Quote:
Originally Posted by MGDavid
You really could not be more wrong. The fans mean nothing to Mercedes - how many fans do you think buy brand new Mercedes road cars?
The MB marketing is to people who can afford new Mercs and are influenced by advertising the success, technology, reliability and engineering that F1 bestows on the brand.
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You could not be more wrong and are missing the point. Clearly all fans don't drive Mercs. BUT the fans give the platform for them to advertise to those who do. So you guys are saying that if F1 existed like a clubbie series, Mercedes would still be involved and paying billions to show their tech prowess? To whom and why? Professional sport only exists if there is a means to finance it and make money from it. This is driven by audience (fans). This gives them the financial means to bother. Why does it cost 100m a year or whatever to host a race? Because fans at the race and watching on TV will pay. A large cut of this goes to the teams who can then pay their drivers 50m a year.
Film success is judged by box office attendance. Whether the movie is any good or not is secondary. The success is driven by fans paying for it. Tom Hanks would be paid nothing, like any amateur actor if nobody paid to watch. Fans pay.
If a sport has a low fan base, it has no money in it. If everyone stopped paying for sky subscriptions, the PL would collapse for example. Because fans no longer fund it. Sky couldn't pay 5bn for the rights and the teams couldn't pay the players who would go elsewhere to where the money is - like Serie A in the late 80s and early 90s.
If attendance and audience in F1 dropped to zero, Merc et al would be gone like a shot. TV companies won't pay for nothing. ESPN have paid 400m for the 2018 World Cup assuming the US will be there. They won't and ESPN are worried now because there will be a much reduced audience of fans making it look likely this 400 plus profit will not be recouped. There is no way ESPN would pay that if they knew in advance the US would be there.
It's all dependent on those who ultimately funds it - the fans through attendance, subscriptions, merchandising, following on social media so sucking in advertisers who now have a market for these millions of followers who are now a conduit for generating more money. I'm taking my son to a GP next year, tickets alone will cost about 600 quid. A local clubbie event costs me a tenner. Why does it cost 600? Because the circuit needs to recoup their enormous outlay - from the fans. The fee the circuit has paid goes to Liberty and the Teams (incl. drivers). If fans don't go, the circuits can't pay and the money for Liberty and the teams and drivers is not there. Ignoring merchandising, TV subscriptions and social media advertising.
If nobody was interested i.e. a fan, there would be no money. It's beyond obvious.