace,” it must have been some cosmic accident that he was subsequently inducted into the AMA’s Motorcycle Hall of Fame and was a great ambassador for the AMA until he became disgusted with its current state of affairs.
I worked for Ed Youngblood for a lot a years and I know him a lot better than the pundits who enjoy taking cheap shots. I suspect that working for Ed was a little bit like being a New York Yankee under Billy Martin. Martin had an incendiary personality, but he knew baseball inside and out and he could flat out manage. Ed was also hot tempered at times. On more than one occasion I had heated arguments with him and on at least one occasion I was a little surprised neither of us threw a punch. That was in part because our management styles were different, but mainly because we were both passionate about the AMA. I got mad at Ed a lot, and I made him mad a lot, but never for one minute did I lose my respect for him. I’m proud to call him a friend. Ed is not only one of the smartest people I’ve ever known, but also one of the straightest shooters. It was a privilege to work with him and it literally makes me sick to hear him attacked by people with institutional memories of about 15 minutes whose contributions to motorcycling in America pale before his.
You and your colleagues have the privilege of overseeing the AMA only because people like Ed Youngblood saved it from financial ruin…and because a loyal staff not only accepted wage freezes when times were tough, but who willingly took deep pay cuts because we thought our work mattered. I hope and pray the AMA will again be a place people want to work in the future, but it doesn’t look good. The view from a board room without windows and with a closed door is not a likely route to enlightenment.
Hear, hear Bill! Truer words have never been spoken in my opinion. So the “dark days” of the AMA? To me we’re living them at present under the current leadership.
Dingman likes to portray himself as the man who came in and cleaned up a corrupt AMA. He often cites the case of former AMA Board Chairman Dal Smilie who was found to be receiving reimbursements for unsubstantiated expenses. My sources tell me the Smile’s misconduct was discovered before Dingman was CEO and that the board had decided to handle the issue quietly by having Smilie pay back the AMA. Certainly that was not the smartest decision and bringing the Smilie issue to light was the best thing to do, but portraying the AMA pre-Dingman as rife with corruption and lacking fiscal controls is simply not accurate.
The immoral actions of one board member does not mean the entire association’s finances were shady. In fact when I was with the AMA the association had annual financial audits by an outside firm as part of its non-profit status. The books were completely open to these auditors and had there been rampant irregularities I’m certain these would have been discovered by the outside auditors.
Want to talk shady dealings? Why don’t we examine the way AMA Pro Racing was sold under Dingman’s leadership.
Shortly after Dingman took the reins as AMA CEO in early 2007 a news release called “A New Vision for the American Motorcyclist Association” was put out which said the AMA was getting out racing series promotions. Referring to AMA Pro Racing Dingman was quoted in the release as saying:
“We are not getting out of motorcycle racing. We are redefining our role so we can focus exclusively on race sanctioning as opposed to race promotion. We will partner with companies that can effectively manage racing from the commercial perspective. We will sanction racing events and provide operational staff where it is required.”
This was in Sept. of 2007. Six months later the big bomb was dropped on the industry – in fact Dingman went back on his previous statement. Some people would call that lying. I’ll let you decide.
Regardless, the AMA was getting out of racing, at least on the professional side, and there was apparently nothing that could be done. The AMA was selling its birthright lock, stock and barrel to the Daytona Motorsports Group. End of story.
This momentous decision of getting the AMA out of the business of racing, on which it was primarily founded in 1924, was made by an “elite” group of people. In fact not even the entire board was privy to the details of the DMG deal. A small group was formed within AMA leadership to consider the details and make recommendations.
Further, the groups that were asked for proposals to take over the running of AMA Pro Racing thought they were bidding on the various genres of racing, i.e. road racing, flat track or motocross as separate entities. Imagine the surprise of those groups who put in bids to find out that DMG was awarded all of Pro Racing and not just the promotional rights, but sanctioning, rules making, everything. This is something these other companies were not specifically asked to bid on.
It smells a lot like closed-door dealing if you ask me. In fact one board member told me that when the DMG showed interest all other offers were essentially off the table as far as the AMA was concern. How fair was that to those companies who bid in good faith? It’s amazing to me that a lawsuit never resulted from this, but no one in motorsports wants to tangle with the NASCAR owners so that was that.
Now the industry and fans are living with the aftermath of the sale.
Oh, and the details of the DMG deal? Well at first, in response to a question by Roadracing World’s David Swarts at the AMA/DMG press conference, Dingman implied the details would be announced when the deal was finalized.
Oops, guess what? The AMA ultimately decided the membership shouldn’t be allowed to know anything about the details of the sale. How’s that for transparency?
The form letter from the AMA says:
First, it is important to understand that the details of the final sale were kept confidential by the AMA Board of Directors (your elected representatives, many of whom are astute businessmen) and DMG because there exists a very competitive environment in the professional racing/entertainment business. That information, were it made public, could help other groups if they wanted to set up one or more series to compete with AMA Pro Racing. Furthermore, it is a complex contract involving numerous pro racing disciplines, many of which are contracted to other companies for their series’ promotion and management. (A good example would be MX Sports running the outdoor motocross series.)
So essentially what the AMA under Dingman is now saying is that they can’t tell the membership the details because another group might use that info to start a competing series.
Are you serious?
This shows either a fundamental lack of understanding about the way professional motorcycle racing in America works, or it’s just a blatant disregard for the rights of the membership to know what its own non-profit association is doing with its finances.
Professional motorcycle racing in America cannot be successful without the participation of the factory teams and big-name riders (ask Clear Channel how they did without the factories in Formula USA). If the factories got together with track promoters and decided to run outside AMA/DMG tomorrow, the AMA/DMG series would be toast. It would be irrelevant what the DMG paid to the AMA for Pro Racing.
And as for those “elected representatives”, please tell me who elected Dennis Rhee, who came up with the blueprint for AMA Pro Racing’s sale, who, by the way, mysteriously left almost as quickly as he came into the AMA, not long after the sale was done. Did Rhee benefit financially from the sale of AMA Pro Racing? This it seems would be an important question for the AMA to answer.
Also by my count at least three of the current regional board members were appointed, not elected. And that brings up an interesting question of how just how board members are selected these days. Stay tuned. This one is a real doozy! More on that, the shrinking membership, and a possible path to get out of this mess.
Feel free to leave comments in the comment section or email me directly at: lawrencemedia@hotmail.com
Why the AMA Needs New Leadership