With Liberty Media slowly but surely progressing through the 3.5billion takeover process of Dorna who are the owners of MotoGP and World Superbikes. Most think it needs to grow MotoGP, but actually it’s world super-bikes that need the investment.
While its racing product is in good health, the calendar needs vast improvement as well as attendance numbers.
The calendar
For what the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) classes as a world championship. World Super-bikes only host one non-European round at Philip Island in Australia. This is currently due to the cost of hosting international rounds, for example rising shipping costs.
While the cost argument for teams is understandable. It shows a championship that is in decline. From five non-European rounds in 2019 to just one today shows an almost complacent look from Dorna. The rumours that spread of a cashing in of Turkish rider, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu’s fame with a return to Istanbul Park still came to nothing.
Some believe that Dorna should start with a return to the US market, where they could capitalise on the enthusiasm for their superbike series Moto America (source: Forbes) with a race at the incredible Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.
With this and – hopefully – a return to Istanbul Park, superbikes would finally be re-classed as a serious world championship in the minds of the fans.
Attendance and viewing figures
While some events are successful with a packed race crowd of over 70,000 such as Donington Park, other rounds like Magny-Cours in France are struggling when on TV they have empty grandstands which give a lack of atmosphere.
A more Gen-z focused Marketing strategy could help here with more use of influencers and celebs at events in the way Formula One has grown. Maybe also taking its behind-the-scenes show unfiltered from YouTube to a streaming platform like Netflix could help the championship have its own “Drive to Survive” moment. Using strategies like this could help World Superbike have numbers like a 40% growth in female audience (Source Forbes) like F1 has had since 2019.
The question of bike prices
The whole point of WorldSBK is for manufacturers to sell models to the public by way of advertising. To do this the rules state the bikes must be available for a maximum of £44k – however cost of living pressure has brought this limit into question. To keep the series relevant to consumers, there is talk of adjusting the rules in 2027 (when the next major MotoGP rule set comes into effect) to ensure that the series is cost effective.
One proposal for this is for them to copy the current WSSP (World SuperSport) rule set which has proven effective with manufacturers such as Triumph, MV Agusta and Chinese maker QJMotor making bikes to the ruleset in addition to already established marques such as Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki. This could ensure that fans feel like they can afford the bikes being raced and the series does stick to its original core values of racing what fans can buy at their local dealerships. Plus, this would not affect the racing as while Super-sport seeds are lower than Superbikes, the racing product is just as good.
If they work on these three factors. Liberty should put WSBK on the same ground as MotoGP is now.
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