US GP in Austin Discussion and Speculation...

I am one of the 41, so you know where I was when this poll came out. I remain strongly pessimistic that a 2012 F1 race will occur in Austin, as much as I would LOVE to see one happen. I have been by the site several times, kept up with the progress (and lack thereof), and followed the drought of information and occasional drama throughout. As has been mentioned, little to no PR to be found, except bad press emerging out of this most recent 'series of events'.

I have this feeling that if we are just dealing with pigs, a resolution will be found and then some 'remote' possibility of a race next year remains, but if it comes down to hogs, well, the race for 2012 will get slaughtered. Worst case is that we have another site to start building a super-conducting super collider.

 

Hush yo mo. Bernie can slap some tractor tires on those babies, and we can have us a good ole fashioned tractor pull. Ye Haw!

Dale

 

I was talking with one of our guys who was working with Helmunds group for the food contract, and that everything has stopped. no construction nothing happening and no info. Our speculation is the funding has stopped, and or dried up completely.

 

Found one of the deeds through travis county's website. They put it up a few months back to secure a loan for $250MM. What I'm going to guess is happening, is Tavo is trying to cash out his equity in the project, and they don't have enough to pay him what was originally promised, or are trying to reduce his payment for managing the event, and the other investors are reluctant to put up their personal money or something.....

Who knows,

I think it will work out.

http://deed.co.travis.tx.us/RealEstate/SearchEntry.aspx search for 'ahspe' the name of the holding company, if you wanna look.....
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What you are seeing now is exactly what SRTMike predicted would happen many months ago.

Sometimes the FChat pundits do get it right.

 

I don't think they're out of money (see title document above).

Hellmund is either getting pushed out, or they're not offering enough money for his equity in the project, so he's getting Bernie involved.

Too much money involved not to reach a compromise....

 

I hope you are right

 

pyric victory; find document showing they have funding, now the management comes into question

 

Having a promissory note and having the money are two completely different things.

 

If it is to secure construction funding, it will be metered out as various performance bench marks are met.

 

I dont see why Bernie would get involved in the USA.... India or some where maybe, where he can control sponsor access.. but in the USA its stacked against him. I think somewhere the funding has either been pulled back or not ever there.

Which completely explains why they do a deal in NJ, to fill up the calendar so they can put pressure on other venues to spend more money if they want a race.

 

Comptroller's statement "If and when an application is recieved"

This is interesting.

 

I'm struggling to understand why this entire $400MM (?) project seems to hinge on a piddling $25MM from the State?......

If that's essential to continuing progress I reckon they've got a lot more to worry about.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I just went and looked at the rules again for the 25mm.

Appications may be filed no earlier than 1 year and no later than 3 months before the event.

This coming Friday (November 18, 2011) appears to be the first possible date that the 25mm application could legally be filed.

 

Source: http://www.texasahead.org/tax_programs/event_fund/metf.html

 

$25mm isn't a trivial sum. It's a very real expense and due annually. Over several years that adds up to a significant part of making the whole thing work.

 

The track is the $400M, the sanctioning fee to FIA is conveniently the $25M.

Not a lot of money, in my experience but this has been GROSSLY mishandled on the PR side since it was conceived......

If Tavo was not interested in staying the course from inception to execution he should have never started the ball downhill.

But ego is a funny thing.

Given the size of the investors on the $400M, he's going to certainly make some substantial enemies if it all crashes to the ground at this point.

I think that was Bernie's counsel to them all in London.
Good advice if you ask me. To bail now flushes it ALL down the toilet.

 

I guess Tavo can always go back to stock car racing in Buda, Texas....

 

Come on, they sell that much in baseball caps and hot dogs at an event in Indianapolis!

 

Any surprise Bernie's fee is exactly 25 mil?

If the METF starts offering more to attract other events, in the future, you can bet FOM fees go up!

 

I think it's random chance actually........just helps to confuse everyone looking at this from the outside.

Like all of the hullaballoo about the "road improvements" that were eventually kicked in by TexDOT as the road was scheduled for rebuild anyway....

Concrete...it's "what we do".....

 

Where is this architect with construction drawings for a "world class event experience"???

At some point the people dreaming up the glowing PR have to be backed up by degreed professionals that KNOW what they are doing....

HKS is certainly that, as is Austin Commercial.
Not the type of people I'd want banging on my door, with unpaid invoices for services.

 

USF1 anyone?