Yesterday’s bad news for the WRC that Nokia ended their sponsorship of the category has potentially been topped by new cash demands placed on race organisers by the FIA.
The 2013 WRC Calendar is expected to be ratified by the FIA when the World Motor Sport Council meets on 15 June; the same date the FIA is set to announce who will fill the void of promoter for the WRC. However, by 8 June all race organisers wanting to be part of the 2013 season have to commit to paying the FIA an extra €100,000 to cover the costs for timing, safety tracking and television production. If they fail to pay, then they will be deleted from next year’s calendar.
A person associated with a current WRC, but wishing to remain anonymous has been quoted by Autosport as saying: “We are angry about this. This does not feel right. Don’t forget, it’s not just the money we have to pay. Last year, with North One Sport [former WRC promoters], we got the timing and tracking for free when we gave rights for our television and we were paid €25,000 by NOS.
“So actually, we’re having to find €125,000. And this is on top of the €140,000 calendar fee we already have to pay. Suddenly, it’s more than a quarter of a million [Euros] to be a round. This is the complete reverse of what we had last year.
“I think if they [the FIA] expect everybody to sign and be happy, they are very wrong.”
Another unnamed organiser said: “Can the FIA guarantee we will have the best television station? Can they guarantee we will have many million people watching the sport around the world? And we don’t know what we will get for [timing and tracking] next season.”
For the last 10 years timing and tracking has been provided by Stage One Technology and it would appear organisers have been happy with their service. You can see why they’re asking the FIA for such assurances.
So, there’s some very interesting days ahead for the WRC. For a quality rant about the current situation, head over to specialist site World Rally Blog, that should give you some idea of the depth of passion and antipathy felt towards the FIA by rallyistas at the moment.
[Source: Autosport]
3 replies on “Are we heading for a World Rally Crisis?”
its been a crisis for a number of years,.two teams, one only decent effort isn’t a wrc….
FFS .. I love WRC, I’ve had to source other means of watching it this year since North One Sport don’t have television rights and subsequently OneHD not even showing a single round so far. The coverage that I have managed to procure has been well under the level of quality that we’re used to from previous seasons.
It’s a shame that a sport that’s been around for so long can not get quality sponsors to continue their promotion. I do hope that VW entering the sport in the next year or so will heighten people’s awareness, however small the Australian following is as it’s obviously targeted to European customers.
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