Finally, after months of anticipation, Feld Motorsports has released the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross schedule. With new venues and some established events moved around, 2019 is looking like an exciting one in the world of Supercross. The 2019 schedule will also feature three fan favourite Triple Crown events, as well as eight Amateur SX events, which will kick off at the Glendale round on January 13th. Tickets for the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series go on sale beginning October 23rd with a pre-sale date of October 9th. Finally, all of the rounds will continue to be aired on Fox Sports. Hopefully you’re one of the lucky Canadian households that has this channel as part of your television package. With a long off-season ahead of us, hopefully all of the riders, including defending 450SX Champion Jason Anderson, can remain healthy and will arrive at Angel Stadium on January 5th ready to go.
As always, the 2019 series will kick off at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. This historic venue never lets us down as the stadium to begin the SX series, and as usual Angel Stadium will again host two rounds of supercross in 2019, both on January 5th and two weeks later on January 19th. In fact, once again, the first five rounds are all on or near the west coast of the United States. From there, the 2019 series heads east to Minneapolis on February 9th, Dallas on the 16th of February, and then to one of the closest rounds to Canada, Detroit’s Ford Field on February 23rd. This is a very early date to be heading to the Motor City as that part of the USA will still most likely be in the grips of winter, but obviously it will be toasty warm inside the confines of Ford Field.
With Detroit being so close to Ontario, this means there is sadly once again no Toronto SX in 2019. I was told that this is due more to scheduling on the part of Rogers Centre than a Feld Motorsports issue. Apparently, the Rogers Centre has been going through a lot of renovations throughout the baseball off-season, and they and Feld could not find a date that worked. I’ve also been told that returning to Toronto is definitely still part of Feld’s future plans, so let’s hope that is true. Very few new cities on the schedule demonstrated the growth that Toronto did over the years. What started as a mid-level event, as far as spectator turn-out is concerned, quickly increased to be one of the top five attended races of the series. For Canadians, the Toronto SX was much more than just a supercross, it was a meeting place for not just fans but for our entire industry. For a media guy like myself, the Toronto SX really began on Thursday and was wide open until the wee hours of Sunday morning. In talking with someone just recently who is very close to supercross in the USA, they told me that Toronto will be back, maybe as early as 2020 when the Monster Energy Supercross is also planning on expanding to Mexico City for a round. As you know, Mexico City is also in driving range for the teams so it wouldn’t be too big of a deal to get there, other than most likely needing an armed escort to drive through Mexico. Anyway, this is part of Feld’s continuing plan to take Supercross to markets outside of the USA.
Back to the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series. After Detroit, the series goes on its usual east coast swing with stops in Atlanta, Daytona, and Indianapolis. From there, we head to Seattle on March 23rd for what is sure to be one of the most unpredictable rounds weather-wise. After Seattle, the series dips back south to Houston, TX before making a stop at one of the two new cities on the schedule: Nissan Stadium in Nashville, TN. This April 6th race will no doubt be one of the most interesting of the series as Nashville was recently named one of the coolest cities in the USA. If you were looking at planning a trip to watch one of the rounds in 2019, this just might be the one to try. From Nashville, the series climbs up to Denver for another new round at Bronco Stadium. After racing in the thin air of the mile-high city, the series heads back to New Jersey for Round 16 before wrapping up in Las Vegas on May 4.
As you can see, the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross Series has a little bit of everything as we reach the end of yet another decade of supercross. With triple crown events, amateur events, as well as the usual 250 East / West shootout races, 2019 is looking like an exciting one for supercross. Next year also looks to be the final building year before this series really takes off globally. Let’s hope Canada is in the future plans for SX as we’ve proven to be one of the best markets this series can visit. It all kicks off on January 5th in Anaheim, California, the birthplace of this incredible sport.