Quote:
Originally Posted by PS2244
Earlier in this thread I posted the official crowd numbers they were only a few thousand at most down on last year and considering the financial climate of Townsville currently that is quite good. Also as for you DRT with all due respect I don't understand your quarrels with Street Circuit Racing and government expenditure on it
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I'm not speaking for DRT, but my beef with government expenditure for street races is that the money is spent on a single use event rather than infrastructure. The "track" is only used for that 1 weekend, and then its gone. Governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars on sports stadiums, arts centres and the like which can then be used week after week, all year round. Then, after a few years, millions more are spent enlarging, improving, and upgrading them. I don't begrudge that expenditure, although I don't utilise those facilities much at all.
Investing that street circuit money in existing or new circuits creates or improves the facilities for the public and the competitors - and these facilities are, or for new circuits, could be used for competition, club events, testing, driver training year round.
I get that governments want events that are reasonably close to their CBD, and therefore have good support from tourist accommodation, facilities etc to attract interstate and international visitors. I also get that new circuits will never be built close to those CBDs and high population centres, so we have a conflict between facility location and tourism support.
Victoria will be tested in a few years when Sandown closes. One of very few suburban race tracks left; on a train route, and holder of the iconic Sandown 500 for many years. One answer is for the government to invest in Calder. If they don't want government cash to be used on a privately owned circuit, then buy the circuit! This is of course conditional on being zoned such that it can continue to run without fear of being closed down by encroaching urban settlement.
They could also take the approach taken by the WA government in building the Kwinana Motorplex. Locate a new facility in an industrial environment not likely to be urbanized, and go from there. Similar to Kwinana, the land around the refinery and other plants between Melbourne and Geelong come to mind. Near Avalon airport maybe? Will the Avalon Proving ground continue to be used after this year???
Our chosen sport has a strong NIMBY feel about it, and that is a cross we have to bear. It just seems that the dollars spent creating events could be better spent creating facilities and infrastructure, and providing assets that will earn an income in the future. We don't need Tilkedromes - Formula One's insistence on that sort of facility has a lot to answer for.