Practical and Economic Considerations for Watching MotoGP: Sepang or Mandalika Circuit? |

Saya di atas Sirkuit Mandalika, Lombok, pada Agustus 2024.

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The 2024 Malaysian MotoGP at the Sepang circuit has ended and the results are known. Hundreds of thousands of people watched the motorcycle race live at the circuit located in Selangor, Malaysia, including from Indonesia. It is not surprising that the number of spectators in Sepang each year is greater than the number of spectators at the Mandalika circuit, NTB, Indonesia.

If the 2023 race is used as a reference, the number of spectators for three days starting from Friday (practice session), Saturday (qualification and sprint race), and Sunday (main race), the total number of spectators in Sepang reached 182,912 spectators, of which around 15,000 came from Indonesia.

Meanwhile, in Mandalika in the same year, it was watched live by around 103,000 spectators. Although in 2024 the number of spectators at Mandalika increased to 121,252 at the event last September, the number of spectators in Sepang was still greater. In fact, the capacity of spectators in Mandalika is claimed to be able to accommodate 180 thousand spectators.

On the way to Mandalika, August 2024, a resident of Lhokseumawe City, Ayi Jufridar, was offered a travel agency to watch MotoGP live. Because he already knew him, he got a special, cheaper price. "But I refused. It's not that I'm not interested, but the price of the plane ticket is very expensive," he said, Tuesday (11/5/2024).

He explained that to depart from Kuala Namu Airport in North Sumatra to Mandalika and transit in Jakarta, it costs no less than IDR 7.5 million for the plane ticket. "That's not including the land route from Lhokseumawe, food, and accommodation. If you want to watch MotoGP, add another ticket. Maybe you have to spend at least IDR 10 million."

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The high price of plane tickets is indeed one of the reasons why watching MotoGP in Sepang is an option. A resident of Bireuen, Tarmizi, admitted that he had watched MotoGP in Sepang with only IDR 5 million.

"That includes a plane ticket from Aceh to Malaysia pp (round trip), a two-day ticket to watch, food, and a hotel. In fact, I brought up to IDR 10 million just in case," said the man who is familiarly called Mezi.

He added, from Kuala Lumpur Airport, there is a free bus that will take the audience directly to Sepang. "We just show the ticket," said Tarmizi who admitted that he wanted to watch MotoGP in Sepang again.

The much cheaper ticket price from Banda Aceh to Kuala Lumpur is indeed an option. The flight time is also shorter, around 1 hour 40 minutes. Compare that to watching to Mandalika which has to fly 3 hours to Jakarta plus 2 hours to Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.

For automotive fans in Aceh, the choice to watch abroad is not a matter of nationalism, but rather more about considerations of efficiency, both in terms of cost and time. Even when ticket prices drop to be more rational, watching MotoGP in Sepang is still cheaper and easier.[]

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