I was there for the bus. I can't say I "experienced" the bog....it was a place to stay away from. No one at the bog was there for the race, just the party. As far as the purchase of a seat license that is the topic of this thread and as someone who has attended GPs in the US, Canada and Europe, I will be informing COTA to "go pound sand".
I wonder if Epstein is grossly overestimating the attraction of F1 in the USA, and to a lesser extent, the attraction of Austin to the F1 crowd? $1k-5k for the right to buy tickets for 15 years? The race contract is substantially less than that period of time, and I would be surprised if there is even an F1 race 3 or 4 years after the first year in Austin. Look at places like Valencia, Turkey, Korea... they are relatively new and already under threat, and they have big gov't money behind them. This whole "buy a spot in line to buy tickets" thing has to be either supreme desperation or supreme arrogance, no? Maybe they are counting on F1 fans being fools and thinking there might actually be a shortage of tickets and they're just skimming the cream off that crowd while they can? If it was about cash, why not start selling the tickets right now? Why the $100 deposit to learn about the $1k-5k program which will let you have the right to buy tickets at some point in the future? It's like 3 layers of abstraction between the cash in the customers wallet and an ass in COTA's seat. And for what? I don't see the goal here.
That's my understanding..... It gets you first refusal to rent *your* seat/suite (at whatever price they choose) for all the other non-sold-out events that may come along.... MotoGP & Aussie V8's are committed I believe. As you said before, "the sucker seats" Cheers, Ian
Thanks. I think that we here may not be appreciating the offering if we think only in terms of F1. As with all these deals the attraction is to those local enough to visit more than once a year.
In the case of sold out events (Cowboys football, hopefully soon 9ers football, etc); +1 [8 games + (hopefully) playoffs etc and the license *may* make sense.....] My problem with this is it's not gonna be sold out for, eg, MotoGP or anything else - There will be plenty of seats available. Now, if you're a local business looking to "entertain clients" at (presumably) motor racing events and have many $ for a suite, *maybe* it makes sense to license said suite. But I'd be willing to bet the same many $ could get you a suite after a year or two....... Cheers, Ian
Local businesses will avail themselves of the entertainment value. And deduct the costs. Most luxury boxes are tax subsidized.
