[WRC] Rally Sweden 2024

[Backa]

You are talking about fans who go watch the event live for the weekend, which are a fraction of the fans who are following the event remotely - and the first contact that a fan has with rallysport is almost always from far away, especially in this day and age. You usually won't go from barely knowing rallying to spectating a WRC event in the blink of an eye, there's lots inbetween.
New fans or fans that are not so passionate (yet) to go to a WRC event will instead rely on highlights (almost non-existant, which is a problem), free coverage to follow some stages and have an idea how WRC works (non-existant, which is a problem) and All-Live. And I guarantee they'll ask way more often "Why only 8 cars in the top class?" than "Why are drivers going slower in the last stages of the rally?", if they can even notice drivers going slower, that is.
Hence my point: you "solve" this Sunday cruising problem and you'll see little effect on the fanbase. More people stay on the stages on Sunday morning? That's not much at all.

It's not that hard for new fan watching on rally.tv to realize if midway through the rally, gaps between drivers became safe enough to not push. Even commentary and post-stage interviews don't hide it.

And it's not like only viewiership of new fans is affected. Not all old fans are so hardcore to keep watching sunday, if they think results are pretty much already decided and expect sunday stages to be uneventful cruise.

New point system is improving that issue quite well. It created rally winner points issue but it's not that hard to make extra rule to solve that problem.

[Rallyper]

I´d say it´s two kinds of cruising. The one you can easily tell by looking and promoted by Becs. You can hear car is not working at full throttle, etz.

The other kind of "cruising" is nothing average Joe can be aware of by just watching RallyTV. Or not even as spectator. The latter I don´t mind.

[focus206]

that's a bit mixed up. some things are true, others are totally unrelated.
true that most of casual fans occur from far away, but they are also fans with little to no interest in how points are collected. they are ok with a classification. regulation is on hard fans, that most likely follow roadside.
for new fans, official footage is getting ok, like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxlpMvWndh4. The same goes for how it works, there was some special content on official media, that was ok as an introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XQeec-c9k4 shakedown is free, so non-existent is a bit too harsh. You seem to underestimate the effect of having fans in the tv coverage. The best way to convince a show is good is to see people there. proves that the most engaging content from monte was people and fireworks on the tourniquets, way more than results. as u said correctly, new fans/general fans get in love with the atmosphere, best way to boost the feeling is to have real participation shown on tv. also, i don't have data from rallytv obviously, but thinking that there are similar fans on a loop of stages than on rally tv could be not so ridiculous. generic tv is another thing.

Everyone who starts following rallying and have an interest in the championship will care about the points scored. You don't pass from casually watching a couple of rally videos to travelling to spectate WRC events, there's a huge portion of fans inbetween, the good majority I'd say.
That official footage you linked is raw footage, not highlights. Highlights allow you to follow what's happening during the rally, with times, couple of short interviews, tyre strategies info etc... what we have right now are short day highlights that go "Rovanpera pushed a lot this afternoon" while showing Rovanpera driving for 10 seconds. Plenty of fans, who mostly aren't going abroad to follow WRC live nor are paying to watch All Live, ask for more, but they'll probably get nothing.
It's true that I might underestimating the effect of spectators in the coverage, as I don't care much to see fans or not on stages when I'm following the rally live.

[focus206]

It's not that hard for new fan watching on rally.tv to realize if midway through the rally, gaps between drivers became safe enough to not push. Even commentary and post-stage interviews don't hide it.

And it's not like only viewiership of new fans is affected. Not all old fans are so hardcore to keep watching sunday, if they think results are pretty much already decided and expect sunday stages to be uneventful cruise.

New point system is improving that issue quite well. It created rally winner points issue but it's not that hard to make extra rule to solve that problem.

They might realize it, for sure not all of them. And those who realize might, probably, not complain nor think it's a problem that needs a solution, because it's normal and natural.
The new point system is tackling a small problem while creating a big problem. I have seen a couple of videos popping up on YouTube along the lines of "the new WRC point system is stupid", while I've never seen anybody convinced that Sunday cruising is a huge problem that needs a solution/revolution of the point system.
I've always been for a Power Sunday instead of Power Stage, like others in this forum, which I think is sensible.

[Backa]

I've never seen anybody convinced that Sunday cruising is a huge problem that needs a solution/revolution of the point system.
I've always been for a Power Sunday instead of Power Stage, like others in this forum, which I think is sensible.

Well, isn't idea of replacing Power Stage with Power Sunday exactly about resolving problem of sunday cruising?

FIA just took changes too far.

[focus206]

Well, isn't idea of replacing Power Stage with Power Sunday exactly about resolving problem of sunday cruising?

FIA just took changes too far.

Yes, and I think it's more fair to assign bonus points over 3-4 stages rather than 1. No need for revolutions that create other problems. But don't expect WRC to gain any noticeable amount of fans for Power Sunday or anything similar, problems are elsewhere.

[Corcaíoch]

I might have missed it here with all the discussion of the points system but surprised not to see more mention of Solberg's performance.
I've been critical of him in the past but I felt he did exactly what people should be looking for from him if he is to step back up to Rally 1. Very quick almost dominant display but most importantly a controlled drive. The type of situation were in the past I would have expected amazing stage times but mistakes and possibly offs but tbis was a much maturer display. Very early in the season yet but an excellent start to be fair.

[wyler]

Everyone who starts following rallying and have an interest in the championship will care about the points scored. You don't pass from casually watching a couple of rally videos to travelling to spectate WRC events, there's a huge portion of fans inbetween, the good majority I'd say.
That official footage you linked is raw footage, not highlights. Highlights allow you to follow what's happening during the rally, with times, couple of short interviews, tyre strategies info etc... what we have right now are short day highlights that go "Rovanpera pushed a lot this afternoon" while showing Rovanpera driving for 10 seconds. Plenty of fans, who mostly aren't going abroad to follow WRC live nor are paying to watch All Live, ask for more, but they'll probably get nothing.
It's true that I might underestimating the effect of spectators in the coverage, as I don't care much to see fans or not on stages when I'm following the rally live.

you're mixing up again, hardcore fans and casual fans, i think! a lot of people doesn't care in the standings, they're ok with the end-of-day classification. they look for the action. most of the time roadside there's no access to the classification and nobody really cares. same concept is for highlights vs raw footage. if you want engagement and number, you go with raw. highlights is for next step fans, that can/want probably invest in rallytv to keep updated.
then people will always ask for free services, doesn't mean is the better model...

[ToKu]

Everyone who starts following rallying and have an interest in the championship will care about the points scored. You don't pass from casually watching a couple of rally videos to travelling to spectate WRC events, there's a huge portion of fans inbetween, the good majority I'd say.

I disagree. In Poland we even got a rally saying "Nie ważne kto, ważne żeby zapierdalał." That translates: It doesn't matter who is driving it matters how is he driving while passing Your spot." It worked for me. I usually got some favourite drivers, but... it doesn't really matter who won, who is on top. Rally is great outdoor fun, regardless of final standings. Unlike football, match that was lost by Your team is rarely a game You would call "great game" and time spent was "fantastic". WRC in Poland was great in 2014 - 2017 despite the fact that Kubica produced dissapointing results. Main negative feeling was stage lost in first day of 2017. We had great spot, but stage was cancelled. As for results I was not dissapointed, nor glad. Results are not something that matters to me. Epic driving on the edge - is.

BTW. One of UNIQUE features of rallies is that fans are real part of the show. Their actions can have impact on results. And I mean helping a car back to the stage, and not behaviours that result in cancelation of stages. Thousands of people living for days in tents on a stage side is also feature that is rarely seen in other sports. Dedication of fans and them being a part of a show (not only a background) is also a something that can be a foundation (or one of the foundations) of campaign to "Make rallies great again!"

BTW2 but judging from the behaviour of ERC TV crews (POLAND 2023) and WRC TV (ESTONIA 2022 and in 2023 to even bigger degree), they've been told not to show fans if possible. Look at the Kanepi stage 2023, series of jumps before finish. Many highlights from the spot. Most with no fans or very few fans. I must tell You, there was a sea of people. One of the most crowded spots I ever been to in lat 10 years. But in the highlights fans are seen only after the last jump. IMHO opinion it is because it was biggest of jumps, and they could not frame the picture in a way that fans were oustside the frame.

The post was chaotic, I'm sorry for that. But what I was trying to say in the first place is that people are watching rallies for different reasons then other typical sports.

[focus206]

I disagree. In Poland we even got a rally saying "Nie ważne kto, ważne żeby zapierdalał." That translates: It doesn't matter who is driving it matters how is he driving while passing Your spot." It worked for me. I usually got some favourite drivers, but... it doesn't really matter who won, who is on top. Rally is great outdoor fun, regardless of final standings. Unlike football, match that was lost by Your team is rarely a game You would call "great game" and time spent was "fantastic". WRC in Poland was great in 2014 - 2017 despite the fact that Kubica produced dissapointing results. Main negative feeling was stage lost in first day of 2017. We had great spot, but stage was cancelled. As for results I was not dissapointed, nor glad. Results are not something that matters to me. Epic driving on the edge - is.

BTW. One of UNIQUE features of rallies is that fans are real part of the show. Their actions can have impact on results. And I mean helping a car back to the stage, and not behaviours that result in cancelation of stages. Thousands of people living for days in tents on a stage side is also feature that is rarely seen in other sports. Dedication of fans and them being a part of a show (not only a background) is also a something that can be a foundation (or one of the foundations) of campaign to "Make rallies great again!"

BTW2 but judging from the behaviour of ERC TV crews (POLAND 2023) and WRC TV (ESTONIA 2022 and in 2023 to even bigger degree), they've been told not to show fans if possible. Look at the Kanepi stage 2023, series of jumps before finish. Many highlights from the spot. Most with no fans or very few fans. I must tell You, there was a sea of people. One of the most crowded spots I ever been to in lat 10 years. But in the highlights fans are seen only after the last jump. IMHO opinion it is because it was biggest of jumps, and they could not frame the picture in a way that fans were oustside the frame.

The post was chaotic, I'm sorry for that. But what I was trying to say in the first place is that people are watching rallies for different reasons then other typical sports.

Everything you wrote is about spectating live, and everything I wrote is about newer fans getting closer and getting interested in rallying and WRC, following the events through media, which is the vast, VAST majority of fans each weekend. They will not wake up one day and say "you know what, I'll travel to Poland / Sweden / Japan to try and spectate a WRC rally" without first getting interested in the championship. Maybe if you have a big event in your backyard or region, but that's an exception. If a person gets interested in WRC in this day and age, it's extremely more probable they'll first care about championship and points before they decide to travel and spectate an event.
I also don't care for results when I spectate a regional rally, but that's not what I'm talking about.