Circuit of the Americas Development Updates

[turn1]

Oy. If you were counting on the USGP Wednesday Fan Pit Walk like I was....well, don't.

Sadly, it looks like COTA has removed it from the weekend schedule.

http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com/f1/schedule

[MightyYoda]

Are they doing the F1 festival this weekend? I will be out of town, but it was fun last year.

[turn1]

Originally Posted by MightyYoda

Are they doing the F1 festival this weekend? I will be out of town, but it was fun last year.

FanFest? Yes. This year it will be free of charge due to Shell's sponsorship.

[Jdawgboy]

I'm not happy with the owners of COTA at all. They are screwing their own investment and they obviously do not have any passion. The track is so wonderful but the way COTA is being run it's going to waste. They only see money and nothing more.

Here's a question of the Owners who do ya'll think should step aside and let people who really know how to run a world class race track?

[turn1]

A lot of people have been asking about the condition of the COTA grounds after the recent flooding. I thought I had posted this here already, but I guess not. I posted this in response to a question on Motorsport Mayhem about the condition of the grounds. Keep in mind, these pics are from the SVRA weekend, hours after a mere 1/3" rain on Saturday night. They are not from after the big floods.

How are things looking around the track area with all the rain in the past few days?

After the Halloween flooding it was reported that the lower areas of the COTA property had flooded, as did many low areas immediately surrounding the track. Apparently the tunnels flooded also. Amazing that they have no drainage.

During the SVRA event last weekend (before the much bigger Halloween storm) there was mud & standing water everywhere hours after the rain ended & some of the footpaths were heavily eroded from rains over the past few weeks. The turn 1 GA area would have been a disaster with an F1 turnout there & at least one grass high-traffic area was reduced to a muddy mess even with by far the smallest race day crowd they've ever seen.

Here, you be the judge.These were taken during the SVRA event with paid admission. Imagine the scenes with an F1 crowd:

The high-traffic "walkway" from the paddock to the esses & the stdium complex. This was taken in the morning. It was much worse later:


Just behind a main straight hospitality area. During the first few sessions on Sunday, walking through here was our only path from the Main GS to the T1 GS:


The T1 GA area and the bottleneck traffic area between it and the T1 concessions/restrooms:




Behind the T1GS:





Standing water in the walkway along the esses:


On a somewhat related note, here's the nearest open "restroom facility' we could find to T1 when my son needed to go. It was behind the Main GS. We had to walk all the way down from the T1GS to find this:


In summary....pray for dry weather for the race. COTA is certainly not prepared for the alternative.

ETA: My apologies for the large pics. They're posting in normal size elsewhere.

[turn1]

Originally Posted by Jdawgboy

I'm not happy with the owners of COTA at all. They are screwing their own investment and they obviously do not have any passion. The track is so wonderful but the way COTA is being run it's going to waste. They only see money and nothing more.

Here's a question of the Owners who do ya'll think should step aside and let people who really know how to run a world class race track?

I agree JDawg. Not sure I understand the question though. I agree the track is great & I think it will be truly amazing when someone with a passion for and knowledge of motorsports is put in place to run it. Are you asking who we think would be a suitable replacement as a track manager/promoter?

[turn1]

Looks like they've added "Formula Vintage" to the USGP weekend schedule. I guess that's the Historic GP guys?

[turn1]

BTW, COTA is taking a beating on their Facebook page over USGP ticket delays, apparently deleting posts by angry customers.

In a KVUE article today they said that:

- all the tickets have been sent (customers are telling us otherwise)
- they're only a week late (bull****. they're a month late according to COTA's own website), and
- the only remaining problems are with customers who moved or changed addresses. That prompted a flood of responses on our page from people saying they're using the same addresses as last year and haven't heard a thing about the tickets.

9 days out from FP1. This is crazy.

[turn1]

In this story, just as we're seeing elsewhere, COTA's story about the ticket delays seems to contradict customer accounts of emails they've received.

In some customer emails, COTA says they've "mailed our last batch of tickets this past Monday, Nov. 4th". In others as late as today, they're saying that tickets "will be mailed out shortly via USPS".

So far COTA has blamed address updates, a printing problem, Ticketmaster, and FOM. Who's next?

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www....Q&usg=AFQjCNE1CZEcrxJyNLz-B3U74aBZk92TUg

[hookem]

I would REALLY like to find out what the true story is on the late ticket fiasco. Wrong addresses on a few accounts doesn't explain the fact that they waited until the very last minute to send them out.

Speculation:

1 - Printing problem? (but it would have to be a more serious one than they are saying)
2 - No money to pay for the printing? (they have big, fancy glossy tickets -- unless you get them at will call then they are basically cheap paper things).
3 - No money to pay for the shipping? (probably not cheap, esp with fedex and international deliveries)
4 - Minimize the secondary sales market? (possibly, but the ticket brokers often sell without tickets "in hand" yet, wouldn't have stopped them)

I wonder if COTA is trying to limp along just through next May when X-Games comes... which would be the first event truly likely to bring in a big profit, IMO. They'll get their METF check for F1 sooner than that, but that would need be entirely spent immediately on the F1 sanctioning fee for next year, if they plan to keep it going...

[The ATX]

Reviews for CoTA on sites like Yelp mirror Turn1's posts. CoTA seems to be a seriously mismanaged operation. I'm wondering if it's sheer inexperience or incompetence of management or if they are having serious financial problems. At least the track is awesome.

[turn1]

Originally Posted by Hill Country

Reviews for CoTA on sites like Yelp mirror Turn1's posts. CoTA seems to be a seriously mismanaged operation. I'm wondering if it's sheer inexperience or incompetence of management or if they are having serious financial problems. At least the track is awesome.

All of the above?

[The ATX]

X-Games move to June:

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2013/11/07/espn-moves-x-games-austin-to-june-2014.html

[turn1]

Following V8 Supercars' lead, Pirelli World Challenge drops COTA from their 2014 calendar:

http://www.racer.com/pirelli-world-challenge-finalizes-2014-calendar/article/319933/

Add them to the list of V8SC, SCCA, ALMS (due to merger), and almost FIAWEC.

[turn1]

So, apparently some folks got this email today:

Thank you for your patience. Circuit of the Americas mailed our last batch of tickets this past Monday, Nov. 4th, so your tickets should arrive by Friday, Nov. 8th. I cannot provide a tracking number at this time as we are still waiting on that list from Fedex. However, TicketMaster apparently mailed tickets themselves (which was not planned) via USPS Regular Mail, in which case your tickets might not arrive until next week.

In the case that their arrival is too late for you to receive them, you will need to pick up your tickets at will call. Please contact us with your order # so that we can process a will call request for you, so you will be able to pick up your tickets at the General Plaza at the track beginning Monday, Nov. 11th. Please see our will call policies below, and thank you for your patience

...and this statement was released 2 hours ago on their FB page:

Official Statement from Circuit of The Americas Regarding Tickets:

"COTA's F1 USGP tickets have been shipped. They went out a week later than we originally anticipated due to some design and informational updates that Formula One Management required us to make to the ticket stock. We apologize for the delay, but guests should be receiving their tickets via FedEx or through the U.S. Postal Service, depending on whether they purchased them from COTA or ordered them online through Ticketmaster.

We are currently working to identify updated addresses for some patrons who may have moved since they placed their orders, and will get those fans their tickets as soon as possible.

We know everyone is eager to have their tickets, and we’re working to make that happen."

>> If you have not received your tickets and would like us to look up how and when they shipped, please send us a private message with your order number and when you plan on leaving for/arriving in Austin.

- First off..."General" Plaza? WTF is that? I know what they meant, but it's called the Grand Plaza. COTA can't even get their own terminology right in emails to people who may not be familiar enough with the place to know on their own what to ask directions to.
- USPS...that means tickets sent that way can arrive no sooner next week than Tuesday. Monday is Veteran's Day.
- A week late? No. Try a month late according to your own website. Better off not using this blatant lie as an excuse when it's so easy to shoot down. It just makes you look like even bigger arrogant idiots, if that's possible.
- Ticket changes forced by FOM? Ha! Yeah right COTA. The only reason FOM would have them make last minute changes causing late delivery would be if they fucked it up in the first place...and a WEEK late? They're so full of shit. These tickets are already a month late according to their own site. So in these two statements they blame FOM, Ticketmaster, and address changes. They have also blamed printing problems. So it's everyone's fault but theirs!

What a clusterf*** of epic proportions.

[hookem]

I wonder how long Ticketmaster and FOM will sit there and say nothing as they are blamed by COTA for the ticketing problems.

One of my biggest pet peeves are those people who never, ever acknowledge responsibility for their own problems. Everything bad that ever happens to them is a result of someone else. People like that will never earn anybody's respect, and they'll always wonder why.

I suppose a company could be viewed a little differently than a person, but still... nothing in their communications I'm reading shows any integrity or even decent business practice. They would be better off not saying anything, frankly.

[turn1]

Originally Posted by hookem

I wonder how long Ticketmaster and FOM will sit there and say nothing as they are blamed by COTA for the ticketing problems.

One of my biggest pet peeves are those people who never, ever acknowledge responsibility for their own problems. Everything bad that ever happens to them is a result of someone else. People like that will never earn anybody's respect, and they'll always wonder why.

I suppose a company could be viewed a little differently than a person, but still... nothing in their communications I'm reading shows any integrity or even decent business practice. They would be better off not saying anything, frankly.

Exactly. Tells you a lot about their leadership.

[the Genral]

Removed due to the stupidity of my analysis of the track vs management.

[hookem]

Originally Posted by Hill Country

X-Games move to June:

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2013/11/07/espn-moves-x-games-austin-to-june-2014.html

Those few weeks are going to make a big impact on the potential weather. The May date might have had a 50% chance of being comfortable, the June date will almost certainly be oppressively hot and humid.

[turn1]

Cars & gear are now showing up at the track & people don't have their tickets.

Awesome.