Quote:
Originally Posted by old man
Our local motor club had its regular "noggin and natter" session last night and the BRDC member present gave a fascinating insight to their problem. All of the comments above about an unworkable business model were confirmed and change of ownership seems inevitable. Given that, we all agreed as race enthusiasts, that MSV seemed the best option, a real racer with relevant and successful experience rather than a conglomerate or an entrepreneur whose magnificent motor sport efforts appear to be subsidised by his other business interests.
It is no time for anything other than a company with a proven track record (pardon the pun!)
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Agreed, if it goes to an overseas conglomerate you are only ever a board meeting away from a strategic change of direction and disposal of 'non-core business' assets.
More importantly you need someone who is going to invest in motor sport as a whole. One of Silverstone's main failings IMO is that it believes that investing in Silverstone only means building something else or putting more paint on the track - they have not been investing in new events, creating new events (in fact they have handed over what should be a prime Silverstone event to a 3rd party promoter). Whereas MSV whether you like them or not, has created Palmer Audi, runs BSB, ran F2 has picked up the ashes of F3 and kept the name alive and created the BRDC Formula and they are creating new events like the Italia Festival at Brands, where as the management at Silverstone have just become landlords and janitors and are fast realising that you need an awful lot of 3rd party customers to fill your track time and vast corporate space in the Wing building, which I imagine is 100 miles away from reaching even the lower end of their capacity sales figures.