The FIM in 1990 and the AMA in 2008
There are parallels between the present situation and the one that was developing in the fall of 1990 just prior to the announcement by the FIM that they had accepted a 30 million dollar bid from Dorna to acquire commercial rights to the Grand Prix series. When a federation, whether it is the central international federation or a national body, decides to lease or sell rights that it has exclusively owned and managed for many decades, all parties involved, teams, riders, manufacturers, circuit owners, federation employees, and contracted service companies are concerned and even frightened (if they feel they could lose privilege and/or income). Traditionally, private teams see opportunities while established factory teams, especially those with a direct connection to Japan, are nervous at the idea of a professional promoter who will be concerned more with 'the show' than 'pure racing.'
Two things usually happen when a promoter buys commercial rights from a federation that has held absolute power over a racing property: the new promoter insists on rule changes and the members of the old guard, once they realize they are losing control, resist these changes.
No promoter can sell a show that is
not exciting and no racing property can be exciting without a healthy level of uncertainty about who is going to win races. It is not enough, as MV Agusta in 500 and Yamaha in 250 demonstrated during the late sixties and early seventies, for the only rivalry to be between teammates on identical machines.
"Break up the Yankees," was the cry from newspaper editors against the all-conquering New York Yankees of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. But, of course, Colonel Rupert didn't trade his superstars and Pat Alexander is certainly not going to offer Mat Mladin or Ben Spies to Suzuki's AMA Superbike rivals.
A lot of the Yoshimura Suzuki superiority comes from the riders and the strength of the technicians and crews -- and from the willingness of Suzuki to spend big. But a guy named Kenny Roberts, the three times 500cc world champion and father of the last American to win the 500cc world title, believes that even Suzuki would benefit from winning less if the championship were bigger, reaching a large audience and attracting the kind of sponsorship that goes for sports with big audiences. Roberts believes the only way to level the playing field and to get a half dozen or so riders sharing the wins on several brands of motorcycles is to introduce strict limits on engines.
