The comments coming from those "in the know" around the World Rally Championship are suggestive of an FIA in deep crisis. It's impossible to imagine why else such bizarre proposals as have emerged over the last few weeks would be given even scant consideration by the sport's governing body.
Without a massive underwriting from the WRC sponsors, such a huge, prestigious series would not be possible but sponsorship of the scale required is not an altruistic undertaking - the sponsor wants and needs a commercial payback, not just a feel-good from the sport's fans - it must make sense at a marketing level.
And that's the trigger for the headless chicken reaction we're seeing from the backers of the current shootout and pitstop proposals. Following the working formulas of other large motorsport events, the powers who run the organisation and teams have fixated upon some contrived bolt-on approach to try to emulate the perceived audience draw such events routinely deliver.
The apparent urgency, or more accurately, panic, that currently infuses the WRC suggests strongly that the major sponsors are not seeing the expected return on their investments and are questioning the commercial viability of the championship. And without sponsors, the WRC will die.
But are things really that dire?
The undertone of all this navel-gazing and hand-wringing is that there needs to be a one hour telly-friendly package that can be sold to broadcasters around the globe to reach not just the current rally afficiandos, but to tempt a whole new audience. Makes sense, right? Well, no. Rallying doesn't really lend itself to any such re-packaging and still retain the very character that makes it appealing to so many.
For those who feel a reminder is necessary, a rally is a time trial, run on closed public and private roads with less than perfect surfaces, whose winner is the crew who complete the multi-day event in the shortest recorded time.
Anything else is not rallying.
The World Rally Championship then is that same formula, contested by the world's best drivers in the world's best cars in a number of different countries across the globe. A WRC that doesn't deliver that at the very least, will not be a true WRC.
Contriving pitstops and shootouts to shoehorn the marathon nature of rallying into a live TV hour will alienate its current fanbase and provide something far less than the spectacle required to entice new fans.
So what's the answer?
On every WRC event, professional camera crews capture the action from various points around each stage, footage that's used to compile the 30 minute highlights packages that find their way to broadcasters around the planet at the conclusion of each day, and the one hour summary of the event on its conclusion. There's no technical reason why that footage cannot be broadcast live and streamed on the net. The Power stage is broadcast live now.
What's even more exciting is that there are invariably amateur videographers scattered around the stages who capture incidents and accidents and whose video could be intercut into the live feed. All it takes is a dedicated upload portal for the footage, and temporary Wi-Fi points erected around the stages for the fans to connect through.
So, live streaming of the event as it happens, with freelance video and stills to complement it, would make for a three day spectacle a fan could become immersed in, or just tune in and out when able. And I can think of four knowledgeable presenters who would be brilliant at covering everything from narration, interviews and results updates, to analysis and overviews.
How the sponsors would monetize the webstream would of course be up to them, but clearly there can be sponsored results updates, reviews of recent action, 30" ad spots and so on, as happens with Indy, Nascar, Bathurst and other events. Given the amount of on-screen time devoted to the cars. that would surely please the manufacturers and team sponsors, especially given the massive number of rally fans there are already.
Then there would be no need to mess about with what is the very soul of the sport, the against-the-odds marathon stuff that makes rallying so special. So there you go, FIA. A starter for 10 that makes sense and gets more of the sport in front of more of the fans, wherever they are.
No, no need to thank me. Just seriously look into it and save our sport at the same time.
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