Melbourne should drop Formula 1 after its Australian Grand Prix deal ends in 2015, reckons the city's lord mayor Robert Doyle. While praising the contribution F1 has made to the city since Albert Park first hosted the GP in 1996, Doyle believes the amount of public funding now required by the race is making it unviable. "In 1996 when the race was a combination of a four-day event and corporate sponsorship was far more generous than it is today, the race still needed to be underwritten by about $1.7 million," Doyle wrote in an article for the Herald Sun newspaper. "Last year it was $50 million." "Fast forward to 2015, the year the franchise ends." "Though the documented benefits for the city may include hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising value, tens of millions of dollars of local revenue, an event that will draw between 250,000 and 300,000 people over three days will come at a cost that will approach 70 million taxpayer dollars." "It is the old argument: pay up front but get many times the value of the upfront payment in downstream economic benefits." "For most events that formula is persuasive." "But $70 million?" Doyle suggested that Bernie Ecclestone might want to take the grand prix away from Melbourne after the current deal anyway - either to a new nation, or to a track that could run the race as a night event. He believes $8-9million of upgrades would be required for Albert Park to secure a new deal, but reckons the healthiest option might be for Melbourne to accept that its F1 days have to come to an end, despite everything the race has done for the city's profile. "The final possibility is that we decide that it has been 20 fantastic years, the benefits to the city and the state have been enormous, but the cycle has run its course," said Doyle." The Victoria state government will have the final say on whether Melbourne should continue paying for F1, but Doyle believes the politicians should prepare to let the GP go. "My judgement would be: Get ready. Time's up," he said.
The lessons drawn from Melbourne experience should be matter for thought for cities that still contemplate hosting GPs in future; Austin for example. The cost goes up and up and the tab is picked up by the locals who will finally expel the authorities that make the decisions. The Mayor of Melbourne is trying not to be linked to the financial fiasco. It should be noted that Rome toning down its ambition to hold a GP also had the same reason to give up its plans. The ball is in Ecclestone's court, but there must be a limit to his financial demands; FOTA may price itself out of business one day... Melbourne is the second Australian town to think abandoning GPs after Adelaide that held them before and also gave up.
Boy, that's going to be interesting. I'm sure they'll come up with something just as nice.. But the MEMORIES!
In that the contract has a while to run I think that these comments should be seen as the opening of negotiations. The situation is serious but not yet dire.
+ 1 Hope this GP stay's around. And as long as Im hoping, I hope it becomes the first GP again some day... Alex
Not to be an ass, but what was your first clue? 28-30 years ago, when Vegas and Long Beach pulled the plug, and Detroit after 1988 pretty much says it all. The countries that have GP's are pretty-much the countries that are pumping in multi-multi-millions without blinking an eye. What would happen if Melbourne simply said they were only going to pump in X dollars, not XX dollars, I mean, are they FORCED to spend XX?
Yippee, there are tons of tracks around that lose money every year, we'll just add Austin to the list. I am surprised they even built a nascar track at Fontana, that's a losing proposition. Even Indy has problems outside of the Brickyard 400, and if it wasn't for that race, I bet Indy would be closed by now. America has just seemed to have lost it's taste for open wheel racing, and it must be just a coincidence that it happened right when CART was forced out of Indy and the IRL was formed, but it's been going downhill ever since the mid-80's.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo, ohh wait it's just the Lord Mayor who has no say. The current Victorian Premier is a bit of a sports nut so I doubt he will let the GP go without a fight.
Bernie responds to Lord Mayor comments with Melb talkback radio. http://media.mytalk.com.au/3AW/AUDIO/280111_Neil_Mitchell_Podcast.mp3 the interview happens 1hr 17mins~. Bernie would like to see night races but he pokes fun @ Lord Mayor.
