With the BSB teams believed to be looking to reduce the number of races for budgetary reasons, and the fact that it costs Mondello considerably more to host a round than any of the British circuits, the County Kildare venue has decided not to take up its place on the 2008 calendar.
The decision comes despite an offer from the MCRCB to allow the Irish round to run over two days, rather than the normal three day event, which would have resulted in reduced costs for the teams, but not for the circuit.
Mondello Park is unique among the circuits on the BSB calendar in that along with higher fixed costs for running Ireland's BSB round than British venues incur, the circuit also funds the teams travel to the tune of €130,000 annually. This travel fund has primarily been provided by Failte Ireland, with assistance from Stena Line, but due to a change in policy towards “arena events”, tourism funding reduced in 2007.
This factor in conjunction with Mondello offering reduced price tickets to this years event, contributed to the circuit losing money on its 2007 BSB round. The reduced backing from Failte Ireland is unlikely to increase significantly for 2008 and as a result it is not currently viable for Mondello to continue to host a BSB round.
"Obviously we're very disappointed, but we could never have hosted BSB without Failte Ireland and we're extremely grateful to them for their support of a multitude of events at Mondello Park over the last seven years," said Mondello Park's managing director, John Morris. "There is a great spin off from the big international events for the local community and I'm as disappointed for them as for ourselves and the many Irish and UK fans of the Mondello event.
