I hope everyone understands who Exor are and what they are up to; if you do, bear in mind the history of Italian politics and power-mongering (Briatore style) - it ain't how we should do things in a civilised country in my opinion. If they get in, F1 will become something I expect to lose interest in: even worse than Bernie and Max's FIArrari show, which almost burnt the house down during the Schumacher farce years; the embers of which are still warm… Do not do it CVC: please do not sell-out to these people.
I'd like to think the proposed breakaway from a couple of years ago would go ahead if this goes through. I can't see McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes etc wanting to compete for a franchise which is part-owned by Fiat, and subsequently Ferrari. I'd love it if Murdoch spent billions on this and then all the teams abandoned it.
Well you could argue why do the teams even need someone to hold the commercial rights? Do away with Bernie and CVC, etc. They could start a breakway series, with all the teams joining up, then have a board of team owners who make the decisions on how tv money is split, organising the race calendar, etc, etc. Get the FIA more involved with that too. It'd be a fairer system surely?
I wish it were this simple. Unfortunately the reality is that it is far from that simple… Most of the other teams only exist because of their involvement in F1 and in spite of their objections to whatever rules it, will simply have to play ball or go out of existence (or kick Ferrari out of any new venture they should decide upon, under the guise of a 'Breakaway series'). In fact, I'll go further: Ferrari's position of power and influence has always been tolerated by the other teams in any case!
Ideal situation Hopefully he'd loose enough to bring his global domination down a peg. "James Bond: tomorrow never dies" anyone?
I can see big changes ahead starting with Concorde agreement, Bernie leaving and CVC selling out Let's be honest, they have been looking for an exit for a while, and as a private equity fund they have the duty to turn the investment for their stakeholders These boys are not there for the long term, they won't be hanging around in case the economy goes south again and potential buyers retreat
Historically the daft team principals let Bernie get on with it. They didn't want the negotiating hassle with everything. Suddenly Bernie made them millions (and him billions!). It is about time they wised up and sorted it - break away and run it without the likes of Bernie, Max, Todt and Ferrari. GET IT ON, please.
Surely a fair proportion of people who watch F1 do so on a casual interest basis? If the sport were to go pay per view or simply to go on Sky's standard sports channel, they would lose the casual viewers who watch it when they have a free Sunday afternoon?
Let's hope so Westy. Let's also hope that the sponsors on whom F1 relies are equally savvy. If F1 goes to Pay to View, it will be F1's darkest day and I for one will support any breakaway series which results. Murdoch and Ecclestone have one thing in common: their love of money. But there is a very important difference: Bernie is interested in motor racing too…
I vote for mass suicide, anybody with me........................................................anybody?
It'll be disaster if they move it to Sky, theres no way I'm buying a Sky subscription, it's daylight robbery for what you get, and online it cost me 43quid to watch the sports channels for a month and ate up all my bandwidth so that's out. Hopefully common sense will prevail, this is a sport that should always be free to view.
Yes, agreed, and would add that Bernies influence within CVC is weakening and the money lenders are increasing the pressure to get their cash back. Personally, I can see the day coming when FOTA wake up and market the thing themselves.
Anyone buying CVC out at the inflated price they would need to exit gracefully, would have to look towards pay per view type income to compensate for the trend towards the teams getting more of the pie
What I mean is that Cvc overpaid and F1 is about to become even less profitable for the rights holders when the Concorde agreement is redefined
