TASMANIA has lost its biggest sporting event with the State Government refusing to back the V8 Supercars beyond this year.
The cash-strapped Government has broken its three-year contract to host the V8s until 2013.
It will back this year's event at Symmons Plains but told Supercar officials it would not fund the next two years, and this week signed a release terminating Tasmania's participation in Australia's most high-profile motorsport championship.
The release means the Government does not have to pay out the remaining two years of its contract, $1.13 million.
V8 Supercar chairman Tony Cochrane yesterday revealed Tasmania's secret withdrawal.
"The State Government's indication to us is that they were unable to continue with the huge Budget problems they've had in Tasmania," Cochrane said.
"They have now signed a release saying they are only able to complete this year and are unable to complete for future years.
"With the Budget problems down there they couldn't see their way clear to continue past this year. They asked to be released from their contract and reluctantly we released them.
"This year will be the last one down there, regrettably."
The news will shock Tasmanian motorsport fans as former premier David Bartlett announced on November 12 that the State Government had secured the V8 Supercars for another three years, with the signing of a $1.7 million deal.
The event attracts about 60,000 people over three days and injects an estimated $3.5 million into the state's economy.
"That's great for tourism, great for jobs, great for Tasmania," Mr Bartlett said at the time.
Earlier yesterday, before Mr Cochrane revealed the Government had pulled out, Tourism Minister Scott Bacon said: "The Government remains committed to keeping V8s in Tasmania, and negotiations with the event's organisers are continuing."
The Government's biggest sport sponsorship is the new five-year $18 million deal with AFL club Hawthorn, starting next year, to play four games a season, and a preseason match, at Aurora Stadium.
The deal from next season for North Melbourne to play two AFL games a season at Bellerive, at $500,000 a game for the next three years, is split between the private sector, councils and TT-Line's annual $10 million marketing budget.
The State Government's V8 backing funded the transportation of the Supercar roadshow across Bass Strait and ensured the event did not go to other venues, which are queuing up to snatch one of the 14 rounds.
"Without their assistance in getting 38 B-double transporters and 600 people across the stretch of water between Tasmania and the mainland it makes it completely economically impossible to bring the championship to Tasmania," Cochrane said.
"It's not a particularly big ask for a Government, but it makes the difference in being able to get down there and not getting down there.
"We are currently negotiating with several venues both in Australia and overseas to replace the Tasmanian event."
Cochrane said the Tasmanian Government could invest its money where it wanted.
"Governments have all sorts of demands put on them," he said.
"Naturally, we're disappointed but we understand, and we also ask our fans to understand the horrendous cost of shipping to Tasmania and of getting everybody down there."
Symmons Plains, 32km south of Launceston, was the only track in Australia to have hosted a round of the Australian Touring Car Championship in every year since the inception of the competition in 1960.
However, after the 1999 event the series left Tasmania and did not return until government funding enabled the track to be upgraded, and the cars returned to race in 2003.
Source:
Tassie axes V8 Supercars Tasmania News - The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania
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Tassie AXES V8 Series!!!!
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