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

[Slowhand]

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...

I'm not going to call it an astounding success yet, but I think you'd be hard pressed to call it a bust at this point. I didn't venture downtown much and kept to townie restaurants/bars, but even they were packed between the F1 crowd and locals that had been pushed out of downtown by the crowds.

I'd say 60-70% of the attendees were foreign. When you're spending $2-3k just to get to the race and be there, you might as well go the rest of the way. I've rarely seen money fly around the way I saw it do so this weekend.

[momo]

i just have to add:

general admission ($170) was the majority of the tickets sold. the money made from them was probably washed out with staff costs and transportation. there were SO many buses it had to be costly seeing as every charter bus in the area was there along with the entire surrounding school districts including dallas.


that being said, i'm pretty sure where cota made this worth it against the $25M fee was:

the main grandstand was full. these were PSL only, the cheapest PSL was $2000 per ticket + $500 for the season ticket. the other PSL rates were $3K, $4k, $5.5K and even $40,000 for a box.

RV parking was $15,000 PER DAY and it was essentially full.

I saw at least 1000 people roaming the paddock during the pit access. those folks bought the paddock club pass. that was $4200 each ($6500 if you want the package with lodging).

there were trackside suites in various corners and of course bleacher seats throughout that were full.

merchandise sales looked big. the mclaren store was sold out of a jacket i had my eye one and it was $200. the only ones they had left was size XL for the $250 jacket.

cota shirts were like $30, hats were $40. lines were huge, people were buying and wearing them all weekend.

there were a few horrible things about the track that need fixing:
concession
credit cards
atm
bathrooms


overall, i will say this was a success but the whole thing could have been ruined if there was rain (see korea 2011). there was too much that could have been turned to mud and slop this year that just isn't paved yet. surely by next year the facility should get most of the lose ends worked out.

[quikag]

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.

Decent effort Aggie, but the biggest miss was you are only including the Sunday race. There was over 80,000 people there on Saturday and approximately 65,000 there on Friday.

My neighbor and I reserved a room at the QUALITY INN off of 71 many, many months ago at a price of $450/night. We split it with his son, so the 3 days we were there it was $450/person plus taxes. I was in Turn 4 and my 3 day pass was around $330. Food, drink, gas, Ferrari hat, and other random crap put my cost over $1200 for the weekend. I went cheap and I only lived 3.5 hours from COTA.

There was a huge number of foreigners there from Mexico, Canada, and overseas. They were throwing money around like it was nothing. Concessions made some big money as EVERYTHING was expensive and people didn't care. I had my first $14 sausage dog there and it was big and good, but it was freaking $14.

I think COTA did a great job considering the time constraints. They need to pave a lot more out there and they need at least one or two pedestrian tunnels added, so people aren't stuck in that island of no return hell with only 1 pedestrian bridge for all in and out traffic. That was the biggest bottleneck I saw there. All in all, it was a blast and I hope to go back.

[Bputacoma]

^ what he said. I paid $10 bucks for a flipping hot pocket!!! But the $12 brisket sloppy nachos were damn good!

[aggie97]

Decent effort Aggie, but the biggest miss was you are only including the Sunday race. There was over 80,000 people there on Saturday and approximately 65,000 there on Friday.

My neighbor and I reserved a room at the QUALITY INN off of 71 many, many months ago at a price of $450/night. We split it with his son, so the 3 days we were there it was $450/person plus taxes. I was in Turn 4 and my 3 day pass was around $330. Food, drink, gas, Ferrari hat, and other random crap put my cost over $1200 for the weekend. I went cheap and I only lived 3.5 hours from COTA.

There was a huge number of foreigners there from Mexico, Canada, and overseas. They were throwing money around like it was nothing. Concessions made some big money as EVERYTHING was expensive and people didn't care. I had my first $14 sausage dog there and it was big and good, but it was freaking $14.

I think COTA did a great job considering the time constraints. They need to pave a lot more out there and they need at least one or two pedestrian tunnels added, so people aren't stuck in that island of no return hell with only 1 pedestrian bridge for all in and out traffic. That was the biggest bottleneck I saw there. All in all, it was a blast and I hope to go back.

Sounds like spending was rediculous and I wonder how TX will collect sales tax from the McLaren store! I did hear the nightmare about the CC transactions. Still don't understand why people pay those prices for shirts and hats....hell, you can buy all that stuff for 1/4 of that. Seems like the "F1 Frenzy of Spending" is like oxygen in the casinos.

Was RV parking really $15,000 per day? Hard to imagine that is real.

[b1ake]

I was there and have a few comments on some things I heard/saw.

-I was told that 40,000 of the 120,000 plus tickets sold were purchased in Mexico.

-Trackside Suites were $250,000 for the weekend and they were ALL jammed packed.

-Helicopter landing permits were $10,000 PER DAY. Did you guys see all the helicopters coming and going all day?

-I was impressed how friendly everyone was at the facility. They did a great job putting on the event, but you could tell this was the trial run.

-Next year they need to double or triple the amount of food vendors. The lines were crazy long even on Friday.

-Traffic/Bus stuff was done so much better than I ever imagined.

-We saw both Heikki Kovalainen and Emerson Fittipaldi at the toll booths. Emmo did a full launch in his rental car from the gate lift. LOL

[b1ake]

Sounds like spending was rediculous and I wonder how TX will collect sales tax from the McLaren store! I did hear the nightmare about the CC transactions. Still don't understand why people pay those prices for shirts and hats....hell, you can buy all that stuff for 1/4 of that. Seems like the "F1 Frenzy of Spending" is like oxygen in the casinos.

Not really, the prices you pay there are the same kind of prices you would pay from any of the F1 vendors for authentic merchandise. I have been to F1 races in three countries and its pretty much the same anywhere, and most of the vendors are the same.

I checked a few things I bought at www.speedgear.com and I actually paid less at the track on one item.

Blake

[Slowhand]

Sounds like spending was rediculous and I wonder how TX will collect sales tax from the McLaren store! I did hear the nightmare about the CC transactions. Still don't understand why people pay those prices for shirts and hats....hell, you can buy all that stuff for 1/4 of that. Seems like the "F1 Frenzy of Spending" is like oxygen in the casinos.

Was RV parking really $15,000 per day? Hard to imagine that is real.

I believe the RV is set up like a PSL and the PSL for the year is $15k, but I could be wrong. Either way, most of the RVs I saw had to have pricetags that matched the absurdity of the cost.

Merch was individualized, but it seemed to be run under one umbrella of management and most sales I saw were via CC; pretty tough to skirt sales tax on that.

I don't understand the crazy purchases either (I bought a ticket holder so it wouldn't get all crinkled up in my pocket...for 20 fucking dollars), but I also didn't have near the money invested in my trip that a foreigner would have; I figure that for a lot of them, once you've already spent so much just to get to the race, what's another $200 for a Ferrari sweatshirt or $50 for a McLaren hat?

I, on the other hand, will wait until after the season to purchase any gear I want from F1.com's clearance sale. They generally do cheap shipping to the US and 50% off of everything after the season ends.

[Slowhand]

I've heard the food complaints several times, and I saw some of the long lines, but I didn't experience any of that. We avoided the food over by the main concourse and main entrance and just hit up the stuff around the edges of the track; same food, shorter lines. And plenty of beer.

[Slowhand]

-Helicopter landing permits were $10,000 PER DAY. Did you guys see all the helicopters coming and going all day?

No shit, those fuckers were coming and going like it was Vietnam. Price I heard was $1500 per passenger for roundtrip to and from the track for Saturday/Sunday.

-I was impressed how friendly everyone was at the facility. They did a great job putting on the event, but you could tell this was the trial run.

Yup. As good as you can expect for a track that wasn't completely finished around the edges, but the people were friendly and the foreigners I talked to seemed very caught off guard by that. I mean, come on motherfuckers, it's Texas.

-Traffic/Bus stuff was done so much better than I ever imagined.

Absolutely. I thought it was going to be a mess (the only mess was the dipshits at the Expo center taking forever to open up a second gate into the center to park in the morning), but they really nailed it. Only took us an hour to get home on Sunday. Way better than either of the times I've been to a Race at TMS.

[Slowhand]

overall, i will say this was a success but the whole thing could have been ruined if there was rain (see korea 2011). there was too much that could have been turned to mud and slop this year that just isn't paved yet. surely by next year the facility should get most of the lose ends worked out.

And this. It could have been bad in that respect, but given the timetable, totally forgivable. Get that situation ironed out and there aren't many complaints to be had. It will be a lot more attractive circuit when it's greener and less rocky as well.

[b1ake]

It looks like the majority of the grandstands are going to stay temporary from the seating maps I've seen for MotoGP and V8 Supercars. That is a bummer because that was one of the only complains I had. When everyone was standing for the flyover and there was a huge gust of wind, you could feel the scaffold pipe grandstands swaying back and forth, not a great feeling when you are so high in the air.

[breedlove]

i'm just going to assume this was most people's first formula 1 event, and many people are speaking on zero experience when it comes to visiting other tracks. What they did in the amount of time they did it in is absolutely phenomenal. Yes there are absolutely still odds and ends that need to be attended to, but the overall product and quality of that place is outstanding. When the grass grows in and they get all the finishing details done on that track and the surrounding area it is going to be absolutely beautiful. All three days were fantastic, only hiccup I saw was not opening the gate at the expo early on friday morning. They fixed that saturday. I don't know how many of y'all attended TMS's first race but that was a fucking disaster, Indianapolis did a fair job of handling the F1 event but they have an insane amount of experience. In the history of the US grand prix, with the exception of Watkins Glen this will end up being the greatest F1 event this country will see. You have to remember the absolutely disasters that have happened in this country when it comes to F1. These guys nailed it, and it's only going to improve.

[b1ake]

i'm just going to assume this was most people's first formula 1 event, and many people are speaking on zero experience when it comes to visiting other tracks. What they did in the amount of time they did it in is absolutely phenomenal. Yes there are absolutely still odds and ends that need to be attended to, but the overall product and quality of that place is outstanding. When the grass grows in and they get all the finishing details done on that track and the surrounding area it is going to be absolutely beautiful. All three days were fantastic, only hiccup I saw was not opening the gate at the expo early on friday morning. They fixed that saturday. I don't know how many of y'all attended TMS's first race but that was a fucking disaster, Indianapolis did a fair job of handling the F1 event but they have an insane amount of experience. In the history of the US grand prix, with the exception of Watkins Glen this will end up being the greatest F1 event this country will see. You have to remember the absolutely disasters that have happened in this country when it comes to F1. These guys nailed it, and it's only going to improve.

Given the time frame they worked in, they far exceeded expectations. They did a perfect job of finishing the necessities and finding ways to fill the gaps on the items that were not 100% done.

I attended TMS first event and remember what a disaster it was. COTA and the surrounding cities did such a bang up job on the traffic, parking, etc.

I've been to 4 Grand Prix (Singapore x 2, Malaysia, and COTA) and hope that in future years we will be able to attract better support races (GP2/GP3) and provide a more full on track schedule. The Singapore GP has more of a festival feel to it and I think the US GP can get there with a little more planning effort and completed facilities.

I have been to most of the major road course racing facilities in the US and none hold a candle to this place.

Blake

[Bputacoma]

I went to the Montreal GP, i felt like it was alot more lively and fun. Not to mention really really really packed. Austin's fan fest crowd/atmosphere was 1/4 of Monteal's.