USA Grand Prix Austin (part deux)

[JeremySmith]

That is the first sit down interview with Bernie I have seen..I thought it was quite good, he touched on New York but did not even mention our race at all?

I found him to be very mild mannered and for his age he looks tremendous..

What I take from what he said was, that America does not want to roll over to all of my wishes, and would like to be reassured that they will make a profit after spending $300 million on a race facility, seems fair enough to me...

[St00ge]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

That is the first sit down interview with Bernie I have seen..I thought it was quite good, he touched on New York but did not even mention our race at all?

I found him to be very mild mannered and for his age he looks tremendous..

What I take from what he said was, that America does not want to roll over to all of my wishes, and would like to be reassured that they will make a profit after spending $300 million on a race facility, seems fair enough to me...

What Promoter/Circuit owner has ever really made any money by the F1 circus rocking up to their neck of the woods?? Don't think many..

[JeremySmith]

Then we intend to one of the few in that case..

[Paradise City]

Bernie just wants to make money with even more races in America by the sound of it. Only then Americans will be interested or so he says. Asia too. With America he wants to move into the open wheel market left vacant by Indycar. His latest rationale that he seems to be rattling off is that their should be a GP based on population numbers. Europe has too many/America too few so his logic goes.

That he's interested in seeing the promoters make a profit is tongue in cheek stuff. They almost never do, a fact not lost on Bernie. He's betting on the politicians carrying the races through and its not that bad a bet. F1 means a big contribution to a given region in terms of tourists, hotels and so on.

[BobHWS]

Yet another group of delusional American F1 enthusiasts thinks they can organize and promote an F1 race in the USA:

F1ComestoVegas.com

The Directors of AUTOSPORTS MARKETING GROUP have been involved in Motor Racing as International Racing Drivers, Racing Team Owners and Commercial Consultants to various Formula 1 Teams over the past 30 years.

Our goal is to bring a Formula 1 Race back to Las Vegas as an annual Signature Event, which will enable us to support many worthy causes within the community and to showcase the Premier Motor Racing Series in the World against the backdrop of Entertainment Capital of the World !

I happen to think that Las Vegas would be an ideal location for the US Grand Prix...all that's needed are a $300M dedicated F1 track and a government promise to pay Bernie at least $30M/year (with annual 10-20% increases) in sponsoring fees.

My prediction: it ain't gonna happen. On the other hand, who knows? I didn't think Austin would ever make it. Of course, we still don't know what will happen after Year One in Austin. So maybe they can move the U.S. Grand Prix around from city to city until it fails everywhere and everyone accepts the reality that F1 does not work in America. Wait, haven't we been down this road before?

[Jacques Rabbit]

Their goal may be to bring F1 to Vegas, but it really ought to be to bring a web designer to their organization. I guess they just hired the guy who designed Cypher Group's logo to do it. Might want to look into a grammatical style guide, too. Nothing says professional like random capitalization and unneeded spacing before punctuation.

[thebear]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

Their goal may be to bring F1 to Vegas, but it really ought to be to bring a web designer to their organization. I guess they just hired the guy who designed Cypher Group's logo to do it. Might want to look into a grammatical style guide, too. Nothing says professional like random capitalization and unneeded spacing before punctuation.

Low bid? . .

[LC2guy]

So which F1 team & drivers are going to Vegas ???? I suppose its do-able, if they can hire the Tardis to get back to Barcelona for testing the following day .....

[BobHWS]

Originally Posted by LC2guy

So which F1 team & drivers are going to Vegas ????

The Web site does not say, but I find it hard to imagine that any current F1 team and driver would associate themselves with such an amateurish publicity stunt.

[wolfhound]

They also say that you can have dinner with a F1 world champion and they have pictures of Hamilton & Raikkonen on the web site, can't see either of them being there.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

Their goal may be to bring F1 to Vegas, but it really ought to be to bring a web designer to their organization. I guess they just hired the guy who designed Cypher Group's logo to do it. Might want to look into a grammatical style guide, too. Nothing says professional like random capitalization and unneeded spacing before punctuation.

The fact it's such a cheap website makes me wonder about the whole venture.

What street track are they proposing to use?

[Bononi]

Not to mention that the site is hosted in Holland...

[Lancsbreaker]

I note that it doesn't appear to say anything on the website about the F1 car, drivers, or team, being current F1 competitors.......

[Jacques Rabbit]

I'm sure you could bring in anyone off the street, clean them up, and convince most of America that he (or even she) was an F1 champion. The chances of them A) knowing what F1 is and B) knowing who the champions have been are very slim. You could even say he was Michael Schumacher, winner of the Daytona and Indy 500s, and no one would ever know the difference.

[thebear]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

I'm sure you could bring in anyone off the street, clean them up, and convince most of America that he (or even she) was an F1 champion. The chances of them A) knowing what F1 is and B) knowing who the champions have been are very slim. You could even say he was Michael Schumacher, winner of the Daytona and Indy 500s, and no one would ever know the difference.

Quite insightful.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

I'm sure you could bring in anyone off the street, clean them up, and convince most of America that he (or even she) was an F1 champion. The chances of them A) knowing what F1 is and B) knowing who the champions have been are very slim. You could even say he was Michael Schumacher, winner of the Daytona and Indy 500s, and no one would ever know the difference.

So... why bother with all this stuff ?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Bononi

So... why bother with all this stuff ?

They are selling tickets so it could be a scam.

[JeremySmith]

I don't think it's worth bothering about..

[Paradise City]

It's probably stars from the F1 Flower Arranging World Championships. Joey McGeranium and Steve LeDandelion have had a stranglehold on the title since the late 90's when 20 time champ Gerry 'The Sunflower' finally retired in 1998.

[Jacques Rabbit]

Originally Posted by Bononi

So... why bother with all this stuff ?

Certainly wouldn't bother with any of the bogus stuff on this Vegas site.

For F1 in the U.S. as a whole, they are bothering to try to make it popular here.

And I can tell them they're completely wasting their time.

You can run an event here once a year and for that one weekend enough people will care to have a good crowd.

But you're never going to ever make F1 a part of our culture under any circumstances, and trying to fake fan-friendliness for a U.S. event or make it seem approachable and down-home and Americana is never going to work. The people who like F1 in this country are in their own niche and those are the people who will care. You're never going to get anyone casually interested in F1 in America beyond people who will always be more interested in NASCAR but will watch a Grand Prix if it's on in the afternoon or attend one if it's close enough to home.

So to answer the question of why bother...well...I don't really think they should bother until they have realistic expectations and understand that their demographic at it's maximum potential excludes 99.46% of this country (based on their highest TV viewership).

[BobHWS]

Elroy Road to be widened, but not before first F1 race
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, Jan. 9, 2012

With Austin's inaugural Formula One race back on the schedule for this fall, Travis County and Circuit of the Americas have resumed negotiations over how to split the $5 million to $6 million cost of repairing and expanding about a mile of Elroy Road, a bumpy two-lane county road that leads to one of the track site's two entrances.

Both sides expect to work out a cost-sharing deal before long, but they say the project won't be complete before the first race takes place Nov. 18...
__________________________

There should be no problem driving to the race on this road, right? Sure, no problem, as long as you leave at about 4AM on the day of the race. Or just take a helicopter, like Bernie does.

[Spritle]

Originally Posted by BobHWS

The Web site does not say, but I find it hard to imagine that any current F1 team and driver would associate themselves with such an amateurish publicity stunt.

My money is on JV.

[Marbot]

If you build it, they will come....eventually.

What's the other road like?

[Jacques Rabbit]

I've seen them get 150,000-200,000 people into Pocono Raceway, taking a one-lane country road (in width; it has two lanes but is way too narrow for that ****) and making it three lanes. I realize Pocono also has some of the worst traffic in all of NASCAR if you don't know the super secret back way in/out that we discovered eventually and the traffic marshals really hate you to use but turn a blind eye to it because less traffic means less time they spend standing there...but still.

I'm more concerned that there will be an actual track on that road, than with the road itself, and more concerned that the promoters of such a track will be able to write the checks they promised to write. Point being...I'll worry about the logistics of the event when there's an actual event happening.

Of course, they could just be assuming that all the "Euro" F1 fans will be driving Fiat 500s and Smart Cars and as such that road is very much adequate.

[BobHWS]

Work moving right along at Circuit of the Americas
By Dave Doolittle | Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 04:57 PM
Statesman.com

There is a definite rumble of activity at Circuit of the Americas these days. Construction at the racetrack southeast of Austin is moving along quickly, and buildings are starting to take shape.

The American-Statesman took a tour of the site today, getting a first-hand look at construction and asking questions about progress. Large trucks were continuously moving throughout the site while at least one crane turned overhead. The weather, today in the 70s and sunny, was perfect, a far cry from the rain and cold in December...

..The main grandstands, which are expected to hold up to 9,000 people, will be the only permanent seating for the first race, scheduled for Nov. 16 through 18. The rest of the 120,000 people expected on race day will sit on scaffolding or on berms.

___________________________________

Glad to see that construction is proceeding well, but the fact that they plan to build permanent seats for only 9000 spectators for the first race is another sign that the financing for this venture is still inadequate. Another sign of a money shortage is that the track owners/investors are refusing to cover the $5M cost of upgrading Elroy Rd., a key access road. You're building a project that is supposedly worth $250-300M and you're quibbling about $5m? There's no better way to tick off spectators who have paid $$$ for their tickets than to leave them stuck in a traffic jam on the day of the race.