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

[32valves_of_pleasure]

i've been to a few these in different parts of the world and they're always fun. seeing the normal street car mercedes SLS AMG make a lap on the track then followed by an F1 car.. wow. good to see it back in the US, maybe i'll make the next one.

[Slowhand]

Final attendance at today's race according to COTA: 117,429.

http://inagist.com/all/270297753853235201/

So, pretty much 40,000 exactly.

[Grape]

So, pretty much 40,000 exactly.

pretty much a BILLION in debt......like i said. lol

[Slowhand]

pretty much a BILLION in debt......like i said. lol

And every time you're wrong about something, you jump ship to your next argument. No one is arguing with you about the financial viability, you just have a lot of foot-in-mouth moments in this thread that you won't own up to

[Fatass]

Reminds me of someone I work with...I can't stand the son of a bitch. Worse than a fucking woman on her period, every damn day.

[Grape]

And every time you're wrong about something, you jump ship to your next argument. No one is arguing with you about the financial viability, you just have a lot of foot-in-mouth moments in this thread that you won't own up to

no, not really, i said many pages ago that i would have lost money with how much they had gotten done on the project, i also said it looked like it went off quite well on TV. much better than the first cup race we had here back in '97.
i've been wrong before, and will be wrong many times later. This just happens to involve the profession i've been involved with for over 25 years. now the next bet is, how long will this race continue to happen. F1 in the US hasn't been given much of a fair chance other than Indy, and even that only lasted 6 or so years, till the hullman family disowned tony george for the amount of money pissed away on the events.

[SC457A]

Am I the only one kinda bothered that not a single American was in this race? It seems either Americans turn left or just go straight. I know cubic dollars are a HUGE part of F1, but still it seems kind of sad.

Perhaps Top Gear is right to make fun of turns being so akward to Americans

[Slowhand]

Grape, you'll love this: Tavo is rounding up money-folks in the Austin area this week to try and start finding money to put together the long rumored US F1 team. HRT is for sale, so it makes sense, but that team is either going to be awful (like HRT and Marussia) because they don't properly fund it, or Tavo is going to get another plaything essentially for free.

[aggie97]

looked as if they all did a great job, no problems that i know of with the event, other than they spent 1 billion to gross, maybe 5 million lol.

I don't know if this number includes the original land purchase but the broadcast of the race said that it was around 400 million dollars to build. Sounds reasonable when compared to the numbers I have heard about MMP which was built to FIA'ish specs.

So, let's put some actual numbers to this.

117,429 in attendance at an average of $120ea = $14,091,480 in ticket sales minus 10% for ticketmaster = $12,682,332.

Lets guess 30,000 paid for parking passes and RV parking at 250 each average. $7,500,000 minus 10% ticketmaster is $6,750,000.

Concessions are wiped out by staff costs if not in the hole. Remember they had 375 course workers for this event although they may have been volunteers like the SCCA.

So, let's figure out the sales tax revenue generated for our fair state.

117,429 let's say on average spend $750 per person for the weekend in food, travel, hotels and swag. I think this is a good number based on what I have heard from people who went. That's $88,071,750....x 6.5% state tax. That's only $5,725,000 for our great state of TX who forked over how much from the Event fund? So if the State of TX paid $25M, those 117,429 would have had to spend $3270 each just to pay back the sales tax.

My guess is the track may have faired well, but the state of TX took it in the shorts.

[GAP]

$120 each? Cheapest general admission tickets were $159 and I think the cheapest seats were $265?

[aggie97]

$120 each? Cheapest general admission tickets were $159 and I think the cheapest seats were $265?

whoops...I was thinking V8 Super car prices....

Just got busy at work, will have to go back and recalc later.

[Slowhand]

From being there, your average spending and ticket prices are hysterically low. RV parking wasn't anywhere near $250.

Average spending is way off, though. I saw plenty of people spend that much at the merch tents alone. The average person attending that race isn't bubba joe NASCAR.

[Bputacoma]

Am I the only one kinda bothered that not a single American was in this race?

Don't worry! There's two up and coming American's. Alexander Rossi and Eddie Cheever Jr. Rossi was supposed to do a Practice session, but that was scrapped.

Grape, you'll love this: Tavo is rounding up money-folks in the Austin area this week to try and start finding money to put together the long rumored US F1 team. HRT is for sale, so it makes sense, but that team is either going to be awful (like HRT and Marussia) because they don't properly fund it, or Tavo is going to get another plaything essentially for free.

Another US F1 team? Is he gonna partner up with Peter Windsor and fail again? Buying HRT would be a cheaper way to get started, but they suck. As for Marussia, they are getting better with every race and beating Caterham some of the time with less money and No KERS. Plus with them being 10th in the constructors, they'll get alot of money compared to 11th/12th spot to help them.

[Ruffdaddy]

Lol yeah go ahead and triple those prices...and you're only looking at the first race. Nobodies taken it in the pants yet. Not even close...

[Slowhand]

Another US F1 team? Is he gonna partner up with Peter Windsor and fail again? Buying HRT would be a cheaper way to get started, but they suck. As for Marussia, they are getting better with every race and beating Caterham some of the time with less money and No KERS. Plus with them being 10th in the constructors, they'll get alot of money compared to 11th/12th spot to help them.

I don't believe so. My details on it are few and secondhand through someone who is legal counsel for an individual who has been approached to invest/round up support for the race. They're meeting this week, maybe I'll be able to squeeze some more information out after that.

Marussia did put on a good showing this weekend.