No seats at Stowe for 2012?

[Phil.]

Any idea why there are no seats for Stowe on the Silverstone web site for 2012 at the moment?

[fatboy69]

Slightly off topic - did anyone else spot the number of empty grandstand seats today? I thought that the GP was sold out however from the gaps in the stands that obviously wasnt true was it?

[Matt..]

fatboy69 said:

Slightly off topic - did anyone else spot the number of empty grandstand seats today? I thought that the GP was sold out however from the gaps in the stands that obviously wasnt true was it?

Maybe they have a capacity cap, and just sold more general admission tickets than grandstand? or people didn't sit in there seats?

[ukaskew]

Presumably they haven't finalised the number of seats yet, as they have said they will be changing/updating the grandstands quite a bit.

As for empty seats today, the one opposite Vale (which presumably will have been seen on TV a fair bit) was infield and therefore presumably only for those with paddock access...so those people were probably enjoying the hospitality more than the race. Otherwise they will have an absolute capacity presumably, so if they can't fill that with expensive grandstand tickets they would more than likely sell extra general admission tickets.

On that note, a minor rant, if they are going to sell that many general admission tickets it would be handy to cater for them all, very little banking arond the circuit and lots of potentially decent infield areas out of bounds.

[andyps]

There were empty seats in the grandstand on the inside of the track at Vale yesterday but it looked like they were corporate, probably Vodafone, so maybe their guests didn't all take up their seats.

[XJSsometimeSoon]

fatboy69 said:

Slightly off topic - did anyone else spot the number of empty grandstand seats today? I thought that the GP was sold out however from the gaps in the stands that obviously wasnt true was it?

was it the stand opposite vale? if so it was corporate hospitality. Basically for toffs who have no interest in the GP and would rather sit in the marquee drinking pimms than actually watch any racing.

[v1nce]

Actually I was surprised by the number of cooperate guests that stayed out in the rain to watch the red arrows display (and the GP2/3 supercup etc). I reckon that stand at vale was designed for to the total capacity of the hospitality boxes. From what I could see people in those boxes were happy to stand outside them rather then take a walk down to the stand .

RE Stowe stands... Does the heli pad have anything to do with it?

[Cheese Mechanic]

Funnily enough.I was in Luffield "B" ,literally right up in the very top corner Woodcote end...and was bemused to watch people in the area behind the stand sitting on benches watching the race on a big screen, and make no attempt to watch the race itself. Dozens of them.

Might as well stayed at home and watched on the telly. Strange

I see Luffield "B" is a "Platinum" seating area next year...up from Gold this...Never mind, eh?

[ukaskew]

Cheese Mechanic said:

Funnily enough.I was in Luffield "B" ,literally right up in the very top corner Woodcote end...and was bemused to watch people in the area behind the stand sitting on benches watching the race on a big screen, and make no attempt to watch the race itself. Dozens of them.

Might as well stayed at home and watched on the telly. Strange

Surely you could apply this to most General Admission spectators? I was queueing at the gate from 5:30 on Sunday as it was pretty clear on Saturday (when we were in the circuit by 6:30) that to get a half decent spot at Club/Vale we would need to be there very very early. We got a cracking spot with a view of the entry to Vale right around to the start of the pit straight, but most people arriving after us were on flat ground level with the track.

There is more spectator banking at Castle Combe (1.8 mile circuit) than Silverstone, yet Silverstone were selling, what, 60,000+ general admission tickets? Village was supposed to be the next big thing with lots of spectator friendly banking, but the whole area was pretty much flat and from the TV footage I've watched back it was only a few people deep right up against the fence.

The atmosphere at Vale was electric and we will be returning next year for that very reason, but most 'old timers' we got chatting to said general admission had taken a backwards step.

[Rude-boy]

As has been said on other threads, 2011 is another transition year for Sliverstone.

There are a massive number of changes happening and developments for the future. These have also all been scheduled as much as possible to try to stop the horse coming before the cart. An example of which would be getting the track and the pits straight before starting on the hotel or concentrating on the spectator areas more.

I do not know the correct answer to this but I would suggest that it was a mixture of VIPs indoors and an artificially low number of tickets sold which made it look a little empty.

2-3 years time and it will be a different proposition.

The other thing I would say is having been to 32 BGP's I would rather watch a bit or track action over the weekend but if i couldn't see a Screen from my seat as well as i could another nearby I would head for there about lap5 and return to my seat about lap 48.

Attending the race is as much, if not more so, about the vibe, the off track sights and the noise as it is about seeing the cars flash past during the race. Quite frankly if you want to watch the race there is no substitue to looking at the TV screens. If you wish to be a part of the event then you maximise all facilities available to you according to what you can get.

[domino796]

Stowe is being rebuilt for the 2012 Grand Prix and as such they don't know what the seat numbers are yet. As soon as they do the tickets will go on sale.