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The news of Liberty Media's acquisition of Dorna means a revolution for MotoGP and SBK. Right now, however, Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of the MotoGP organizing company, is keen to emphasize continuity: "We will continue more or less as we are with maybe some changes," he said in Austin at a special press conference. A concept he had also illustrated in our Bar Sport of which he was a guest (you can see it in full HERE).
The Spanish manager is proud of the deal: "we should all be proud to have this possibility." The arrival of Liberty Media is awaited with high hopes because it could be the right move to widen the MotoGP audience. On this point it was business manager Dan Rossomondo who took the floor, "I'm very conscious of our hardcore fans and how special they think our sport is, I tend to go on deep rabbit holes of Reddit and Twitter feeds where I see that people don't want much change to our sport, but those same fans also want to be able to share this sport with others, and I think that's what we're going to focus on and have been focussing on. We have been doing a lot over the past year and previous ones before me on how to make this spectacle transcend motorsport and become more culturally relevant, so it's about preaching that and shouting it from the rooftops."
Rossomondo touched on an important aspect because MotoGP's hardcore fans fear that it could become a copy of Formula 1. Carlos Ezpeleta, the championship's head of sport, was also reassuring on this point. "As we keep saying the deal will not be finalised before the end of 2024. I think as we were saying and as fans that we are of the sport, fans will only have things to look forward to and more people to share their fandom with. Liberty does not think that the sport needs fixing, and we agree with that. We think that we have an amazing sport that we have built together with all the stakeholders in the paddock. I think we will work together and a lot of the things that we have already initiated in the past couple of seasons, like big changes to our format, which is trying to increase the visibility and awareness of our sport globally while continuing to satisfy our traditional fans and markets. Once the deal is completed, I don’t think there will be a lot of big changes that will affect our current fans."
The idea is one of evolution rather than revolution, something Rossomondo was keen to reiterate. "Liberty Media has seen the great potential that this sport has, and I think that is the very important thing," he said. "They are very happy with the business, and they think they can add to that once this deal is approved. The really important piece is how they feel this sport is evocative of the emotions that people have in their lives: that it is so exciting, that it inspires courage, and the riders are so athletic. They saw the same potential that I saw when I started one year ago, so that to me is a big part of this as they see this is a tremendous opportunity."
The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year, provided the competition authorities (read antitrust) give the green light. Then the new era of MotoGP will begin.
