Circuit of the Americas Development Updates - Page 103

the Genral · #**2041** Posted **Oct 24, 2015, 12:27 AM**

I'm curious to see the final attendance numbers, I think they will be affected by the weather and the Mexican GP, but what will affect the numbers more? Race fans in many of the upper tier racing levels travel well, and now have the opportunity to see two GP's in one year back to back. There will still be many Mexican flags waving at COTA on Sunday I predict, but I'm also going to predict a 8 to 10 percent decrease in attendance that organizers will blame mostly on the weather, hense giving them a mulligan for 2015.

The ATX · #**2042** Posted **Oct 24, 2015, 3:31 AM**

Parking has become a major problem due to the rains and vehicles getting stuck in the unpaved lots. COTA has closed the unpaved lots and is requiring a lot of the ticket holders - some of which probably paid good money to park at the track - to use the Downtown shuttle instead.

hookem · #**2043** Posted **Oct 24, 2015, 6:18 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The ATX

Parking has become a major problem due to the rains and vehicles getting stuck in the unpaved lots. COTA has closed the unpaved lots and is requiring a lot of the ticket holders - some of which probably paid good money to park at the track - to use the Downtown shuttle instead.

I wonder if they are hoping to preserve them from getting totally destroyed before Sunday, by shutting them down for tomorrow. Hope the shuttle service is free for the people who have parking passes to those lots, and that they increase the number of buses. They'll still have to pay for downtown parking, though.

I'm hoping to go tomorrow and Sunday, I figured I'd be able to find some cheap tickets last minute but perhaps now they'll be REAL cheap. Who knows what they'll actually be able to run, though. Hope the post-race concert still happens.

The ATX · #**2044** Posted **Oct 24, 2015, 6:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hookem

I wonder if they hoping to preserve them from getting totally destroyed before Sunday, by shutting them down for tomorrow. Hope the shuttle service is free for the people who have parking passes to those lots, and that they increase the number of buses. They'll still have to pay for downtown parking, though.

I'm hoping to go tomorrow and Sunday, I figured I'd be able to find some cheap tickets but perhaps now they'll be REAL cheap. Who knows what they'll actually be able to run, though. Hope the post-race concert still happens.

The shuttles will be free for those who paid for parking. But a lot of those folks probably don't have a Downtown hotel, and I suspect COTA won't add any/or enough shuttles to keep the whole thing running smoothly.

The ATX · #**2045** Posted **Oct 26, 2015, 5:51 AM**

Parking and access to and from the site for the race and any all big events appears to be the cause of COTA's steady downfall. The complaints over the high prices they charge for concessions don't seem to be anywhere near as significant as the bad as parking/traffic complaints. Even the city's 4th of July fireworks show held there a couple years ago had people waiting over two hours to get out of the parking lot(s). COTA needs to fix that in order to get people to return or even visit for the first time because of all the horror stories out there on social media.

The race this year was great (as seen on NBC inside my warm dry home with no parking issues.)

hookem · #**2046** Posted **Oct 26, 2015, 6:13 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The ATX

Parking and access to and from the site for the race and any all big events appears to be the cause of COTA's steady downfall. The complaints over the high prices they charge for concessions don't seem to be anywhere near as significant as the bad as parking/traffic complaints. Even the city's 4th of July fireworks show held there a couple years ago had people waiting over two hours to get out of the parking lot(s). COTA needs to fix that in order to get people to return or even visit for the first time because of all the horror stories out there on social media.

The race this year was great (as seen on NBC inside my warm dry home with no parking issues.)

Yeah, the parking issues have only seemed to get worse. And they had too few shuttles, and asked everyone to use them when the parking lots turned to mud. It's an obvious money issue, they can't seem to staff the parking lots with enough folks, much less pave them. And they won't pay for the volume of shuttles they had in the first couple of years. It's a shame, because the county has kicked in and added some roads and continues to direct traffic and do the contra-flow thing on the main road.

ivanwolf · #**2047** Posted **Oct 28, 2015, 2:28 PM**

I got to volunteer again this year and got to listen to some of the internal radio traffic, at least one channel. The mixed and confusing decisions that were made by the FIA and COTA were quite strange. We were hearing at 7:30am that gates open were at 10am, then noon, but just after 8am someone opened the gates and let fans in.

COTA posts that parking is closed in some dirt lots but open in other dirt lots. Did they really think that the fans would look to see if their lot was open or not. No they came to the track anyway, I heard those closed lots were later opened as it was likely better to let them park on the packed drive surfaces at least and just not on the soft grass areas. Did they expect those fans who did not pay attention to drive all the way back in to DT to take a shuttle?

The FIA made it difficult to tell fans what was going on as they kept people at bay every 30min making a new delay happen, If they would have just gone with 2 hours time blocks people could tell the fans what was canceled or not.

The only saving grace was the pit walk late in the day, which was mis-communicated to the fans too, announcer said 20min, it was more like 45min later or more before the fans were let in. Some of them spent the morning waiting in lines to get wrist bands to get autographs only to have that canceled 30min after it was to start.

Listening internally from my point there are some poor decisions being made. There appears to be no clear emergency plan, they knew the rain was coming and they knew that cars get stuck in the lots, they could have had that all laid out ahead of time for the fans to review and change plans accordingly.

The ATX · #**2048** Posted **Oct 28, 2015, 2:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivanwolf

I got to volunteer again this year and got to listen to some of the internal radio traffic, at least one channel. The mixed and confusing decisions that were made by the FIA and COTA were quite strange. We were hearing at 7:30am that gates open were at 10am, then noon, but just after 8am someone opened the gates and let fans in.

COTA posts that parking is closed in some dirt lots but open in other dirt lots. Did they really think that the fans would look to see if their lot was open or not. No they came to the track anyway, I heard those closed lots were later opened as it was likely better to let them park on the packed drive surfaces at least and just not on the soft grass areas. Did they expect those fans who did not pay attention to drive all the way back in to DT to take a shuttle?

The FIA made it difficult to tell fans what was going on as they kept people at bay every 30min making a new delay happen, If they would have just gone with 2 hours time blocks people could tell the fans what was canceled or not.

The only saving grace was the pit walk late in the day, which was mis-communicated to the fans too, announcer said 20min, it was more like 45min later or more before the fans were let in. Some of them spent the morning waiting in lines to get wrist bands to get autographs only to have that canceled 30min after it was to start.

Listening internally from my point there are some poor decisions being made. There appears to be no clear emergency plan, they knew the rain was coming and they knew that cars get stuck in the lots, they could have had that all laid out ahead of time for the fans to review and change plans accordingly.

I noticed that COTA was deleting posts on their Facebook page that mentioned the rain a few days before the race even though the weather situation was clearly forecast in advance.

The ATX · #**2049** Posted **Nov 3, 2015, 11:14 PM**

More turmoil at COTA. They fired their president Jason Dial today.

http://autoweek.com/article/formula-...t-americas-out

Tech House · #**2050** Posted **Nov 4, 2015, 3:01 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The ATX

More turmoil at COTA. They fired their president Jason Dial today.

http://autoweek.com/article/formula-...t-americas-out

Would that be a fairly significant action or is it more likely just a symbolic move?

ivanwolf · #**2051** Posted **Nov 5, 2015, 9:49 PM**

Flood Damage

During
http://imgur.com/a/vyjQC

Aftermath
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...7614878&type=3

hookem · #**2052** Posted **Nov 6, 2015, 5:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tech House

Would that be a fairly significant action or is it more likely just a symbolic move?

They've had quite a bit of turnover in C-level executives, more than would be normal for an entity that has only been around 4 years. So I wouldn't say it's a significant action on its own. Could very well be symbolic, something to show investors that someone is taking the fall for the problems at this years USGP.

However, it's unlikely to make a difference one way or another who is occupying those top spots; any real decisions (the kind that require any significant amount of money) still seem to be made only by the owner. Looks sort of like a Jerry Jones type situation, but without all the fans and money coming in.

The ATX · #**2053** Posted **Nov 11, 2015, 3:51 AM**

We may have seen the last F1 race at COTA:

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news...emium-referral

We vs us · #**2054** Posted **Nov 11, 2015, 3:45 PM**

Hi all . . . I've been lurking for the last 6 mos or so but this topic finally brought me out of the woodwork . .

I'm in the hospitality community and the F1 kerfuffle made the rounds pretty quickly this morning. I'm new to TX and don't know Abbott's style, but I wouldn't be surprised if he and his administration were being opportunistic here. If you look at macro conditions it's a perfect time to renegotiate: this year's race was pretty disastrous, attendance and revenue has been declining since the first year or so, and the org itself keeps churning C level people. F1 is in a weak spot and might have to give up some of that state support if it wants to continue in Austin. (I also assume they don't have other possible venues in the US to jump to -- part of the problem may be lack of competition from a comparable facility.)

Anyway, it's potentially a pretty strategic play from the Abbott administration -- I'll be interested to see if that's really what's motivating them in the long run.

Novacek · #**2055** Posted **Nov 11, 2015, 4:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The ATX

We may have seen the last F1 race at COTA:

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news...emium-referral

At this point, I think it's just initial posturing. In the end, most likely the METF reimbursement will end up being something like 22M, and CotA will end up having to eat a little more.

Or CotA will end up having to objectively prove they brought in 25M, in which case they'll be fine (if that's what they actually did).

hookem · #**2056** Posted **Nov 11, 2015, 5:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by We vs us

F1 is in a weak spot and might have to give up some of that state support if it wants to continue in Austin. (I also assume they don't have other possible venues in the US to jump to -- part of the problem may be lack of competition from a comparable facility.)

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know much about the hospitality industry, but I do know a little bit about F1 and Greg Abbott. Unfortunately, F1 does not "renegotiate". F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone really does not care if Austin or any USGP continues; F1 races churn more often than COTA management, and except for a few races none have any negotiation power. He always has a few countries wanting an F1 race in his back pocket, and they are willing to pay. So the inability for Austin to pay the full amount will result in termination.

As for Greg Abbott, he is the typical Texas politician, he knows that the contempt that many Texas voters have for things like a European sport... it's an easy target to gain political points. He also knows where his bread is buttered, and I guess the folks behind COTA haven't been buttering enough. He also knows, as the former attorney general (and knowing the current attorney general), that any legal challenge to the funding cut will fail in the Texas courts.

What Abbott might not know is that any reduction in the funding is most likely the end of the race. I assume he's been advised of this, but the reason I say he might not know is because if he did, then why not get the max political points and kill the whole subsidy? The result would be the same.

Spaceman · #**2057** Posted **Nov 11, 2015, 6:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hookem

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know much about the hospitality industry, but I do know a little bit about F1 and Greg Abbott. Unfortunately, F1 does not "renegotiate". F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone really does not care if Austin or any USGP continues; F1 races churn more often than COTA management, and except for a few races none have any negotiation power. He always has a few countries wanting an F1 race in his back pocket, and they are willing to pay. So the inability for Austin to pay the full amount will result in termination.

As for Greg Abbott, he is the typical Texas politician, he knows that the contempt that many Texas voters have for things like a European sport... it's an easy target to gain political points. He also knows where his bread is buttered, and I guess the folks behind COTA haven't been buttering enough. He also knows, as the former attorney general (and knowing the current attorney general), that any legal challenge to the funding cut will fail in the Texas courts.

What Abbott might not know is that any reduction in the funding is most likely the end of the race. I assume he's been advised of this, but the reason I say he might not know is because if he did, then why not get the max political points and kill the whole subsidy? The result would be the same.

Bernie likes races in Asia and the Middle East that draw small crowds but pay him big money...