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When Indy first made it on the schedule, it was billed to be a crown jewel of the series, something they had taken from F1. But after the first year, the hype wore off, the city as a whole seemed less interested. from my point of view, working in the motorcycle industry, with the Indy GP over lapping with Sturgis a lot of industry people had to decide between the two.
 
Would getting Joe Roberts into MotoGP add a lot of interest in the US ?
No. Because the people who know who Joe is already watch. A certain member who use to write novels for posts sent me a voice message of John Hopkins on npr talking about Motogp. So they are already adding a media presence here that was nonexistent.
 
Would getting Joe Roberts into MotoGP add a lot of interest in the US ?

Joe is a talented rider, I think if he was on a different team he might be competing for a championship. If he had the right PR people that could attract the right sponsors, I think he could generate more interest in the US. In the US even the mid tier supercross/ motocross riders have better PR and sponsorships deals.
 
When Indy first made it on the schedule, it was billed to be a crown jewel of the series, something they had taken from F1. But after the first year, the hype wore off, the city as a whole seemed less interested. from my point of view, working in the motorcycle industry, with the Indy GP over lapping with Sturgis a lot of industry people had to decide between the two.

The history of IMS is interesting to me, but running the road course backward, coupled with the relatively poor state of the track every year, was not particularly impressive. Not every track needs to be a shiny Tilkedrome with world-class VIP, in fact, it's better if the tracks have some character, but IMS didn't seem that interested in operating a world-class event, even when they had US world champions lining up on the grid. The TV coverage wasn't great, either, which gave the appearance that Dorna media was too lazy to design camera coverage for the track or maybe IMS was not accommodating of the TV team.

The Indy round always felt like the C-suites convinced themselves that the deal was a "good fit" when, in reality, they were just looking for a comfortable deal that permitted laziness. I won't complain if it returns to the calendar, and I might actually go this time, but it's not high on my wishlist.
 
Would getting Joe Roberts into MotoGP add a lot of interest in the US ?

Maybe, but the US rider infrastructure has foundational issues that can't be fixed with a reality TV series about Joe Roberts.

When the US distributors paid big bucks to farm US talent, and keep them involved in AMA until they were needed elsewhere, the talent pool in the US was artificially deep. This was the case for decades, and it was not surprising to US fans, when AMA Superbike champs became grand prix champs. It wasn't surprising to see Spies win World Superbike in his rookie season. It wasn't surprising to see Kenan take a swing at Josh Hayes because he was making his Parkalgar Honda go too quickly. It wasn't a shock when Davies won WSS and then became a front runner in WSBK. He was a former AMA FX rider for Attack Kawasaki after all.

Today the talent pool is artificially shallow. The pay isn't good enough to keep the national-level talent engaged, and any rider with a bit of talent and financial backing is immediately removed from the series because KRAVE signed some sort of working agreement with Dorna for developing US talent. The situation might be coming full circle, with several noteworthy US riders being returned to US competition after failing at the international level, but the pay is quite poor.

It will be interesting to see how Liberty engage MotoAmerica now that they own Dorna. Will they buy it? Will they negotiate TV packages with MotoAmerica to provide funding for future US riders? Or will they continue the practice of removing every prospect and hollowing out the series?
 
Most of the American oval tracks were built to host just 1 event a year, Indy has the Indy 500. They dont have full year round staff, it always felt that MotoGP at Indy was thrown together the Wednesday before. One of the F1 race I went to, I remember they still had the Indy500 banners and posters up around the speedway and even the down town area. I really think for a track to survive these days, they need to host multiple big events through out the year, as well as having the support of the city.

as for Joe Roberts needing a reality show.... How about just a vlog. A lot of a lot of the privateers in supercross and motocross do those, and they get a lot of support, and its a good way to build a fan base.
 
The obvious answer here is that Liberty will look at how much money Ferrari generates for F1 and talk them into making MotoGP bikes. Funded by the series and sponsorship.
 
Warning the insane thoughts of someone who is board at work and can't be bothered proof reading.

I made the above post in jest obviously but is there any possibility that Liberty tries to persuade Ferrari in to going bike racing?
Ferrari is the most recognizable name in f1, the biggest team and the most unique company. I don't think there is a MotoGP equivalent of Ferrari. Liberty will want to try and get as many f1 fans watching the GP as possible and I wonder if the quickest and easiest way to do that is to have a Ferrari MotoGP team. The Ferrari mad fans would be tuning in.
Roughly 70m (1.68b) people watch the f1 per race, over 24 races. MotoGP gets 400m views per year. If Ferrari makes up roughly 24% of fans in f1 and MotoGP is roughly 30% the size of F1 in viewership/sponsorship etc then it stands to reason that roughly 400m views are coming from Ferarri fans. If Ferrari created a GP team and 10% of their fans watched religiously to support the team that creates a 10% bump in MotoGP viewership immediately.
They could poach key people from Kalex or just have Kalex build their chassis, at least early on. They have the capability in house to build engines and aero etc. The insanely rich would buy Ferrari motorbikes based on their GP bikes in a heartbeat. KTM CEO Stefan Pierer has said you need a budget of around 70m Euro's, with sponsorship and liberty investment, Ferrari could in theory get that without much issue.

While teams may not be happy with a Liberty funded Ferrari team, they would also understand that if viewership is significantly increased that means more money for all teams, which could go a way to getting them on board. I think this follows similar reasoning to why Ducati, among others are happy for increased concessions for Honda and Yamaha, the two biggest names in the GP. Life long fans of the Japanese brands have very little reason to tune in right now and lost viewership equals less money for all teams. I think if Liberty take any lesson from Rossi, it is that the teams need to be bigger or at least as big as your biggest name to keep viewership. Rossi (and Marquez) may be outliers in that sense but if you have supporters of teams rather than particular riders it seems to be that the business model would be much more sustainable. Yamaha struggled for sponsors when Rossi left, both times. Viewers in F1 will support Ferrari, regardless of who is driving.
 
Are we even sure Ferrari is a car company? I'd argue they are a marketing company. 4bn revenue annually, 2bn of which is from merch. Peeps are pretty damned stoopid...

Some Ferrari fans I know were all excited about the Ferrari using blue colors in Miami this coming weekend. I said it's nothing more than a way to sell more merchandise. They got their noses bent out of shape over that comment. But it's like Harley Davidson. Everything is about merchandising. The original reason for existence is a secondary thing now.
 
Are we even sure Ferrari is a car company? I'd argue they are a marketing company. 4bn revenue annually, 2bn of which is from merch. Peeps are pretty damned stoopid...
Some Ferrari fans I know were all excited about the Ferrari using blue colors in Miami this coming weekend. I said it's nothing more than a way to sell more merchandise. They got their noses bent out of shape over that comment. But it's like Harley Davidson. Everything is about merchandising. The original reason for existence is a secondary thing now.
That's my point though. Viewership and merch means $$$ for the series. As long as the branding is there the people who spent $2b on merch will spend a little more for the brand new awesome best ever Ferrari GP team.
 
Are we even sure Ferrari is a car company? I'd argue they are a marketing company. 4bn revenue annually, 2bn of which is from merch. Peeps are pretty damned stoopid...
Ultimate marketing dream, get people to pay to market your product 🤫
 
Joe is a talented rider, I think if he was on a different team he might be competing for a championship. If he had the right PR people that could attract the right sponsors, I think he could generate more interest in the US. In the US even the mid tier supercross/ motocross riders have better PR and sponsorships deals.
I don’t think MotoGp will ever attract that kind of attention in the US. Motocross is hugely popular here, A. Because there are lots of relatively affordable entry-level local events for young riders to start out in. B. It is widely perceived as youth oriented and the youth market is one that advertisers have vast experience with when it comes to manipulation of desire to consume. C. Television wise, it’s a spectacle with all the riders in super bright colors going dare-devil style through the air off of giant jumps and dirt flying everywhere. and D. Because it’s perceived to be very middle-American, working-class and approachable to the masses.

I only sort of understand the popularity here of F1 because Americans have always loved cars, almost as much as they love guns.
 
I only sort of understand the popularity here of F1 because Americans have always loved cars
That's the same in most western countries. If there are countries that love MotoGP more than F1, those countries are probably located in south east Asia
 
That's the same in most western countries. If there are countries that love MotoGP more than F1, those countries are probably located in south east Asia
Yeah, I've traveled extensively in Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and a bit in Thailand and was amazed at how proliferate were the inexpensive scooters and small bore motorcycles with Repsol Racing and Valentino Rossi replica paint jobs. I did a motorcycle trip from Saigon up north near the Chinese border and had an old beat-up Rossi Kerakoll baseball cap and wanted to tip my Vietnamese guide generously. I was going to give him $100.00 and he said he'd rather have $50.00 and the cap. I found everyone I met on two wheels was seriously up to date on all the latest developments in MotoGp.
 

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