United States Grand Prix - Formula One (F1) - Austin

[momo]

Not to pat myself on the back for saying that there were people with money that would make this happen but....aw, fuck it, I was right.

now they just have to build a track...

[Slowhand]

now they just have to build a track...

Now that's a different hurdle, I guess we'll wait and see.

[John -- '02 HAWK]

Not to pat myself on the back for saying that there were people with money that would make this happen but....aw, fuck it, I was right.

Being curious did Texas front any of the money or was it all private party

[Grape]

prove's not all billionaires make wise business decisions. I want to see his ROI plan

[Slowhand]

Being curious did Texas front any of the money or was it all private party

Hasn't been disclosed verbatim, but the state had made it all but clear that it would have to be all private if it were to happen.

[Slowhand]

prove's not all billionaires make wise business decisions. I want to see his ROI plan

It also proves that not every decision has to make economic sense to be doable for someone with McCombs-quantities of money.

[RWhite]

Since Red McCombs contributed $50 mil to UT (and ended up with the Business School bearing his name), maybe he ponied up the $25 mil for the payment to F1 and they can name a corner for him!

However it was done, now I need to start figuring out how I can afford the race weekend down there. Sure would like to see a full blown F1 race on a brand new course!

[Bputacoma]

Not to pat myself on the back for saying that there were people with money that would make this happen but....aw, fuck it, I was right.

lol. *pats slowhand on back* i'm glad you were right.

[Slowhand]

lol. *pats slowhand on back* i'm glad you were right.

Haha. My point was that everyone is treating this like it's a bona fide, cold business deal. And it's not. The investor group is made up primarily of wealthy individuals that want to see F1 in Austin and probably aren't too concerned about the return. Very few people invest in sports and entertainment transactions because they're profitable; they invest because they have a passion for it and want other people to be able to experience it.

Tom Hicks is a very good example of why treating sports franchises like an investment asset is a terrible idea.

[racrguy]

[Big A]

Haha. My point was that everyone is treating this like it's a bona fide, cold business deal. And it's not. The investor group is made up primarily of wealthy individuals that want to see F1 in Austin and probably aren't too concerned about the return. Very few people invest in sports and entertainment transactions because they're profitable; they invest because they have a passion for it and want other people to be able to experience it.

Tom Hicks is a very good example of why treating sports franchises like an investment asset is a terrible idea.

There are people who invest primarily based on passion, but the vast majority do it with profit in mind, sports or otherwise. Billionares don't keep their billions by giving it all away, and very few will follow passion over profit.

[Slowhand]

There are people who invest primarily based on passion, but the vast majority do it with profit in mind, sports or otherwise. Billionares don't keep their billions by giving it all away, and very few will follow passion over profit.

I don't think there's anyone who invests primarily based on passion. That said, this isn't a primary investment for Red McCombs or, likely, anyone involved in the ownership of COTA. Part of being filthy rich is having the ability, comfort and means to make investments where the uncertainty of the potential return on your investment is high because you believe in the idea or merely just want to make something happen.

Red McCombs has given PLENTY of money away without respect to any potential return, so I'm fairly certain he's not too concerned about making an investment where he's absolutely going to make some portion of it back, even if that amount is likely to be somewhere near or under breaking even.

[Grape]

I don't think there's anyone who invests primarily based on passion. That said, this isn't a primary investment for Red McCombs or, likely, anyone involved in the ownership of COTA. Part of being filthy rich is having the ability, comfort and means to make investments where the uncertainty of the potential return on your investment is high because you believe in the idea or merely just want to make something happen.

Red McCombs has given PLENTY of money away without respect to any potential return, so I'm fairly certain he's not too concerned about making an investment where he's absolutely going to make some portion of it back, even if that amount is likely to be somewhere near or under breaking even.

would you consider roger penske wealthy? when his teams don't have sponsors, they get shut down. do you consider jack roush wealthy? when his teams don't have sponsors, they shut down. Carl haas just shut down his indy car team after 25 seasons, yep you guessed it, no profit without sponsors.

it doesn't take the golden goose long to get tired of being fucked.

i still vote that this deal doesn't happen, mccombs sent a letter of credit to bernie. Bernie says "cool, we can have a race". now it's time to use REAL money to build a REAL facility.

I have a close friend married into the Irsay family, that whole indanapolis colts thing is not a passion. It's how they make their living.

[Slowhand]

would you consider roger penske wealthy? when his teams don't have sponsors, they get shut down. do you consider jack roush wealthy? when his teams don't have sponsors, they shut down. Carl haas just shut down his indy car team after 25 seasons, yep you guessed it, no profit without sponsors.

it doesn't take the golden goose long to get tired of being fucked.

i still vote that this deal doesn't happen, mccombs sent a letter of credit to bernie. Bernie says "cool, we can have a race". now it's time to use REAL money to build a REAL facility.

I have a close friend married into the Irsay family, that whole indanapolis colts thing is not a passion. It's how they make their living.

Ponying up the money to fund a Formula 1 event and running a race team are two very different things, not to mention the ~$1 billion gap in wealth between Red McCombs and Jack Roush. $25 million is a material chunk of Jack Roush's wealth; to Red McCombs it's nearly completely immaterial. It's also different in that the $25 million annual liability gets covered by the state after one successful year, making that investment a lot easier when a $25 million expense is no longer a factor in the assessment of the project's going concern.

Racing is also Roush's business; he made his money in the automotive industry and it's still his business to this day. McCombs isn't exactly a racing insider.

And I'll play along with your n=1 anecdotal evidence. I've got a close friend whose family is one of the larger investors in the new Rangers management group and I know that the ability for the ownership of a sports franchise to provide a living for the family (lol) was not among the list of convincing reasons to make the effort. It's not a terrible way to largely preserve a large chunk of wealth, but the growth of wealth through sports franchise ownership is the exception, not the rule.

[Grape]

It's also different in that the $25 million annual liability gets covered by the state after one successful year, making that investment a lot easier when a $25 million expense is no longer a factor in the assessment of the project's going concern.

.

what constitutes a success? losing a shit ton of money? lol they are gonna go to the state and show them how much money the event lost and the state is gonna say "yep, that's a success"?

Like i said, when real money starts paying to build this facility, you can tell me you were right.