A commendable initiative.

And generally V8SA is pretty pleased with itself.

But a new analysis - addressing the sport's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats - throws up plenty of cons as well as the usual pros we hear about.

The strengths included the Ford-versus-Holden culture ingrained in the Australian motor racing heritage, the dedicated supporter base, that V8 Supercar racing is a truly national sport, and that the series organisers are strategic and visionary.

The opportunities column of the SWOT analysis mentions Newcastle as a possible venue.

It makes perfect sense for a major, national sport to have a round in the second biggest city in Australia's most populous state.

Indeed it makes you wonder why it hasn't already been a fixture on the calendar.

The push though, almost certainly, will be for another expensive - certainly for taxpayers - downtown or waterside street race at a venue that has to be erected and dismantled every year, rather than develop a permanent circuit that can benefit motorsport generally all year round and double as a road-driver training ground.

Which brings into sharp focus this issue of taxpayer money and motor racing.

Separate from its SWOT analysis (which can be viewed by clicking on the image on the right), V8SA reckons its "economy" - all the money swimming around in the sport - was $426 million last year, including $71 million in "government support".

The total, $426 million, sounds unbelievable, and it's easy to suspect some double-counting, but the $71 million of government support is entirely believable, especially as there were two new street events last year - in Sydney and Townsville - which may well have soaked up $45-50 million, largely in upfront costs.

That still leaves another $20 million or so of government - i.e. taxpayer - money that would have been received mainly as race fees for other rounds, including most prominently Adelaide's Clipsal 500 and the Gold Coast carnival.

Averaged across 15 events last year that $71 million represents almost $5 million a pop, although such averaging is grossly distorted by the new Sydney and Townsville events.

The $71 million - 16.66 per cent of the V8 Supercar "economy" last year - surely will be considerably less this year.

But while the organisers of the V8 Supercar Championship - which resumes this weekend at Hamilton, New Zealand, where ticket sales have been alarmingly tardy - can puff out their chests at their ability to milk taxpayer money from governments to run motor races, the SWOT analysis also highlights - at the very bottom of the second column - reliance on government funding as a weakness.

There is also an irony - that V8SA's 25 per cent shareholder, and arguably its controlling shareholder (with the rest sprinkled among the teams), is SEL - Sports & Entertainment Ltd, chaired by David Coe, who ran the Allco Finance Group which spearheaded an $11 billion takeover bid for Qantas a while back but subsequently collapsed - and its messy affairs are still being combed over by the corporate authorities.

A recent Sydney Morning Herald report concluded, after civil court hearings, that what had been exposed from Allco was "a picture of failure at every level: of structures, control (both financial and managerial), internal governance, external oversight and proper regulation. But it was equally a failure of commonsense, honesty and trust - and a triumph of competing egos, over-ambition and, ultimately, hubris". (That SMH report is here: http://www.smh.com.au/business/allco-hearings-reveal-failure-at-every-level-20100328-r54q.html )

Now we hasten to add that David Coe has not been charged with any offence, but readers may wonder whether it is curious that someone embroiled in such a corporate saga be chairing a company that is arguably the key shareholder in another company receiving a lot of government/taxpayer money towards the staging of motor races.

SEL does many other things, including managing various sports stars and celebrities.

It bills itself as "Australia's leading sports, entertainment and entrepreneurial organisation" at its very slick website, here: http://www.sel.com.au/.

But back to V8SA's $426 million "economy".

Its figures show $24 million in team merchandise sales, $30 million in television advertising revenue, $73 million in racing turnover for the teams and $110 million turnover for V8SA.

That leaves another $118 million - or 27.7 per cent of this "economy" - which V8SA says came from non-V8SA event turnover.

Which is where the numbers become unbelievable.

However, in baring its soul - if only internally, because none of this information has been publicly released - V8SA's SWOT analysis reveals (item No. 2 in the weaknesses column) that its TV ratings decreased - 9 per cent by its admission.

Now this is a serious problem.

Very serious - in the context of V8 Supercar racing's place in the pecking order of importance among Australian sports, and more importantly to V8SA in regard to the value of its TV rights.

V8SA executive chairman Tony Cochrane, who is also a director of SEL, was quoted recently saying he - like the AFL - would be looking for a 25 per cent increase under V8SA's next TV deal from 2013.

The Seven Network is already concerned about the dwindling numbers V8 Supercars are drawing to Australian TV screens, especially in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Ten Network still has a very sour taste in its mouth from its split with V8SA after a decade in which it felt it did the hard yards of building the profile of V8 Supercar racing.

With the ABC and SBS unlikely players in any negotiations, that may leave only Nine as a free-to-air network possibly interested beyond 2012.

And what price might Nine be prepared to pay if it is the sole bidder? Surely not 25 per cent more than Seven last time when the ratings are in reverse.