My two cents on this subject,
For years the AMA has been acting a lot like USAC did in the 70's when they just about destroyed open wheel asphalt racing. Thankfully at that time the owners took matters into their own hands and created CART. IMHO in the years that followed "indy car" style racing enjoyed it's greatest popularity. Why you may ask? Because the stake holders aka the owners were making the rules, which was a great thing since they were the ones who had to go out and get all the sponsorship dollars and build the cars. This lasted until Tony George decided that he wanted a bigger cut of the pie and did his best to destroy the racing again by playing his trump card of the Indy 500. What ensued was the worst thing that could be imagined, seeding the field with guaranteed positions to some of the most unqualified drivers, in the 500 if you joined his series. Gone were the days of only the fastest being allowed to entry the greatest spectacle in American racing, and what was born was that if you had enough money you could run. You had drivers on the track that looked like they were standing still in comparison to those that could drive and knew how to set up a car. Almost everyone who crashed one of the new buick powered dallara's broke their pelvis. It also warrants mentioning the xenophobic nature of Tony's rhetoric of making it an "American Driver" series, and some backhanded slights against foreign drivers. Who, happened to hand a good portion of the Americans their A*ses on a plate week after week Alas, I digress. The net net is that that racing series is a shadow of what it was in the late 80's through the 90's.
For years the AMA membership has been declining. Years ago in the 40's (i think) the membership was 500,000, and these days it's half that at best.
Speaking of supercross, the promoters have been making big dough, and the cash flow to the "privateers" has increased very little. In fact there aren't really any privateers anymore. If you get your pro license, pay your fee's and show up to race the qualifiers, there is a good chance you will not be allowed to race because of how you look, or more specifically how your "program" looks. The main look however, is that the gates are not full during the daytime qualifiers. This is in diametric opposition to what racing is supposed to be about, who ever is fastest gets to race.
And look at this years flat track schedule, I think two rounds have been canceled for reasons other than weather. I'm sure Mr. Lineaweaver can provide specifics. The same can be said for a few of the super moto rounds, because it appears that the AMA could not get their act together.
I'm not surprised at all that the AMA had to sell off it's pro racing. I just hope the DMG doesn't do to supercross what it it has done to NASCAR. Supercross and Moto Cross used to be an enthusiast sports. And enthusiasts in racing realize that every year that peoples numbers change in relationship to their previous seasons performance. For years I have always cringed when I read in Cycle News that SX and MX need to be like NASCAR.
One of the AMA's main problems is their inability to enforce their own rules effectively, efficiently, and most importantly EQUALLY. I was going through some old posts the other day and found an exchange between myself and DL, and another member concerning a road race at mid ohio I believe a couple of years back. At the riders meeting the AMA said there would not be a race if it was raining for safety reasons, then just a couple hours later in the rain, the AMA says go out and race!!
End of rant........
