<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Racejumkie @ Oct 5 2007, 12:51 PM) [snapback]93931[/snapback]<div class='quotemain'>
<span style="font-family:Arial BlackTotally agree Rog. I love Team Roberts, but its a heart break to see them roll around in last place. Those of us who have watched MotoGP at least a year or more know that they are better than this. This has been a bad bad year for them. Honda has left them out to dry trying to deal with their own failures of development.
King Kenny has the knowledge, passion, and determination to make a successful run but is always hampered by the lack of support they get from suppliers. Not just lack of support from engine and tire suppliers, but more importantly, lack of support from DORNA. King Kenny has said it is difficult to get sponsorship money when they don't at least provide a few coverage clips of the back markers. Marketing managers of potential sponsorship companies don't see the value in placing their brand on a bike that never gets a TV clip. Sure we all like to see the action at the front, but as I've said before, DORNA could learn a thing or two from NASCAR, who market every team and give them a few clips to promote and provide exposure for the many sponsor companies. Its not a mystery why over 40 teams in NASCAR have sponsors ranging from candy like M&Ms to Viagra!
As far as expanding to a two rider team, well, they said it before, but it didn't happen due to funds. So I'll believe it when I see it.
As I read the article, I couldn’t help but think about other failed ventures like Ilmor. DORNA, its seems, doesn’t see the value in having independent teams on the grid. I have been on the fence lately about the control tire proposal, but after reading this article, it convinced me that a change in tires rules are needed to encourage parity, if not a control tire imposed.
Team Roberts has been lucky that there riders haven’t had any major crashes, which surely would have bankrupt the team, but I do hope as Roger said, that if they can’t make it in MotoGP, that they move to somewhere they can be welcome, appreciated, and competitive.
Dorna is too freaking near-sighted in their approach to the promotional aspect of racing. Check this quote from S-TV regarding viewership issues in Europe in the wake of Stoners succsess and Rossi and Pedrosa's lack of it.
"Dude, Where Did the TV Audience Go?
Suddenly TV audience figures took a nosedive in the two most important European markets. In Italy, where MotoGP regularly claimed a huge 40% share, often beating even F1’s numbers, the audiences fell to 25%. Now 25% is a huge share in any European market, but not when you are accustomed to 40%. And in Spain where Dorna had seen shares as high as 35% at the beginning of the season, boring races with neither Pedrosa or Rossi at the sharp end of the field meant that during a couple of primetime races the share fell as low as 20%.
It was especially galling that Tele5 of Spain, owned by the same Mediaset giant that owns Tele5 of Italy, was now getting audiences in the 14% to 20% range for World Superbike, and on a couple of occasions when the opening race of the World Superbike Sunday program ran just before the F1 broadcast on Tele5, SBK managed to hold a 26% share. Of course this was only because a lot of viewers were standing by, enjoying the bikes while they waited for the F1 pre-race show... but that kind of viewer numbers produce new fans."
<span style="font-family:ImpactWhat the hell is Dorna going to do when Rossi Retires? Maybe have Pedrosa ride around in a Rossi mask?
