mad mick
3499151367307120
I wouldn't be surprised if Ezy and crew desperately wanted Stoner gone. Now that he has gone, Dorna can let their own boys battle it out for the trophy unhampered by genuine outside competition. Therefore Spanish audiences will continue to watch every race on the T.V - thus driving up Spanish sponsorship and commercial dollars. They are businessmen, and have probably concluded that fully satisfying the Spanish market is more profitable than partly satisfying the global one. They will always make sure there are some token non-Spanish riders on the grid to give the sport an appearance of being international. As long as the "internationals" aren't too good.
This conspiracy stuff is a lot of fun, isn't it?
Just for a larf, lets look at this in another way:
MotoGP is a product sold by a company, Dorna, to a global audience. Dorna are headquartered in Madrid, run by Spaniards, mostly, selling their products to anyone with a TV/Cable transmitter.
Their biggest audience is in Europe and Asia. The biggest bucks is from the trans-global broadcasters like ESPN/Fox, etc.
Filling all the grid positions with Spaniards is going to affect their global audience how, exactly?
Colombia and Mexico are going to pay billions more for the privilege, or doesn't it matter a .... who is riding as long as the 'show' is exciting and thus can command the big bucks from broadcasters?
Because, like it or not, it is broadcasters that Dorna is making their money off. The sponsors just pay for the logistics.
If Dorna is trying to sell a global package when the top 6 contestants are 'foreign', doesn't that kindo f queer their pitch, as it were? Wouldn't they have more global appeal by having a more global participation?
Or doesn't it matter a ...., because apart from us and the less sycophantic wankers at MotoMatters, the average punter knows bugger-all and would watch two Samoans on monkey bikes if you told them it was the best racing out there. I mean, Americans watch the NRA or AMA or whatever its called and that is complete ......
My money's on Dorna not ....... about with the talent, unless it is to make sure the best riders are on the best bikes, because everyone likes to watch a fight.
mad mick
3499151367307120
I think we are well into the Spanish era of the sport, and it is probably gonna last a while.
There's a reason for that... and it has nothing to do with Dorna stacking the deck in favor of their countrymen.
They invest the most, per capita, in the sport. In the direction the sport is taking, in the technical side of the sport, in training young riders, in making motorcycling accessible to Joe Public and, more importantly, Josephine Public - she who holds the purse strings to the new Derbi!
It ain't rocket science - the rest of the world has left motorcycling to greasy blokes with long hair and black leather. The Spanish made it fashionable and family-friendly. As well as that they have proper schools, where kids learn maths and tuning supension.
That's why there's so many good ones while we have Ant and Arthur and you have Cal and Bradders and Lavatory.
