I think as individuals there is very little we can do other than to try and convert people we meet into at least passive fans. But in general there is an educational job to be done by getting people to appreciate the history of the event and what it means in this day and age to be able to run a race such as this at all.

Arguing and trying to defend the indefencible just weakens our case with 'non believers' and they go away with the idea that we are at best ignorant and at worst completely stupid. Pointing out the human achievement and the excitement given to supporters negate a lot of the downside.

The inconvenience will be a hard one to deal with, but turning people into supporters of the event will go a long way to negating this.

Perhaps we really should be looking at a short circuit to run world class events in conjunction with a smaller TT festival to ensure that we do not lose everything in it's entirety in one fell swoop?