Jack Miller: They need to stop charging fans so much

After last year’s dismal attendance, which caused some to question the financial viability of the event, the Mugello MotoGP crowd almost doubled for 2023.

Peter McLaren

13 Jun 2023

Fans, MotoGP race, Italian MotoGP, 11 June

A strong 77,921 fans lined the hillsides and grandstands on Sunday with a weekend total of 135,670 spectators, compared to respective figures of just 43,661 (Sunday) and 74,078 (weekend) last year.

Although still short of the glory days with Valentino Rossi, when the race day crowd peaked at 100,000 and 152,443 for the weekend in 2016, it was an impressive turnaround.

But Jack Miller believes the circuit would be able to rival the 116.692 race day crowd seen at the previous Le Mans round if ticket prices were lower.

“It was better, but for sure they need to stop charging these punters so much to come in and watch,” Miller said on Sunday evening.

“We want to attract new people so you’ve got to make it reasonable and also you don’t want to piss off the diehard fans. Because without them, we’ve got nobody.

“It was better today for sure. But I think if they made the ticket [prices] like they were in Le Mans we would have had a bigger crowd here than we had in Le Mans.”E

Jack Miller , MotoGP race, Italian MotoGP, 11 June

Tickets for Mugello were reported to be almost double the price of the Le Mans round, which boasted a record of 278,805 for the weekend.

Other factors such as free parking were also hailed as helping encourage the huge French crowd.

Unlike France, Italy hosts two MotoGP rounds, the September event titled as the San Marino and Rimini GP at Misano.

But Italy also has a home reigning world champion in Francesco Bagnaia, the top two riders in the current standings (Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi) plus two local manufacturers in Ducati and Aprilia.

"Ducati won the championship last year. Pecco won the championship last year. He’s a quite iconic rider. They’ve got a lot of Italians doing well. But clearly they’re charging these people too much money. 200 bucks for general admission is f**king ridiculous," Miller had said earlier in the weekend, after a crowd of just 18,403 turned up for Friday practice.

When told Le Mans was 90 euros, he added: "That’s how it should be. No one can afford that in this day and age. Even on a good wage. Average family, try and bring 3 kids, 200 bucks a pop, you’re dreaming."

Bagnaia won both Mugello races, with Bezzecchi joining him on the Saturday podium as runner-up in the new-for-2023 Sprint.