(23-06-2015, 03:27 PM)c iom tt Wrote: A few things.
1 I never said I did.
2 Bizzare recollection????? It was a FACT. I used to supply and maintain the AV equipment for the Lido and Toffs/Palace from mid 80's till late 90's, so was heavly involved at the time especially at TT periods. The guy was banned from driving ( drunk ) and charged with criminal damage.
3 The 'loutish behavour' is obviously getting lost in translation, so is best left droped. I know what I mean, but I am obvously not explaning myself correctly.
4 The DED are Civil Servants. They have a job to do.I do not have an obvious dislike for them, and have praised them on a number of ocasions when the do something right. I would counter that with some have an obvious love for the DED and they can do no wrong in there eyes. I would also argue that I am being objective in my veiws, whilst others are not.
4 The fan base has not gone downhill. But some fans react and behave very differently to others. Example. If 76,000 rugby fans can pack into Twicknham, and they can all drink alcohol on the terraces whilst watching the game. Yet not one of the 42,000+ fans that can pack into Anfeild ( or any other football stadium) can drink alcohol whist watching the match. So, yes, if the TT moves forward attracting some of the newer type fans, the fan base has the potential to go downhill.

It's a bizzare recollection - i.e. it's a bizzare thing to have happened, I'm not questioning your memory - these kind of crazy things did happen, they always have, that's my point!

My post isn't aimed at you, its aimed at all the rose coloured spectacles that imply things used to be better, and that includes your comment about there not being loutish behaviour in the past - there was, I remember it well! There always will be unless the TT becomes as popular as the MGP, an event clearly followed by the enthusiast only, much lesser numbers than the TT -  the sort like me who will watch any racing regardless of it not being mainstream popular on the TV.

I have no love for the organisers, but I have a lot of respect for them, they've succeeded to do a lot of things that no one before them has managed to do in the more challenging times that followed the early 90s, including make a very un-PC event appealing to the masses, the teams, the media, the manufacturers, and somehow cool and acceptable when everyone said the end was nigh - that takes some doing.
They are the civil servants who exist in lets face it, a pretty underperforming government, that have really pulled the rabit out of the hat. Yes the TT is bigger and better than all of them, but they have always said it already was a great event. What they have done is organised it in such a way that its success, in my book against the odds, has become an ongoing reality.

One can keep looking for faults in the job they've done, but, as an objective onlooker (rather than a star struck groupie), I'm struggling to see where the error states are. With the Islands Finances, tourist policy, etc etc I can find thousands of faults - but the TT isn't one of them. So I don't get it when people imply they are the reason some drunken idiot chooses to come to the TT and nick a motorbike.

Perhaps I'm missing something.

I don't want to hijack the thread so I'll agree to disagree. In summary I don't think behaviour is any worse - its ok overall, there are some very bad parts, but there always has been. I don't think making it mainstream popular is bringing in the bad ones, they have always turned up. If the TT is aimed at mainstream bikers it will be like the MGP, then the government won't support it, and it goes. Simple.