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American defeat. Losses amounted to millions. Even Poles are fed up.
There were bold visions, announcements of global expansion, and a surge in popularity. It culminated in the purchase of a new podium and new boxes for the riders competing in the Speedway World Championship. A new promoter can have big problems.
When it was announced in 2019 that the rights to organize the Speedway Grand Prix series would be acquired by the global brand Warner Bros. Discovery from the USA, everyone expected a total revolution and the opening of new markets. Speedway was supposed to function similarly to MotoGP, with speedway riders competing year-round on every continent. Today, it sounds like a joke. After three seasons, none of the goals have been achieved, and sponsors, fans, and even players are beginning to turn away from the new promoter.
Although Bartosz Zmarzlik has already won the World Championship five times, these competitions are beginning to evoke less and less emotion in our country, too.
Initially, the organizers cited the pandemic as an excuse, but today, activists and fans respond to such excuses with a pitying smile. It's not just speedway fans who complain about the level of Grand Prix competitions, but also the competitors themselves. Even though they received a substantial raise immediately after the new promoter took office, they're slowly losing patience, and the fight for the World Championship is no longer fun.
It's already known that the company Infinite Reality will no longer advertise on the competitors' Kevlar clothing this year, and the organizers haven't been able to find a replacement. In the fourth season of Warner Bros., Regent Discovery Sports has had to admit defeat and insert the logo of the World Championship instead of its biggest sponsor's logo. According to estimates, this could result in a deficit of at least several hundred thousand dollars in the World Championship budget. When we asked representatives from Grand Prix about this, we received only the perfunctory answer that Infinite Reality remains a partner of GP.
However, this is nothing compared to what could happen before next season. Although no one from the management of the energy drink giant Monster wants to be identified, representatives of the company are sending unofficial signals that they are dissatisfied with the way the World Cup is going and their collaboration with the organizer so far. This year, in turn, is the final year of the current contract, which, according to unofficial information, is worth up to one million dollars per year.
According to our information, the company is currently seriously considering withdrawing from the Grand Prix series and changing its strategy. If this happens, it would be a blow to the World Cup organizers from which they may not recover.
Talk is slowly emerging of a losing streak, as this year's series will be the first in over 20 years that the legendary round will not take place in the large Cardiff stadium. Fan interest waned until the tournament eventually became unprofitable. This year's competition was moved to a smaller venue in Manchester. Next year, the last major venue, the PGE Narodowy, will disappear from the GP calendar. The Poles decided it would be better to take a break and organize the Team World Cup finale. The loss of two series' calling cards certainly won't make negotiations with potential sponsors any easier.
In addition, there are growing rumors in Poland that the promoters at Warner Bros. themselves might have had enough of speedway racing. It's a sport of discovery. Although this hasn't been confirmed yet, it's possible that the promoter won't have to stay with speedway until the end of its current contract, which runs until 2031.
Due to the strange decisions of FIM representative Armando Castagna, Polish fans have lost interest in the Grand Prix series, and without funding from Poland, it's difficult to think about developing a full-fledged product.
There are currently no news of plans to broadcast the series outside of Europe. So far, it hasn't been possible to organize a single round in Australia, let alone the US or other countries. The new promoter presented his tenure as the beginning of a new era in speedway racing, and no one currently associates anything good with such a slogan. The recent rule changes are not only completely incomprehensible, but also threaten to distort the sporting competition. The senseless adoption of models from other motorsport disciplines could lead to a distortion of the competition for the World Championship this year, and the decisive factor may not necessarily be the direct duels between the drivers on the track during the tournaments, but rather the times achieved in the morning qualifying rounds alone.
- I have the impression that the fans and the players themselves weren't expecting such changes. Most tournaments can only be watched online, and given the low level of competition, I didn't even want to buy a package. I think the vast majority of speedway fans in Poland will do the same next season. On the other hand, if we have enough of such races, it's difficult to pin our hopes on the Germans, the Czechs, or the Swedes, because the sport is beginning to play a marginal role there," admits former Polish national team coach Marek Cieślak.