NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

When is a merger not a merger? When it is a mergeover! The press release announcing that MotoGP and World Superbikes will come under one organisation was at pains to stress that the two championships would continue to be run separately . But there seems to be little doubt that the ringmeister will be Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta. It was he, after all, who explained what was going to happen.

The power game being played out has been referred to here before and therefore the news came as no great surprise. Since acquiring ownership of both series the owners Bridgepoint have faced a number of challenges:

1) An internal power struggle between long time rivals the Flammini brothers, founders of WSB, and Dorna, headed by Ezpeleta, who invented the present MotoGP. The Flamminis now look like toast, whether they will stay for long is open to question. The power game which they may have thought they were winning has been lost.

2) An external power struggle with the Japanese manufacturers, led by Honda, who have dictated that the MotoGP formula and the 500cc world championship before that should be part of their development programme rather than an entertainment spectacle

3) Recently, and presumably encouraged by the ultimate owners who saw the value of their main property declining, Dorna decided they were going to control their own show, get more bikes on the grid and restore some of the old glory.

4) Honda have clearly found some of the proposed changes unacceptable; don't believe that Dorna will risk falling out with them; and have enjoyed tweaking their tail with offers to fill the grid with Honda-powered bikes and making warm noises about future participation in WSBK, a series they have merely flirted with in the past.

5) When buying WSBK as part of the Swiss-based sports marketing company Infront, famous for promoting football and ski racing, Bridgepoint had to give an undertaking to the FIM that the championships would be run separately, which also avoided challenges from other competition authorities.

6) Bridgepoint also have a duty to make their investors rich, well richer. The old target was to double their money by increasing profits and selling the property within three to seven years of ownership. In recent years that has become much more difficult as valuations have declined, although it has to be said that sports rights have remained buoyant. MotoGP cost them a lot of money, in excess of €400m, and they had to borrow heavily. WSBK's value is more difficult to estimate as it was part of an Infront job lot.

All these factors made it necessary, and presented a real reason for Bridgepoint to take action. After a year of owning WSB they have decided to solve the internal problem by having one corporate management team for both series which also solves the external problem by preventing manufacturers like Honda playing off one series against the other.

It gives Dorna both world championships and a lot of negotiating clout not only with manufacturers but the circuits. And with one marketing company, Infront, better sponsorship packages can be put together although it has to be said that Infront's contribution to WSB has so far been between nil and zero.And when there is a sale it will be both world championships owned by one company. Neat.

Oh, and when the Doctor is finished with MotoGP he can transfer seamlessly into World Superbikes.

Wll it work. In theory it has a lot to commend it but in practice takeovers are much more difficult particularly when there are wide cultural differences as there are here.Let's hope WSB is allowed to retain its much more friendly and less corporate atmosphere than MotoGP. As a series it is streets ahead of anything else with six of the best British and Irish riders in many years.

Motorcycle racing in general has to be the winner but a huge amount of effort and marketing ingenuity is required to get it into the mainstream of sport, something that is sadly missing right now.