I think its fairly easy to see where this is headed.

The current situation is that demand outstrips supply for almost everything in TT race week.  The way we manage this in the modern world is to increase the price until we have a balance between maximum revenue and demand.  Would the ferry on the Saturday arvo after the senior still be full if the price was double? Definitely. Trebled - probably.

As an example a bunch of my mates came out to watch the Lions tests last year - I bought the tickets for them because the only way they could get tickets from the UK was as part of a package which included hotels and transfers all at premium prices.  It made the effective cost of a ticket about 2.5x its face value.

My expectation is that the first act of the new promoters will be to ring fence around 50% of all the premium ferry crossings and then sell them to package tour operators (who will bundle ferries and hotels and grandstand and fan zone etc).  The next act will be to put spectator areas (paying of course) at even more key vantage points - justified by the presence of facilities = a portaloo and a burger van (paying for the concession of course).  So the more affluent can get what they want - rather than the person prepared to get up earliest.

As has already been pointed out - even if you could get the Ark Royal shipping bikes and riders across there's no where for them to stay anyway.  All they can really do is squeeze the existing crowd - or more realistically - leverage them out in favour of a bigger spending crowd.

I could on but I'm too depressed.  Nobody would be happier than me if I'm wrong. 

Sam