Taking an empty arena and turning it into an Arenacross show is no easy, straight forward task. It takes hard work, vision, planning and plenty of patience.
Taking the outdoor pursuit that is the sport of Motocross and bringing it to most of the U.K’s major cities over the past 10 years hasn’t been the easiest of challenges for our Arenacross crew. Thankfully, we’re an incredibly passionate bunch who want to see our sport reach the masses and a new audience and spurred on by a fearless leader in Matt Bates, Arenacross has grown and manifested into what you’re about to witness.
Picture the initial conversations with the arena managers. “Sorry, did you just say you wanted to bring 2,500 tons of soil in the arena and dump into the middle of the floor?!” Let’s be honest, it’s not your standard request when asking to hire a multimillion-pound entertainment venue that regularly sees international household names put bums on seats and pack out the building. So, credit to Matt and the arenas we visit for letting us indulge and build an indoor playground for the sport we all love, in the hope that you just may fall in love with it too.
As with everything in modern day society these days, there’s a lot of red tape and things to abide by with health and safety regulations. That alone is a minefield to tread carefully through before any of our highly skilled and professional production team set off for the venue, let alone walk through the door.
Making Arenacross happen takes months of consummate planning because the window of time to get the arena show and race ready is tight, and everything has to go right. It’s a high-pressure environment for all involved.
With most rounds of the championship being staged on Saturday the build starts on Thursday morning. First off, the team will come in and start preparing the office rooms, usually in the under belly of the arena, that you, the public, don’t see. This means often putting down plastics sheeting so all the team and riders don’t tread dirty footprints all over the carpet, and we know how much trouble that can get you into! While the offices and backstage are being prepped the rest of the production team make a start out in the arena.
Before anything can happen on the build of the track, lighting and sound, 1,100 plywood boards are laid down on the arena floor and then covered with yet more plastic sheeting. The team get that down in two hours and then the next phase of the build is ready to go and it’s a big one that can’t be rushed.
If you’re already in your seat for tonight’s show, cast your eyes upwards right now towards the ceiling rafters. Hanging high above the arena floor is all the lighting and sound rigging. That was put there by our audio and lighting crew. All the rigging that you see is brought to each event and set up by the team. Thousands of feet of cabling, powerful stage lighting and booming speakers all have to be attached and dismantled from the rigging for each and every round and stored and carried with great care. It’s a bit more expensive than dropping a regular LED light bulb on the floor and smashing it or blowing up your smart speaker, put it that way.
Once the audio and lighting crew have everything in place they get to work on setting it up to the mixing desks situated off the side of the arena floor or higher up in a gantry. It’s from here that Matt will orchestrate and conduct the show, communicating with all the production and show staff through their earpieces as well as the show hosts.
With the audio and lighting rigging up, along with the jumbo screen and the crew safely in place at their mixing desks the rest of the production team now move in to start the track build and putting in all the cabling for the visuals on the screen and the live stream as well as the branding hanging from the arena walls. The first of a seemingly endless arrival of trucks filled with dirt start to arrive around midday and track builders Justin Barclay and Alfie Smith get to work in their various heavy machinery supplied by our awesome partners, Thomas Group, and start spreading, scrapping and molding the race circuit into shape.
Working around them are the Freestyle Motocross riders, who will drive in their lorry, which doubles up as the landing ramp in the middle of the arena floor and then proceed to set up the landing and take off ramp. Both of which must be pinpoint in their alignment and distance as these guys literally put their life on the line every time they hit that take off ramp.
By the close of the first day of production, three quarters of the dirt is in the building, all the rigging and any other metal constructions are in place along with the majority of the lighting and audio equipment and the crew can head back to their digs for a well-earned liquid libation and some sleep….they’re going to need it.
Friday is another early start with the rest of the dirt being brought in and then Justin and Alfie really earn their corn as they sculpture it into a pristine race circuit with the kind of obsession Richard Dreyfuss molded ‘Devil’s Tower’ out of clay in the classic film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’. As the track build reaches completion members of the team will then start laying out the ‘tough blocks’ which not only mark out the circuit but keep the riders safe. They’re not actually ‘tough’ as they are affectively foam blocks covered in fabric.
By the time the riders and teams are allowed in the arena for their first look at the track at 5pm on Friday most of the 40 strong production team are finally finding the time for a much-needed brew in the staff canteen and putting their feet up and having breather, right up until they get told off for having their dirt shoes on the chairs that is!
After working tirelessly throughout the day of the event, either working the light and sound, repairing the track, or being vital staff members in the keeping the riders safe and giving the show it’s pulse the team then move straight into breakdown mode after the podium presentation.
By the time you’ve made it back to your car, or the train station and you’re on the way home the team are already well into reversing the build process. While you’re sleeping soundly in the middle of night, hopefully emotionally drained by what you’ve just witnessed, the team are hard at work. By 4am all the rigging is down and by 5am the following morning the trucks roll back in to take the dirt away and back into storage for next year’s event. By 6pm on Sunday all is gone and it’s like we haven’t even been there. Not even a dirty footprint on the carpet! All hail our incredible production team. The unsung heroes of Arenacross.