TheriusVR46

Valentino Rossi's MotoGP career lifespan will towards tail-end as Valentino Rossi on the brink of retirement. MotoGP and fans must learn what F1 did in the past when F1 lost Michael Schumacher by retirement after 2006 but the popularity was stable and no effect.

MotoGP must stable the popularity when Valentino Rossi retires.

Your opinions?

warthog1

He is no longer a factor to be considered for title contention and race wins.

Some great talent coming through.
MotoGP is looking great

Mrpurple

I daresay the majority of the people VR brought into GP are a detriment to racing overall.

They will leave when he does because they don't care about the sport...give me a Stoner any day.

misfit

VR has stayed while his performance declined and as the 'new guard' came to fruition. We have the next generation riders already present and demonstrating that they are more than capable of providing great entertainment going forward. The diehard fans who cannot do without Rossi on the grid will go and so does the fan base cycle. As Rossi diehards go, other diehards emerge etc. On the background will be the MotoGP diehards who aren't tied to to any particular rider.

Keshav

Yes, it does seem that the eternal conceit of those who live vicariously through celebrities is they they convince themselves that their “relationship” with a celebrity is symbiotic, rather than merely parasitic, and that the host will shrivel and die without them.

p4p1

Honestly it will be fine. I have noticed some VR fans coming around to Marquez, the shoulder not to mention some of the championship documentaries being a reason for that. I work with a Rossi fan (not an insane one), we were speaking about motogp and he told me he didn't really like Marquez because he doesn't show much personality etc but then watched one of those behind the scenes docos they do for whoever wins the championship and started to see his personality and like him. After this weekend we were on the phone and he couldn't stop talking about how amazing the win was, how great he thought it was to see etc. So I think some are coming around, the ones that will continue to follow the sport but will always hate Marquez have moved on from Mav and are now jumping on the FQ bandwagon or pinning their hopes to Acosta.

The sport will be fine, for every Rossi fan that won't watch without him there will be new fans that come along.

michaelm

If they remain predominantly fans of VR rather than fans of the sport after more than 20 years then I fear there is no keeping them, even leaving aside the question of whether they are worth keeping.

I guess it will be bad for Dorna, and to some extent the riders although I suspect only a few top riders get large money, if there is less money in the sport, but from a personal viewpoint having very much enjoyed the sport when I first started following it in earnest in the golden era 500 two stroke days I strongly suspect I will continue to do so.

The media coverage is better now I guess although I don’t use most of the features on my Dorna subscription except the live timing with even the results of sessions coming up quicker on crashnet, and I also strongly suspect commentary is dependent on the characteristics of individual commentators rather than anything Dorna does; Barry Sheene who was on the Australian coverage back in the 1980s has definitely not been surpassed by anyone subsequently for me.

warthog1

He was very good, agreed.
I do not miss big Darrell Eastlake's commentary though.
Dunno how he managed to cope.

michaelm

Nice enough bloke, but too strident as a commentator I agree, definitely not from the Richie Benaud less is more school.

michaelm

Double