Must admit that is pretty impressive progress for 13 months... ... At this rate they will be ready 2 years after the oil runs out... 281 days until the FIA inspectors arrive...
If I remember right, the partnership and subsequent comment was like two years ago (three years at the most). Mark
While progress to build the track continues, on the COTA facebook page, they are taking potshots at a local DJ who apparently is against the F1 track and has shown vocal opposition to it, after he was issued a DWI; this, from that FB page: "The local radio host that keeps bashing F1 gets busted!" "KLBJ's Jeff Ward charged with DWI | KXAN.com www.kxan.com KLBJ radio personality host Jeff Ward was arrested Thursday night on driving while intoxicated charge, according to court records" Seems a bit below the belt, seeing as this is F1...ahem, the sport of gentlemen.
Talk about an idiotic amateur move! Good job Tavo... start a war with someone with massive quantity of open mike time... Now that Tavo has gone there, hope no one on the Tavo team has any dirt in their back ground... throwing stones and glass houses...
You have to give them 6 months credit for dealing with the FEMA clmor and lmor maps. Pretty quick for Austin, actually. I've seen them fight over what to do with land for years.
Watching F1 practice (tevo'd) on speed now... Lee Diffey was babbling on about COTA and progress and website and tickets. Hobbs chimed in... oh wait no he didn't. Dead silence... But Matchett spoke up... nope. not even a cricket chirped... Seems pretty clear to me that Hobbs isn't buying this farce. Anyone else think Hobbs' silence speaks volumes?
First, I would love to see a USGP anywhere, even in Texas. Second, the Austin facility sure looks great, so bring it on. Third, what proof, real proof, (and moving dirt around is not real proof at a point within 12 months of a scheduled event), is there that there will actually be an FIA F1 event in Austin, Texas, in 2012? Are they selling tickets? Is there a diagram for the grandstand seating? So far, I see nothing but wishful thinking.
FWIW, on the preliminary schedule there wasn't an asterisk next to the USGP, only turkey. They've done more than just move dirt. They've removed dirt, added dirt, starting to lay some pipes, put down some fancy plastic water barrier stuff, put up fun little flags to mark the turns, bid out a lot of the work, got some permits, put up almost 900k bond with the city so they could move dirt before FEMA approved the flood plain remappings. If the land lease, or whatever theory is correct, then why does the city bid out the water utilites that are going to be reimbursted for by Tavo if they don't think they have any money? If they don't have the land, don't own the land, I wouldn't think they could put a lien on it to get the $$ back
If this is such a fantastic thing for Austin,... why is a petition needed to save it??? We're told that it's going to be a unanimous affirmative vote anyway... Now with that said... I think it's a big win for austin. whether it's a win after committing 25M/year x 10 years is another issue... but prob still a net positive to the state tax coffers. I still don't see how the track operators make any money... after paying $400M to build the track.
I don't drink, no excuses, i guess ticket sales, over priced drinks and parking spaces?? oh, and the land is owned by a company incorporated in deleware, with management in San Antonio.....me thinks Red foot the bill for that one
But guess which states have the most fortune 500 companies incorporated in them??? Texas + California each at 57
I've also heard that Texas has received the majority of the "recovery" funds made available by Congress.
I couldn't comment for sure about that. I know we turned down some money for education a while back because there were too many stipulations on it. I hope you're not trying to gode me into looking this up, like F1TopFan did and his gas line comments
