Korea in Trouble Already?

[Spritle]

More good news from the new venue front:

Korean GP Offers Bargain Tickets to Boost Attendance

Them thar Texans are in for a rude awakening!

[Adam43]

Sounds like a good plan. Better full grandstands than empty ones.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Spritle

More good news from the new venue front:

Korean GP Offers Bargain Tickets to Boost Attendance

Them thar Texans are in for a rude awakening!

That's not going to cover the costs.

[broadrun96]

And how does Korea having to give away seats show there could be any trouble with the US GP? Indy came close or actually sold out every year, did it not? Korea has a lot less of a car/racing culture than the US and probably stands much less of a chance selling out each season.

[Spritle]

Indy in its final years was pulling about the same number of fans on race day as Korea did last year, around 80,000 with ticket prices nowhere near what they cost in Korea.

I guess you could ask Tony George if he was making money. I suspect not because he could have easily paid Bernard the Extortionist more to keep the race.

The US fan base just didn't support the race even WITH cheap seats.

[Adam43]

I think it was right to question the validity of the comparison between Korea and the US. The argument you build in the last post is stand alone and Korea is irrelevant.

Anyway, I still think it is good that they have reduced the price (or even get people in there), better than empty seats. I'm not sure the organisers needed/wanted the tickets to pay for it. I don't know, but isn't it just a Korea government promotion event?

[PabloTeK]

Originally Posted by Spritle

Indy in its final years was pulling about the same number of fans on race day as Korea did last year, around 80,000 with ticket prices nowhere near what they cost in Korea.

I guess you could ask Tony George if he was making money. I suspect not because he could have easily paid Bernard the Extortionist more to keep the race.

The US fan base just didn't support the race even WITH cheap seats.

Equally though the Brickyard 400 is suffering from less-than-full attenance compared to the other top-line NASCAR races. Maybe it's to do with the fact that most people support the Indy 500 in Indianapolis for obvious reasons. The 400 nor GP have the link that the 500 does with Indy.

Now F1 and Monza, Silverstone, Spa, Monaco; those are names synonymous with grand prix racing to the general public whereas many of these more-recent venues (Indy, Bahrain etc) don't capture the imagination as much as the classics do, hence the low attendance.

[cmotd]

Originally Posted by PabloTeK

Now F1 and Monza, Silverstone, Spa, Monaco; those are names synonymous with grand prix racing to the general public whereas many of these more-recent venues (Indy, Bahrain etc) don't capture the imagination as much as the classics do, hence the low attendance.

I think it's more a case of F1 racing being a long standing part of European culture than it is the familiarity of the circuits. people can't afford to just go off to whatever part of the world because they like a venue - it's the LOCALS that have to make up the main part of any spectator crowd

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

That's not going to cover the costs.

Perhaps there is a decent margin in the food vending concession?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Perhaps there is a decent margin in the food vending concession?

Hopefully for their sakes there is, otherwise they are going to have to shift a lot of Kimchi.