Dorna: Liberty ‘does not think MotoGP needs fixing’

Liberty Media, which has announced plans to acquire MotoGP commercial rights holder Dorna Sports, “does not think the sport needs fixing.”

Those words, by Dorna’s Chief Sporting Officer Carlos Ezpeleta, were part of a reassuring message that the takeover by F1s commercial rights holder will result in enhancing - rather than radically altering - MotoGP.

Liberty, which purchased F1’s commercial rights in 2016, will acquire 86% of Dorna Sports from Bridgepoint and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Dorna management will retain the other 14%.

The transaction ‘reflects an enterprise value for MotoGP of €4.2 billion’ and is expected to be completed by the end of this year, ‘subject to the clearances and approvals by competition and foreign investment law authorities in various jurisdictions’.

“Carmelo and his management team have built a great sporting spectacle that we can expand to a wider global audience,” Greg Maffei, Liberty Media President and CEO, said when the MotoGP deal was announced. “The business has significant upside, and we intend to grow the sport for MotoGP fans, teams, commercial partners and our shareholders.”

Senior Dorna management - Carmelo Ezpeleta (CEO), Carlos Ezpeleta (CSO) and Dan Rossomondo (CCO) - faced the media on Thursday at COTA to discuss what the Liberty agreement will mean for the sport.

“I think fans will only have things to look forward to and more people to share their fandom with,” said Carlos Ezpeleta.

“Liberty does not think the sport needs any fixing. We firmly agree with that. We think that we have an amazing sport that we’ve built together with all the stakeholders in the paddock.

“I think that will just work together on a lot of the things that we have already initiated during the last couple of seasons. Big changes to our [weekend] format, which we already commenced.

“That’s all trying to increase the visibility and awareness of the sport globally whilst continuing to satisfy all the traditional fans and our traditional markets.

“So a lot to look forward to when the deal is complete. I don’t think there will be a lot of big changes which will affect our current fans.”

Rossomondo, who joined Dorna as Chief Commercial Officer from the NBA exactly a year ago, added:

“I’m very conscious of our hardcore fans and how special they think the sport is. And I tend to go down deep rabbit holes looking at feeds and twitter comments, where I see people don’t want a lot of changes to our sport.

“But I think those same fans also want to share the sport with so many others. I think that’s what we are going to focus on [in future] and what we have been focussed on.

“We’ve been doing a lot of stuff over this last year, and before me, on how to make this spectacle transcend just motorsport and become more culturally relevant.

“We do believe it is the world’s most exciting sport so it’s about preaching that and shouting it from the rooftops.”

Asked to sum up his own emotions at the Liberty deal, after leading Dorna since it took over the MotoGP rights in 1992, Carmelo Ezpeleta said:

“You’ve known me for 32 years ago and this is the result of the work we’ve made together. Everybody here, plus the press, the fans and the rest of the people that made it possible.

“We started in 1992 with a different level and now we are one of the most important sports in the world. This is a very big emotion for me. To know that a company like Liberty Media have decided to [join] with us.

“It’s really something important but it’s not just for me. I think all of you must be very proud that together we obtained this possibility.

“I remember the difficult days during the pandemic and everybody worked together. This is one step more in the history of the past 32 years. For me it’s a very big thing.”

One of Liberty’s biggest successes in F1 has been the seismic growth of the American market, helped by the popularity of Drive to Survive.

The US was specifically named as one of MotoGP’s ‘Key Growth Markets’ in the literature accompanying the Liberty takeover, with female fans and those under the age of 24 also labelled as ‘Growth Segments’.

This weekend’s Austin round is MotoGP’s only American event but, in contrast to the 400,000+ fan-packed grandstands for the circuit’s F1 race (now one of three events held in the USA), COTA refuses to publish official MotoGP attendance figures.

American riders dominated motorcycle grand prix racing from Kenny Roberts in the late 1970s until Kevin Schwantz in 1993.

However, the last American champion was the late Nicky Hayden in 2006 and the most recent race win by Ben Spies in 2011. The MotoGP class has been without a single full-time American since 2015.

But the USA now has a home team in the form of Trackhouse, which replaced RNF as Aprilia’s satellite team this season, plus a rising star in Joe Roberts, currently second in the Moto2 World Championship.