Bernie got yellowed flagged & could screw up USGP

[liftnot]

COA(F1 track in Austin) top cheese came on F1 Spain saying the USGP tickets are on sale which is not true and everything is on schedule
Well, I sure hope so.
See other news below.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/15/y...-ipo-potentia/

[stevieray122854]

The USGP is already screwed up. It's become a monumental ego/pissing contest between Tavo Hellmund (who actually knows something about F1) and egomaniacs Bobby Epstein and Red McCoombs. That track may or may not be ready and ticket prices are through the ceiling. How does $1800 (with PSL) for ONE grandstand seat 3 day pass grab you? I paid less than $500 for TWO Turn 1 seats for the entire weekend at Indy and they never raised their prices.

What the idiot COTA organizers don't get is that the USGP at Indy had the largest international ticket sale of any race on the F1 calendar because the tickets were so cheap. Every Brit, Finn & Colombian that I talked to/drank with in 5 years all said the same thing. Had not the Michelin fiasco in '06 not happened and if Tony George wasn't a complete idiot, the USGP would still be at Indy. But it did and now we have this giant cluster f@#k in Austin.

Mark my words, the 2013 race in New Jersey will be WAY more successful. Austin has fail written all over it and Bernie will drop it like it has scabies. Contracts don't mean shit to him, ask Imola and pretty soon, Turkey.

[92 white 0650]

+1. Don't believe I've seen you comment on Austin before, but now at least, you're one of a few vocal skeptics.

I may end up paying on a couple of bets I made over a year ago that this race would not make the schedule as planned. But, I still contend as you do, that the wild enthusiasm was too optimistic and the general history and background of this effort, never mind Bernie's manipulative history, does not bode well for a successfu,l profitable and well managed event.

I hope I'm wrong and it ends up to be a great experience for the hardcore fans who will actually be there in the stands, but the jury's still out.

[stevieray122854]

I hope I'm wrong too but what they are doing down there is not exactly a recipe for success. When a ticket for Austin costs more than one for Monaco, somebody's sense of reality is distorted. All I know is that when I heard the ticket prices, I immediately gave up my motel reservation in San Marcos. When the cost to attend a GP in your own country exceeds the cost of installing a clutch in my NSX, I give up.

[Miner]

I hope I'm wrong too but what they are doing down there is not exactly a recipe for success. When a ticket for Austin costs more than one for Monaco, somebody's sense of reality is distorted. All I know is that when I heard the ticket prices, I immediately gave up my motel reservation in San Marcos. When the cost to attend a GP in your own country exceeds the cost of installing a clutch in my NSX, I give up.

I'm still hoping to attend, but I don't know if tix end up costing a fortune. I've been to 4 US GPs (Dallas and Phoenix) and always bought Gen Admin tix which were like $100 for the whole 3 day weekend. Now that I'm an adult I'd like to sit in a seat, but not at the cost of a kidney.

Thank goodness I have free housing in Austin.

My buddy says the ingress / egress to the track is going to be horrible. He was at the inagural Texas Motor Speedway race (Busch Race) and that was a huge goat rope. He says Austin will be worse; that is if people show up.

Miner

[Hugh]

Formula 1 sucks. It's almost as boring as watching paint dry. That being said, it will fail miserably in the U.S.

[dquarasr2]

Formula 1 sucks. It's almost as boring as watching paint dry. That being said, it will fail miserably in the U.S.

I'll have to disagree with you, Hugh, especially this year. Even without passing watching F1 cars circulate is truly spectacular: the changes in direction, the noise, oh, the noise, and OMG, the braking, almost other-worldly. And this year, there are actually on-track passes!

That said, what the hell is up with the COA website?!? Individual ticket prices "coming soon"? How can a prospective patron plan anything without a firm price for all the available options?

And are they f'ing kidding me on grandstand prices? When I went to Indy in 2000 for the return of F1 to the US, we bought grandstand seats for $85 (the last turn coming onto the front straightaway, equivalent to Indy 500 T1 backwards). Outside the speedway grandstand tickets AT THE START-FINISH LINE were being hawked for $20, so we bought a few and went back and forth during the race (along with walking around the rest of the track).

If Austin can't send out firm ticket prices only six months from the race date, I don't see a successful event. I'm not making any reservations, especially non-refundable or high-change-fee airline tickets until I know my total cost of the event. I understand there may be challenges for the organizers and promoters, but hell, this affects my personal wealth and I'll be damned if I'm going to make any kind of commitment until I know more. It might be better to just forget it and hope Canada is still on the schedule in 2013. (Been there, too, that was a total blast.)

Has anyone associated with the Austin event done a reality check to get the pulse of F1 fandom? Doesn't seem like it to me.

[92 white 0650]

Hugh was just trolling. I think Ponyboy put him up to it.

[Hugh]

Hugh was just trolling.

No I wasn't. I was expressing my opinion. F1 sucks.

(I'm watching Rolex Grand-Am racing at Belle Island as I'm typing this which is just reinforcing my opinion.)

[dquarasr2]

Ticket prices were announced.

They still have that silly seat license set up for the prime grandstands, but for us regular folk, there are GA and grandstand tickets for the weekend between $159-500.

Finally, an idea of what it will cost.

Tickets go on sale June 10.

[dirtiehippie]

Don't forget to include the absurdly over-inflated hotel room costs for anywhere within an hour of the track. $300-400 to stay in a hotel room that would run about $100 any other weekend of the year.

I was looking forward to going with Austin only being a few hours away. Now I plan on watching from the comfort of my couch. Maybe next year will be different. Right now it makes more sense to kick back and see if things even pan out and a race does happen.

- Chris

[NSXrebel]

$159 for the weekend is pretty damn reasonable for me. Even though I'm planning on flying in and out for just the race. probably flying out late Saturday night/EARLY Sunday morning, and flying back out Sunday night to LAX. Can't wait!