BULGARIA 2011: Another High Attendance Venue For F1??

Probably a lot of race fans in Eastern Europe but I am not sure how many would have the funds to buy 600Eu tickets!

 

+1 It'll probably be another Tilke track.

 

(All said in SBC Borat accent)

Oh yaaa, oos crazy bulgars haf da great racing heritage, all wit da famous teams, racing da Panzer tanks and ice racing Treblants......Yeeeessssss! Veee vil come out in droves....all 12 of us.....yeeeesssss!

 

This shows just how narrowminded some people like yourself are.
I am Bulgarian and I have to admit that Bulgaria is not on par economically with some other countries, but apparently most people, like you, still don't get it that the joke was on USA not the Borats from around the globe.
As far as a race in Bulgaria, my personal opinion is that there are other venues that should make a come back, before a race in Bulgaria is organized. Having said that, the Balkans still make 100 times more sense for an F1 venue than Malaysia, Abhu Dabi etc.
And if you wonder who can afford paying for a ticket, rest assured, the venue will sell out. There are plenty of people there that can afford a lot more than you think. Imagine Russia in smaller scale.
Oh, and if you craw out of your shell one day and make it there, do yourself a favor and don't call the Bulgarians Russians or compare them to Borat.

 

Bring your wallets boys and Bernie will be all ears.

 

Hm--I thought that's a Bruno accent. But then again you probably don't make a difference between Bulgaria and Bolivia......!

On the topic--make no mistake- a vanue of this scale will generate enough audience ( I doubt that the ticket prices will be the same as Monaco ) However for such an event to take place too many factors have to fall into place (the track needs to be build, Pleven cannot accomodate all the spectators and teams ) and let's not forget Turkey gP is too close too....

 

Well, I am not sure that comparing to Russia is a great example of wealthy countries with lots of disposable income. The vast vast majority of Russians wouldn't be candidates for dropping 600Eu per ticket on an dF1 race.

I do think it would be a neat place for a race, since it's in Europe, and I'll take all the European races I can get over those in the Middle East or Asia. But let's face it - Bulgaria isn't going to bring in 150,000 domestic fans... although it's land-accessible to Europe so it would likely draw a lot of people from Europe unlike a race in Malaysia or Abu Dhabi.

 

Both SRT Mike and Dimitar make valid points.
Pleven definitely can not support a venue of this magnitude, unless they rebuild half the country around it.
Mike you are right that Russia is not exactly the epitome of wealth, but it is a country with very similar culture and mentality, something which would be as easy to explain to you as it would be to explain K.E.R.S. to my wife.
People do make $500 a month and do ware $300 shoes. And trust me the tickets are not going to be the same price as Monaco and YES, there are people who would spend their entire salary to see F1 live.
I think that one thing we all agree on. Bring back US, Canada, France and even Argentina, before you look for new venues and leave a couple races only in the Middle East and Asia.

 

Trust you based on.... your discussions with Bernie on the matter?

Look up the average salary in Bahrain compared to ticket prices. Or Turkey. I am all too familiar with the way money is spent in Russia and Bulgaria (believe it or not I spent 11 years hob-knobbing between Sofia, Tallinn, Moscow and Saratov).. but the facts are the facts. If you earn $6000 a year, you're not going to be taking your wife and kids to see the F1 race @ $500/ticket. Those that do would be the minority, and a Bulgarian GP would work only based on non-Bulgarian-citizen attendance.

 

A GP in Bulgaria is a bone headed idea.

Just goes to show how screwed up Bernie has become: What F1, the teams and the fans need is a return to North America. Also from a global perspective F1 should have at least one race on the African continent.

A Bulgarian GP should not be a priority.

 

+1

+ another 1. There's the problem - Too many Borats! [Of all colors]

+1

+ yet another 1. Bulgaria is (now) a pretty cool place.

+ another 1! Without getting into the whole Borat debate (unless we're going to P&R)

Bulgaria is "mainland" Europe.

OTOH, so is Turkey, and no one went there either....... I guess it depends on whether the important thing is "bums in seats" (see NFL) or TV audience (see F1).

My 02c,
Cheers,
Ian

 

Get off your high f'ing bulgarian horse. I said nothing about the Bulgarians, their economy, their ability to pay for a ticket or that Borat was anything other than a spoof movie. What I did was make a joke about a country with absolutely NO international racing history leaping into the deep end by trying to put on a F1 race, when countries that have been involved in international racing for years still lack an event. Try putting on a F3 race first. Field an A1GP team for Christ's sake. It is a stupid place for F1 to go and try to run a race. Regardless of ticket price, if there is not a core of ground roots racing, you won't get any one in the seats. All Bernie cares about is whether the government has enough money to build at track for him to televise a race from. This might occur, but I would guess that there are other expenditures that would make a bigger difference in the life of the Bulgarian people. For you to make accusations about "how narrowminded" I might be is an olympic leap to a conclusion of which you have no knowledge or basis. To compound your **** slinging you tell me to "craw out of my shell" (it's crawl by the way) and to not compare Bulgarians to Russians, I didn’t. I did make reference to the fact that they were once within the sphere of Soviet influence and in fact had Treblants in Bulgaria. You have done yourself and the Bulgarian people a disservice by your post, as it would tend to support a theory that the Bulgarians fly off the handle, read way too much into two lines of text on a bulletin board and attack other posters of which they have no knowledge. Good Day Lucky!

 

Of course, I meant the inverse - Sorry.

 

Damn Treblants, they're everywhere!
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While true the same could be said of the vast majority of the US. The question should be are there enough with the funds and the desire to go to such a race? The US sometimes has more problem with the later (thinking Phoenix of course) which is possibly more to do with the number of options the poulation have to spend their money on.

+1

 

Trabants! Tribbles......whatever

 

Does he just look at a globe and point to somewhere or something because this is getting ridiculous. I mean next year isn't there supposed to be a race in New Delhi or something and Moscow? I kinda like the new race this year in Abu Dhabi just because it's sort of a up and coming newly built city, which is good. Bernie is running this sport into the ground, the only up side is he doesn't have help anymore.

 

New Delhi IMHO makes sense because we have the Force India team and India is an up and coming market of gigantic proportions.

Abu Dhabi is going to be a jewel in the calendar, like the Monaco of the Desert. Particularly if and when they build the Ferrari/F1 museum/theme park.

So I have no problems with these two per se.

What bothers me more is the concentration of GPs in one region: Bulgaria is right next door to Hungary and Turkey. That's too many GPs in that region. And of course they're all part of Europe, where we already have an abundance of races and I don't want F1 to be a European series, but a global sport.

I'm so glad there is a race in South America and in Australia. Now go fix the global map and add at least one back into North America and Africa before cluttering Europe, Asia or the Middle East up with more.

 

Well, when I say trust me, I mean about knowing the Bulgarians. I am one of them after all. It is based on knowing the way we are. Formula one is almost at the same level of popularity as Football (yes the one that you call soccer for whatever reason). I don't need to talk personally to Bernie to know the mentality of my own people. The same people that even if not Madonna fans, still pay $300 for a concert ticket. A lot of them are not even of drinking age and don't work and their parents are NOT rich by any means.
Also you can compare an average salary in the middle of the desert in an Arabic country, where even the champagne on the podium is non-alcoholic, with a country where there is F1 fan base older than Bahrain itself and you can buy beer in McDonalds. Not to mention that everything is at least half the price and Italy is 6 hours away driving.
Anyway, this is completely off topic.
The idea is, that for whatever reason, events with history and tradition are falling off the calender and senseless new venues are taking their place. You will find no argument from me, that a Bulgarian GP is a moronic idea. Not because it would not bring money, but because there are just so many races on the calender and greater number of already established tracks.
I think that priority number one should be a race in North America. After all this is the biggest market for the car manufacturers. However they have to figure out a way to gain popularity for the sport in the country. Believe it or not, tiny Switzerland or Bulgaria, either one of which are considerably smaller than Texas, probably can put together bigger F1 fan base than the entire United States.
Anyway, like I said, talking about a Bulgarian GP, in my personal opinion is a waste of breath.

 

That's what Bernie and Co. thought about China...

 

Touche.

Quite frankly the disinterest in China has me dumb founded, but there is no denying that the GP of China is a flop.

The GP of India could be headed for the same fate. Or not. Hard to say. If it materializes at least I'd finally have a good enough reason to visit India. And in all honesty I would make the same argument for Bulgaria.

 

F.Y.I. for everyone here...BORAT was shot in Romania and NOT Bulgaria...Apparently a lot of movies are being shot there. Probably it's much cheeper to do it there than here, and the women are pretty hot toooooooooooooooooo

 

It'll be busy for 1 season and the rest of the time it will turn out like the Turkish GP.

 

Which is why I'm very happy to attend not the first race of any new venue. The less fans, the nicer the experience for the invidual.