MotoGP teams chase blue-chip sponsorship.

By Mike Nicks

MotoGP competitors could in future be granted a separate paddock, away from the 125 and 250cc classes, in a bid to create the kind of environment that would attract blue-chip, multinational companies who would back major teams with $10-15 million a year in sponsorship cash.

The teams are likely to discuss the idea again this weekend at the Turkish Grand Prix, when they meet to assess the many ideas that emerged at last week's inaugural sponsorship summit in Barcelona, arranged by the sport's organisers Dorna.

Representatives of all 12 MotoGP teams - including the currently absent Ilmor factory - thrashed out with Dorna officials, led by CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, plans to tap into the kind of backing that they feel the sport now deserves. MotoGP has expanded to 18 rounds and attracts a claimed average of 304 million TV viewers at every event, while average spectator attendance is said to have doubled since 1996 to nearly 126,000.

"If you look at all the figures - TV attendance, people, recognition of MotoGP as a brand - it's growing exponentially," Mike Trimby, secretary general of IRTA, the teams' organisation, said. "But we are not making that transition to getting the blue chip multinationals like Formula 1.

"There is a problem because of the withdrawal of tobacco. We had an easy few years where we were one of the few activities where tobacco could advertise. The main thrust now is how we get sponsorship for teams, and how they can lease equipment from the factories."

"The opportunities are there," said Paul Denning, manager of the Rizla Suzuki team. "The TV and the live audiences keep increasing, and the terrestrial TV reach keeps improving. The show is fabulous and is one of the most emotive and human motor sports in the world, where the rider still makes the biggest difference. We now have to make the sport work in some markets where it isn't seen as a blue-chip activity. In Spain and Italy it's a blue-chip sport, but it needs to be like that in other countries."

The concept of a separate paddock for the MotoGP class is partly intended to create a calmer and perhaps more elitist atmosphere for the heads of major sponsoring companies and their guests. At present the driveway through a MotoGP paddock has something of the friendly ambience of a Spanish or Italian village street on a Saturday morning. To get from his motorhome to the Yamaha garage Valentino Rossi weaves his scooter through a throng that can include technicians, TV crews, sponsors, autograph-hunting fans and the inevitable hangers-on.

"If you're a blue-chip company you expect a minimum standard of hospitality," said Honda's Chris Herring. "The toilet facilities at some circuits are outdated, and people can't get in and out of some circuits easily. We want to give sponsors as little inconvenience as possible.

"You have to be able to justify them spending $10-15 million a year [to sponsor a team]. But you can't do it if part of their return is having 20 guests to a race in a paddock where you've got 8,000 people. You can't get from A to B and it doesn't look very tidy."

"We discuss things in the paddock informally among the teams every weekend, but the forum was something we've never done before," Chuck Aksland, manager of Kenny Roberts Senior's Team KR squad, said. "Now the discussion needs to be funnelled down again. One of the most positive things at the forum was the way Dorna is trying to help teams as much as they can.

"MotoGP deserves bigger and better sponsors. Everyone has such a strong belief that MotoGP is only a few steps away from reaching that goal. It takes a while for heads of companies that like the sport to get involved with it. But now people involved in the sponsorship of global brands will be getting aware of it. It's just a matter of time before it generates more interest from sponsors."

Traditionalists will inevitably be enraged at the prospect of MotoGP - famous for its warm and informal atmosphere compared to Formula 1 - adapting to satisfy sponsors. But they can hardly complain that their sport lacks media coverage compared to Formula 1 and insist that nothing changes.