The Isle of Man Government, the licence holder for the Isle of Man TT, is inviting expressions of interest for an independent Promoter to organise and commercialise the Isle of Man TT Races and Classic TT Races and develop a global Isle of Man TT Series.
The Isle of Man TT is one of the world's oldest motorsport events. It started in 1905 as the British trial round for the fledgling European car racing championship, the precursor to modern day Formula 1, with motorbikes introduced in 1907.
The races take place on a 37¾ mile circuit of closed public roads and feature seven bike classes: Superbike, Supersport, Superstock, Senior, Lightweight, Electric and Sidecar.
The Isle of Man, which is a UK crown dependency in the British Isles, hosts the annual two week festival in late May and early June, annually attracting over 43,000 visitors.
In 2014, the Isle of Man TT was televised in 130 countries and produced 402 hours of global TV coverage. The event reached an audience of almost 26 million and delivered a clear media value of over £13 million.*A new event, the Classic TT, building and leveraging the event's heritage, was established in 2013. It takes place over the three days of the Aug bank holiday weekend,
Building on this global and diverse growth, an independent Promoter will now have the unique opportunity to develop and implement new TT road race events around the world as part of a 'TT Series'. Ultimately, the Promoter will develop a global series that will see the stars of the TT competing in locations across the globe, culminating in the series champion being crowned at the Isle of Man TT itself.
Under the proposed scope of services, the Isle of Man Government will license all commercial aspects of the TT events to an independent Promoter, including: domestic and international television and broadcast rights, sponsorship, licensing, hospitality, event ticketing, merchandising and retail sales.
The Promoter will be responsible for delivering the operational aspects of the Isle of Man TT and Classic TT jointly with the Isle of Man Government. The Promoter will also be responsible for independently contracting with individual host cities to deliver the TT Series events across the world.
Matt Wilson, Director of Consulting at 'The Sports Consultancy' who are managing the process on behalf of the Isle of Man Government, commented:
"The Isle of Man TT Races is one of the world's truly great sports properties combining iconic heritage with state of the art machinery and strong brand values. We believe that it has huge untapped global commercial potential and on behalf of the Isle of Man Government are looking to identify a Promoter who shares the Government's vision, will develop the event to the next level and deliver enhanced commercial value to the Island."
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Notes to editors:
The Isle of Man Government is inviting expressions of interest from relevant parties to be submitted before 28th February 2015. Suitable candidates will be issued with further information about this opportunity and will be required to complete a 'Pre-qualification Questionnaire' (PQQ). Successful candidates at this stage will receive an Invitation to Tender (ITT) requiring full and detailed proposals to be submitted in August 2015.
If an independent Promoter is contracted, they would be appointed by December 2015. It is proposed that the independent Promoter would work in partnership with the existing Isle of Man TT team to support delivery of the 2016 Isle of Man TT meeting. On completion of the 2016 Classic TT, the Isle of Man Government will transition the outlined commercial and promotional responsibilities and certain event delivery obligations for the 2017 TT Races to the Promoter. It is also expected that, during 2017, the Promoter will stage 'test' events in other countries, with a full global series rollout in 2018.
