LdM - F1 Must Halt Attendance Slide..

I go back to the early 80's - even then it was difficult to get into the Paddock but it WAS possible. today it will cost you $5-10K for one person at the Paddock club, and then you only get a couple of minutes in the actual pit lane, and that is it. you never get to mix with the teams unless its a regulated meeting / presentation.

Lemans and ALMS has the right idea. I know its not practical to have 100, thousand people come thru the paddock, but if you could buy an extra pass for after practice to get in the paddock - roped off areas close by, pit lane tour just to see the cars up close what is so wrong with that?

have the drivers meet fans around the track. a meet and mingle autograph session, at different spots, that way you dont get huge crowds, have an established star with a young gun...

finally the teams should make a press car available at the shopping area, so fans can get up close to a modern F-1 car, take close up pictures etc... open the teams up etc...

at the French Gp in 1987, Mclaren had a huge setup at paul ricard for the fans, it was great, you could get up close to the cars, buy some team stuff and Prost did a talk for about 10 min... just stopped by, signed some autographs for kids, and bang he was gone.. it was around 6:30 at night, nobody expected him...it was great.

 

Want to make F1 more attractive?
Lower the ticket prices.
Simple.

 

That, and allow testing, no cost cutting BS.

 

Exactly. I know it's a radical concept to the Ivory Tower crowd, but when you're in the middle of a global recession, why not give a little consideration to lowering your prices. I'm amazed at how the bigger picture is over-looked some times. Of those 16%, they would be better off giving away 10% just to get people in the gate, where they're more likely to spend money on concessions and merchandise. Of those who attended, I'm sure many of them extended themselves financially to attend and cut way back on extra purchases.

 

That and hold the races in counties that have a fan base.

 

Oh yeah--that too

 

Absolutely.

 

and stop bashing the 348 luca...what? bad thread ?

You guys all have a point, but for almost all the problems you need to get past The evil greedy troll, who keeps building tracks on the middle of the desert where only a bunch of Billionaires are aware of F1..

 

When Bernie's interests come up against those of the sport its not even close to a fair fight.

 

LdM really seems to be senile these days. But more likely totally self-serving in his comments. I'd go see the Sutils and Vettels race in Montreal ANY DAY over Schumi racing amidst miserable, ugly and boring sand dunes in the Middle East. Me and apparently thousands of other potential spectators. Too bad the attendance wasn't down any more than that.

 

+1,000,000,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

But given the fact the fees being paid for races is rising at a rate of 10% per years, this means that the promoter is going to lose around 30% of its 2008 income and perhaps more, depending on whether there were any concessions made on ticket prices to try to bring in more people.

 

Problem is that Bernie is locked into providing a return for his "partners" and so has a limited ability to reduce his cut.

 

Getting attendance up is easy

1) Lower ticket prices
2) Have races in places that have a big fan base and where people actually want to go
3) Open up F1 - stop trying to make it so exclusive. The closest you get to F1 is paddock club at $10k/person where you get to stand 50 feet away and watch for about 3 minutes and you must keep walking. That is insane. For the regular peons (who still pay $500/ticket) you get the pleasure of going to the "F1 village" where you get to spend $50 on a shirt with last years driver numbers on it.
4) Enhance the spectacle of the sport. Closer racing, more passing, incentive for drivers to actually push to the end rather than give up.


The above things, however, will never happen while Bernie is alive.

 

+100

 

Well he could ask Slavica to contribute..

 

She doesn't strike me as a "giver".

 

Good point and why should she, she up with him for long enough..

 

Poor Bernie in the end just another fool for love

 

Agree with all of you.

However, there is hope, all of the new Formula 1 races are contracted thru until x, and unless there is a sudden change of fortunes economically and socially the "new" tracks will not be renewing their incredibly expensive contracts. For instance Bahrain and Dubai both signed up when Oil was at record highs ($$$) and tourism was increasing year on year ($$$) and what better way to attract tourists and exposure of our country to a market that big, than to have an F1 race.
Now tourism is in freefall and you have an expensive track that only gets used a few times a year, and costs spirraling out of control what would you cut first.........
As for the more passing and exciting racing, well that is for the team managers to sort out, instead of being conservative they should push their drivers. And instead of blocking initiatives for things like rear wings & testing, it should be imperative to all and sundry that the fans are not happy.
However with PornoMax being replaced by Jean Todt and BE going no-where what chance do we have a of change, possibly nil. The only hope I have is that the economy truly tanks and they need to go back to the tracks and populations that really do care about Formula 1. Hell it might happen..............

Just my .02 cents

 

Well, Bernie is almost 80. It is just a matter of time when he hitches a ride in a Brass Handle Buick.

 

Great points. I also think, F1 should be more 'fan friendly'. They should ensure all drivers get more in touch with fans, such as photograph and autogrpah sessions. They had it this year in Sepang, but can u imagine, they're just signing autographs for 3-4 mins, then they're gone!

 

As I understand it, FOM doesn't get direct funding from ticket sales.
It gets paid by tracks, ...
... and it gets money for TV sales.

I doubt Bernie cares whether anyone shows up to the race, except the camera crews.

 

True as far as that goes but doesn't the gnome have financial interests in some of the tracks?