Britain's WRC future faces real problems

A man on a bike stopped, retrieved his telephone from his pocket and took a photograph. Seeing two chaps dressed like the Toyota he'd just taken a picture of, he pedalled in their direction.

"Is this one gonna be racing then?" he questioned, nodding in the direction of the Yaris WRC parked outside Liverpool's famous Liver Building.

"It's not exactly a race," the Toyota-shirted response began. "The cars are here for the ceremonial start..." Bike man had heard enough. Phone in pocket, he was off.

There's no doubt starting October's Wales Rally GB from one of sporting Britain's greatest cities is a good idea. Question is, will it be good enough to save the event? 'Save the event'? Sounds a bit dramatic, doesn't it? Not without good reason.

Britain's round of the World Rally Championship stands very firmly at a T-junction. In one direction - a U-turn if you will - is Wales, another is Belfast, and down the third road is Scotland (via a long and winding road littered with potholes and blind bends and bordered by some big drops).

Let's start with Wales, which technically means starting with England as this year Rally GB gets going on the eastern side of Offa's Dyke for the first time since it began with Cheltenham in 1999. The issue here is dwindling financial support from the Welsh Government.

Having backed Britain's round of the WRC since 2000 (pictured below), enthusiasm is waning - financially speaking - in Cardiff. This year's event will received around £1.25million, which some sources put at around a third of the original deal made at the turn of the millennium. Motorsport UK CEO Hugh Chambers told Autosport last month it costs between £3m and £3.5m to run Britain's round of the world championship. Now you can see the problem.

Yes, ticket sales are up significantly - brilliantly, actually - with twice as many folk forking out compared with this time last year. But ticket sales will barely put a dent in the budget deficit we appear to be staring at.

"We have a balanced budget which has been approved by the board and clearly this has a number of variables in there, including ticket sales, and we won't know if they've been met until later in the year," says Chambers. "The board is mindful of that and they have approved the budget on the basis there is some risk in the budget. It's a challenge, but it's not insurmountable."

A title sponsor would help. Unfortunately, a three year deal from temporary insurance company Dayinsure wasn't renewed for 2018. Why? Chambers talks of sponsorship lifecycles and "a decision from the brand owner to look at the property and feel, 'Yeah, we've had a fantastic time and now let's refresh and go and invest in a different property'."

I'm confused. I was told Dayinsure left the building because it wasn't feeling enough love. The words reportedly used were: "Treated like a second-tier sponsor."

Chambers' response to that suggestion: "That's definitely not something ever expressed to us and they were definitely not a second-tier sponsor, they were a title partner. I'm not sure where that came from. In fact, there are negotiations going on with Dayinsure at the moment."

OK... so Dayinsure might be back in its old property? Well, that can only be good news. Clearly the event needs every penny it can lay its hands on.

Chambers' (pictured below) commercial background - he was key in deals involving the Subaru World Rally Team and BAR Formula 1 squad alongside David Richards (now Motorsport UK chairman) before ushering in a wind of change at World Sailing's governing body - will stand him in good stead as he seeks to land more investment for the event.

He adds: "I've worked on sponsorship for many, many years and you've got to get your assets right to expect partners to come on board. We've relaunched the rally, the look, feel and proposition - something we felt was urgently needed. The lead time is such that we're selling into something six months in advance, which is not really enough time - but we have half a dozen really good prospects and a couple of those would be at the title level."

Fingers crossed for one or the other. But the suggestion Rally GB urgently needed rebranding? Hmm... looking at the above numbers, surely it's debatable whether now's the right time to be spending on new colours and a fancy font. And anyway, what does this year's new branding tagline "A World Apart" actually mean?

"Like any taglines," Chamber says, "You have to populate them with some meaning..."

Previously, the tin read: Rally of Legends. And you could argue that with its place in rallying history, GB did what the tin said.

Chambers furthers the explanation of the 2019 replacement: "The whole proposition of A World Apart is that rallying comes out of a different universe. Rallying, by its very nature, is in a different world. The drivers, the scenery, the very sport itself is not of this world. It's completely crazy the stuff the cars and drivers are doing.

"It's the antithesis to stadium sport, the sanitised homogenised world of professional football players with their personal coaches, blah, blah, blah. Rallying is a world apart and Wales is a world apart. It is just over the border, but it's a completely different type of place full of castles, legends and dragons and stuff like that."

I am yet to be convinced.

And I'm guessing we're heading very much down the path of investing in the future with the rebranding. Which is good. I like talk of investing in the future.

As far as I can see, the biggest and best investment in a sustainable future for Britain in the World Rally Championship would have been a city centre stage in Liverpool on Thursday October 3. Let's bring the city to standstill at going home time. Make a show. Make it free. Make everybody welcome. Make it Rally GB's shop window to other UK regions showing just how spectacular this sport can be.

I know what some of you are saying, city centre stages are the very antithesis of what the WRC is about. Yeah, so were the 'Mickey Mouse' stages at stately homes that filled the GB Sunday schedule of a quarter of a century ago. Yet they're still talked about, still remembered and - in some parts - still revered.

Anybody who doesn't understand the importance of a good city centre stage has no business in the future of the World Rally Championship. It's about bringing heroes to the people, we've seen the evidence in Barcelona, Concepcion, Guanajuato (pictured above). Go back a bit further and - granted it wasn't on the city streets - but Perth's Langley Park superspecial on Rally Australia was a ground-breaking, genre-defining stage.

Admittedly, Rally GB folk tried to get a city stage. But the sums didn't add up. So make them add up. Don't try to claim a racetrack 20-plus miles out of the city's a workable alternative to wake the folk of Liverpool up to rallying. It's not.

Chambers disagrees, insisting holding a stage at Oulton Park is a better option than holding one in the centre of Liverpool.

"We did consider competitive action in Liverpool," he says. "[But] Rather than do something which, by its very nature, would be very limited in the city centre of Liverpool, [we prefer] to move 22 miles down the road to Oulton Park for a competitive stage which is going to be long enough to see differences [in stage times]. When you have these little tiny city stages, the differences are fractions, whereas at Oulton I think you're going to see some exciting competition.

"I think you'd agree that, when you look at the live spectators, at most sporting event and motorsport events - even if you look at Formula E, which is an amazing travelling circus - we're talking about thousands, not hundreds of thousands of people. The impact is delivered through the media rather than the live audience.

"It's down to us to make sure the [ceremonial] start gets maximum media impact as opposed to frankly a few thousand people who may turn up to see some action later in the evening. It was a conscious decision.

"You're right Oulton Park's not in the middle of the city, so people aren't coming out of their office and saying: 'Blimey, what's this...?'

"But it is just down the road."

With a ceremonial start at four in the afternoon, most folk won't be coming out of their office at all. But engagement with Liverpool is key.

WRC Promoter loves Liverpool. Like it loves Manchester and Birmingham, and anywhere with more people than current Rally GB base Llandudno. Rally Australia is roundly - and annually - castigated for running out of Coffs Harbour, population 75,000. Yet here we are running out of an admittedly lovely North Welsh seaside town, population a shade over 20,000.

Now, for the avoidance of doubt, and just in case anybody in Colnbrook (soon to be Bicester, with Motorsport UK's move north reckoned to be looming large) is still harbouring any misapprehensions about WRC Promoter's line on this - Oliver Ciesla is perfectly clear: "If you look in the long-term perspective, I do not see a long-term calendar where we continue to go to Wales again and again."

Clear enough? But just in case anybody's going to accuse me of taking Ciesla out of context, here's the preamble: "Britain is one of the big markets where we would definitely like to be with the WRC. It's important for us, there's a huge fanbase and lots of tradition and heritage and this is something we don't want to lose. From a commercial point of view it is very relevant for us and the manufacturers.

"At the same time, we are running this event, let's say not in the heart of the country where the fans are for many years now, and to go for some change and improvement is an objective we have been pushing for. We are hopeful this can be achieved in the next year already.

"Northern Ireland is of interest [to the WRC]. I don't want to say this is necessarily a long-term plan, but to go for a while or once could be an interesting variation for Rally GB."

To stay in Wales, the event needs to take on a very different shape - a shape that includes Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham or any other region that could benefit from an alliance - and joint fund the job with Wales.

Before we head across the water to Belfast, there are a couple of things I feel I have to add. Firstly, Conwy Council deserves huge credit for its continued support of the rally. Outside of the stages, pretty much everything that's been great about Britain's WRC round has come courtesy of Conwy Council - including an unforgettable atmosphere quayside in Conwy itself in 2011.

The continued support, ability and innovation of this single body has provided a backbone to the event, without which it's hard to imagine Britain would still have a WRC round.

The second point is about Oulton Park. Much as I want to see a street stage in Liverpool, it's great to have Oulton in there as well. Jonathan Palmer's enthusiasm in selling his stage at the recent event launch was marked in its contrast to what was otherwise a rather insipid gathering - WRC commentator Colin Clark and his green trousers notwithstanding.

So, to Northern Ireland. My understanding is that all 11 local councils in Northern Ireland have committed financial support to bringing Rally GB over the Irish Sea - and that income alone almost matches what Wales is putting in this year.

In addition, since October last year (and probably sometime before that) it's been quite clear Tourism Northern Ireland wants Britain's 2020 round of the WRC and all the major benefits it will bring. And WRC Promoter wants it to go to Belfast, which last hosted international rallying with the European Rally Championship's Circuit of Ireland (pictured below).

So, why isn't Rally GB going to Belfast right now? The current three-year contract with Wales is no bother - there's a clause to pause the event's presence, providing it returns in future years - but the Northern Ireland Parliament in Stormont not currently sitting is more of an issue.

Or is it? As recently as last weekend, I heard from folk in the know that the rally's move can happen. As they point out, the rest of the country is functioning fully without parliament. So it appears to be down to wills and ways; there's no shortage of willing on the Irish Sea's far side. But Northern Ireland's an answer only for one year. From the outset, it's been perfectly plain that funding can be found for 2020 only.

So, to Scotland? Now this one I absolutely love. The Intercontinental Rally Challenge (now European Rally Championship) Rally Scotland was one of the finest events I've reported on. Running for three years from 2009 to 2011, the route included some of the world's finest woods such as Loch Ard, service at Blair Castle and wholehearted support from Event Scotland.

Unfortunately, Rally Scotland died because Britain's governing body did not apply joined-up thinking to running rallies and see a bigger picture that could have presented a long-term future to a superb event. But, for three years, Scotland was back at the forefront of international rallying.

It's enormously encouraging to understand Motorsport UK is looking north of the border for the future of Rally GB; Edinburgh and Glasgow are both within easy reach of the right roads.

But, as far as I understand, there's been one meeting. And that was months ago. I'm sure there are more meetings planned, but we're in the middle of this crisis right now. Without big - English - city involvement, we're running out of cash in Wales; the Belfast boat looks like it might sail without us; and Scotland, to many, remains little more than a pipe dream.

And all of the above is happening in the context of the staggeringly simple economic forces of supply and demand being applied to the WRC calendar: more countries want a calendar slot than there are calendar slots available. The result? The price of a calendar slot - in terms of quality and cost - rises.

And if Britain can't deliver, then it will be gone.

The WRC Promoter understands heritage and history, but Monte Carlo and Finland - both rallies on a far firmer footing than Rally GB - provide plenty of that.

The future is about new and returning markets and achieving FIA president Jean Todt's desire to put 'world' into the World Rally Championship. That means the Far East, Russia, India, China.

As early as 2023, the promoter's vision is for eight rounds of a possible 16-round calendar to be outside of Europe and for further afield rallies. Those eight European rounds need to be able to present a well-funded business plan as well as a compelling sporting argument to justify a slot. Right now, Rally GB isn't doing that.

All of the above is, of course, the theory of the promoter. The apparent reality from World Motor Sport Council earlier this month is that the FIA still calls the shots and dictates which rallies are in and which rallies are out.

For now, I've probably said enough.