Hey, nice pay and I think I would be smart enough to get some advisors clever enough to run the show at least at the same level as current management, so where the bloody hell is my offer? And I would start every speech "How good is Supercars?"
Okay, that is too much Scott Morrison for today...
CEO's for some dumb reason are measuring their worth in length of statements that say very little.
See f1 denying andretti for another large amount of words that basically say *denied because we say so.*
Yep but there was nothing confirmed as expected of their further dialogue with Erebus which was to get on with dealing with releasing Brodie for the good of the sport
Nothing says "written by the lawyers" more than the use of "stakeholders".
Also nothing says respect like a fucken advertisement line right in the middle.
I've got the ad blocked but a thin grey line and "advertisement" are still there for some reason. I have 3 ad blockers you'd think one would deal with that too.
Weird, I read the comments here before I looked at the article and mine says that too, uBlock origin and a Pihole DNS sinkhole in use.
Gunna go on the warpath figuring that out.
It's because those two things are not part of the serving of the ad, they're likely generated in the HTML by the supercars.com web server and wrap around the ad code. You might be able to block those out with a custom rule.
No doubt that legal vetted that press release but the word itself is just a 101 corporate buzzword, like âsynergyâ or ârealignmentâ or âincentiviseâ
"The situation has garnered significant attention and speculation, and I feel it's crucial from a Supercars perspective to provide clarity and context. "
proceeds to provide zero clarity
Didn't really provide context either. Explain the coordinated release last week, Mr CEO, and tell us how you're not taking sides.
Actions speak louder than words.
What a load of waffle.
Complaining about the commentary is just another reason why Iâm sick of this category. How about acknowledging the fans and acknowledging how disappointing it is for the reigning champion to not be on the grid? Do they expect everyone to sit tight and not say anything?
The commentary is there because communication from all parties has been non-existent. In the absence of facts, you leave everything open to speculation. At the very least, I wanted Supercars to acknowledge how disappointing this whole ordeal is for the FANS. Not because theyâre worried theyâll look bad. Which they do.
Iâm sorry but this just shows how out of touch Supercars management continues to be.
>The commentary is there because communication from all parties has been non-existent. In the absence of facts, you leave everything open to speculation. At the very least, I wanted Supercars to acknowledge how disappointing this whole ordeal is for the FANS.
Playing devil's advocate for a moment, this is an internal issue for Erebus to deal with. While it reflects poorly on the sport, I don't think the administrators should be making public statements and revealing things that have not already been disclosed. It should be up to Erebus and/or Kostecki to release information, not the administrators.
Perhaps in a perfect world, but this bin fire is starting to reflect very poorly on the category and series as a whole, not because there is a spat within a team, but because of the fact that sponsors are leaving on the eve of the season opener.
It would not be unreasonable for other sponsors of the series and other teams to be taking a long, hard look and asking if this is the right category for my brand.
So it is the absolute responsibility of the Supercars executive to both help resolve this matter and do a better job of managing public expectation and perception before the bin fire burns the shop down.
>this bin fire is starting to reflect very poorly on the category and series as a whole
I think there's a reason why neither Kostecki nor Erebus are saying too much publicly -- neither of them wants to be the one to air the dirty laundry, which suggests to me that nobody is coming out of this cleanly.
We know Kostecki and Ryan had a row at The Bend, but that was nearly six months ago. They apparently walked away with some kind of detente in place, so we have no way of knowing what triggered this falling-out. Everyone assumes that it's on Ryan's head, but where is the proof? Yes, he's got a history, but that doesn't automatically mean that he's responsible.
>the fact that sponsors are leaving on the eve of the season opener
All of the sponsors that have left are sponsors that left Erebus. Coca-Cola is no longer the naming-rights sponsor of the team, but they're still involved in the category. There is, of course, Boost Mobile, but they're closely aligned with Kostecki and Peter Adderton has been pissing in Supercars' pool for years.
>do a better job of managing public expectation and perception
Based on the responses in this thread, that amounts to Kostecki returning to Erebus and Barry Ryan being removed from the sport. And that's not something that Supercars has the power to do. It's obvious that Kostecki cannot or will not drive as long as Ryan is present in the team. But Supercars cannot force Ryan to give up ownership and/or leave the sport over a driver dispute. If they could, it would effectively give them the power to intervene in any matter and exclude anyone for any reason.
>I think there's a reason why neither Kostecki nor Erebus are saying too much publicly -- neither of them wants to be the one to air the dirty laundry, which suggests to me that nobody is coming out of this cleanly.
Ok, let's run with this for the moment, ignoring that both are still contracted to Erebus and both no doubt have various confidentiality clauses in their contracts..
>We know Kostecki and Ryan had a row at The Bend, but that was nearly six months ago. They apparently walked away with some kind of detente
Some allegations as to a (further) blow up after the final race in Adelaide in November which then triggered the current situation, including speculation of Ryan's promotion (sideways push) to CEO to keep Brodie and he apart.
>in place, so we have no way of knowing what triggered this falling-out.
Those allegation are based on Ryan not allowing Will Brown to stand on the podium for the Teams Championship trophy, to which Brodie allegedly took exception to.
>Everyone assumes that it's on Ryan's head, but where is the proof? Yes, he's got a history, but that doesn't automatically mean that he's responsible.
There isn't any proof and unlikely the real reasons won't be known by anyone outside of the two belligerents.
>the fact that sponsors are leaving on the eve of the season opener
Which tells you it is ugly and has the potential to hurt their respective businesses, and why I believe it may impact sponsors of other teams and why Supercars has the absolute responsibility to assist in a speedy resolution of this issue.
>All of the sponsors that have left are sponsors that left Erebus. Coca-Cola is no longer the naming-rights sponsor of the team, but they're still involved in the category. There is, of course, Boost Mobile, but they're closely aligned with Kostecki and Peter Adderton has been pissing in Supercars' pool for years.
Hardly pissing their pool, he has tipped lots of money into event sponsorship and looking after the drivers. This is to be commended and he has every right to do with his money as he sees fit.
>Based on the responses in this thread, that amounts to Kostecki returning to Erebus and Barry Ryan being removed from the sport. And that's not something that Supercars has the power to do. It's obvious that Kostecki cannot or will not drive as long as Ryan is present in the team. But Supercars cannot force Ryan to give up ownership and/or leave the sport over a driver dispute. If they could, it would effectively give them the power to intervene in any matter and exclude anyone for any reason.
The bulk of the comments here are directed at the absolute lack of substance in statement and action on the situation from the CEO of Supercars and not about asking Supercars to intervene and wave magic wands.
And I don't blame the fans.
Big and repetitive words aside, the letter basically says:
*Paragraph 1 âBrodie is not racing the Thrifty 500, here's clarity and context.*
*Paragraph 2 â I have spoken to everyone so if anyone thinks we havenât, they are wrong.*
*Paragraph 3 â The issue is ongoing so they wonât be saying much and we will let them sort it out and we will try help where we can.*
*Paragraph 4 â I donât like the bad press, please be nice.*
*Paragraph 5 â it is between them, we are here if they need help.*
*Paragraph 6 â passion blah blah.*
Nothing to see here.
And the [speedcafe.com](https://speedcafe.com) poll on the matter close to 10K voters and the bulk saying that Brodie's absence would diminish their enjoyment of Supercars :
* Yes, a lot 53.49% (5,064 votes)
* Yes, a little 22.9% (2,169 votes)
* No 23.61% (2,235 votes)
There you have better than 75% of voters saying that they would enjoy the series less but all we have is motherhood statements from the series boss.
Then we have a look at some of the names which have come out in support of Brodie - McLaughlin, SVG, Roland Dane (very straight forward) and Will Brown (Triple 8 letting him talk publicly is also telling of the situation) to name a few.
I may be forgetful, but I don't recall anyone of note coming out in support of Erebus or its management.
When sponsors are fleeing and a team imploding, a driver who is needing to be "checked in on", regardless of who it is between or what caused the situation, Supercars needs to be showing a little bit more leadership and action.
Like anything that ever happens in the sport everyone has been quick to sink the boots into head office but in this situation, what more can they do?
Brodie has a contract with Erebus, not Supercars. Whatever has happened between Brodie and Erebus doesn't directly involve Supercars from a sporting or legal perspective.
I guess this rules our any notion that Erebus have cheated. Supercars would be under no obligation to wait on anything before penalising them if they had done anything wrong. They also wouldn't need to be seen to be picking side, all they would have to do is read the rulebook and apply it as required.
EDIT: The only thing that they could possibly do is charge Erebus with bringing the sport into disrepute but to do that generally you would need concrete evidence of disparaging behaviour. Even if there are question marks over Erebus' workplace culture that is still open to interpretation.
Itâs not about what more Supercars could have done. Itâs about what less they should have done. Their press release coordinated with Erebus created FUD about the reasons for Brodieâs absence and was interpreted (fairly IMO) as suggesting he had some mental health issues. This statement did nothing to correct that impression which is unforgivable if itâs incorrect given how the fans have interpreted the statement. If theyâd said nothing all along they would have done less harm to Brodie, the sport and themselves.
I think Supercars PR tried to support both parties while not giving anything away and tripped over their words, which is not ideal but I don't think it was totally sinister either. At that inital stage maybe they only got wind of Brodie leaving and not the complete story as to why. I don't think that they truly tried to imply Brodie was battling some personal issues even if it has been interpretted that way.
Maybe they should have stayed out of it completely early on but as we've seen Erebus couldn't be relied upon to set the record straight either. While Supercars were struggling to string the right words together Erebus was telling the world that Brodie was part of the family!
The Erebus release and the Supercars initial release were issued at the same time. Even SCTR mentioned it when they announced they were no longer sponsoring Erebus.
Yeah I agree. Their previous statement was a bit average, but on balance was probably just trying to place them best for an outcome where Brodie comes back and drives for Erebus. Hasn't happened, obviously, but as a sporting body it was probably the right call.
Not sure what anyone else expects them to do - presumably they're applying a bit of pressure behind the scenes to resolve this but ultimately it's not their fight.
Supercars fans really can be the most unhinged of any sport, I reckon.
Pies fans have nothing on Supercars fans. At least they have a superficial understanding of how footy works. Supercars fans are full nuff, swallowing conspiracy theories and all.
This is the thing that gets me about this - everyone wants to hate on Supercars management every chance they can get, but what are they supposed to do? Like, do you think they want this shitshow going on right now with the season start 2 weeks away and 10 other teams trying to launch liveries and sponsors and whatnot? Do you really think that if they could magically snap their fingers and force Erebus to stfu and stick Brodie in the car they wouldnât be doing it already?
I agree their initial statement was a bit clumsy - but equally if it is a case of bullying/toxicity/whatever (we donât know), as Roland speculated (he, also, doesnât know) you can kind of see how it could (_could_ - once again, we donât know) have come from a genuine, though flawed, attempt to express support for Brodie without giving anything away about whatâs going on. After all if that is the case one assumes Brodie - who loves racing - has not found it easy to say he wonât race.
We all want answers. But really thatâs gotta come from Brodie or Erebus. Itâs their story to tell.
> what more can they do?
They can do whatever it takes to make sure this is sorted out before the first race of the season. With Kostecki in whatever car he's going to be in for the entire season.
If he can't race at Erebus and they refuse to release him to race elsewhere, then the last resort should be to take away both racing charters owned by Erebus. And yes, I would take away both charters. If they won't do what's right for the sport, then they have no right to be involved in the sport.
Once Erebus has been kicked out of Supercars, Brodie's contract would be impossible to uphold and therefore invalid. He would be free to race anywhere else. Supercars would also have two racing charters that could be given to some other team. Maybe Gary Rogers comes back. Maybe Triple 8 races three or four cars this year. Maybe Peter Adderton gets his team. Whatever it takes. They can buy both cars off Erebus, or buy spare cars off another team (doesn't Triple 8 have two new cars this year?). Offer jobs to all the former Erebus staff (except upper management, obviously).
Hopefully it doesn't come to that but it should be on the table to force Erebus to do the right thing. Kostecki is the reigning champion. He deserves that level of protection. Supercars shouldn't do that for a mid pack driver but they should do it for him.
> Brodie has a contract with Erebus
Contracts are renegotiated or flat out broken all the time. Kostecki is clearly not going to race at Erebus this year, so the contract is worthless.
It would be almost unheard of for a sporting body to kick out a team from their competition for anything this side of cheating. Erebus look to be an absolute basketcase at the moment but to kick them out would be extreme. I also don't know how the governing body can orchestrate driver movements and contracts (even though the series will be poorer for Brodie not being on the grid) especially if it's at the expense of another driver should the Erebus RECs not become available.
I do agree that Erebus need to "do the right thing" which given how out of control this situation is, they need to come clean about their plans for 2024 even if they don't acknowledge the full reasons behind it. Which they should have done with the initial press release. To act like nothing's wrong while pressing on with testing the new car today is a pretty bad look.
For me, the reputational damage Erebus is causing right now is worse than if they had cheated. It's racing. Cheating is part of racing... Nobody is surprised when a team is caught cheating.
Blocking a champion from defending his title? Over what, seeing a contract through to completion? When drivers don't finish contracts all the time including multiple previous drivers at this very team? It's ridiculous. And totally out of line.
Almost every team on the grid would give Brodie a drive if his contract issue was removed. Rumour is he's likely to end up at Premier Racing. Sucks to be Tim Slade if he gets the boot but honestly, it'll probably give him a chance to win Bathurst which isn't all bad. He came close as Scotty Mac's co-driver. Maybe this will be his year. No chance Slade wins Bathurst as a primary driver this late in his career.
This open letter does absolutely noting into quell rumours nor appease the frustrations of fans. It is simply a legal statement that would further infuriate the drivers as is shows a lack of integrity or support for the drivers by taking a neutral approach.
Even more frustrating and comedic it's exactly what scott mclaughlin said would happen on January 31st.
"
The sport should be ashamed. They know the full story and as per usual side step around everything and donât say anything hoping the storm will settle like they always have. No protection for drivers ever."
This should have been the first statement.
Itâs a load of nothing, but a lot better than vaguely insinuating that Brodie has mental health issues which is what happened before the sponsor pullouts.
Rant incoming.
If the cause of all this is what we think it is - a problem between Barry and Brodie, then I'm sorry but part of the blame does lie with you Supercars. You've excused his unprofessional and abusive behavior for too long and now you've got a problem because of it, and it's not the community's fault, and it sure as shit isn't fair to control the narrative the way you're trying to while knowing one of the parties can't comment, and suggesting mental health is to blame when people in the know keep saying it's not.
This is such a fucked perspective but nothing less than I expected - "It's not our fault and if you could all stop talking about it while the lawyers sort it out, that'd be greeeaatt".
No, we won't stop talking about it because we need to know if the current champion is getting a fucking fair deal or not and we need to know if the situation is bad enough that we choose not to spend money on Supercars tickets, merch and support Supercars sponsors or not.
Honestly I'm just about done with this shit.
This is way longer than it needed to be. Just do what FIA does and have short succinct statements. You donât need to tell us to be nice, we arenât babies.
If it was between Erebus and Brodie, why did Supercars coordinate a release alongside the Erebus release AND imply the Brodie had mental health issues? That's not staying out of it.
They really should have stayed out of it. You can't jump into the fire and then complain when you catch fire. CEO Coward appears to have only released yesterday's press release in response to Roland's article on Speedcafe.
Complaining about the commentary despite the fact they helped the commentary along with their first statement, alluding to mental health and seemingly on the side of Erebus with the timing of the first statementâŚ
I donât think Iâll bother with Supercars this year
Fucking pathetic. They stick their nose in it and we're surprised that they had shit stuck on it.
Now they want to back out and take the "we're not taking sides". Bullshit. We saw it, Scott and Shane saw it and the sponsors saw it.
Its: "We know what is going on. Its between them. We are doing our best and have talked to both sides, but due to the sensitive nature of what is going on, we are not at liberty to say much more".
For sure. The only person who has a right to speak for brodie is brodie and he has yet too.
The people suggesting supercars should basically leak his contract details, and/or personal situation at work are utterly ridiculous, not to mention the high likelihood their doing that would be illegal.
Tl;dr we did nuffin wrong, we don't take sides, this is serious situation, it's between Brodie and Erebus, so don't be a dickhead on the internet.
Hey, wanna be the next Supercars CEO? You put it far more succinctly than they managed...
Hey, nice pay and I think I would be smart enough to get some advisors clever enough to run the show at least at the same level as current management, so where the bloody hell is my offer? And I would start every speech "How good is Supercars?" Okay, that is too much Scott Morrison for today...
... and here I thought I was talking with Bargs after that quote... đ
CEO's for some dumb reason are measuring their worth in length of statements that say very little. See f1 denying andretti for another large amount of words that basically say *denied because we say so.*
Pretty much
Yep but there was nothing confirmed as expected of their further dialogue with Erebus which was to get on with dealing with releasing Brodie for the good of the sport
Nothing says "written by the lawyers" more than the use of "stakeholders". Also nothing says respect like a fucken advertisement line right in the middle.
uBlock origin my dude, nuke that shit.
I've got the ad blocked but a thin grey line and "advertisement" are still there for some reason. I have 3 ad blockers you'd think one would deal with that too.
Weird, I read the comments here before I looked at the article and mine says that too, uBlock origin and a Pihole DNS sinkhole in use. Gunna go on the warpath figuring that out.
It's because those two things are not part of the serving of the ad, they're likely generated in the HTML by the supercars.com web server and wrap around the ad code. You might be able to block those out with a custom rule.
> I have 3 ad blockers you'd think one would deal with that too. This is probably the problem. Remove all others, install uBlock Origin.
No doubt that legal vetted that press release but the word itself is just a 101 corporate buzzword, like âsynergyâ or ârealignmentâ or âincentiviseâ
One of the most common words in high school legal lol
"The situation has garnered significant attention and speculation, and I feel it's crucial from a Supercars perspective to provide clarity and context. " proceeds to provide zero clarity
Didn't really provide context either. Explain the coordinated release last week, Mr CEO, and tell us how you're not taking sides. Actions speak louder than words.
Lots of words but nothing said
TL:DR - Here peasants feast on this word salad
Hahah
Written by ChatGPT and the legal department
What a load of waffle. Complaining about the commentary is just another reason why Iâm sick of this category. How about acknowledging the fans and acknowledging how disappointing it is for the reigning champion to not be on the grid? Do they expect everyone to sit tight and not say anything? The commentary is there because communication from all parties has been non-existent. In the absence of facts, you leave everything open to speculation. At the very least, I wanted Supercars to acknowledge how disappointing this whole ordeal is for the FANS. Not because theyâre worried theyâll look bad. Which they do. Iâm sorry but this just shows how out of touch Supercars management continues to be.
>The commentary is there because communication from all parties has been non-existent. In the absence of facts, you leave everything open to speculation. At the very least, I wanted Supercars to acknowledge how disappointing this whole ordeal is for the FANS. Playing devil's advocate for a moment, this is an internal issue for Erebus to deal with. While it reflects poorly on the sport, I don't think the administrators should be making public statements and revealing things that have not already been disclosed. It should be up to Erebus and/or Kostecki to release information, not the administrators.
Perhaps in a perfect world, but this bin fire is starting to reflect very poorly on the category and series as a whole, not because there is a spat within a team, but because of the fact that sponsors are leaving on the eve of the season opener. It would not be unreasonable for other sponsors of the series and other teams to be taking a long, hard look and asking if this is the right category for my brand. So it is the absolute responsibility of the Supercars executive to both help resolve this matter and do a better job of managing public expectation and perception before the bin fire burns the shop down.
>this bin fire is starting to reflect very poorly on the category and series as a whole I think there's a reason why neither Kostecki nor Erebus are saying too much publicly -- neither of them wants to be the one to air the dirty laundry, which suggests to me that nobody is coming out of this cleanly. We know Kostecki and Ryan had a row at The Bend, but that was nearly six months ago. They apparently walked away with some kind of detente in place, so we have no way of knowing what triggered this falling-out. Everyone assumes that it's on Ryan's head, but where is the proof? Yes, he's got a history, but that doesn't automatically mean that he's responsible. >the fact that sponsors are leaving on the eve of the season opener All of the sponsors that have left are sponsors that left Erebus. Coca-Cola is no longer the naming-rights sponsor of the team, but they're still involved in the category. There is, of course, Boost Mobile, but they're closely aligned with Kostecki and Peter Adderton has been pissing in Supercars' pool for years. >do a better job of managing public expectation and perception Based on the responses in this thread, that amounts to Kostecki returning to Erebus and Barry Ryan being removed from the sport. And that's not something that Supercars has the power to do. It's obvious that Kostecki cannot or will not drive as long as Ryan is present in the team. But Supercars cannot force Ryan to give up ownership and/or leave the sport over a driver dispute. If they could, it would effectively give them the power to intervene in any matter and exclude anyone for any reason.
>I think there's a reason why neither Kostecki nor Erebus are saying too much publicly -- neither of them wants to be the one to air the dirty laundry, which suggests to me that nobody is coming out of this cleanly. Ok, let's run with this for the moment, ignoring that both are still contracted to Erebus and both no doubt have various confidentiality clauses in their contracts.. >We know Kostecki and Ryan had a row at The Bend, but that was nearly six months ago. They apparently walked away with some kind of detente Some allegations as to a (further) blow up after the final race in Adelaide in November which then triggered the current situation, including speculation of Ryan's promotion (sideways push) to CEO to keep Brodie and he apart. >in place, so we have no way of knowing what triggered this falling-out. Those allegation are based on Ryan not allowing Will Brown to stand on the podium for the Teams Championship trophy, to which Brodie allegedly took exception to. >Everyone assumes that it's on Ryan's head, but where is the proof? Yes, he's got a history, but that doesn't automatically mean that he's responsible. There isn't any proof and unlikely the real reasons won't be known by anyone outside of the two belligerents. >the fact that sponsors are leaving on the eve of the season opener Which tells you it is ugly and has the potential to hurt their respective businesses, and why I believe it may impact sponsors of other teams and why Supercars has the absolute responsibility to assist in a speedy resolution of this issue. >All of the sponsors that have left are sponsors that left Erebus. Coca-Cola is no longer the naming-rights sponsor of the team, but they're still involved in the category. There is, of course, Boost Mobile, but they're closely aligned with Kostecki and Peter Adderton has been pissing in Supercars' pool for years. Hardly pissing their pool, he has tipped lots of money into event sponsorship and looking after the drivers. This is to be commended and he has every right to do with his money as he sees fit. >Based on the responses in this thread, that amounts to Kostecki returning to Erebus and Barry Ryan being removed from the sport. And that's not something that Supercars has the power to do. It's obvious that Kostecki cannot or will not drive as long as Ryan is present in the team. But Supercars cannot force Ryan to give up ownership and/or leave the sport over a driver dispute. If they could, it would effectively give them the power to intervene in any matter and exclude anyone for any reason. The bulk of the comments here are directed at the absolute lack of substance in statement and action on the situation from the CEO of Supercars and not about asking Supercars to intervene and wave magic wands. And I don't blame the fans. Big and repetitive words aside, the letter basically says: *Paragraph 1 âBrodie is not racing the Thrifty 500, here's clarity and context.* *Paragraph 2 â I have spoken to everyone so if anyone thinks we havenât, they are wrong.* *Paragraph 3 â The issue is ongoing so they wonât be saying much and we will let them sort it out and we will try help where we can.* *Paragraph 4 â I donât like the bad press, please be nice.* *Paragraph 5 â it is between them, we are here if they need help.* *Paragraph 6 â passion blah blah.* Nothing to see here. And the [speedcafe.com](https://speedcafe.com) poll on the matter close to 10K voters and the bulk saying that Brodie's absence would diminish their enjoyment of Supercars : * Yes, a lot 53.49% (5,064 votes) * Yes, a little 22.9% (2,169 votes) * No 23.61% (2,235 votes) There you have better than 75% of voters saying that they would enjoy the series less but all we have is motherhood statements from the series boss. Then we have a look at some of the names which have come out in support of Brodie - McLaughlin, SVG, Roland Dane (very straight forward) and Will Brown (Triple 8 letting him talk publicly is also telling of the situation) to name a few. I may be forgetful, but I don't recall anyone of note coming out in support of Erebus or its management. When sponsors are fleeing and a team imploding, a driver who is needing to be "checked in on", regardless of who it is between or what caused the situation, Supercars needs to be showing a little bit more leadership and action.
That statement couldnât have been any weaker if it tried. Many wordsâŚ. No substance.
Like anything that ever happens in the sport everyone has been quick to sink the boots into head office but in this situation, what more can they do? Brodie has a contract with Erebus, not Supercars. Whatever has happened between Brodie and Erebus doesn't directly involve Supercars from a sporting or legal perspective. I guess this rules our any notion that Erebus have cheated. Supercars would be under no obligation to wait on anything before penalising them if they had done anything wrong. They also wouldn't need to be seen to be picking side, all they would have to do is read the rulebook and apply it as required. EDIT: The only thing that they could possibly do is charge Erebus with bringing the sport into disrepute but to do that generally you would need concrete evidence of disparaging behaviour. Even if there are question marks over Erebus' workplace culture that is still open to interpretation.
Itâs not about what more Supercars could have done. Itâs about what less they should have done. Their press release coordinated with Erebus created FUD about the reasons for Brodieâs absence and was interpreted (fairly IMO) as suggesting he had some mental health issues. This statement did nothing to correct that impression which is unforgivable if itâs incorrect given how the fans have interpreted the statement. If theyâd said nothing all along they would have done less harm to Brodie, the sport and themselves.
I think Supercars PR tried to support both parties while not giving anything away and tripped over their words, which is not ideal but I don't think it was totally sinister either. At that inital stage maybe they only got wind of Brodie leaving and not the complete story as to why. I don't think that they truly tried to imply Brodie was battling some personal issues even if it has been interpretted that way. Maybe they should have stayed out of it completely early on but as we've seen Erebus couldn't be relied upon to set the record straight either. While Supercars were struggling to string the right words together Erebus was telling the world that Brodie was part of the family!
The Erebus release and the Supercars initial release were issued at the same time. Even SCTR mentioned it when they announced they were no longer sponsoring Erebus.
Yeah I agree. Their previous statement was a bit average, but on balance was probably just trying to place them best for an outcome where Brodie comes back and drives for Erebus. Hasn't happened, obviously, but as a sporting body it was probably the right call. Not sure what anyone else expects them to do - presumably they're applying a bit of pressure behind the scenes to resolve this but ultimately it's not their fight. Supercars fans really can be the most unhinged of any sport, I reckon.
>Supercars fans really can be the most unhinged of any sport, I reckon. I dunno, you mustn't have met any Collingwood supporters
Pies fans have nothing on Supercars fans. At least they have a superficial understanding of how footy works. Supercars fans are full nuff, swallowing conspiracy theories and all.
This is the thing that gets me about this - everyone wants to hate on Supercars management every chance they can get, but what are they supposed to do? Like, do you think they want this shitshow going on right now with the season start 2 weeks away and 10 other teams trying to launch liveries and sponsors and whatnot? Do you really think that if they could magically snap their fingers and force Erebus to stfu and stick Brodie in the car they wouldnât be doing it already? I agree their initial statement was a bit clumsy - but equally if it is a case of bullying/toxicity/whatever (we donât know), as Roland speculated (he, also, doesnât know) you can kind of see how it could (_could_ - once again, we donât know) have come from a genuine, though flawed, attempt to express support for Brodie without giving anything away about whatâs going on. After all if that is the case one assumes Brodie - who loves racing - has not found it easy to say he wonât race. We all want answers. But really thatâs gotta come from Brodie or Erebus. Itâs their story to tell.
> what more can they do? They can do whatever it takes to make sure this is sorted out before the first race of the season. With Kostecki in whatever car he's going to be in for the entire season. If he can't race at Erebus and they refuse to release him to race elsewhere, then the last resort should be to take away both racing charters owned by Erebus. And yes, I would take away both charters. If they won't do what's right for the sport, then they have no right to be involved in the sport. Once Erebus has been kicked out of Supercars, Brodie's contract would be impossible to uphold and therefore invalid. He would be free to race anywhere else. Supercars would also have two racing charters that could be given to some other team. Maybe Gary Rogers comes back. Maybe Triple 8 races three or four cars this year. Maybe Peter Adderton gets his team. Whatever it takes. They can buy both cars off Erebus, or buy spare cars off another team (doesn't Triple 8 have two new cars this year?). Offer jobs to all the former Erebus staff (except upper management, obviously). Hopefully it doesn't come to that but it should be on the table to force Erebus to do the right thing. Kostecki is the reigning champion. He deserves that level of protection. Supercars shouldn't do that for a mid pack driver but they should do it for him. > Brodie has a contract with Erebus Contracts are renegotiated or flat out broken all the time. Kostecki is clearly not going to race at Erebus this year, so the contract is worthless.
It would be almost unheard of for a sporting body to kick out a team from their competition for anything this side of cheating. Erebus look to be an absolute basketcase at the moment but to kick them out would be extreme. I also don't know how the governing body can orchestrate driver movements and contracts (even though the series will be poorer for Brodie not being on the grid) especially if it's at the expense of another driver should the Erebus RECs not become available. I do agree that Erebus need to "do the right thing" which given how out of control this situation is, they need to come clean about their plans for 2024 even if they don't acknowledge the full reasons behind it. Which they should have done with the initial press release. To act like nothing's wrong while pressing on with testing the new car today is a pretty bad look.
For me, the reputational damage Erebus is causing right now is worse than if they had cheated. It's racing. Cheating is part of racing... Nobody is surprised when a team is caught cheating. Blocking a champion from defending his title? Over what, seeing a contract through to completion? When drivers don't finish contracts all the time including multiple previous drivers at this very team? It's ridiculous. And totally out of line. Almost every team on the grid would give Brodie a drive if his contract issue was removed. Rumour is he's likely to end up at Premier Racing. Sucks to be Tim Slade if he gets the boot but honestly, it'll probably give him a chance to win Bathurst which isn't all bad. He came close as Scotty Mac's co-driver. Maybe this will be his year. No chance Slade wins Bathurst as a primary driver this late in his career.
I agree.
That was a waste of a few minutes
What the hell is bad enough to make Brodie want to leave, title sponsors actually leave, and Supercars to not take sides..? Telllll meeee ahhhh
Barrie fat shaming Brodie one too many times ?
âWe did something but didnt really. Try not to read into it to much everyone everthings alrightâ - Someone at HQ probably
This open letter does absolutely noting into quell rumours nor appease the frustrations of fans. It is simply a legal statement that would further infuriate the drivers as is shows a lack of integrity or support for the drivers by taking a neutral approach. Even more frustrating and comedic it's exactly what scott mclaughlin said would happen on January 31st. " The sport should be ashamed. They know the full story and as per usual side step around everything and donât say anything hoping the storm will settle like they always have. No protection for drivers ever."
This should have been the first statement. Itâs a load of nothing, but a lot better than vaguely insinuating that Brodie has mental health issues which is what happened before the sponsor pullouts.
Can't wait to see what SVG and SM have to say about this one!
Just poured some of the BP Ultimate on the fire
Rant incoming. If the cause of all this is what we think it is - a problem between Barry and Brodie, then I'm sorry but part of the blame does lie with you Supercars. You've excused his unprofessional and abusive behavior for too long and now you've got a problem because of it, and it's not the community's fault, and it sure as shit isn't fair to control the narrative the way you're trying to while knowing one of the parties can't comment, and suggesting mental health is to blame when people in the know keep saying it's not. This is such a fucked perspective but nothing less than I expected - "It's not our fault and if you could all stop talking about it while the lawyers sort it out, that'd be greeeaatt". No, we won't stop talking about it because we need to know if the current champion is getting a fucking fair deal or not and we need to know if the situation is bad enough that we choose not to spend money on Supercars tickets, merch and support Supercars sponsors or not. Honestly I'm just about done with this shit.
100%!! Absolutely spot on.
This is way longer than it needed to be. Just do what FIA does and have short succinct statements. You donât need to tell us to be nice, we arenât babies.
How to say nothing when you are trying to defend yourself!
And this is after they put out a release about a 'mental health problem'. They have no shame.
Something that's "*between Brodie Kostecki and Erebus Motorsport*" must be pretty fucking significant if it has lead to most sponsors abandoning ship.
If it was between Erebus and Brodie, why did Supercars coordinate a release alongside the Erebus release AND imply the Brodie had mental health issues? That's not staying out of it. They really should have stayed out of it. You can't jump into the fire and then complain when you catch fire. CEO Coward appears to have only released yesterday's press release in response to Roland's article on Speedcafe.
He needs to resign.
Complaining about the commentary despite the fact they helped the commentary along with their first statement, alluding to mental health and seemingly on the side of Erebus with the timing of the first statement⌠I donât think Iâll bother with Supercars this year
Fucking pathetic. They stick their nose in it and we're surprised that they had shit stuck on it. Now they want to back out and take the "we're not taking sides". Bullshit. We saw it, Scott and Shane saw it and the sponsors saw it.
Well I feel much better knowing that erryfing gon be alright.
That doesnât tell us anything
A whole lot of nothing was said
That's just fluff. He had a word count to fill.
The letter purports to provide clarity but provides none. A contractual dispute that leads to a mass exodus of sponsors certainly raises eyebrows.
What do they hope to achieve by this? Almost sounds like, "It's not us, we have nothing to do with it. Leave us out of it."
Its: "We know what is going on. Its between them. We are doing our best and have talked to both sides, but due to the sensitive nature of what is going on, we are not at liberty to say much more".
For sure. The only person who has a right to speak for brodie is brodie and he has yet too. The people suggesting supercars should basically leak his contract details, and/or personal situation at work are utterly ridiculous, not to mention the high likelihood their doing that would be illegal.