Only if teams HAD to pay...
By TMX Archives on 25th Jun 08
We owe Gareth Hockey a great debt of gratitude, if it wasn't for people like him we probably wouldn't have had a British GP, so let's stop the FREEBIES
THE recent revelation by Gareth Hockey in which he reckoned that he had to ‘give away' around 6,000 tickets to the ‘teams' and various other bodies for his Mallory Park MXGP, (which effectively accounted for the financial loss that he ‘made' on the GP) plus the following week our own vastly experienced International GP correspondent Alex Hodgkinson weighing-in with his thoughts on un-earned ‘freebies', plus local journalist Roy Maddox following-up last week with his take on what Alex said – really brought the whole freebie thing out into the open.
I don't for one second pretend to know the ins and outs of the workings of running a GP under an organisation such as Youthstream. I do know why outside organisations such as Youthstream run GPs, it is because the FIM are more than happy to accept a huge fee from an outside organisation so that they – the FIM – can then sit back and let it happen; on their freebie passes of course. It is not their worry if a dozen GP promoters go to the wall and, as in Britain, the whole thing becomes a bad joke that sees promoters and tracks spring-up and disappear as if by magic, the FIM have got their money.
Gareth has actually praised Youthstream for their input and reckons that they provide value for money in what they bring to the MXGP party. But that doesn't mean to say that the needs of the individual promoter come first on the agenda. It certainly doesn't mean that the promoter can make money! Clearly the subject of freebie tickets – and who should get how many – is actually a huge issue that is clearly the difference between making money on the event and losing a packet!
Back to those 6,000 tickets! From the outside it seems simple. Each team, no matter how big and seemingly important it is, should be allocated a set amount of tickets. After that, if they want more they should buy 'em! If they want to hand out 100 freebie tickets to their mates, clients, whatever, that is fine. As long as they buy them they can do what they like with them. Or if they want a 75-man team as back-up for their two riders that is also their prerogative. But it is not for Gareth to supply them all with free tickets. I am pretty sure that there is room for negotiation here.
Back in the day (yes, here we go!) all clubs and organisers, when organising a scramble or motocross – used to send each entrant two tickets, one for the rider, one for his mechanic. Everyone else paid. End of. From what I have gleaned, the Belgian MX championship this year has reverted to that very practise.
More power to them I say. Why on earth should you espect to get your extended family and pals, and their family and pals in for free? Again, there is nothing to stop the teams buying the tickets if they want all their families and pals in on the act.
Regarding the press, I have always reckoned that organisers ought to be much more stringent when allocating passes.
I have attended events when I have been the sixth or seventh person to sign-on as T+MX. I was even refused a press pass once as the organisers said that too many T+MX journalists had signed-on that day!
At Mallory it was blindingly obvious which dozen guys and gals in the press room were genuinely working – and which ones were just amusing themselves.
We all know how many publications will be running stories, articles, etc on motocross. Not so damned many.
In order to be totally objective I often just turn up at the gate of showpiece events, pay my money and thus earn myself the right to tell things as I see them. I have often urged others in the game to try doing the same. It is amazing how different things look from the other side of the guarded paddock gate, the VIP lounge (not that I've ever been in there) or other privileged area.
It is the great unwashed, the fans, that ultimately pay for the whole circus and it is the fans who need looking after. As a rider and enthusiast first and foremost, Gareth Hockey understands this more than anyone. He doesn't sit in a glass house, he is out there banging in posts, connecting the water pipes and sorting out the problems.
If we get another MXGP at Mallory – and Gareth recently told me that we would – we should consider ourselves very fortunate that he is prepared to take what is, in hard reality, a monumental financial risk.