Can fan donations save struggling WRC events?
The topic of newly established 100.000 euro WRC calendar fee refuses to die, and rightly so. We still don’t know much about it, apart from the amount. We (or should I say “I”) still don’t know if FIA expects the money attached to the signed contract for 2013, or will there be more time for events to try and gather the required amount of cash.
Let us presume FIA will not mess it up and that organizers will have plenty of time to come up with some kind of project aimed at raising the 100k euro.
As the current poll on this site goes, I’m curious if rally fans all over the world would be ready to give up few euros by purchasing items from WRC event webshops. If items are too much of a hassle (and additional expense in setting up a webshop and produce the actual goods), is there a chance of events raising money by simply asking for donations from the fans?
It does not have to be much, I am actually thinking microtransactions here. Put simply, 5 euro per donation and with ideally 10.000 people contributing and we’re at 50.000 euro already. However, this is just one event, and by asking 5 euro for each event, would it be just stretching it too far?
If 5 euro is too much, perhaps 2 euro would be more realistic, and it would still provide at least some kind of support.
Of course, such system would be best operated through central “hub”, handling promotion of the donation campaign and perhaps even supplying few virtual goods to contributors in exchange.
This is just a rough idea that just crossed my mind, and as sad and strange it may sound, given the elite status of the World Rally Championship, perhaps this is what needs to be done at this point in time.
Main question is, are rally fans ready to part with their hard earned cash only to help WRC event organizers keep their place in the calendar, or is it up to organizers and their marketing skills to either find the cash or step out from the spotlight.
However, there is one other thing that just keeps bugging me. WRC and FIA were praised this year for keeping a WRC event in Greece despite country’s ongoing financial crisis – Acropolis Rally (one of the candidates for failing to raise required cash for FIA fee) was credited with bringing hope and positives for the Greek people. Yet, as of 2013 this is no longer the case because Acropolis Rally will now have to do a 180 degree turn and instead of bringing hope to Greek public it will ask 100.000 euro from them.
As much as I understand the fact that nothing is free these days, this whole issue still does not really click well for me. Perhaps, and that’s a big one, June 15 FIA meeting will bring more clarity into this thing.
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