Dan Rossomondo of MotoGP promoter Dorna Sports explains his role and has a message for die-hard MotoGP fans in the age of sprints and the like
In an effort to keep up with Formula 1’s recent spectator boom, MotoGP promoter Dorna Sports hired a marketing expert in April this year: Dan Rossomondo. The US-American has been working for Dorna as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) ever since. But what exactly does he do in his role?
“In a nutshell, ‘Chief Commercial Officer’ means that me and my team try to make this sport financially bigger so that everyone involved is helped, i.e. Dorna, the teams, the riders, the TV stations, the sponsors,” says Rossomondo, who previously worked in a similar role for the professional basketball league NBA,
“At the top of my list of priorities is prioritization. There is so much that I want to tackle and that we want to tackle together,” says Rossomondo and continues: “My main responsibilities are basically divided into three areas: the digital business, the media business and the sponsorship and hospitality business.
“Those are the main responsibilities. Then there’s also how we open up new markets, how we continue to satisfy our fans, how we win new fans, how we get our stories out there better, how we can create new events away from the beautiful race tracks we have,” explains the Dorna CCO.
“What are we doing in Germany, France away from the racetracks? “
And what specifically have Rossomondo and his team set out to do to win over new MotoGP fans? “That’s a good question,” he says. “First of all, I have to emphasize that there is no reason to fix this sport in any way. This sport is not damaged, it’s thriving and it’s fantastic. It has everything you could want from a modern sport. By that I mean the fan engagement, the pace, the heroes. “
“That’s why,” Rossomondo continues, “my job and the job of my team is how we manage to tell the stories more conscientiously and bring them to the people. At the Sachsenring and in Le Mans, we have record spectator numbers. But what are we doing in Germany and France away from the racetracks to bring the sport closer to people who don’t come to the track? And how do we make sure that we are more than just a sport in people’s minds? “
What Rossomondo has to say to the fans
“What is always very important to us are the following factors: it has to be unique to MotoGP and we don’t want to change too much about this great sport that we have. These things are always in the back of my mind,” says Rossomondo, referring to the global MotoGP fan survey conducted by Motorsport Network in 2022.
“It shows how 65 percent of our fans want us to get even more fans. They love the sport so much that they want to see that love sparked in other people. And that’s exactly what we need to work on,” he says.
“Finally,” said the Dorna CCO, “I would like to say that the two most important components we have are our fans and our riders. We can’t do anything without our riders, but we can’t do anything without our fans.”
“To all our die-hard fans out there, I want to say: be patient. We love this sport as much as you do. And we are trying to balance all the different variables to achieve the best for the sport as a whole,” said Rossomondo.
