The South African leg of the FIM World Superbike Championship which was scheduled for Phakisa in Welkom has been postponed until 2015.
The world’s best Superbike riders were set to compete on the world circuit in the Free State on 19 October this year. Official promoters of the event, GAS Sports, announced the bad news for motorsport enthusiasts today.
Stephen Watson, executive director of the organisers, told Courant that they are disappointed that the event had to be postponed.
"It’s always disappointing when you have a plan to host a prestigious event like the World Superbike and it doesn’t materialise.
"But we’ve got to take the positives out of it, and the positives are that we’ve still got incredibly strong support and willingness from the Free State Government to see this event happen, and see it potentially happen over a number of years as opposed to a once-off," said Watson.
"We’ll continue to work with them to secure the rights and hopefully bring the world championship back to South Africa and hopefully for the long term.
"If that means we have to take a few months delay and kick off 2015 with World Superbikes, then that is what it is and we have to accept that," Watson added.
The delay does give the organisers time to sort out their plans and get it a 100% spot-on in order to secure the event in Welkom, and Watson agrees that it does buy them much needed time.
"The pressure is not off us. We’ve got to sit with the private and public sector and stakeholders on this event. March is not guaranteed, we’ve still got to deliver on a FIM promulgated circuit, which is going to require a little bit of investment into Phakisa.
"We will have to sit down with Dorna and discuss terms with them for 2015 onwards, but it does buy us some time," Watson emphasised. Watson further conceded that they are relying on local government to help secure the race for the 2015 calendar.
"Like any major international event, you can’t do it as a commercial proposition, it’s not viable. The rights fees to host an event always outweigh the commercial return you can get from an event.
"Whether it is a World Cup at the very top of international events, all the way down to Superbikes, they need government investment.
Government benefits from the economic impact of having all of those hotels and guesthouses full in the region, having people shopping, having people spend time in the province," Watson concluded.
The Super Bike World Championship is just the latest major international sporting event to be cancelled in the province.
Last year the Rugby Championship between the Springboks and Argentina scheduled for Free State Stadium was moved to Soweto. The cricket one-day international between the Proteas and India for December last year was cancelled after the BCCI shortened their tour to South Africa.
Although sport is considered a small part of day-to-day life, the economic impact of cancelling major events gets felt by all.
