No more F1 in Austin, Texas
Discussion
COTA finances were a combination of a mystery and hope from the very beginning. Established F1 venues which have all the infrastructure already in place and have an established fanbase were struggling to make an F1 GP work without Government sponsorship. How you could spend $250m on a new circuit pay the race fees and ever hope to recover your original investment let alone grow it always looked baffling. You would need to make an awful lot more money from track days and other events than any established circuit to do it.
Now it appears that a $6m cut in the state funding spent on the F1 ($25m to $19m) race is enough to bring it all crashing down.That's $6m against a total investment to date of 100's of millions, just shows how precarious or impossible it always was.
Now it appears that a $6m cut in the state funding spent on the F1 ($25m to $19m) race is enough to bring it all crashing down.That's $6m against a total investment to date of 100's of millions, just shows how precarious or impossible it always was.
RVVUNM said:
High fee's to keep the poisonous dwarf in the life of luxury.
Yes disgusting the way the money is sucked out of the sport giving nothing back, and not forgetting his cohorts the investment bankers at cvc.http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2015/07/27/cvc-b...
realjv said:
COTA finances were a combination of a mystery and hope from the very beginning. Established F1 venues which have all the infrastructure already in place and have an established fanbase were struggling to make an F1 GP work without Government sponsorship. How you could spend $250m on a new circuit pay the race fees and ever hope to recover your original investment let alone grow it always looked baffling. You would need to make an awful lot more money from track days and other events than any established circuit to do it.
Now it appears that a $6m cut in the state funding spent on the F1 ($25m to $19m) race is enough to bring it all crashing down.That's $6m against a total investment to date of 100's of millions, just shows how precarious or impossible it always was.
Or perhaps brinkmanship by the track owners?Now it appears that a $6m cut in the state funding spent on the F1 ($25m to $19m) race is enough to bring it all crashing down.That's $6m against a total investment to date of 100's of millions, just shows how precarious or impossible it always was.
suffolk009 said:
Bernie was chatting to Ted (sky) about a west coast race over the Austin race weekend. The implication (bungled by Ted) was that Laguna Seca was in the picture.
Not a chance in hell of Laguna Seca getting an F1 race any time soon. They'd have to bulldoze the entire site and rebuild from the ground up to get the track and facilities to F1 standards.Even then it would be s
t. One of the most overrated tracks in the world, IMO. It has one novelty corner, but the rest is pretty dull.thegreenhell said:
suffolk009 said:
Bernie was chatting to Ted (sky) about a west coast race over the Austin race weekend. The implication (bungled by Ted) was that Laguna Seca was in the picture.
Not a chance in hell of Laguna Seca getting an F1 race any time soon. They'd have to bulldoze the entire site and rebuild from the ground up to get the track and facilities to F1 standards.Even then it would be s
t. One of the most overrated tracks in the world, IMO. It has one novelty corner, but the rest is pretty dull.http://www.racer.com/more/viewpoints/item/120221-p...
Eric Mc said:
realjv said:
COTA finances were a combination of a mystery and hope from the very beginning. Established F1 venues which have all the infrastructure already in place and have an established fanbase were struggling to make an F1 GP work without Government sponsorship. How you could spend $250m on a new circuit pay the race fees and ever hope to recover your original investment let alone grow it always looked baffling. You would need to make an awful lot more money from track days and other events than any established circuit to do it.
Now it appears that a $6m cut in the state funding spent on the F1 ($25m to $19m) race is enough to bring it all crashing down.That's $6m against a total investment to date of 100's of millions, just shows how precarious or impossible it always was.
Or perhaps brinkmanship by the track owners?Now it appears that a $6m cut in the state funding spent on the F1 ($25m to $19m) race is enough to bring it all crashing down.That's $6m against a total investment to date of 100's of millions, just shows how precarious or impossible it always was.
I am sure that the manufacturers will put pressure on CVC to deliver a race in the USA. Just think about how many consumers in the US buy their products and how they need to break further into the US. The weather this year was no help whatsoever but I am sure somebody will step in and they will have a deal for 2016.
CVC as we know need to move on....and a flotation wont happen in Singapore or London, Hong Kong or Frankfurt. Other investors can see the potential but what it is worth is the sticking point.
Lets see what happens in early 2016, don't write off Texas yet.
As to a race out west, why? There current sports franchises don't make money, NFL has died in California, Baseball survives due to TV money and basketball is the plaything of the rich, but arenas have spare seats...and are not that large. California as a state has huge financial issues and unless a major corporation steps in it just wont happen.
CVC as we know need to move on....and a flotation wont happen in Singapore or London, Hong Kong or Frankfurt. Other investors can see the potential but what it is worth is the sticking point.
Lets see what happens in early 2016, don't write off Texas yet.
As to a race out west, why? There current sports franchises don't make money, NFL has died in California, Baseball survives due to TV money and basketball is the plaything of the rich, but arenas have spare seats...and are not that large. California as a state has huge financial issues and unless a major corporation steps in it just wont happen.
I read an article last year, the whole circuit was propped up by the local government, but the deal was they only got all the funding if they were the only racing event for xx miles of the track, there's now another race going on somewhere closer than this limit so they are pulling a chunk of the funding. It all sounded very precarious tbh. (it was a while ago I read it so cant remember all the details, I'll try and find a link)
carinaman said:
I fail to see why the Texas state government should be subsidising F1 at that circuit. Austin doesn't need the 'prestige' or 'cachet' of Formula 1.
There should be enough money to go around that there's some crumbs left for the circuits staging the races.
I think the same its just the greed of the F1 regime extracting every last cent to the point these events are not financially viable without a benefactor - usually this involves a dictator, a desperate economy or a deluded head of local economy to fund it.There should be enough money to go around that there's some crumbs left for the circuits staging the races.
rallycross said:
I think the same its just the greed of the F1 regime extracting every last cent to the point these events are not financially viable without a benefactor - usually this involves a dictator, a desperate economy or a deluded head of local economy to fund it.
This is the exact issue, the reality is that the circuits take the ticket money, and the concession money, and out of that money they have to stage the event, improve/build their facility, advertise and pay the race fee. The Silverstone race fee is apparently £16 million, and a total of 350,000 people attended this year so £45 of every ticket sold went straight to Bernie and CVC. I think that Silverstone also has one of the lowest race fees too.PW said:
Eric Mc said:
As long as we have despots etc ready to fleece their own citizens to fund vanity projects, it will be an issue.
As long as the fans keep supporting despots etc by tuning into every session with their Sky subscription, going to the races, buying expensive burgers and a cap, and allow them to walk away with their pockets filled, it will be an issue.It's all one system; there has to be money going in for these people to be taking money out - everyone is involved in maintaining the status quo, but the "fans" seem intent on being ignorant of their role, happy to recuse themselves and blame everyone else, despite the fact that they're the ones ultimately propping up these people and their actions.
Other sports might take heed of that and act accordingly. But then most other sports aren't run by insatiably greedy demented old men.
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