After the spectacular drop in the influx of public last year, 60,068 spectators on race Sunday, the worst entry in 25 years to see the motorcycles in Montmeló, with the loss of 33,000 attendees, this 2023 edition of the Gran Premi de Catalunya should resume the flight, return to the usual numbers of influx, stabilized at 90,000 spectators in the last decade. But the forecasts of the organizers of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya are not so optimistic: they calculate that they will be “above last year’s figures”.
According to the director of the Circuit, Josep Lluís Santamaría, the fall of 2022 will stop, but the recovery will be lukewarm, he commented at the presentation of the Grand Prix, yesterday in Barcelona. “We expect figures higher than last year, the expectation is good, we will be full. We will be in numbers similar to or higher than last year ”, he pointed out, although it will not be a full house to repeat or improve the 60,000 spectators.
“Compared to previous years there will be a difference in viewers, but compared to last year we will be above. The forecast is to increase the figure [of 60,000], but we will not be in the figures of recent years of 90,000 on Sunday, we are below ”, admitted the director, who is confident in the public response at the last minute. “The motorcycle is a hobby that wakes up at the last moment, the last week is when they collect the tickets.”
In this way, the GP of Catalonia, one of the 20 on the calendar that has always been in the high attendance zone in the World Cup, does not plan to recover as its neighbors from Jerez and Mugello have. In 2022, the attendance at the Montmeló race fell along with the other two strong places: Jerez (58,000) and Mugello (43,000) played, which this year have recovered their usual attendance, with 79,625 attendees on the Andalusian track on race Sunday (21,000) and 77,921 on the Tuscany track (34,000).
The change of dates of the MotoGP Grand Prix (from June to this first weekend of September), forced by the Formula 1 calendar (which moved the Spanish GP from May to June), has not helped to encourage the box office, coinciding with the return from vacation. Nor has the sports scene lent a hand: the stagnation of Marc Márquez, the absence of a benchmark like Valentino Rossi for the second year, and the lack, for another year, of an attractive rivalry between two charismatic antagonists that attracts the viewer -with Bagnaia crushing at will.
According to Santamaría, the non-recovery of the attendance of fans from previous years may be due to a number of factors: “The change of dates may have an influence, but also the excitement of the championship, which means that people are not paying attention either. We need there to be rivalry, it is what attracts the public. You have to work on it with different projects, attract other groups of the future, look for new viewers who are not there until now, work with the base, with the young people”.
Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna Sports, the organizing company of the MotoGP World Championship, expressed his hope, during the presentation of the Catalunya GP, that the Montmeló race will be on the 2024 calendar, which will be published soon. “I hope it will be there, we want them to do the five years that they signed in the renewal contract,” explained the MotoGP chief executive. Likewise, Ezpeleta commented that the possible “alternation” of the Spanish circuits “has not been well understood; it does not mean that one jumps every year, they can all be there.” He though he did not give any hint if that will happen in 2024.
