Grand Prix Series

[sprocketrocket]

Take Moto GP & World Superbikes 2 riders for 1 team competing against each other.

 

Why do we not use the same principal in speedway have a different series over 22 meetings all over the world with 10 teams and 20 riders and riders would only be able to compete in the series. I know teams have been tried before and have failed but if there was a completely separate series the you would have 'Team Sky' 'Team Jawa' 'Team GM'.

 

Think about it - Australian GP, New Zealand GP, Argentinan GP, American GP, Canadian GP, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy, France, Slovenia, Czech, Ireland, Russia, Japan, China, Dubai, Spain

 

Sponsors would pay more to have a team named after them ('Redbull Jawa') rather than be associated with one rider ('Jason Crump Sponsored By Red Bull') I know which one I would choose.

 

Riders would earn more by completing in 40,000 stadiums in 22 countries. We need to glamour up the sport and make the riders more like F1 drivers.

 

The way F1 is sold around makes perfect sense for speedway.

 

Anyway, just a thought

[Ghostwalker]

then we have a situation like F1 or WRC where money comes before skill regarding the available rider positions in the teams.

In WRC and F1 a driver (lets call the him/her "X") can, to some extent, "buy" him/her-self a place in a team even if there are better drivers (y, Z) available simply

because X can bring more sponsor money into the team then Y or Z.

Edited January 26, 2010 by Ghostwalker

[T.N.T.]

Much rather watch Speedway GP's than the F1 GP's as the second team member is only there to help out, so a field of 22 becomes 11 of which at least 6 are no hopers.

 

 

With 16 riders in a GP and one of those being a WC, teams of 2 would leave one rider on his own !

 

 

Then you would have to find 7 or 8 companies that would be willing to foot the bill for this !

[Humphrey Appleby]

Riders would earn more by completing in 40,000 stadiums in 22 countries.

 

The obvious question still, is who would pay for it all? The current GP series largely has to be held in smallish stadiums in a handful of countries for cost reasons, so where would the cash come from to finance a global circus, let alone the question of who'd actually come to watch outside of the main speedway countries?

 

[MattK]

Ignoring Rossi, what does a middle to low order Moto GP or World Superbikes rider earn? I presume they only ride in one series?

 

It's interesting that these riders can earn a living from just one competition, whereas speedway riders compete in up to three leagues as well as the SGP.

 

Not so much with Moto GP, as it is the creme de la creme of motorcycle racing, but how does World Superbikes generate the revenue to support the series and all the riders - and why can't SGP do the same?

[Humphrey Appleby]

Not so much with Moto GP, as it is the creme de la creme of motorcycle racing, but how does World Superbikes generate the revenue to support the series and all the riders - and why can't SGP do the same?

 

I'd guess mostly from television and sponsorship revenue, and maybe the factory teams running a loss leader. However, the difference with speedway is that road racing probably has wider geographical appeal than speedway (which is really only popular in a handful of countries), plus the bikes are much closely related to what the public are able to buy. Therefore television and marketing rights can probably be sold for more in a wider number of countries, and sponsors can get wider and more relevant coverage than with speedway, so are prepared to pay more.

 

Look at the SBK sponsors and most of the sponsors are established and recognisable names, and the MotoGP even more so. Compare that with the Speedway GP, and you see the difference.

Edited January 26, 2010 by Humphrey Appleby

[Starman2006]

Great, Rocketsproket so your very much in favour of having a complete GP series and no League racing whatsoever, because if they went ahead with what your proposing thats what you will get.

And if you had any League racing the Leagues would be so substandard it would be untrue.

So i take it from your post you are very much in favour of the GP system? Because imo there's far to many GP's now!!

Edited January 26, 2010 by Starman2006

[Ghostwalker]

Because imo there's far to many GP's now!!

 

i disagree with that. How can it be far too many? if we would have any fewer there would hardly be a series.

 

I would like 10-15 GPs per season, with one GP every 2nd-3rd week.

I also would like to replace 1 of the Swedish & Danish Gps and 2 of Polish gps with

GPs in warmer countries to take advantage of the warmer temperatures in

March-April-October-November.

[Starman2006]

i disagree with that. How can it be far too many? if we would have any fewer there would hardly be a series.

 

I would like 10-15 GPs per season, with one GP every 2nd-3rd week.

I also would like to replace 1 of the Swedish & Danish Gps and 2 of Polish gps with

GPs in warmer countries to take advantage of the warmer temperatures in

March-April-October-November.

 

So your another one who's obviously in favour of an all GP season and no League Speedway!! Great.

[squall]

So your another one who's obviously in favour of an all GP season and no League Speedway!! Great.

 

Have a GP every day of the season for all I care, it won't affect my leagues

Edited January 27, 2010 by squall

[AndyM]

Quite right, Starman. The GP circus is already cutting the throat of bread and butter league speedway, the training ground from where its riders emerged. At this rate it will ultimately cut its own throat...

Edited January 28, 2010 by AndyM

[Ghostwalker]

So your another one who's obviously in favour of an all GP season and no League Speedway!! Great.

 

in what way is the gp affecting the league speedway by having a gp every 2nd week?

 

I haven't noticed anything.

 

i do not think that a couple of more GPs would change anything especially not with my

suggestion to move some of the GPs to parts of the season/year when the racing is a bit less

intense to be able to have more gps with a 3 week interval instead of 2 weeks when the racings is more intense.

[SCB]

Have a GP every day of the season for all I care, it won't affect my leagues

Until the EL has to replace the missing GP riders and raids the PL.

 

And if teams are well organised (run Mon, Wed, Thur) why can't their be a GP every week?

[1stbendbunching]

Until the EL has to replace the missing GP riders and raids the PL.

 

And if teams are well organised (run Mon, Wed, Thur) why can't their be a GP every week?

 

It's nothing to do with the organisation. A lot of promotions are only able to lease the stadium and have no flexibility over the race night.

 

And as for a GP every week - no thanks. The majority of the series was dire last year and not a good advert for Speedway at all. Why would anyone want to watch more of the same?

[Humphrey Appleby]

And as for a GP every week - no thanks. The majority of the series was dire last year and not a good advert for Speedway at all. Why would anyone want to watch more of the same?

 

Even despite the reported dire racing (I didn't watch a single round last season), it would be utterly tedious to watch the same 16 riders week-after-week. The only thing that makes individual racing interesting anyway, is following riders from your own team, so break that link and it'll be an absolute bore.

 

[AndyM]

Indeed. The alternative of choosing 16 from a wider pool of, say, 32 riders, so riders appear in different GPs in different combinations, is probably even more disruptive to league racing. The rethink has to put investment and effort into the grass roots above all else.

[spook]

A lot of promotions are only able to lease the stadium

 

bingo!

the source of a lot of domestic issues

so what are they currently doing to solve that? The problem is not going to go away by itself

 

 

its an interesting idea sprocketrocket and would go some way to making the sport more 'familiar' for those new fans ........... if it was a winner and it meant that 16-24 riders were lost from the league system then tbh its not as much a big issue as others are making out...... those riders would soon be replaced even if it meant going down to 6 man teams for a season

 

The sport needs something to come along to gather interest and get a ball gathering pace and momentum..... not sure if this is the type of thing that would achive that or not.............. but it would certainly open the door for 'team Honda' 'team Yamaha' 'team Kawasaki' 'team Suzuki' etc .......... and that in my personal opinion should be a holy grail for those that run speedway

[Spooky]

Much rather watch Speedway GP's than the F1 GP's as the second team member is only there to help out, so a field of 22 becomes 11 of which at least 6 are no hopers.

 

 

With 16 riders in a GP and one of those being a WC, teams of 2 would leave one rider on his own !

 

 

Then you would have to find 7 or 8 companies that would be willing to foot the bill for this !

 

I'm with you on this one.

 

Although I get to one or two GP's every year, I prefer League racing. If we're to have the GP vs League scenario then the GP should remain an individual competition and the "teams" left to the league.

[harleynut]

thoughts on restructuring of the GP anyone?

 

could not find the right thread for this and sure it has been debated but wanted to put my two pence in so here goes....

 

Assume we stay with the current format of X number of GPs in a season, involving 16 riders. It seems to me there are multiple benefits of changing the way to get into the series so how about:

 

1. Top 5 stay in for the following year - makes the competition that much more focused

2. Plus the World U21 Champion - brings in new, young blood and improves the stature of the U21 compettion

3. Plus 10 riders that come straight from two GP Semifinals - capitalises on the interest provoked by the current GP Challenge, more sellable to TV and does away with the stupid idea of the IMG 'picks'- the top 5 in each semi are then genuinely deserving of a place.

 

Each country gets an allotted number of places in the semi finals line up (dont know how that works!) and each governing authority can decide how to do that ie we might decide it is through the top 5 finishes in the British Final whereas Sweden might decide to nominate or some combination of the two. The semi final make up is done in a transparent way on TV such as picking riders names out of a bag for each semi

 

 

Well now I feel better!!