<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gsfan @ Jun 8 2009, 04:59 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Do you think DORNA would consider a US citizen? Why with the genius of the AMA as example? Face it, the growth potential in the US is equal to hockey. They just won't get MotoGP on a grand scale. The average race fan has been borne and bred on NASCAR so a two wheeled motorcycle race will be sort of an amusement before the 1000hp clones hit the track at best.
I don't think anyone can expect the MotoGP market to grow if Rossi isn't guaranteed to continue winning every year. The new fans he brought in are surely fickle to his constant success (not talking about the diehard actual motorcycle fan). Without him you will have a natural drawback until someone else skilled and charismatic comes along to replace him. That person may be already here. Don't tell me it is the 800cc formula that has ruined everything like captain K has. That is ......... The financial crises is the main problem. There were boring races aplenty while Rossi reigned supreme it is just that HE was the main draw. So the fluff will blow away and the diehard will continue. It's a cycle.
Anti-American sentiments aside, I don't think you have an understanding of automobile racing in the United States. Believe it or not, the US actually has quite a few racing series, many of which manage to eek out profits year after year despite little or no television coverage, despite little sponsorship, and despite a nation that has grown weary of automobile racing.
How do they do it?
American racing executives have written the book on cutting costs while attracting sponsors and passionate participants. Any cost cutting procedure you can imagine (good or bad) has been tried in this country. Also, American racing executives are not uncomfortable with poor sponsorship revenues, shrinking grids, and erratic manufacturer participation.
Unfortunately, international prototype racing has grown into a narcissistic, self-serving enterprise that is woefully out of touch with global manufacturing demands. The developed world has an almost unhealthy obsession with technological innovation in regards to manufactured consumer goods.
In the last century of unparalleled economic development, nearly 1.5 billion people were pulled out of poverty and catapulted into the global upper class, but about 2.5 billion who missed the boat are poised to enter the global middle class.
Despite what the zeitgeist suggests, the future of vehicle manufacturing doesn't lie in developing new hand-built motorcycles with pneumatic valves, and it certainly doesn't lie in developing new expensive high-tech electric vehicles. The future of global vehicle manufacturing will be a modern reinterpretation of Henry Ford and the assembly line. In the future companies will need to produce cheap, reliable transportation for a global middle class population explosion.
The governing body can no longer endorse one manufacturing strategy or another. MotoGP MUST be inclusive of all manufacturing strategies by reducing engine regulation so manufacturers/privateers have the OPTION to pursue a low-cost high-performance strategy. 20th century fans will certainly bemoan the death of their vainglorious past time, but in reality the sport will be strengthened.
While international racing series have seen exponential cost growth, the U.S. has been frantically trying to cut costs. I believe that an American may have interesting insight into the world of low-cost racing.
