Quote Originally Posted by Lousada View Post
Sorry, but I think this is a ridiculous statement. Rallying exists solely because of spectator interest. On the one hand because the sport is heavily financed by sponsors and on the other hand because city councils only allow permits for rallies because of the public interest. I do not think many rallies would continue if spectators were banned.



It is a big mistake to think the 'general public' is stupid. They can understand rallying perfectly well, it is not that complicated after all. It is not about knowing about it, it is about caring about it. For example, I know of the existence of Volleyball, I know the basic rules, I know it is very popular, but I simply do not care about it so I won't follow it. Ultimately it is the promotors job to get people to start caring about rallying.
I'm not saying spectators should be banned, I'll never write that. Without spectators there wouldn't be any sport, for sure not on the level we have now. I do ask the question if organizers could handle much more spectators... Maybe not a big issue for well organized events like Portugal (nowadays) or Finland, but for events like Monte Carlo and Poland it's a very different story.

The sport being too complex has nothing to do with people being not smart enough for it. It's just a sport that people don't have any feeling with. A sport like football, cycling or tennis is something that almost everybody has once done themselves (mostly for fun or at school etc), they can relate to it more. Practicing anything that comes close to rallying is pretty much illegal everywhere, now more than ever before... Also when you are watching on the stage you can enjoy the spectacle but you don't see who is leading. How many popular sports can you spectate without knowing who is winning the game? Then there are different classes who change every couple of years. Time penalties, Rally2, powerstage, many rules that are changing very often. Just admit that it's a more complex sport to follow than most other popular sports, especially for somebody who is new with it. Oh, and I didn't know volleyball is so popular.

I love rallying, and spend almost all my holidays for it. And it would be nice to see and read more about it in the everyday news, and to see more effort/money being put in the sport from governments and sponsors, but I don't see the potential for it to become one of the most popular sports. And the promotors job... I don't think any promotor (Eurosport or RBMH) is doing a decent job at the moment. Eurosport was doing very well with IRC a few years ago but it seems like they forgot all of it...