Feld Entertainment’s Dave Prater has played an integral role in the progression of the Monster Energy SMX World Championship, which is entering its fourth year in encompassing both the Supercross and Pro Motocross championships. In this Industry interview, the vice president of Supercross reflects on the journey so far, as well as a future outlook for 2026 and beyond.

Image: Foremost Media.

You’re now overseeing all of Supercross with Feld, and it’s been nice to see these steps taken for sure. What’s it like for you, though?

It’s been great. Like, I think I’ve said this before, but the Feld family is just super-invested – and it was never that way. So, prior to Feld acquiring Supercross, the ownership was distant and we would do our own thing, but there wasn’t much feedback, there wasn’t much reinvestment into the sport. And Kenneth Feld, and now his daughter Juliet, are real, real Supercross and SuperMotocross fans. And so they’re willing to reinvest in the sport, and they’re doing… you’ve seen it over the last three years, just with this partnership with MX Sports. And also, they brought vision to it, to your point. You know, in MX Sports and Feld, at least in the media, there was this perception that we were enemies. We weren’t necessarily enemies, but there wasn’t much cooperation. And you know, the family brought that – they had that vision. Like, this could be much bigger, let’s partner and see where this thing goes. So that’s been the biggest difference, to have ownership in your office weekly talking about the future and what could be, and it’s been great.

So, like back with the distant ownership, was it more like just, ‘Hey, what’s the profit margin?’ You know what I mean – like that was it, basically?

Yeah, unfortunately, that was really the overall vibe of the thing, as the ownership was so distant. And don’t get me wrong – we were passionate, extremely passionate about growing the sport. But when you’ve got ownership that’s invested, it takes it to another level.

Where do you see this going in 10 years and what can be improved, in your opinion?

I think everything can be improved. I mean everything. I think that’s another benefit of Feld and MX Sports coming together. There’s so much institutional knowledge about just the sport in general, but there’s also this vision for the future. And I don’t think anyone puts any limits on this. Awareness – I think we need to grow awareness of the sport, and we’ve been doing that. Now that we’ve got a nine–month season, you can hit that consistent message all year. Really, even during the off-season, we’re still out front–center and driving awareness of the sport. So I think that’s the main thing, just that momentum of awareness, and you know, the general public – what is SuperMotocross? It’s gaining momentum. I think we just have to keep pushing. But I don’t know. I mean, like you said, where do I see it going? I think the sky is the limit. And that’s cliche, but it’s really true. I mean, we’ve got this incredibly young and exciting sport, and unfortunately, right now it’s kind of the best-kept secret. But we’re getting there, and the momentum is growing. And we’ve seen double–digit growth in almost every category over the last three years. We just have to keep that going.

Any plans of going overseas in the future?

Potentially. Like I said, the sky is the limit. Let’s continue to push and make it as big as we can.

I asked this question a couple of years ago, what have you guys done now that you’ve had this longer relationship with Pro Motocross? What specifically have you learned from them in the partnership?

It’s funny, I think about… you know, like I said, we didn’t cooperate much in the past. We knew each other, we were friendly – I mean, I’ve known Davey [Coombs] for 25 years, and Carrie [Coombs-Russell] and Tim [Cotter], great people, but we just hadn’t worked together. And it’s interesting when you bring two companies together that are different in so many ways. But I think we play to each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Like, I think they’ve helped us act like a smaller company, and we’ve kind of helped them think a little bigger. I think that’s really, in a broad sense, what we brought to each other. But it’s just… I think we’re looking at it as a whole. And you’re not just – in the past, literally, I would worry about January to May. At the end of the Supercross season, I was thinking about January again. And now both companies are thinking… I mean, even today, this is SMX Media Days. It’s not Supercross Media Days, so we’re here gathering all this content for the entire year, not just Supercross or the Pro Motocross Championship. So I think really that’s it. You know, we’re just getting better overall because they have a vast knowledge of Motocross, and we are obviously experts in Supercross. And you don’t think about those sports being that different – at least I didn’t. Obviously, same riders, same athletes, same teams. But the approach to both was really different. Hopefully, you guys can see it, and the fans can see it now. I think the approach to both sports is really becoming one. And it’s lifting both.

Image: Octopi Media.

So, smaller company, family company, has that increased maybe the sense of fun that goes into this in the last three years?

It was always there. That’s the interesting part. Because they are a smaller company, but we’re still both family companies. Kenneth and Juliet are always extremely involved. So I think it’s always been fun. It was always fun even back with the SFX days when ownership wasn’t so involved. I mean, it’s hard to not have fun racing dirt bikes, right? So even on my worst days, it’s fun. But I think what’s been really fun, and what’s kind of rejuvenated a lot of us that have been doing it a long time, is that it just adds an extra element to it. So now you’re not only working with the people you’ve been working with on supercross all the time, but now you’ve created this new thing – SMX – and you’re working with a partner in MX Sports that did some things like we did, did other things like they did, but now we’re all coming together and sharing best practices. And that’s been the most fun – thinking about, alright, well, maybe we didn’t know exactly the best way to do it. Maybe that approach is better. And there’s been a lot of that kind of stuff that’s been exciting.

I think, as I’ve said, you guys have done such a great job. I’m old enough to remember how things worked. But I have to say, in my opinion, the unification is great. And it’s also beyond time, in my opinion, to get a full-time safety crew. When you look at real sports, F1 and NASCAR, they have this dedicated safety crew that comes in. To me, from the outside, there’s more than enough money now. That’s one. Our safety is… we see it every single Saturday night at the Pro Motocross races. It’s worse at motocross, in my opinion, and it’s beyond time to do this. Do you ever see that happening? Is that discussion behind the scenes?

Yeah, I think so. Mike Wroblewski has been working on that platform. Supercross is in a good spot – it can always be better. Even if it’s a complete dedicated staff, it can always be better. Motocross is there as well. Like, we’re getting one consistent group now. It’s flagging across all events, not like it was in the past, where it was 17 Supercross and 11 motocross rounds and so on, so it’s one consistent group. John Tillman is working with another group because he’s going to eventually retire in the next few years, to hand it off to that group. So, to answer your question – long story short – yes, that is the eventual goal, and we’re getting there. And I agree with you. I think that’s all of our goals – to make this… anything we can do to improve safety, we’re all for it.

We’re at the end of year three of that five-year deal with Peacock and NBC. What goes into continuing negotiations or trying to establish a new contract of some kind with them? What do you guys want to try to start working on?

Yeah, as you said, we’re in year three of a five-year deal, so negotiations will start here within the next year, probably. We just met with NBC last week up in Stamford, Connecticut. They’re extremely excited about SMX. Like, it’s funny to sit in there and listen to Rick Cordella, who’s the president of NBC Sports, talk about the NBA, Major League Baseball… and then SMX, all in the same breath, so it’s exciting. We’ve said it before – they keep saying that our fan is the stickiest they have, meaning they watch more content than any other sports fan. And if you think about it, Race Day Live is sometimes four hours, then the race is three hours, and then a half-hour post-show. I mean, they’re watching seven-and-a-half hours every Saturday, and it’s for nine months straight. So they love the sport. We’ve turned NBC staff into SMX fans, which is awesome – to go up there and actually hear from the guys in the production studio that are working on Sunday Night Football talk about watching Jett [Lawrence] and Haiden [Deegan] and all these guys. We’re excited with what Peacock’s been able to do. And again, that’s another one – like, I don’t see the growth slowing down. I mean, there’s been double-digit growth in viewership for those three years. So, in the back of my mind, I’m always like, ‘How are we going to keep this double-digit up?’ But we’ve got to keep pushing.

Is that a deal that you anticipate renewing in some aspect? Like, you’re confident in that? We were told that’s where all this money was coming from for SMX and for the Playoffs – the Peacock deal. And so if that keeps going, that’s good for our sport, because if it goes away, it would be scary.

Definitely. No, again, we love Peacock. We want to stay with Peacock. We’ll see where that goes. I think there’s been some misunderstanding about where the money comes from. We don’t look at it… it’s not in buckets. Like, we don’t look at it like here’s the media rights money, here’s the sponsorship money, here’s the ticket revenue money. It’s money from everything collectively that goes back into the sport. And like I said earlier, the Felds and Feld Motorsports in general want to reinvest in the sport. So it’s not necessarily that that’s all media money that’s going as reinvestment – it’s just the collective. It’s all revenue coming in, and we reinvest it back into the sport. So whether it’s Peacock or someone else, SMX will be here.

Image: Octopi Media.

Are you able to elaborate on just the international possibilities that you spoke about earlier? Whatever you can share and even if that’s a genuine or realistic possibility…

Yeah, I think everything is possible. I’ll be extremely disappointed if in the next five years we don’t race internationally. It’s difficult to race internationally within the regular season of Supercross and Pro Motocross. But the Playoffs – it lends itself to that. And we’ve got a little more time on the backend of the Playoffs if we were to do it. I don’t think we should put a limit on anything. As the SMX World Championship, I think we should look at all possibilities. One of those possibilities is international races, for sure.

The SMX Playoffs are pitched as a hybrid of both, right? So we had some really supercross-style tracks, some really gnarly ones. In your opinion, which was the best?

I think, in my opinion… probably Vegas last year. At least in my opinion, it was one of the best hybrid-style tracks. I liked Chicagoland as well, although it was way more moto. I think this idea is evolving, at least in my mind, to… I think of it as all three now. So in the past, where I was looking at it like, ‘Alright, round one’s going to be hybrid, round two’s going to be hybrid, round three’s going to be hybrid’ – now I’m kind of looking at it like the entirety of the Playoffs, all three could be a little different. And I think that’s kind of what you saw this year, a little. You went to Charlotte, and it was pretty hybrid. But then we went into St. Louis, and it was pretty supercrossy. I’m changing my viewpoint to kind of look at it like: this is a hybrid series. It seems to be working that way.

Do you think SMX – three years in – has been a home run?

It’s been really good. I’m never going to be satisfied – I don’t think any of us are ever going to be – which is a strength that we all have. I think it has been really good, and I think it has delivered on what we said it was going to do. It’s grown – it’s raised the entire sport. I think the Playoffs and this partnership with MX Sports have lifted both the Supercross and the Pro Motocross Championship. I think we can always make it better. And we will, the more we learn. You know, as you said, we’re going into year four of the Playoffs. We’ve had three years of Playoffs. I don’t want us to get into a position where we’re like, ‘That’s what the Playoffs are.’ I want to always be thinking like, ‘Hey, maybe we could change up the format. Maybe we could change up this. Maybe we change up that to make it better.’ Because I don’t think we’ll ever be satisfied with this being what it is. And I don’t want to get stuck there, I want to keep it fresh. I think we all want to keep it fresh. We all want to continue to evolve. So I guess that’s my answer to that. I’m satisfied with the three years and where we are, but none of us is satisfied that this is the best it can be. We’re always going to push it and grow it.

Do you think year four will be the same format and points and all that, or is there still possibly things that could change for year four?

Year four will be the same format and points, only because we’re, what, a month away from the season. Don’t want to switch it up like that. But I think, you know, we’re all ears. You guys have suggestions – some of you have opinions – bring them. Anything we can do to make it better.

There are still three logos behind you [SMX, Supercross and Pro Motocross]. When do you think we’ll see the transition into it being SMX only? Do you think it’ll happen one day soon?

Maybe. I think we’re close. I don’t think we want to ever lose the integrity of the Monster Energy Supercross Championship or the Pro Motocross Championship. And I know this isn’t a great analogy, but I’ll just throw it out there – I see it as almost two conferences. It’s like stick-and-ball sports when you have the AFC – American Football Conference – and the NFC – National Football Conference – and then you bring them together. So I don’t know that we’ll ever go away, and I don’t know that we want to. But I think the SMX World Championship is the overarching championship, and it’s made up of Supercross and Pro Motocross.