Capacity crowds
Discussion
So why the implication that it was a sellout?
Were there only 70k ticket? Or 70k grandstand seats?
In the 'old days' (I may be going back a little to far for many ....) the general public only had access to the outfield iirc. Unless you paid a lot more for an infield ticket.
Now the layout means the use of the infield, or parts of it, has to be included.
On the other hand there used to be many fewer grandstands.
Were there only 70k ticket? Or 70k grandstand seats?
In the 'old days' (I may be going back a little to far for many ....) the general public only had access to the outfield iirc. Unless you paid a lot more for an infield ticket.
Now the layout means the use of the infield, or parts of it, has to be included.
On the other hand there used to be many fewer grandstands.
Gemm said:
I think tickets for infield are no longer available. They stopped selling them a few years ago. Maybe that's contributing to the fewer capacity. It's probably to do with safety regulations as well, etc etc.
I'm sure certain parts of the infield must be filled with the F1 circus and the like, but some of it needs to be accessible, certainly around the complex.
At the Silverstone Classic meeting last year (my first visit in many years) it was clear that the grandstands around much of the circuit would preclude many ground level spectators getting a view. Fortunately the grandstands that were open and still had seating in them were free access. Without that my trek to the far reaches of the circuit would have been very disappointing.
I seem to recall claims of about 120k spectators not that many years ago - Mansell/Hill era iirc. Ignoring the probnlems of access and parking experienced then, has the crowd capacity of the circuit changed much since that time?
LongQ said:
I'm sure certain parts of the infield must be filled with the F1 circus and the like, but some of it needs to be accessible, certainly around the complex.
I'm almost certain that no general tickets are available any longer for infield (hospitality tickets, then yes). They only open up after all the races have completed for the concerts and entertainment around Becketts.
bennno said:
its all to do with the traffic problems of a few years ago, certainly crowds of 130k were not unknown during Mansellmania.
Correct. after the mudbath fiasco, the crowd was heavily restricted, and efforts were made to reduce the reliance on cars. The past couple of years the BRDC have been able to nudge up the ticket quota.
It's patently obvious that with proper spectator areas, parking and traffic management (including public transport), Silverstone could easily accommodate 250,000+ on raceday, as many other international circuits are able to do - Indianapolis Motor Speedway springs to mind.
HiRich said:
after the mudbath fiasco...
I was there! Tractor tow into the campsite on the Friday and tractor tow out again on the Sunday. Most of the car parks were closed and on the trip home we observed cars parked in all sorts of strange places including the central reservations and verges of dual carriageways for miles out of Silverstone.
No infield access to general admission. This year, 3/4s of Club was covered by a grandstand leaving even less free space for spectators. The crowd was down on previous years though in any case. Several open grandstands were free to general admission spectators in Friday and Saturday though, but like food and drink prices, they went up in price on Sunday!
Ah yes, demand led pricing.
I notice that the tickets for the Silverstone Classic are up about 50% this year if I remember correctly what I paid last year. May just do one day this year and have a free entrance to the BTCC at Donington on the Saturday. That would save me a load of fuel cost as well.
I notice that the tickets for the Silverstone Classic are up about 50% this year if I remember correctly what I paid last year. May just do one day this year and have a free entrance to the BTCC at Donington on the Saturday. That would save me a load of fuel cost as well.
I believe the capacity (last I heard) is 90'000. In the old days, well pre 1992, I think they just used to sell tickets at the gate with no limit on capacity hence big crowds in the 'Manselmania' years but the FIA threatened to scrap the British GP becuase of the crowd invasion couple that with the dreaded HSE etc... and they had to peg back capacity. Interesting on 2000 that year was my quickest in and out of the circuit by car, must have been lucky I guess.
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