By Adrian Musolino
April 16th 2009 @ 3:35am
Catering for television can cost a sport dearly
125cc rider Sandro Cortese of Germany rides in heavy rain during the Grand Prix of Qatar at the Losail International Circuit near Doha, Qatar, Sunday, April 12, 2009. Cortese won third place after the race was stopped at 4 laps because of the rain. AP Photo/Hasan Jamali
For the second consecutive weekend, a major motorsport event was halted due to freak storms. Both the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Qatar MotoGP couldn’t continue in the circumstances.
But as they were twilight and night races respectively, to better cater for television, there was no more room for manoeuvrability.
Motorsport has embraced the twilight-night racing concept so it can better cater for television audiences.
For example, MotoGP and Formula 1 moving certain Asian and Middle Eastern races into later time-slots so they can be beamed into Europe at a better hour, thus getting better ratings, thus better advertising dollars for the broadcasters, thus more money in the pockets of the sports powers that be.
But at what price to the sports image, let alone the fans that make the trek to such races? The problem is, in such scenarios, there is little wiggle room.
In the Malaysian example, as the paddock waited for the storm to pass, darkness descended.
Despite knowing of Malaysia’s tropical weather, in which late evening storms are a common occurrence, the sport committed to the 5pm start time and showed little remorse to the paying spectators who saw half a race.
Even if the race had started at its regular afternoon slot as the storm hit, there would have been the time to wait and see. As it was, there was no hope of a restart.
Night racing runs an even bigger risk.
Any rain, as seen in the Qatar MotoGP race, drastically reduces visibility with the glare it creates under the lights and from the wet ground.
It was a sad way for the MotoGP season to begin and took away much of the spectacle of the event.
How ironic in a season in which cost cutting is necessary that the race delay caused by being at night has cost the teams a huge amount in changing their flights, freight services and an extra nights stay in their hotels.
And let’s not forget the fans at the track. Such races and categories are gambling.
Sure, motorsport has been unlucky. Who would expect rain in the desert of Qatar and what are the odds that with an average of just eight rainy days a year, such a storm would hit just as the MotoGP bikes were lining up for their season opener?
But there is a lesson here for all sports.
Don’t gamble with nature, as it has a way of biting back when toyed with.
In Melbourne during the Australian Grand Prix, many fans, and drivers, complained that with the 5pm race start time, the setting sun was impeding their sight.
At last season’s A-League match between Adelaide United and Sydney FC, the setting sun impeded the view of at the least half of the ground for a good half hour.
While the priority tends to be on television schedules, sports should never lose sight of the basics: don’t gamble with mother nature and don’t take the fans in the stands for granted.
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matta said | April 16th 2009 @ 10:46am | Report comment
Agree, I live in the region and there is a 50% chance for late afternoon rain at this time of the year – Madness.
Spinner said | April 16th 2009 @ 1:47pm | Report comment
If there is a 40% bigger TV audience by pushing the race back and say only a 20% extra (compared to a more normal timeslot) of the event being rained out, it is a pretty easy decision for the sport’s administrators to make from a financial perspective.
Of course this fails to take into account the potential damage that they are doing to their sport, but beancounters have never been great at that kind of stuff.
Benjamin Conkey said | April 16th 2009 @ 3:28pm | Report comment
Good points Adrian. The other sport which is dominated by TV is rugby league. Night matches are just appaling. The boys on the Sunday Roast talked about it last weekend. The problem as they see it is the Steeden ball, which is almost impossible to handle in dewy conditions. Phil Gould raised the point that State of Origin would be 10 times better if it was played on a Sunday afternoon. I agree with him, but the NRL will never change because of TV commitments. The only hope is to change the ball.
Dish said | April 16th 2009 @ 3:38pm | Report comment
Motorsport, in the upper echelons at least, is purely business today. Collateral damage in the form of spectators getting a raw deal seems to be par for the course now. As long as the bigger dollars come in via TV deals then all is fine and dandy in their eyes.
Shame that it means that the average punter gets to watch – at best – a conga line of racecars following the yellow strobe lights of the safety car for half the “race” as they did for some of the time in Malaysia.
matta said | April 16th 2009 @ 3:42pm | Report comment
yeah its more the time of year really thats the issue – monsoon season…
There is a saying over here thats goes something like “daily weather forecast for the next 3 months is ‘28-33, humid, sunny morning, cloud around 3pm and likely heavy rain at about 4 or 5pm’”
Why anyone would run a motor sport event over here at this time of year is beyond me.
James said | April 16th 2009 @ 6:17pm | Report comment
As I saw one commentator say who would risk going all the way to see one of these events if there is a risk it will be rained out. TV ratings may increase but spectators at the already struggling events will decrease.