WSBK: Trouble for 700 euros at Jerez...

Last Thursday was published on provisional schedule for the 2022 Superbike World Championship. Jerez no longer appears on the list, and this did not fail to create an uproar in the Andalusian city. The explanation lies in one figure, 700 euros…

With the exception of 2018, the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto has hosted the World Series of Motorcycles without interruption since 2013. In recent years, the contract between CIRJESA (Circuito de Jerez SA) and the promoter of the championship was included in a package that also included the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix.

This has now expired and, as a result, the vice-president of CIRJESA, Laura Álvarez explained that the Superbike world championship will not pass through the Circuito de Jerez in 2022 because it is a race that has generated losses of 700 euros in the already battered accounts of the CIRJESA.

« Now that we no longer have this obligation, the truth is that this race has produced an imbalance of 700 euros in the Circuit's accounts because it is not economically viable: The expenses are very high and the revenue from tickets are minimal. We approved a viability plan and we conditioned it that we would continue to maintain Superbike as long as other public administrations economically compensated the cost for the Circuito de Jerez. Neither the Junta de Andalucía, nor the Diputación, nor private sponsors support the event, and the town hall cannot alone pay for an event which is loss-making for Cirjesa's accounts. After all, we are a public company that delivers results at the end of the year, and in the viability plan approved by all the councilors, the race was conditional on co-financing and economic rebalancing through private sponsorship or entry other public administrations. We must move towards events that are economically profitable and profitability must be sought either because there is private sponsorship or support from public administrations, or because the events themselves are beneficial for the accounts. It's a question of responsibility. All administrations have been informed, we have worked with private sponsors, but from one year to the next, it is very complicated to cover the expenses generated by Superbike races. »

The Junta de Andalucía (Government of Andalusia) and the Diputación (Provincial Parliament) are therefore particularly targeted, although the latter has already granted a grant of 200 euros in 000. “ You just have to see what the Comunidad Valenciana brings to its circuit and what the Diputación Valenciana brings to the Cuna de Campeones. It's beyond measure. »
Political reactions to the loss of the Superbike World Championship in Jerez were not long in coming and the Partido Popular immediately blamed the city's mayor, Mamen Sanchez, which he attacks “ for letting slip one of the races of the Superbike World Championship, one of the great successes for Jerez that the PP government in the city council achieved in 2013. The Superbike World Championship was a great source of promotion, hotel occupancy and wealth for Jerez over the years, a city of Jerez which today loses an event due to the inability of Mamen Sánchez's PSOE to renew the agreement for the Circuito de Jerez to host the event, as in previous years. Once again, Jerez is losing due to the lack of incapacity and work of the PSOE of Mamen Sánchez, who is already going to lose MotoGP world championship events in the next 5 years and who now also loses the chance to host the Superbike World Championship. »

But there, without even taking into account the effects of the pandemic on the presence of the public, we are entering into the twists and turns of political games which concern us little…

What is certain is that the region of Jerez does not have the same wealth as the provinces of Barcelona and Valencia, and that Mamen Sanchez, the mayor of Jerez, although she already contributes to the finances of the circuit, did not want to plug the hole of 700 euros left by the Superbike round.

Without Superbike, Jerez will therefore only host the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix in 2022, then in 2023 and 2025, but not in 2024 and probably in 2026.
There is perhaps also a partial explanation for the legitimate desire to be prudent in the financial accounts of the circuit...