Rally Ireland super special stage a bit far

[jidoka]

More miles between stages increases the possibilty for road accidents IMO.

[Bazza2541]

Rally Ireland is a joint venture by both british and Irish Governments. Ireland has paid its portion britian apparently has not. The super special in Belfast is a sop to the brits to get them to put their hands in their pockets. Its a purely political decision, but then again this is Ireland where everything is politics.

[COD]

Sounds quite childish to drag the cars several 100 km for such pathetic thing as a superspecial, the real rallyfans goes to the stages anyway.
For the money they use for the transport of cars and planetickets for drivers, they could arrange free transport from big towns to the stages instead.

If rallying would just stick to its roots and be organised only for the hard core fans it would die in modern world. the only reason the teams are involved is publicity and thus rallying needs more fans. And it is easier to bring the show to big crowds than to take the people to the show. And all sports is show. There is plenty of action left for the hard core fans as it is.

[Tomi]

There is plenty of action left for the hard core fans as it is.

For now there is yes, but i belive it's going more towards stadium type of thing, so that it gets more tv coverage, because rally is not a tv sport the way it is now, and will never be, it's too expensive.

[cut the b.s.]

Rally Ireland is a joint venture by both british and Irish Governments. Ireland has paid its portion britian apparently has not. The super special in Belfast is a sop to the brits to get them to put their hands in their pockets. Its a purely political decision, but then again this is Ireland where everything is politics.

Are you familiar in any way with the venue? I understand it to be a rather stunning location, and can you name any other sporting events taking place in the grounds of a countrys parliament building? Your words strike me as the words of someone with a political chip on the shoulder, forget your views and step back, this will not be a stage in a stadium, it will be a super special in the heart of a big city but with a beautiful building and grounds as a backdrop, its going to be great and I hope those who have been so quick to slate the plan here aren't too proud to come back in november and admit that you have been wrong.

[JAM]

may-be it will work but its wasting money for teams to do this, if they held a super special somewhere closer in all the countrie that have been listed above i bet they would still sell out

Forget you idea. The SS in a city or stadium gives more visibility to teams and sponsors than 10 stages on a mountain. More visibility = more return of investment. That's what teams want.

More miles between stages increases the possibilty for road accidents IMO.

A lot of time on the computer can damage the brain IMO.

[Bazza2541]

Are you familiar in any way with the venue? I understand it to be a rather stunning location, and can you name any other sporting events taking place in the grounds of a countrys parliament building? Your words strike me as the words of someone with a political chip on the shoulder, forget your views and step back, this will not be a stage in a stadium, it will be a super special in the heart of a big city but with a beautiful building and grounds as a backdrop, its going to be great and I hope those who have been so quick to slate the plan here aren't too proud to come back in november and admit that you have been wrong.

Ahem, My kind are not welcome there!!

[Waldrons11]

I suspect you'll see much more of this in the future.

I think ISC aim to bring rally to more (and paying) fans by doing remote SSS in major cities. When I first heard of the Buenos Aires SSS, I thought, 'No way will that fly!' but it seems thoroughly well-planned and may be a big hit.

If it is, I'd not be surprised to see SSS in:

Stockholm (310km from Karlstad) or Gothenburg (296km from Karlstad)
Oslo (133km from Hamar)
Athens (well, duh)
Helsinki (274km from Jyväskylä)
Frankfurt (190km from Trier) or maybe Luxembourg?
Auckland
Barcelona

and so on over the next few years. Like it or not, spectators and fans are what make this possible, and I think we will see more promotion of remote SSS in the next few years. And really, Belfast to Sligo isn't such a trek, is it. 200km? Buenos Aires to Cordoba is 700km!

- Christian

Actually Finland were seriously considering a stadium based Super-special in Helsinki this year, but I think plans for that have been shelved. Germany are supposed to be doing a street stage (like in Limassol, Cyprus last year) around Trier this season.

[Bjorn240]

Tomi - while, as a fan, I agree with some of your sentiments, JAM and COD have got it on this one - it's about maximum exposure to the most number of people, bringing in new fans, and maximising the return on investment for the manufacturers and other sponsors. And, more return on investment for the sponsors, means more Staedtler 780c pencils for me...

[BennyB]

You think the 100+ miles trip for the rally ireland superspecial is bad! Try the 300-400 miles from Cordoba to Buenos Aires for the argentian superspecial tonight. Now thats a trek!