{"id":484904,"date":"2026-02-17T03:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/484904\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T03:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:25:09","slug":"victorian-government-offers-cash-to-try-to-secure-australian-motorcycle-grand-prix-at-phillip-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/484904\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian government offers cash to try to secure Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Victorian government has made a bid to keep the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix on Phillip Island, offering to pay its operator to keep the event in regional Victoria.<\/p>\n

The government says it is promising additional funding as an incentive to operator MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group to continue to stage the event at Phillip Island in October.<\/p>\n

But the government will not reveal how much it has offered, and it is unclear whether the company has accepted the lifeline.<\/p>\n

A motorcycle grand prix has been held at the Phillip Island track since the 1990s and draws thousands of tourists to Gippsland’s Bass Coast each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MotoGP<\/p>\n

Italy’s Marco Bezzecchi won the sprint race at the 2025 MotoGP round at Phillip Island. (AAP: Joel Carrett)<\/p>\n

‘We’ve put our best foot forward’<\/p>\n

Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos said 91,000 visitors attended the event last year.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group wants to move it to Melbourne’s Albert Park, a request Mr Dimopoulos said the state government opposed.<\/p>\n

“We’re not selling out Phillip Island,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The negotiations are still on foot. And we’ve put our best foot forward.”<\/p>\n

Campaign to save event<\/p>\n

Last year, residents of the island and the Bass Coast Shire Council issued an urgent call for support to have the event contract renewed.<\/p>\n

Bass Coast Mayor Rochelle Halstead said she had received scant details about the financial aid, but said the offer spoke to the local community’s campaign to save the track.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rochelle Halstead says the community is rallying to keep the MotoGP at Phillip Island. (Supplied: Jarrod Whittaker)<\/p>\n

Cr Halstead said a petition with more than 4,000 signatures was submitted to the government last year.<\/p>\n

“I’m absolutely thrilled. There was a lot of concern that this may not happen and that’s why we started a campaign. People came out and showed their love for the race,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’m hoping as part of the agreement to see an infrastructure investment at the site to bring it to international standards, and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in the contract and how long that has been signed for.<\/p>\n

“But [the GP] is absolutely part of the Bass Coast community fabric.”<\/p>\n

The opening round of the Superbike World Championships will be held on the island later this week.<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian government has made a bid to keep the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix on Phillip Island, offering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,245553,841,5745,806,805,824,803,804,134245,85,6771],"class_list":{"0":"post-484904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cowes","11":"tag-grand-prix","12":"tag-motogp","13":"tag-motor","14":"tag-motor-sports","15":"tag-motorsport","16":"tag-motosport","17":"tag-motosports","18":"tag-phillip-island","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-tourism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}