Too much of a good thing?
By John Dickinson on 30th Aug 13
So, Britains massive MXGP week has been and gone, and the winners and losers have either celebrated their successes mightily or slunk away to lick their wounds.
We have seen Antonia Cairoli crowned World Champion for the seventh time and we saw British enthusiasm and endeavour through each and every class.
The four day Matterley ‘festival of motocross' is a truly massive undertaking and I take my hat off to the organisers.
The sheer number of classes and races requires a masterpiece of organisation.
But playing devil's advocate, after having listened to what several fans have run past me, is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
There's no doubt that the four-day GP works for the riders.
Hundreds signed-up for the chance to ride the GP track in a vast variety of classes, at the same time it is being used to host the World Champs and there' nothing wrong with that.
But for spectators this amounts to receptive overload.
The point being put to me is that there are only so many races that you can take in a day, or over a weekend, never mind over four days.
This is again absolutely fine if the ‘support' races are mainly for the riders benefit.
From the organisers point of view the extra cost is, in the great scheme of things, relatively little.
The infrastructure cost is the same whether for one day or four days. Stuff has to be erected and then it has to be taken down.
I just question if the four-day fest has an effect on the crowd.
There's little doubt that few ‘ordinary' people, the families that you ought to be trying to attract to your event, can afford to take extra time off work these days in order to spectate at a motocross.
Our sport does not attract a Wimbledon type crowd.
We rely on the traditional working class types, people who are also expected to take the wife and kids on hols during the summer.
So, having decided that they are not going to Matterley for four days does our mythical family then decide that they won't go for two, or even one day either?
I am just asking the question. Based on the weekend crowd, enthusiastic as they were, maybe someone out there will offer an opinion.
As ever, on the same weekend there was a British Superbike event (held over three days) at Cadwell Park, Lincs, nowhere near Matterley so it wasn't a direct competitor, but TV pics showed that they drew a mind-bogglingly large crowd.
If anyone knows exactly how they are doing this maybe you could let us into the secret.
Because it's a licence to print money...
