US GP in Austin Discussion and Speculation...

Your read on this is what COTA is betting on... and I call fail. The "hipsters" come to Austin for SXSW and ACL to stand in line for anything. Not just for anything, to stand in line for anything. These events have years of history and blog after blog about how it was worth it to stand in line. There is no such history attached to COTA, COTA is just trying to "ride the coat tails". Being in downtown Austin surrounded by 100,000 people is sometimes fun on its own. I doubt "hipsters" see COTA as the same experience.

During SXSW I asked over and over "will you be coming to Formula 1 in November". The overwhelming, undeniable popular response was "what is that?". Most didn't even know there was a track being built in Elroy.

So what is COTA doing now? Trying to tie "live music" and Formula 1 together. The goal is to associate F1 with Austin's existing identity as the "live music capitol of the world". The problem is a majority of the "hipsters" see car racing as an evil carbon producing industry. With the bad press over COTA, the ones who are aware of COTA have made up their minds that this is not for Austin.

To put it simply, its a "I know them, so you should like us too" strategy. Battle of the bands and Band of the Year at USGP? What a misguided, obvious ploy to attract patrons that wouldn't normally be at a race. COTA I hope your reading this. Those marketing people are following an obvious line that many will scoff at; I hope you didn't pay more than a few dollars for it. You should be promoting Formula 1 on its merits, and not trying to sell it as a side show at a rock concert.

http://www.hmmagazine.com/2012/03/band-of-the-year-competition-hosted-in-texas/

 

Do you know how much GA tickets are at Silverstone? I'd guess around half the seat price? Positively reasonable for a small piece of probably muddy ground for the day.

It's the "you gotta buy a PSL (for 15 years!) if you want a real seat" that's giving me a huge problem - Many would pay, say, $400-$500 for a good seat for the weekend, but surely not on top of $5000+ for a PSL. (?)

Cheers,
Ian

 

I think premise of an austin race was not to draw "hipsters" from austin. rather draw from the entire region, and I wouldnt be surprised at all if the race drew more fans out of houston and dallas then austin.

 

+ Mexico and the rest of central south america. They have money and arent scared if the facilities arent perfect.

 

So people with means, used to having seats will show up for grass, since its Austin and accept no seat LOL?? Glad Im having a drink tonight.

 

Can't wait to see F1 cars on that track. Tilke finally got it right.

 

I think my brother said $100 Ian. At least you can still buy a bacon and egg buttie for a fiver there! Hard to beat Grand Scratch with South Bank full of motors blowing their horns at the winner though.

 

thats a very good point as well, lots of mexican F1 fans, and texas is very spanish speaking friendly.

 

Paying $5K per PSL is worrisome when the question of how many months or years COTA will end up attracting worthwhile events at the track remains ever-present. I would gladly pay this if I thought COTA had their **** together and could sustain a 10+ year viable business model. If F1 punts it after a year or two and MotoGP, with three US events, isn't generating enough revenue to warrant bringing them to Austin after a year or two, then a coupla PSL's for 4 or 5 races + the ticket costs before COTA goes under turns into a bitter experience for a lot of people. That would include me.....I don't mind giving that kinda dough to charity but I don't like businesses that can't cut it burning me with their lack of business acumen.


BTW, I received an e-mail today as a follow up to my deposit. I've put together many Power Point presentations in my career that were far superior to the crap I received in the email attachments, and I ALWAYS checked my grammar and spelling.....they actually fubared that up. What a bunch of maroons.....

COTA has blown off all of its toes, IMO. If I owned a part of this deal, I would want to take a baseball bat to some people's knees for such gross negligence and ineptitude.

 

I live in Mexico. You think they have the money to sit in the grass for $500 USD, about $6300 pesos? Or pay $1000+ USD per seat in the tribunes, about $123,000 pesos?

Maybe Carlos Slim and his immediate family, but if there are more than 2500 souls in Mexico that would do either, I would be surprised. Those I know that wanted to attend have already decided not to bother.

Do you know it is often cheaper to fly to New York, from say Mexico DF, than it is to fly to Houston and then connect to Austin?

And Central America? Are we talking the same Central America, like Honduras, Panama, etc, or do you mean Ohio, Indiana, etc?

Unrealistic to think many Latinos would pay this kind of money, even if they had it, which most do not.

 

I know plenty who are more than capable of paying and will pay, they are my neighbors, friends, etc. Many are going to bring family over.

Perez continuing to finish well will also help bring in the mexican fans.

Obviously were not talking about the lower classes here. More than enough wealthy both here and in every country down there who have an interest and the means to come.

And my wealthy friends in el Salvador would have no problems sitting on grass if it came to that, i suspect that it common across the spectrum.

 

So you've been to a UT football game lol.

 

We'll see. I was not talking about any "lower class" either. I was talking about people with money that would have even a passing interest in F1. I do not think there enough that are hard core F1 fans that would make a difference if they attended. Especially not at the quoted prices, and hotel rates. Keep that in mind, the hotels, even if there were people from wherever that would pay the price for the tickets, where are they going to stay? So when you add the price of hotels to the price of tickets, even your friends from Mexico would have to question the wisdom of going to Austin.

Going to Canada, Brazil, would be cheaper.

 

Really? What gave it away?

 

Not really. There is more than one fast growing city in Texas. From what Ive read the Houston deal has also been on the table for a while now.

“For me, it feels like we’re going to a place where we’re welcome,” said Castroneves, who won last week’s season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla. “I don’t know why we left Houston. But the timing is right now to start all over again, and it’s an important market. You’re talking about the American and Latin-American community, and you’re just expanding to areas that worked in the past.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/indycar-race-set-for-houston-in-october-2013/2012/03/28/gIQATqZChS_story.html

 

Alum? Texas '10 for me.

 

Heck just put a few musicians together and start another music festival on the lot and that will help pay some of the bills for the year.

 

http://mo.statesman.com/news/local/development-sluggish-around-f1-track-2276556.html

 

Yes, a few years before you... '95

Do you note the similarities with CotA and the Longhorn Network? Both cost $300M, both could care less about the fans, and both don't seem concerned about how many people will watch.

 

So, I just got back $96.80 of my seat down payment. Apparently the refund has to come through PayPal, and the fees are my problem.

Ok, $3.20 isn't a big deal, but it's emblematic of the level of professionalism at COTA marketing.

 

Talked with COTA re: psl. Decided not to purchase (this year) until track and race is better esablished as the infrastucture and roads are in place, and with at least one F1 race under it's belt to make that kind of commitment. Too many if's and unkowns to make this investment.
PSL's are for 15 years but FIA's contract is only 10 years, and who knows if FIA's end won't be "renegotiated" down by the whim and desires of the pygmy.
I will let my PayPal money ride with them as it can be applied towards the g.a. tickets when they become available...and still refundable (minus the PayPal fees) at any time.

JD

 

Houston had a deal with CART, 1998 -2001, then lost the date to the reunification.....just did not fit the two schedules mashed together.

I really don't think it has much to do with COTA.

Houston in the CART years DID use a lot of professionals in the front office that knew the racing, sales, and marketing. They pulled from Newman Haas, the Milwaukee Mile and while they did use a lot of local staff the top brass was experienced in management of events/facilities.

 

Did you pay by PayPal originally? If not, how did you pay?