USA BMX — The Sanction Born from the ABA / NBL Merger (2011 to Today)

USA BMX

The Sanction Born from the ABA / NBL Merger — 2011 to Today

A BMXRacingHistory.com preview · hosted on Legend Bike Co

We're telling this story neutrally. No brand gets elevated. No rider gets shorted. Where the record is contested, we say so.

Where it started — the two sanctions that became one

USA BMX did not appear out of nothing in 2011. It is the combined body of two sanctions that had run American BMX racing in parallel for more than three decades.

The first was the American Bicycle Association, founded October 13, 1977 in Chandler, Arizona by Merl Mennenga and Gene Roden. The Chandler track became ABA Track 001. The ABA's first national race was held in Azusa, California in February 1978. In March 1985, Mennenga sold the ABA to Bernie Anderson and Jamie Vargas for $250,000. Anderson ran the organization from that point forward, eventually moving the company to Gilbert, Arizona.

The second was the National Bicycle League, founded in 1974 by George Edward Esser. The first NBL-sanctioned race ran January 26, 1974 at Miami-Hollywood Speedway Park. Unlike the ABA and the earlier NBA, the NBL was set up as a non-profit, with a Competition Congress where member tracks could vote on rules. That structure is the reason the NBL — not the ABA — was the sanction that joined USA Cycling in 1997 when American BMX started its push toward the Olympic Games.

For roughly thirty-five years the ABA and the NBL ran side by side. Different points systems. Different national plates. Different Grandnationals. Different tracks. Riders who wanted to be the best in the country had to chase two number-one plates instead of one.

The 2011 merger

On May 17, 2011, the NBL's Board of Directors approved a letter of agreement to merge operations with the ABA. The final documents were signed on June 18, 2011. That day was the first time in more than thirty-five years that the sport of BMX racing in North America was run under a single sanctioning body.

The structural fact worth getting right: the ABA acquired the NBL. USA BMX is the legal and operational continuation of the American Bicycle Association. The ABA's leadership, its Arizona headquarters, its rulebook, and its transfer-system race format all carried forward. The NBL's non-profit status, its USA Cycling membership, and the international Olympic-pathway plumbing it had built since 1997 came across with it.

At the time of the merger, USA BMX inherited more than 350 sanctioned tracks and roughly 70,000 members. The combined sanction was led by Bernie Anderson's son, B.A. Anderson II, as CEO. Bernie Anderson Sr. — the man who had bought the ABA out of Chandler in 1985 — remained involved in an emeritus role. He passed away in October 2025 at the age of 93.

From Gilbert, Arizona to Tulsa, Oklahoma

For the first decade of USA BMX's existence, the headquarters stayed in Gilbert, Arizona. The same office that had run the ABA since the Mennenga era.

That changed in February 2022. After several years of planning, USA BMX announced a move to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The new complex opened on February 15, 2022 in front of more than 500 people. It sits in Tulsa's Greenwood District, and includes a 25,000-square-foot headquarters building, a permanent home for the National BMX Hall of Fame and Museum (4,000 square feet), and a working race facility — the Hardesty National BMX Stadium — built next door with an Olympic-spec eight-meter starting hill.

The ABA had been an Arizona organization since the day it was founded in 1977. Forty-five years in one state, then a clean move to a purpose-built facility two states over.

The Hall of Fame

USA BMX administers the official National BMX Hall of Fame, which dates to 1985. As of 2025, more than 190 riders, builders, industry figures, and track operators have been inducted.

The list of inductees reads like a directory of who built BMX. On the racing side: Scot Breithaupt, Stu Thomsen, Greg Hill, Perry Kramer. From the freestyle side: Eddie Fiola, inducted in the Class of 2009 in the Freestyle category. Pete Loncarevich, the four-time ABA #1 Pro.

The Grandnationals

The annual Grandnationals — billed as "The Greatest Race on Earth" — is the marquee event of the USA BMX calendar. The format carries forward directly from the ABA's 1978 tradition.

Today it runs at the SageNet Center at Tulsa's Expo Square over Thanksgiving weekend. The event brings more than 3,500 athletes from all 50 states and roughly two dozen foreign countries to Tulsa each November. Admission is free and open to the public.

The number-one plate system

USA BMX issues annual #1 plates in every class — amateur age classes, Pro, Vet Pro, Pro Women, Elite Pro Women. The plate is earned through a combination of points accumulated at sanctioned national events through the season and finishes at the Grandnationals.

The plate carries real weight. Recent National #1 Pros on the men's side include Joris Daudet of France and the American Barry Nobles. On the women's side, Alise Willoughby has held the #1 Pro Women plate multiple times — nine USA BMX Pro titles by 2020.

The Olympic pathway — USA BMX and USA Cycling

BMX racing has been on the Olympic program since Beijing 2008. The path from a USA BMX track to the Olympic start gate runs through USA Cycling, the UCI-recognized national federation for cycling in the United States.

The arrangement is the reason the NBL's 1997 decision to join USA Cycling mattered so much. USA Cycling needed a non-profit BMX partner. The NBL was the non-profit. When the ABA absorbed the NBL in 2011, the USA Cycling relationship came across in the same transaction.

BMX racing's Olympic debut at Beijing 2008 was won on the men's side by Māris Štrombergs of Latvia. Štrombergs defended his title at London 2012, becoming the only rider to win Olympic BMX gold twice.

That changed at Rio 2016. Connor Fields won the United States' first Olympic gold medal in BMX racing. The same Games, Alise Willoughby took silver — the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic medal in BMX racing. Mariana Pajón of Colombia won the women's gold.

At Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021), Fields returned to defend his title and was carried off the track on a stretcher after a heavy semifinal crash. Bethany Shriever of Great Britain won the women's Olympic gold. Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands won the men's.

For Paris 2024, the U.S. fielded a five-rider team: Alise Willoughby (her fourth Olympic Games), Daleny Vaughn, and Felicia Stancil on the women's side, with Cameron Wood and Kamren Larsen on the men's.

The modern factory team era

USA BMX's national circuit is the proving ground for the modern BMX factory teams. The factories that field the top riders today include Supercross BMX, Crupi, GT, Box Components, Daylight, Meybo, Chase, Inspyre, and several others.

The model is direct lineage from the ABA / NBL era. GT, Redline, Mongoose, Haro, SE, and the other brands that built BMX in the 1970s and 1980s all ran factory teams on the ABA and NBL nationals.

USA BMX Canada

After the 2011 merger, USA BMX absorbed the Canadian operations of both former sanctions. Today, USA BMX Canada is run as a regional division of the parent organization, with its own districts, its own #1 plates, and its own Canadian Grand Nationals.

What's the same. What's different.

What's the same as the ABA-era days: the transfer system. The yearly Grandnationals. The earned-not-bought #1 plate system. The traveling national series. The factory teams. The Hall of Fame.

What's different: one rulebook instead of two. One set of plates. One USA Cycling relationship. A purpose-built Tulsa facility with an Olympic-spec start hill. A combined membership of 70,000-plus riders. A clean Olympic-pathway story.

Where USA BMX stands today

USA BMX is the present-day continuation of the organizational lineage that runs from BUMS (1970) through the NBA (1973), the NBL (1974), and the ABA (1977). The sanction's tracks span the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. The Hall of Fame and the year-end Grandnationals both run out of Tulsa. The Olympic pipeline runs through USA Cycling and into every Summer Games since Beijing 2008.

Sources

Wikipedia: USA BMX, American Bicycle Association, National Bicycle League, BMX racing, Connor Fields, Māris Štrombergs. USA BMX official history; USA BMX Hall of Fame inductee records; USA BMX Grands event page. Bicycle Retailer and Industry News — "ABA, NBL Join Forces for BMX Racing" (June 25, 2011); "USA BMX Celebrates One Year at the Tulsa Headquarters" (May 8, 2023). ESPN — "Connor Fields wins first BMX gold medal for U.S." (Rio 2016). Tulsa World — "With Vision in the bag, USA BMX announces move of headquarters." Olympics.com — Cycling BMX Racing results pages for Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024.

Where sources conflict — most often on the exact size of the 2011 transaction, or on attendance figures for the Grandnationals — we have used the most-cited figure and noted the range when relevant.

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