National Bicycle League
George Esser, unlike the creators of the earlier NBA and later ABA, set up a non-profit organization with a very inclusive government including a Competition Congress meetings in which opinions of how the body was being administered would be heard.
[4] Starting in Florida in these early days its track affiliations were overwhelmingly concentrated east of the Mississippi River with only a few west of that boundary.
In return, the NBL absorbed the remaining NBA membership and tracks, particularly those west of the Mississippi, making it a truly nation spanning sanctioning body like the rival ABA.
However, it was the NBL joining USA Cycling that was the key to BMX being accepted by the IOC as part of the Olympic Summer Games.
The NBL was chosen by USA Cycling in part because of its history of being involved with BMX at the international level and it is being a non-profit organization, unlike the ABA.
In 2002, its members foiled an attempt by USA Cycling Chief Executive Officer Gerard Bisceglia to sell the NBL its arch-rival, the ABA.
[5][6][7] This episode elevated "the Sanction Wars" in BMX Racing to a new level, and the bitter rivalry raged on for nearly a decade, until the NBL faltered, following a series of managerial and strategic blunders which played out from 2009-2011.
Many members and track operators found it difficult or impossible to follow the new ruleset, which led to uncertainty and inconsistency in how programs were being run and administered.
Part of the "New NBL" program was the so-called "Nations Tour," a four-race elite series, run on a Supercross-style track.
The tour would feature "Big Show" production values, and prize purses of nearly US$50,000 per stop (approximately 10x the amount awarded at traditional nationals).
The first event was to be run March 4–5, 2011 in Primm Nevada, outside Las Vegas, with stops in Pittsburgh, Louisville and a finale in Sarasota, FL.
Again, critics went to work on the granular details of the series, such as the weather in Primm, Nevada, in March, the lack of sufficient medical facilities to serve the frequent-and-predictable injuries that occur at an SX event, how the finale would manage to run time trials and the actual race in one day (which is inconsistent with the SX format), and the nagging question of where the NBL, who was self-admittedly cash-strapped throughout 2010, would come up with the funding to produce the series.
On December 16, 2010, the NBL took things further, with an announcement that they had acquired the exclusive marketing and production rights to the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup series.
Considered a coup, even by critics, the World Cup series is a five-stop annual tour and is the gateway to the Olympic Games, via the nation and rider points earned by athlete finishes.
The remaining 49% would be owned equally by Johan Lindstrom and Tom Ritzenthaler, both of whom worked as staffers for the UCI leading into the rights acquisition.
Observers could also see an organization who had been trained to do business one way, now forced to "write with their left hand," and do things that were outside their zone of comfort (like sending timely checks to tracks each month instead of the other way around).
Perhaps the above operational issues, such as membership cards being late, could be chalked up to staff getting accustomed to a new system—but a key event being canceled, with only two-weeks notice (after receiving little-to-no promotion prior to cancelation, which cast doubt on whether it was ever intended to run at all), made the BMX industry very nervous and increasingly skeptical of the NBL's long-term prospects.
By mid-March, complaints were starting to show up on message boards that the NBL office in Ohio was practically impossible to raise by phone; and that payments to tracks under the "All You Can Race" program were late, inaccurate or nonexistent.
Five days later, on May 17, Aragon appeared in a joint webinar with ABA CEO BA Anderson, and COO John David, to announce the agreement-in-principle and letter of intent (which had been hurriedly approved by the NBL board the previous evening) for the ABA to acquire the assets of the NBL for an undisclosed sum (later estimated at about US$250,000 based on court documents).
The ABA assumed responsibility for the NBL's ~5,000 members, granting them a complimentary membership to ABA/USA BMX for the balance of 2011, but returning to the pay-as-you-race format of paying race day entry fees.
On October 12, 2011, the receiver filed a motion with the court to sell the NBL's 51% share of GSX to a Gahanna, OH-based private equity group for US$5,000 in cash.
#1 Masters Amateur & Elite Pro Nat.#1 Women Am Nat.#1 Girls Cruiser 1984 World Championship at Griffith Park Ca., Team Open Air Schwinn #1 of Camarillo Ca.
Also unlike the ABA's Gold Cup no professionals are allowed to compete, only amateurs in the Expert, Girls, and Cruiser classes participating.
