Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 P117 Meanwhile at least one ad- viser to the Welsh Assembly has pooh-poohed the suggestion that the project will bring the claimed 6000 jobs to the depressed Heads of the Valleys area; while the wisdom of making a race- track that is not only remote but also in the shadow of the rain- making Brecon Beacons range is questioned far and wide. The arguments are far from over, while the build date has presently been deferred to March 2015, well over a year beyond the original plan. Weather permitting, of course. The track developers, exud- ing confidence, are seeking £200-million private finance, with rumors rife of some shad- owy Arab money on the brink. The public funding will be spent on construction of the track only, they say. The end game will be a massive motorsports facility, with MotoGP only the first jewel in its crown. Formula 1, anyone? Never mind castles in the sand. It has another less carefree taste. It's all too reminiscent of not only Aragon, built at vast pub- lic expense miles from anywhere and seriously under-used; but perhaps even more of Welkom, because of the mining connec- tion. Welkom's Phakisa Freeway was an extravagant construc- tion that included a banked oval as well as a road-racing circuit. Just one thing: it was built over ground riddled with gold mines, and subject to such frequent sinkholes and tremors that roads around the town are all rippled. So too was the track, even be- fore the proposed introduction of NASCAR racing came to naught, because of the now impossibly bumpy banking. MotoGP went, however, for five increasingly tooth-rattling years. (By the way, the track-revival World Superbike round scheduled there this year had to be cancelled; track not fit.) What all of them reek of is mon- ey, public money, and enough of it that, as it keeps changing hands, a great of it deal sticks on the way. All the above, however, is only a preamble. Rival circuit bicker- ing and greed for state hand- outs have been a part of racing for years. What is new about this situation is the common thread between those three circuits: Dorna. For it is Dorna's Carmelo Ezpeleta who signed them all up, including the non-existent Circuit of Wales. Until 2024, no less, if you count in the five-year renewal option. Now this is part of a pattern: a money-grubbing exercise of in- creasing intensity. It started with a major TV switchover this year to pay channels only, in key mar- kets: Spain, Italy and Great Brit- ain. Dorna's TV coverage is excel- lent, with pioneering ever-improv- ing on-bike footage. Want to see it live? Then pay up. There have been rumblings of discontent in the Latin countries, where in some cases Dorna's own dot-com paid-for feed has been blocked to favor new rights- holders Movistar. This is tough, because the site offers all sorts of extras, including riveting full- race on-board footage. In Britain, the effect has been radical. When MotoGP was live on free-to-view BBC, a good day might record an audience of more than two million. Now it's on pay- or-forget-it BT Sport, 200,000 would be a record breaker. The live audience has been cut by 90 percent. Dorna's pockets have been lined handsomely. The geese have laid their golden eggs, but at the expense of the audience. Isn't this something like killing the goose? The new deal with the Circuit of Wales tastes the same. A race is signed up for a track that doesn't exist. But there's all that govern- ment money... Racing is business: Dorna needs to make a profit. What is worrying is how this profit now needs to be instant. The man- agement plan looks alarmingly fast buck and short-term. What about racing's future? Meanwhile, book your tickets to the Brigadoon GP now. It only appears once a year, and nobody can be quite sure where. CN

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