<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skidmark @ Nov 6 2007, 10:12 AM) [snapback]99133[/snapback]<div class='quotemain'>
...fair enough bikergirl, I didn't wish to misinterpret a single thing you said, but you have to admit, your opening statement below is way stronger than saying Rossi simply made things more entertaining, isn't it?
...sounds to me like you're saying Rossi made the sport, or very close to it. If you're not then I apologise for my acerbic response.
I would loved to have seen the likes of Ago or Hailwood or Surtees racing first hand but I'm not old enough. Just list all the great riders in GP racings' long and rich history and you will be hard pushed to identify one guy that did more for the sport than the other. Occasionally, a rider will stand out as exceptional and capture peoples' hearts but it is not the rider that makes the sport. Mention the word hero and you'll think Sheene, Hailwood, Rainey, Doohan, Rossi and the next one and the next one after that. This is a different age, when I was a kid in the early eighties, all you got was MCN once a week, back then it was full of racing news, clubbies, nationals and GP's, WSB didn't exist. But aside from the odd race on the TV where the commentary was usually pretty woeful and nobody fully realsed the big picture. that was all you got. But still, even in those media dark ages, Hailwood, Roberts et al became household names, how did they do it in what seem to be such innocent eras when compared to today's world? Somebody tell me?
Now we are bombarded with crap 24/7, more people watch TV, everybody's online, everything is 'marketed', Valentino Rossi is marketed, he's a houehold name. His marketing guys are .... hot, He started his own PR company, he makes millions out of endorsements and other marketing add-ons. You'd need to be a hermit to have never heard of him. The next guy will be the same, be it Lorenzo or whoever, that's the way the world is.
This is so wrong, I have to quote you again...
You are a stuborn beast arn't you? ;-) Btw, watched any of the last races with closeups of front tires/surface where you clearly see the huge amount of flex in the tire? BTW2 recent years has seen a substantial drop in tire pressure. Now they go as low as 25-26psi compared to 29 -31 just a few years ago. Wonder why.
Anyway, back to topic. I guess you have a point with the marketing, and I give you a free argument: Internet, Satelite and cabel technology made it possible, but when it comes to promoting the sport none of the old hearos come even close to what Rossi has been part of, simply because it was impossible. So let the heros rest, it's not about the greatest in the sport, but who has reached out to most people, and in that regard they are not even in the competition.
I find Bikergirls post quite accurate so I guess we have a very different googles on. Differnece is that I don't read more into it than what it said. He is the gratest crowd puller ever, and that's siply a fact.
Its not 2005 anymore
