Here are some interesting facts about the geographic origin of the 100,000 spectators at the Grand Prix du Canada in Montreal. The numbers are from an online article by a reporter/blogger for the business section of the Montreal French-language daily, La Presse. His source is the race promoter, Francois Dumontier.
Grand Prix du Canada: une ristourne d'Ecclestone avec ça?
Michel Girard
lapresseaffaires.cyberpresse.ca
June 6, 2011
...Au moins 40% des amateurs du Grand Prix viennent de l'extérieur du Québec, dont 18% des États-Unis et de l'Amérique latine, 18% de l'Europe et de l'Asie, et 4% majoritairement de l'Ontario.
So translating those percentages to numbers based on a total approximate attendance of 100,000 people:
60,000 Montreal and the rest of Quebec
18,000 U.S. & Latin America
18,000 Europe & Asia
4,000 Ontario province Canada
100,000 TOTAL
The thing that strikes me most about those numbers is the significant number of fans who come from Montreal or within an easy drive of Montreal. About half of Quebec's population lives in the greater Montreal metro area so I think most of those 60K Quebec province fans live in or near Montreal. Then there's another 4K in nearby Ontario province.
There's an impressive number of North and South American, European and Asian fans who travel far and stay for the weekend (40-50K?), but it's clear that Montreal's impressive attendance numbers are built on a base of loyal local and regional fans (60K). Can Austin match those numbers? I don't know. It will be interesting to see. One advantage that Austin has is that it is within a fairly easy drive of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, the 3 biggest cities in Texas.