Fannabee’s - What a difference one man can make...
When Jos Verstappen stopped racing in Formula 1 in 2003, he had contributed a lot to the Dutch racing history. Although he never won a GP, he was able to get ten thousands of fans to the Zandvoort and Assen race track to give a demonstration in his Arrows or Minardi. At that time al lot of businesses were existing simply because Jos was racing. All kinds of F1 magazines, events, travel agencies, merchandise and books were depending on this. It is only the second year that his son Max Verstappen is driving a F1 car but the ‘business’ is booming around this new born Dutch superstar.
Fannabee’s
Before Max won his first GP in Spain this year, if you would say to someone that you are a fan of Formula 1 they would be not interested and ‘not a fan of that sport’. Also in public media like the national sport programs would not pay any attention to the sport. But a few weeks after that suddenly, the number of fans was increased to the number of Dutch living in the The Netherlands it seemed. On social media, news shows, show bizz shows, and the sports news on public owned channels was suddenly ‘fan’ and wanted to be part of the new phenomenon. I would call them ‘fannabee’s’, because they want to be part of anything that is ‘happening’ now, without really caring for it at all. I really had to laugh when watching a morning business news show, that actually had a so called ‘expert’ telling about Max Verstappen. This guy was completely unknown to me and never seen in any autosport news items before in the last 10 years....
TV coverage
In The Netherlands, you need to be a customer of Ziggo in order to get access to the live F1 GP broadcast (or watch RTL Germany). And if you want the full package of all weekend, you need to have a paid subscription to Ziggo Sport. After many years of F1 on the open (commercial) channels, a few years ago the tv commercial rights were so high that they couldn’t compensate it with commercials. So that's why it moved to a paid channel, without al lot of people making a fuss about it. But now that Max Verstappen is becoming more know and popular, it’s a big topic. Even the Dutch government is talking about it in a discussion with the state secretary of media affairs. Also the Dutch publicly funded sports program NOS Sport suggested that the F1 races should be on the ‘open’ channels.
A comment from a Dutch fan (not me!) on this, says it all:
“The gentleman of the NOS (NOS-director Jan de Jong) should not complain. The NOS has never been properly aired an F1 race. Where were they when Lammers, Rothengatter, Verstappen, Albers and Doornbos were driving F1? Indeed, they were nowhere. The commercial channels had to do it. In recent years the F1 was behind the decoder (pay tv) in NL but the BBC broadcasted 12 races live also RTL Germany had 8 races broadcasted live. So do not whine now suddenly a Dutch guy wins a race.”
Dutch Grand Prix
And to top it all, a political party called VVD was suggesting to get Formula 1 back to the dunes of Zandvoort. Of course, that would be great for the fans. But it’s a bit naive to think that with the current limitations of the track, that state it’s in, it could even host a F1 race. And who is going to pay for it? The government is already struggling to pay for education, health care, care for elderly people, defence and other more important services. And I’m a fan of F1, but please don’t spend 50M on (re)building a track, and 100M a year on getting the F1 to town. 3 years later you will find out that Bernie E. has found a better place to go, and nobody is willing to pay again the 100M. See Turkey and many other countries. So better think twice before spending that kind of money.
Fannabee’s
Before Max won his first GP in Spain this year, if you would say to someone that you are a fan of Formula 1 they would be not interested and ‘not a fan of that sport’. Also in public media like the national sport programs would not pay any attention to the sport. But a few weeks after that suddenly, the number of fans was increased to the number of Dutch living in the The Netherlands it seemed. On social media, news shows, show bizz shows, and the sports news on public owned channels was suddenly ‘fan’ and wanted to be part of the new phenomenon. I would call them ‘fannabee’s’, because they want to be part of anything that is ‘happening’ now, without really caring for it at all. I really had to laugh when watching a morning business news show, that actually had a so called ‘expert’ telling about Max Verstappen. This guy was completely unknown to me and never seen in any autosport news items before in the last 10 years....
TV coverage
In The Netherlands, you need to be a customer of Ziggo in order to get access to the live F1 GP broadcast (or watch RTL Germany). And if you want the full package of all weekend, you need to have a paid subscription to Ziggo Sport. After many years of F1 on the open (commercial) channels, a few years ago the tv commercial rights were so high that they couldn’t compensate it with commercials. So that's why it moved to a paid channel, without al lot of people making a fuss about it. But now that Max Verstappen is becoming more know and popular, it’s a big topic. Even the Dutch government is talking about it in a discussion with the state secretary of media affairs. Also the Dutch publicly funded sports program NOS Sport suggested that the F1 races should be on the ‘open’ channels.
A comment from a Dutch fan (not me!) on this, says it all:
“The gentleman of the NOS (NOS-director Jan de Jong) should not complain. The NOS has never been properly aired an F1 race. Where were they when Lammers, Rothengatter, Verstappen, Albers and Doornbos were driving F1? Indeed, they were nowhere. The commercial channels had to do it. In recent years the F1 was behind the decoder (pay tv) in NL but the BBC broadcasted 12 races live also RTL Germany had 8 races broadcasted live. So do not whine now suddenly a Dutch guy wins a race.”
Dutch Grand Prix
And to top it all, a political party called VVD was suggesting to get Formula 1 back to the dunes of Zandvoort. Of course, that would be great for the fans. But it’s a bit naive to think that with the current limitations of the track, that state it’s in, it could even host a F1 race. And who is going to pay for it? The government is already struggling to pay for education, health care, care for elderly people, defence and other more important services. And I’m a fan of F1, but please don’t spend 50M on (re)building a track, and 100M a year on getting the F1 to town. 3 years later you will find out that Bernie E. has found a better place to go, and nobody is willing to pay again the 100M. See Turkey and many other countries. So better think twice before spending that kind of money.