(10-12-2014, 02:12 AM)Sam Pato Wrote:

(10-12-2014, 12:54 AM)sticky Wrote: This is the original article from the old site when the news broke in 2011:

http://www.iomtt.com/News/2011/03/16/Isl...nfirm.aspx

I think it's highly unlikely any circuits from the old F1 championship will come under consideration unless the country they're in is deemed to have some potential commercial benefit to the IOM.

I'd love to see a major bike race back at Bathurst in Aus.  They have all the infrastructure necessary as it hosts the country's biggest car race.  The USA would be an ideal market to crack but there are problems in doing that.  American sport is very insular.  The baseball championship is called the 'World Series' even though no-one else plays it (apart from the Japanese).  The winners of the Superbowl are declared World Champions although only American teams can contest it.  The racing philosophy is embedded in oval racing to the extent that even now, Formula One struggles to get a toe hold.

If Bernie can't get a foot in the door what chance do the DED have?

And can you imagine how the lawyers would decend on it if there was ever an incident like the Bray Hill crash from last year?

Interesting thoughts.  A race at Bathurst would be fantastic but Australia is a tiny market and is the logistics costs would be huge for the return.  Also its just a parochial as the US so it might be that nobody shows up even to watch.  I reckon in viability terms your probably looking at Europe and possibly a Far East race (although I have a feeling that Macau might be deemed to much of a risk by the riders).   I'd have thought that given the popularity of bikes in Spain and Portugal they'd be just the sort of places that such a championship would want to target.

The most fanciful bit in the article linked above is the idea that it'll be predominantly new circuits.  I'd be really interested to see what the make up of these is/are if it ever gets developed.  I wonder if this sort of detail has been worked up by the consultants so far.....

Sam

Sam, the problem with looking at Europe is that it would have to be during the normal season for obvious reasons.  Most of the likely top seeds will already be busy with BSB or other race commitments.  The road race calendar is already crowded with the Irish & IRRC events, so when could you fit another championship in?

If you think about motor sport generally there are a lot of championships trying to sell themselves the same way the DED are with this idea and they end up playing to tiny crowds and probably getting poor TV viewing figures.  The latest is the Formula E car series, which lo and behold, is taking place in the northern hemisphere off-season and is being held on newly devised street circuits.  The DED are very late to this particular party and with another year at least before the consultancy even ends they'll be later still.

Just seen this on Manx Radio:
http://www.manxradio.com/newsread.aspx?id=74196

They're talking about shutting the airport for a period over the weekend.  What message does that send to countries they want to do business with off the back of selling the TT brand?

As I've said before, I'm not intrinsically against this but I just can't see how it can work.  Convince me somebody?