Bring MotoGp and Superbike to NZ !!

[GSVR]

I think someone with a long memory might remember when there was a WSB round at manfield 1989 or 90 (When the series was in its infancy) . Apparently it was a financial disaster due to poor spectator attendance.

[Motu]

One problem that NZ has time over, is the fact that if events like this were brought here, the country would grind to a halt. The traffic of people and vehicles alone would desimate our network.. We need to fix that before we invite more people to come to our wonderful country..

I was talking to someone last week about the 2006 ISDE in Taupo....acomodation is being organised right now,there are about 500 officials,3000 team members etc...I guess they will outnumber spectators.There is nowhere in Taupo with a big enough area for Park Ferme and a location elsewhere is being sourced.A pretty big event,but small I guess to the WRC when it comes here.

[Fart]

The reality is that we have a small population.

[GSVR]

The reality is that we have a small population.

And geographically isolated. And aren't represented in the racing.

MNZ:In the first year of its inception New Zealand hosted the final round of the World Superbike Championships on the 2nd October 1988. We continued to host rounds in 1989, 1990 and 1992.

That was when Fred Merkel and Aaron Slight were major players.

[gav]

How about a round of the World MX? Current world champ and all......

[GSVR]

How about a round of the World MX? Current world champ and all......

Far more likely I reacon

By the amount of Motocross activity you see around these parts anyway I'd say that offroad racers must outnumber roadracers by at least 3 to 1.

[Skyryder]

$20 million is small money when compare to the huge amount of money coming from revenues generated from the tens of thousands of motorsports fans coming into the country. Lets put it into perspective. Tax payer funded the America's cup that lasted only a few months of every fours years and cost over $50 million.

The reason that the America's cup was so successful was marketing not only of products but the Cups personalities.
In New Zealand it was both local products and the homegrown image of the yachties and the team corperate that was used for it's success. To try and translate that success to a motorcycle race would be doubtfull to say the least. Let's face it guys smoke, leathers, and noise just does not cut the mustard with salt, seaspray and Line 7 to most Kiwi's.

Skyryder

[Kickaha]

It costs about $5m+ to do the track and your looking at about another $10-20m for the required facilities. Then there is the license costs you'd have to pay to host the event etc etc.

It costs approx $1M per km to lay a track

Does anyone know what any of the NZ tracks are certified to run? or what their grading is?

[Bob]

Tens of thousands? Recent Motogp race I watched (can't remember) had an attendance well over 100,000 people. Very very very small chance of that happening over here. But like someone said, WSB has been here before so maybe just maybe, who knows.

I don't know how many "Tens of thousands" you are talking about - but to give things a little contex, not that many years back (I'm thinking about when 120,000 people - me included - packed themselves into Brands Hatch for the SBK round, so 1999 possibly?), the UK round of MotoGP was under threat as the crowds were too small. Dorna didn't like seeing lots of empty spaces at Donington.

What was too small? About 45,000 if I recall correctly. Next year it picked up to something like 68,000 which gave the round a reprieve. And then along came some bloke called Rossi and since then, the crowds (I'm pretty sure) have been hitting the 100,000 mark. So now Dorna are happy bunnies.

SBK are, I think, more 'tolerant' of smaller crowds. But you do need a track up to standard. If your new track is good enough, then it would make sense to have an NZ round as the teams could then stop over rather than visit Oz then head off to the other side of the world.

[onearmedbandit]

Bob, I may have the wrong end of the stick here, but I was questioning the comment of 'tens of thousands' countering it by saying crowds of over 100,000 are more accurate.

[Bob]

I wasn't trying to disagree with you or anything - in fact, I was trying to emphasise what you were saying by backing it up with some examples of audience figures.

It would be worth having a look at the MotoGP site (and the SBK site, come to think of it) to see if they mention attendance figures for each round. That would give a good idea of what would be required in terms of audience... unless the round is held in Qatar of course, when they throw so much money at it, it really isn't relevent if anybody turns up outside of the 127 member royal family!

But offhand, I'd say your 100,000 plus figure is about right. 45k was low enough for threats of losing the round, so NZ would need to be able to guarantee upwards of that I'd think.

[Bob]

I just found the following:

"Another record year for MotoGP attendance in 2004

The WSC MotoGP Championship has recorded its best ever figures for attendance. 15 of the 16 circuits that made up the calendar in 2004 have beaten their particular records.

A total of 1,700,000 spectators saw the 16 races this season at the 16 circuits spread around five continents. The highest figure was seen at the GP Comunidad Valenciana, with 211,000 people watching in spite of the three championships having already been decided. Another two GPs in Spain (Jerez) and Germany exceeded the 200,000 spectator barrier."

So there you have it. Take off the big ones and the average works out as 85,000 per GP.

[Lee Rusty]

was a NZ idea and indeed as stated above the final rounds were held in NZ in late eighties to 1990 all held at MAnfield. But then the people involved sold the whole idea and organisation set up etc to overseas interests.
THat was end of NZ rounds - nearest we get is Philip Island - NZ just does not have the population (interest) needed to make this type of event pay.

We still get car rallies etc due to the fact there are there are plenty of petrol heads who support that sort of thing.

Bikers are renowned for their apathy - just look at the number of people pn this site that say they would go for a ride IF it aint raining. How you going to get people to buy tickets to events that may be affected by rain.

Dont say that is not relevant - it is I am involved in lots of events and training etc numbers are always down if it rains.

[White trash]

motorsport has less profile than women's hockey in NZ.

Rubbish.

Motorracing is the second highest spectated sport in NZ.

[James Deuce]

Rubbish.

Motorracing is the second highest spectated sport in NZ.

Cars mate, not bikes. The Trentham and Auckland cup days (horse racing) get more people turning up to them than national motorsport rounds get all year, all disciplines combined, if you exclude motocross.

Motorcross has way more support than motorcycle road racing. I work with people who had no idea until I "educated" them (yelling, swear words, and questioning their claim that they had a double figure IQ let alone 3 figure) about NZ National Road racing series. They honestly thought that there was no motorcycle road racing in NZ. These are the people that would need to go to a top level event to ensure its financial viability, and they've never been exposed to motorcycle road racing ever.