Can't get them all right, I guess. The point I was trying to get across is. The buildings aren't very complicated to put up; all the work is in the site prep. But it was before they even announced the provisional calendar. (or were behind schedule?) What doesn't hold water is that they were even considering June in the first place.... Pictures! courtesy of COTA Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Finally an admission... Sorry Ben.... that's just plain wrong. Back in may/ june you were disagreeing with me when I was stating that all they were doing is pushing dirt... Now 2-3 months later,... once COTA announces "the dirt pushing is complete"... you choose to claim that "pushing dirt" is "all the work".
No, they were behind schedule long before May and the race date of June '12 was known long before May as well. Those aren't valid excuses. The fact remains that if they were making a completely false race date just to hurry along the permiting, knowing all along they would change it to November, then they should have set Austin as the first race of 2012. That they did not says that they intended to meet the 6/2012 deadline.
Not a very positive article... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/new-cars/motorsports/formula-one-sets-itself-up-for-another-failure-in-us/article2154788/
That's a Canadian newspaper. Canadia wishes they had so many awesome things going on in one weekend. i keed, i keed.
They kind of 'forgot" to point out what drove the nail into F1's run at Indy: Michelin tire problems in front of 100K fans, resulting in what, eight cars running the race, and NO refund$?? There's only four NASCAR fans that follow F1, so not much market overlap on that point.
Michelin tire problem was definitely one nail in the coffin, but the final nail was Eddie George deciding not to renew the contract after 07 because he didnt like the terms.
Tony George??.....no matter he isn't signing them these days.... I was just speaking to this article's concern about the FAN base conflict. If only Indiana had kicked in $25M a year, it would have all worked out!!
Did that article come from the opinion section? UT has already said they would move schedule to accomidate the race. I don't think Nascar and Formula 1 fan bases overlap much.
Nope. But if you've read the papers in the last couple years,... there's no difference between the opinion section and the front page... I hope you see how that is not necessarily a good thing... Don't you think F1 would like to attract NASCar fans? I think that is exactly the author's point... You have a huge base of MotorSport Fans,... and the date chosen does not help in marketing F1 to them.
I think if F1 wants to grow in America, they need to create a new fan base; not just try to convert NASCAR fans. I think if they just try to appeal to existing motorsports fans, they aren't going to make it very well. They need to market to people my age, who grew up playing video games......
...the "Global" and Mail is a highly regarded news outlet...in Canada... is it me or did they break the story on why the race was move to November, i.e. because of "construction delays"...Based on that info, their reporting carries as much weight as the Botswana Gazette, while good paper on local issues, hardly a source for global issues or F1
Hey, I subscribe to the Botswana Gazette. It does great reviews of Bollywood films... http://www.gazettebw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11159:bollywoods-bodyguard-breaks-box-office-records&catid=20:timeout
...the "Global" and Mail is a highly regarded news outlet...in Canada... is it me or did they break the story on why the race was move to November, i.e. because of "construction delays"...Based on that info, their reporting carries as much weighted as the Botswana Gazette, while good paper on local issues, hardly a source for global issues or F1
not 'story,' 'editorial'.... the headline was 'Formula One sets itself up for another failure in U.S.' did you expect anything else?
Written by a major paper in a country that has a superb race. So you may want to give them a bit of slack. The part about F1 not being successful in the US is hardly a myth. The fact is the odds are against this succeeding over the long term just looking at history. I hope it succeeds and applaud the effort to have a purpose built facility for F1. I take the article with a grain of salt but there is alot the team in Austin could do to quell myths and rumors and dont appear to do so. I just hope they have a sufficient marketing budget to get fans to the race. I am not going to come over from Europe for the first one. There wont be enough hotel space just for the teams and entourages. Im sure by the 2nd or 3rd year it will be better. It would appear from the article the team in Austin face an uphill battle to attract a large crowd with so many other events going on. We shall see!
The timing of the race doesn't help. I'm not sure anything would help. Americans just don't seem all that interested in open wheel road racing. An Austin race won't be news in the US unless someone is killed. The folks whom promote soccer have managed to slowly raise that sport's profile here. US open wheel racing's promoters have made their sport almost invisible. These geniuses deserve to be whipped by the media, but they will no doubt survive another decade by finding someone new to wear Danica's bikini.
Maybe Nascar fans will never like F1 and they need to create a new fanbase in the US, but the article makes a good point, all the specialized media will be focused on the Nascar event.
Everything that i heard, i that Nascar fans are there for the crashes, and to get drunk. F1 is more of a classier sport then that.
