Team’s Owner Peddles Cycling as Family Event

The NFL and the NHL are household abbreviations and their events dominate the TV screen. By contrast, Bob Frazier of Chatsworth has spent the last six years peddling the NCL, which is less widely known and is seen on TV only about a dozen times a year.

NCL stands for the National Cycle League, which began in 1989 and was designed to make bicycle races attractive to U.S. audiences and sponsors.

Frazier, an NCL franchise owner, explains that, historically, bicycle racing was the major sport in the United States earlier this century.

The latecomers--the National Football League and the National Hockey League--remained relatively regionalized in eastern and northern cities until about 40 years ago.

Frazier hopes cycling will again roll into the hearts of Americans.

His team, the Los Angeles Wings, is one of the established members of the league. The team’s name was inspired by the work of Frazier’s company, Frazier Aviation, which makes modifications to aircraft, manufactures aircraft parts and assembles wing sections for C-130 airplanes.

Frazier took a circuitous path to involvement in the aviation company and the NCL. He graduated from Loyola University in 1974 and entered law school at the University of San Diego in 1976. While he was in law school, he was asked by his father, who had cancer, to help with the aviation business. Frazier says he thought it could be an alternative if he decided not to practice law. He now heads the company.

Frazier’s acquisition of one of the original NCL franchises was also serendipitous. He played baseball until he was 41 with the same group of players from high school. They all had unfulfilled major league aspirations.

During lunch with the group in 1988, one of them suggested buying a minor league baseball team. Another person approached the group and suggested they consider another sport--cycling. Frazier decided to take a look at the fledgling leagues, liked the fast-paced action and bought a franchise.

Frazier explains that the league teams are city-based, which means one city’s team competes against another. Rather than race along the open road, the NCL events are held in city centers. The short courses provide head-to-head competition and all-out sprints that give the crowd and the television audiences an exciting show.

Frazier wants to make cycling events appealing to families and uses his own family as a model. Frazier’s son, Rob, 6, and daughter, Kenna, 8, accompany him to many races around the country.

One test for Frazier is in keeping families’ interested once they get to the event. “Maybe dad is interested, but mom isn’t, so you’d better have something for her, too.”

He also sees the need to interest kids in becoming racers and to build a loyal audience. Frazier has slated this year’s hometown race, hosted by the Wings, for Los Angeles’ Chinatown on May 20. He says that he and community leaders are working together to fill the day with many festivities to complement the racing action.