Quote:
Originally Posted by bella
there is a need to reshuffle motorsport and the way it is marketed to the masses in this country. we can only get people to turn out to the travelling circus, er, btcc here. clearly the current model isn't working. we're a service industry country now, businesses should be fighting for the attention of the masses. the whole thing is just crying out for some innovative marketing.
/rant
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Thinking more, it is definitely a UK-centric problem
at the moment. The whole system is pretty whacky. In 2010, my dad, when running Saab City Group, decided to sponsor a whole race day at Brands Hatch. He bought 1000 tickets from MSV and advertised them for free, first come first serve, with a half page add in the Metro (the add only ran for one day).
The tickets sold out within about 48 hours. He tried to negotiate another 1000 but MSVR got silly over the price so he only ordered another 250. They sold out within a further 24 hours (there were customers on a waiting list for tickets!)
Initially my dad was in negotiations with MSV about buying the whole gate for the meeting and then just letting anyone who had a Metro copy or Saab City invitation in for free. With the way tickets were flying out, if this had happened this simple club meeting would have had a crowd of 6000-10000 such was demand. Instead, it got around 1500 (still three times more than a standard clubbie at Brands).
The reasoning behind not selling the gate to Saab City was that they were worried too many people would turn up and they wouldn't know how many catering staff/gate staff to put on for the day! As my dad pointed out to them, what if 8000 people turned up unprovoked for a normal raceday. Needless to say, MSV did have a reply other than 'no'. Even if they didn't have the ideal number of staff, MSV would have made a fortune from food, drink and possibly even some merchandise.
It just goes to show, at least in the London area, if motorsport is promoted well, with reasonable ticket prices (£5 not £15 for a club meeting), people will come and watch. If this money that the circuits made was then invested in lower entry fees, more competitors would turn up. Meetings would get bigger, profiles would get bigger so sponsors would be more willing to get involved. More money would be around to subsidise talented drivers. Etcetera etcetera etcetera.
Obviously this is a slightly simplified view (and completely off topic from F3's future) but it is a particular bug bear of mine.