So now that there is money to be made, and the profits will be going to share holders, all the volunteers will still be happy to give there time for free, or did they not think that one through?

So how many of the readers of this thread would care to tender for this pipedream?

The only winnners here will be (already are!!) the Sports Consultancy who have "earned" big bucks to, firstly, find out what their principals (the DED) want to be told and, secondly, tell it to them !!

IOM Govt - sorry, not a brain among 'em .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

We now that it looks like the DED are down the road with offloading the TT, PP is on to his true love of Cycling with the DED.
http://www.energyfm.net/cms/news_story_357203.html
I remember clearly the last time the Isle Of Man tried a Cycling week it did not work as the visitors did were quite frugal with there money. The last time did involve closing the TT course on a rolling basis, and this is a bit diffierent

(21-01-2015, 02:54 PM)STEVEVTR Wrote: Does this mean we could have a "BERNIE ECCLESTON" type at the helm of our precious TT Races ?

We don,t want a person like him any where near the TT he,s only in it for one thing himself ,have a read of Colin Seeleys Book!!

Just in for a warm from working on one of the bikes,,
This World Series is a no go, end of story,
But whilst the DED or what used to be the Special Events Unit, is involved with an open Cheque book from higher up,
A certain person will get his own way,
The Islands own Bernie ,,, Lol
Sorry if the person involved reads this and takes offence,
But lets get real here,
Yes he has done a lot to move things along, but at the same time he has just done what anybody else could have done !
Right place right time, i think is the phrase,

This are just my thoughts,
And dont reflect everybodys !

Back to work on the Bikes,,,,

I'm probably being a bit thick here but I don't even understand the concept. The TT is unique and I don't see how it can be incorporated into a meaningful championship.
I'm trying to think how this would work in other sports. A 'Grand National' World Series for horse racing? A series of Boat Races around the world? An Everest Climbing Championship?
I understand the concept of World Championships, Grand Slams, Triple Crowns and Grand Prix etc. But each of these are part of a series, not an extension of a unique event.
This strikes me of a branding exercise, perhaps somebody could enlighten me further.

(22-01-2015, 08:04 PM)Geekay Wrote: I'm probably being a bit thick here but I don't even understand the concept. The TT is unique and I don't see how it can be incorporated into a meaningful championship.
I'm trying to think how this would work in other sports. A 'Grand National' World Series for horse racing? A series of Boat Races around the world? An Everest Climbing Championship?
I understand the concept of World Championships, Grand Slams, Triple Crowns and Grand Prix etc. But each of these are part of a series, not an extension of a unique event.
This strikes me of a branding exercise, perhaps somebody could enlighten me further.

MONEY!!!!!

(22-01-2015, 08:04 PM)Geekay Wrote: I'm probably being a bit thick here but I don't even understand the concept. The TT is unique and I don't see how it can be incorporated into a meaningful championship.
I'm trying to think how this would work in other sports. A 'Grand National' World Series for horse racing? A series of Boat Races around the world? An Everest Climbing Championship?
I understand the concept of World Championships, Grand Slams, Triple Crowns and Grand Prix etc. But each of these are part of a series, not an extension of a unique event.
This strikes me of a branding exercise, perhaps somebody could enlighten me further.

The DED think that by charging 'interested parties' a sum of money to use the TT name against a series of meetings that will more closely resemble the Southern 100, they will make a fortune....

Perhaps they will - or perhaps they will destroy the whole thing by placing it in the hands of others.

I see Mr P is now looking to become the 'man who saved cycling'   hmmmmmm.....

(22-01-2015, 08:04 PM)Geekay Wrote: I'm probably being a bit thick here

No not at all, the government are though, and the consultants (who have now pocketed close on £200.000 selling them this idea) must be laughing their heads off at them behind the scenes.

There was a piece on 'Northwest Tonight', tonight. It's on iplayer, kicks in at 15min 30 secs.

(22-01-2015, 10:17 PM)captainsparkledotcom Wrote: There was a piece on 'Northwest Tonight', tonight. It's on iplayer, kicks in at 15min 30 secs.

The closing line of the report: "The challenge will be holding on to the TT magic" sums it all up!

I assume the 'big money' to pay for all this is coming from TV (as in the Premier League in football), but, as football is a major sporting event, and makes good viewing, unfortunately road racing is a very minor sporting event, and isn't all that exciting to watch on TV compared to being sat on a hedge on the TT Course.
Where does this all leave the MGP, and the MMCC?

The IOM DED do not give a flying damn about the MGP, nor indeed the MMCC

The Department of Economic Development is inviting Expressions of Interest for an independent promoter to manage and develop the commercial contracts for the TT Races and Classic TT Races including developing the potential for a franchised series of ‘TT World Series’ events.

Under the proposed scope of services, the Isle of Man Government will outsource all commercial aspects of the TT Races, currently managed by the Department of Economic Development’s Motorsport Team, to an independent promoter. This includes domestic and international television and broadcast rights, sponsorship and licensing, hospitality and event ticketing, merchandising and retail sites.

An independent promoter would also be tasked with developing and implementing additional road race format events around the world as part of a ‘TT World Series’.

Laurence Skelly MHK, Minister for Economic Development, commented:

‘My Department has made excellent progress in developing the event with significant increases in visitors, commercial revenue and media profile. However, we are now at the stage when an external promoter will be better placed to capitalise on that progress to take the event to the next level.

He continued:

‘Not only do I believe that we will be able to increase revenue from both the Isle of Man TT and potential new events, but by outsourcing the commercial aspects of the TT Races we will be able to reduce some of our fixed costs and our potential financial exposure.’

The Department is inviting Expressions of Interest from relevant parties to be submitted before 28 February 2015. Suitable candidates will then be issued with ‘Pre-Qualification Questionnaires’ (PQQ) in March 2015 and if the Isle of Man Government believes that there are operators of the required calibre, they will issue Invitations to Tender (ITT) with full and detailed proposals required by September 2015.

If a suitable promoter is identified, they would be appointed by December 2015.  It is then anticipated that an independent promoter would work in partnership with the existing Isle of Man TT structure and team to deliver the 2016 Isle of Man TT meeting with a view to the Isle of Man Government handing over the outlined commercial and promotional responsibilities to the Independent promoter for the 2017 TT Races.

It is intended that 2017 would include 'test' events in other countries ahead of a full series roll out in 2018.


Wednesday 21st January 2015

Issued By - Economic Development

I think the DED have played a blinder!
They are in a no lose situation where any blame or credit is concerned.
If they can not find anyone to take it on,they can say 'well at least we tried'
If someone does take it on and it is a success, then it will be because of the hard work they have done since 2007.
If someone takes it on and it is a failure, then its not there fault, 'we put it o a commercial footing prior to them taking it on.
At least one thing is now clear.All the Bullsh*t about needing the Subaru laps, VIP packages, TM sponsored bikes etc to keep the TT alive was just so they could make it an attractive to sell it on.

What I don't understand is why they would spend circa £200K on a feasibility study, and then when told it was feasible give it to someone else to do?

Surely it would have been better to firstly offer a promoter the chance to run a TT world series if they felt it would work, and then let the promoter do their own feasibility study if they wished, as part of the deal?

I still cannot see how this format would work , to be a TT series the races would like the TT have to be on roads . You own the most unique motorcycling event in the world with popularity on the up and you want to consider promoting a series using the TT brand which in my view might actually do it more harm than good.
If there are enough road courses out there to promote a series, then call it something else like the International road race championship . I searched this on the Web to find it already exists.

But even with the right name would it work ?

(23-01-2015, 03:47 PM)warrior Wrote: What I don't understand is why they would spend circa £200K on a feasibility study, and then when told it was feasible give it to someone else to do?

Surely it would have been better to firstly offer a promoter the chance to run a TT world series if they felt it would work, and then let the promoter do their own feasibility study if they wished, as part of the deal?

we need to recognize that all this is taking place in a parallel universe inhabited by DED, some politicians and some marketing people they have their own language and standards and live in a land where whatever you can get put in a report must be true and where, if the outcome you want is at odds with reality, you hire consultants in to write it  so that 1) you don't have to sully your professional reputation and 2) you have someone else to blame.

Nobody with any knowledge of the TT or world motorsport as it stands at the moment could possibly believe that this had any legs for all sorts of reasons. Its very unlikely that there are enough roads circuits, particularly in the southern hemisphere, suitable for any high level championship. Its more likely that some of the ultra boring F1 circuits would be used as on the face of it some of the states such as Dubai etc are loaded and want publicity. There is a desperate lack of sponsorship globally as can be seen from F1, motogp and wsb and TV money in motorsport is notorious for not trickling doen to the teams - ask caterham etc one of the reasons why the TT seeding has been introduced so that the 'top' teams get all the air time for their sponsors.

Can't see that many of the existing organisers will want to run a series which would potentially dilute their existing offerings' revenue potential on the same tracks as they already use, we all know how tight the calender is already. And why would a state government pay to use the 'TT world series' name for another event when they already have a motogp or wsb round and the whole point of the 'Brand' is to bring attention to the IOM rather than the host country as far as I am aware all the national government backing for motorsport everywhere is to boost that countrys profile not a rock in the irish sea.

Few of the existing teams and riders are in a position to mount any meaningful attack on a worldwide series even if they were paid, probably about 10 of the teams have the infrastructure to participate and about the same number of the current riders could if paid, remember they are all busy working as truck mechanics and the like! The series would depend on local wildcards who would almost certainly wallop the road racers on their home turf and to some extent it probably explains why PP has, for the last few years, being trying to bring BSB riders straight in rather than let young road racers work their way up through the manx etc.
 
The biigest factor though is that the event with its unique atmosphere and history are so different to anything else that there just isn't any synergy with any other race (even the fact thats is not really a race!).

I personallly think that this is all a cover to put the TT, which makes a fair profit, into the hands of private individuals - the IOM gov arent renown for getting good value and my prediction is that to encourage a private operator - lets call them DED2 Ltd to take on the risk/cost of promoting the world series the contact will be priced attractively, TTWS will be a no go and DED2 will be left with the TT and classic but as a private company they will have no obligation to to the manx and it will die. Even the island gov will realize that DED would now have about 4 too many staff so expect the following - one or two of them will try and busy themselves with other sports - manx rally, cycling festivals (oh yeh they are already on that!) and some, having spent 2016 'working closely'  with the new operator will take huge payoffs and start the next day on enhanced terms.

God knows how many of the 90 or so who line up in June will have actually competed in the other rounds but if you allow for accidents and the expense it wouldn't surprise me if several of the front runners fall by the wayside and that the series is won by a short circuit/wsb rider who doesn't actually compete at the TT.

Finally, once they have moneterized the brand I'm not sure how many of the volunteers like marshalls etc will be willing to

ops - .....willing to give up their time and get messed around to make DED2 profit.

Obviously all names have been changed to protect the innocent and bear no relationship to anyone living or DEAD (pun intended)

Think badlyoverdrawnboy has hit the Nail right on the head,
Well thought out comments from him, and i do have to agree with him,
He has echoed my thoughts about the whole thing so much better than i could have dreamed off !

Well done that Man !