What an opportunity to do away with a horribly officiated series and bring in a sensible one. I'm sure DMG's gears are whirring at the moment, as well as AMA's. If the series is valueless the AMA has nothing to sell.
Wait, I thought the AMA had already sold it.
According to recent reports nothing has been signed - it would be sweeter if it had been!
Another is, since NASCAR has Speed TV in their pockets, there maybe no TV coverage unless Vs. or someone not affiliated with NASCAR steps up.
I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be for the DMG series or the break away OEM series but I heard people were talking to ESPN about televising their series. That could be good or bad. ESPN used to do one race a year, the Daytona 200 and the rest were on SPEED. Everything was fine except it wasn't live. And the supersport race was shown at like midnight.
DMG was talking with ESPN - but if the OEMs support the new series guess where their advertising dollars will go.
ESPN has a NASCAR contract, as does Fox, so you can rule them out for covering any breakaway series, there goes Speed too. Since Disney owns ABC and ESPN, don't look there. That leaves CBS and maybe NBC and their affiliates like TNT and such to cover it, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. This may have to go underground.
DMG was talking with ESPN - but if the OEMs support the new series guess where their advertising dollars will go.
ESPN has a NASCAR contract, as does Fox, so you can rule them out for covering any breakaway series, there goes Speed too. Since Disney owns ABC and ESPN, don't look there. That leaves CBS and maybe NBC and their affiliates like TNT and such to cover it, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. This may have to go underground.
I wouldn't rule either ESPN or SPEED/FOX out yet. Remember, SPEED covers both ALMS and Grand-Am. ALMS is a series that competes against Grand-AM, which was started by none other than Roger Edmonson himself. And despite Grand-Am's Nascar ties as well, SPEED still covers ALMS. I don't see SPEED's nascar ties preventing them from covering the OEM series if SPEED feels it is a good idea and I'm sure there would be enough people already part of their current broadcast team who feel it would be.
I love the sabre rattling. Can't wait for DMG's response. Will DMG ask for a sit down at the bargaining table, or will this little boy's game of "this is my sandbox" get ugly? Either way, it's gonna be interesting.
This is exciting news, not only for those who care about American two-wheel road racing, but for all of the "little people" who are sick and tired of well-financed bullies muscling their way into any given situation with their "If you don't like it - #### you" attitudes (the S.O.P. in this country for some time now).
I'm happy either way. If it's just to let DMG know there are options. Personally I hope they break away. I wonder if Infineon would still be on the schedule. Califonia Speed way could be dropped for a return to Willow Springs.
I think Kenny Roberts Sr, did something like this in the 70s to get the Grand Prix establishment to change their safety and pay standards.
I think DMG saw this coming. That is why they said in early press reports that they were not getting Factory responses except from Honda. Whether they have it covered [they think] or not is irrelevant. The Factory contingent is 300 mfg's strong. All will probably join in boycotting DMG's thingy. Hard tellin but this could play into DMG being like the "WERA Grand National Finals" event 10 times a year. Great for club racers but demoting to AMA Pro Racing. So when and where will DMG be handin out racing licenses? It's so bad/good that I'm considerin tryin to get one! Say's it all doesn't it? Hey don't laugh, my 2009 AMA Superbike is about as fast as they get. Only mod's are race glass, dampner, exhaust, and Dynojet so far. About all ya need. Truly!
I'm with some of you guys... Get out the popcorn and pop the cork.