Quote:
Originally Posted by wnut
Bernie gets blamed for everything and credit for very little, many of the silly decisions that F1 has taken had very little to do with Bernie.
Foca, the FIA and the F1 Working Group need to bear responsibility and be held accountable for their parts in the mess.
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I think BE sold at the end of the golden era for F1 financially and Liberty, conversely, bought in at the top. Agreed, I am making assumptions here, but I think Liberty.
- Saw an already profitable business that they could monetise, add some razzamatazz and grow, probably quite easily.
- They saw BE's effective one man band sales and marketing operation and reckoned some investment there could grow the commercial aspects as an untapped market.
- BE had a combative relationship with teams and circuits, that they could bring more diplomacy into
- Growth outside the traditional markets
The reality has probably been.
- No new interest in F1 from car manufacturers
- Difficulty in bringing in any new or meaningful sponsors
- Not finding the queue for new F1 venues as long and willing as they thought
- Teams are as difficult to agree anything direction with on regs or future as before
- Resistance from teams to a greatly expanded calendar
- The days of the beauty parade of open cheque broadcasters competing for F1 TV rights is over
- Their over the top broadcasting product got off to a poor start and was more difficult to implement than thought
- Opened a can of worms with the proposed business model offered to Miami, which as predicted has formed a queue of other circuits that have agreements coming up for renewal wondering why they can't be offered the same sort of deal - leading to rapid realisation that without circuits, you have NO business. The circuits association is now more organised and vocal and has recognised their strong position
- Mexico government withdrawing funding of the GP
- Today the Dutch government says that no state suport for a Dutch GP will be offered
Hence now we have alleged rumours of Liberty looking tosell F1 or a large equity in it, Red Bull have already denied a rumour that they might buy F1, apparently.
F1 will still make money as it has enough long termish deals from the lucrative BE deal days, but after that it will (IMO) get harder and harder to get big pay days and in the end FOM may end up having to be a joint promoter (and risk holder) at some of the events, maybe that will be the business model of the future.
Couple that with likely future increased regulation of sectors that are cash rich enought to sponsor F1 (betting/alcohol), massive change in the car market as manufacturers scale back production/model ranges and employees whilst they readjust to the new tech car market (which is why they are still in FE), general lack of interest in cars from the younger generation adding to ageing dempgraphich audience for F1.
That all looks a challenge to me..