COTA Austin - construction and infrastructure

[strad]

Suprise suprise, I hate to say I told you so

Then why does it seem to make you so happy?

[Jeffsvilleusa]

What a shame! It seems irresponsible of Formula 1 to announce a prospective race that isn't a sure thing, and then to cast blame on the race organizers. It seems hard to pin down what is going on, but I think it is a little brazen of Ecclestone to say, 'I wouldn't put my money on it' when the race has already been announced. They should take responsibility for it! If not then they shouldn't have initiated it, or agreed to move forward with it.

I really hope it goes through, but after USF1 this is a little too much! If it doesn't work out F1 should realize it is going to leave a bitter taste with US fans leading into the New Jersey grand prix. Add in Indy '05 and you can see what a mess F1 in the states has been. Personally I think F1 should compete in the US even if it is at a loss, because even if F1 doesn't "need" the US, the US is a huge auto market, a hugely car-oriented culture, it has huge motorsport heritage, and... because I want to go to a grand prix! There is a big potential for a new fan-base etc.

[Jeffsvilleusa]

Hot off the press: 2012 is off!

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/moto ... 63133.html

Well, if it means it will go forward in 2013, I'm okay with it as long as they can get it together. Won't help public opinion though.

[bhall]

I sincerely hope I'm wrong about it all, too. (I'm wrong about many, many things, so perhaps that's a good omen for the USGP.) And, if the following is true, I just might be.

Late Wednesday, Ecclestone went even further, telling Britain's The Independent that the race has already been postponed, "The (new) contract we proposed to them is 10 years from 2013. We said we would wait for them," Ecclestone said.

That's an uncharacteristically reasonable position for Ecclestone to take. Over the years, he's proven to be more than content to walk away and make a deal with whoever is next in line. So, maybe he's not trying to extract more money after all and has simply realized that this whole mess was created by someone who doesn't even have a vested interest in the matter.

I think all parties involved were really counting on a payment from the Texas METF. Such a payment would muzzle Ecclestone, because that's all he's really after anyway, and it would give Full Throttle and Circuit of the Americas a year to figure out who's doing what.

However, Mrs. Combs seems to have gotten her panties in a wad because of NJ and effectively said, "Screw you guys. I'm taking my ball and going home."

(And not for nothing, if anyone thinks this is frustrating, just wait until those behind the NJ race get a full head of steam. That BS is going to be epic.)

[kalinka]

Yeah, Bernie should PAY for them and not the opposite. It's a huge marketing value for F1 and their sponsors. And yes, F1 should consider US fans more seriously.

[i70q7m7ghw]

It just smacks of the whole USGP F1 team thing again.

[bill shoe]

Moreover, Austin is a really cool town. (Unofficial motto: "Keep Austin weird.") I'm convinced that all involved with the F1 "circus," from teams to journalists, would walk away from this event with raving reviews that would do nothing but enhance American stature around the world. The good publicity would enable this event to more than pay for itself.

I was fortunate to live in Austin for a few years. You're not exaggerating how cool it is. It's an odd cultural pocket in the middle of Texas that is dissimilar to everything around it.

I'm skeptical Austin would keep its real character during a Formual 1 race weekend that brought in 100,000 relatively wealthy/international F1 fans. Montreal seems to thrive on that, but I'm not sure Austin would. Looks like we won't find out.

[strad]

Screw Bernie!! I've had it.

[Just_a_fan]

What a shame! It seems irresponsible of Formula 1 to announce a prospective race that isn't a sure thing, and then to cast blame on the race organizers.

This isn't Formula 1 doing it, it's Bernie doing it. He has his own agenda and it has little to do with F1...

[Richard]

Here's a good summary of the local power battles in Austin. http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/201 ... the-brink/

Reading this made me feel a little more positive. Seems like people want to squeeze out Hellmund, he strikes me as a middle man claiming a cut but not actually contributing much (if at all).



This quote from Bernie seems to support the idea that Hellmund couldn't match his words with deeds. I hope Epstein can pull the deal together he's only got until 6 Dec when the F1 calendar is fixed.

"We had an agreement with Full Throttle Productions," Ecclestone explained.

"Everything was signed and sealed, but we kept putting things off like the dates, various letters of credit and things that should have been sent, but nothing ever happened.

"Then these other people (Cota) came on the scene, saying that they wanted to do things, but that they had problems with Tavo.

"They said they had the circuit, and that they wanted an agreement with me. I told them they had to sort out the contract with Tavo, which they said they would.

"But that has gone away now because we've cancelled Tavo's contract as he was in breach.

"We've waited six months for him to remedy the breach. He knows full well why we've cancelled. He's happy.

"But these other people haven't got a contract. All we've asked them to do is get us a letter of credit.

"We are looking for security for money they are going to have to pay us. That is via a letter of credit, normally from a bank.

"If people don't have the money they find it difficult to get the letter of credit, and so we don't issue a contract."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula ... 766613.stm

[Ray]

Bernie is such a dangerous man to do business with. The man will talk pretty to your face and 24 hours later stab you in the back just to ruin your reputation and increase his. I really feel sorry for Tavo, he's the one that's really suffered. He had a contract, the enthusiasm of a great track and a great race, and the financial backing of the Texas State comptroller. Everyone he's come into contact with about this deal seems to have bled him dry and left him for dead. I love how that worthless woman Combs says it's a risk to give money to Formula 1 to host a race and she wouldn't hesitate one second to drop twice that money on college football. Yes football makes money, but anyone with a half a brain knows that she wouldn't hesitate to be hypocritical and throw that money at any other event in Texas despite her lies about "protecting the Texas taxpayer." They would make that $25 million back twice over!

I feel that there is alot more going on behind the scenes and that asshole Bernie is behind it all. I'm willing to bet he's done some string pulling behind the scenes to collapse this effort, put the US fans and the US in general in a bad light to get other countries, especially the oil rich ones, to pony up really serious cash to hold an F1 race. Turkey was a great track wasted on poor attendance, Korea isn't worth even playing on my Xbox the track is so bad, Abu Dhabi is a great facility built around a garbage and boring race track, and the Indian racetrack had sealed rooms for the TV crew for cripes sake! All of them poined up the money Bernie wanted however. Regardless if the place is any good, all Bernie has is dollar signs in his eyes. Damn shame that troll is running things because we've lost great tracks just to have oil rich countries host worthless and boring races.

The only good thing I can see is the other races they can afford to hold like MotoGP and the V8 Supercars. I'd love to see the V8 Supercars because I missed the Darwin race when I was in Australia. Maybe not all hope is lost yet, but with the comment Bernie is making I'm sure he's made up his mind that his plan to destroy that race venue have come to fruition. What an evil little bastard he is.

[Ray]

Reading this made me feel a little more positive. Seems like people want to squeeze out Hellmund, he strikes me as a middle man claiming a cut but not actually contributing much (if at all).

Without his direct connection with Bernie as an old friend, I seriously doubt he would have even come close to entertaining the idea of an F1 race in Texas. New York yes, there's alot of exploiting for money Bernie could do there. Texas not so much. Tavo is the only connection to Formula 1 Bernis has in Texas, and it looks like Tavo couldn't pay his friendship dues so Bernie has left him and his reputation in shambles. Tavo doesn't appear to have done anything wrong other than associate himself with investors that can't get a woman that won't lie to them. The investors are only pressuring Tavo about Susan Combs because she lied about having the Texan taxpayers front the money they didn't want to. That's where all the shadiness comes in, the investors want other people to front the bill and the woman that said they would lied to everyone involved on multiple occasions and is now deflecting everything onto everyone else after she made a commitment. I see Tavo as the entirely innocent fall man here.

[bill shoe]

Here are relevant articles from SpeedTV that give Tavo's story.

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/ ... investors/

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/ ... investors/

The articles give me a lower impression of Tavo than I already had. They are full of Tavo's vague and awkward language, but a pretty clear story comes out. Imagine you are Tavo's business partner when this story begins 1 1/2 years ago--

The original understanding is that Tavo will supply the contract and fund it via the Texas subsidy and/or other means. You will pay to build the track, which represents the vast majority of the upfront costs. Tavo and yourself will make a profit if (over the 10-year contract) ticket sales exceed track construction and operating costs. OK, simple enough. Announce the race at a happy press conference.

You begin writing large checks to Tilke and various heavy construction companies. Then Tavo calls you up. He says he can't actually fund the responsibilities in the contract. He thinks it would be swell if you would pay those costs in addition to building the track. Oh, and one other thing-- Tavo helpfully suggests that you should also pay him to buy the contract itself, otherwise he'll sit on it and take down the whole project. Tavo has no money in the game so it's a believable threat. You get pissed, tell Tavo to go f@ck himself and stop work at the track. End of story.

It seems clear that Tavo never had any plausible means of fullfilling the contract. From the beginning he was either incompetent or a simple blackmailer. Am I missing anything? Anybody else have a plausible story that explains everything?

[bill shoe]

Ray,

Yea, I agree Bernie is too evil to reliably do business with.

I don't agree with your image of Tavo as an innocent fall guy. In the stories above he denies demanding a $39 million payoff, which is an indirect way of confirming he did demand a payoff. If he simply gave the contract to COTA because he couldn't fullfill his obligations then there would apparently be no problem.

With any luck you and I can meet at the 2013 New Jersey race to argue about this over beers. Hell, I'll invite Tavo too.

[Ray]

So if the investors don't give him the money he needs to build a track, and the Texas State Comptroller says she'll be more than happy to pay and that the deal is done and neither of them actually pay what they said they would, then how is it Yavos fault? He has always been the middleman between the investors/state of texas and Formula 1. If his backers don't give him the money, how is he supposed to pay Bernie? He can't. Tavo is the only one with his neck\reputation on the line, especially since it appears that the COTA investors didn't/haven't paid him in full/on time and the Texas State Comptroller promised money, said it was a done deal and has now reversed on her commitment and has lied about what she said in the past. Where is Tavo guilty of anything other than being in the middle of two people who don't want to pay the bills on an event they agreed upon and a man notorious for back stabbing people and being an all around asshole to those that don't write him checks for way more money than is necessary?

Indy folded because of race fees, not because it was a bad track. Formula 1 didn't do itself any favors by allowing almost the entire field to not race because Ralf Schumacher is a shitty driver. Bernie simply wants too much money and holds people to timeframes that are ridiculously tight. Look at Korea and India for examples of that. How Bernie keeps coming out on top of these business deals is a work of art. The man is a genius at screwing other people over and making it look like he was the innocent party.