COTA Austin - construction and infrastructure

[xpensive]

...
And all of this is only done in order to have the banks make 50% of the turnover in profit. I wish the FiA as the owner of Formula1 would do something about these exploitation and extortion policies.

Well WB, we all know how MrE got the the commercial rights to F1 for 99 years and why the CVC needs the money?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_Group

[Pup]

Silverstone also has a bloody expensive contract with a huge rate of cost increase...

I think you mean to say that @ $20m/year with a 5%/year increase, Silverstone has a comparatively inexpensive contract with a rate of increase half what's usually charged.

[hairy_scotsman]

"Breakpoint"

LOL...

[xpensive]

"Mph", "miles" and "feet"?

[Richard]

Almost sounds British.

[hairy_scotsman]

Four breakpoints? Man, this circuit's gonna be rough on the cars.

[WhiteBlue]

Silverstone also has a bloody expensive contract with a huge rate of cost increase...

I think you mean to say that @ $20m/year with a 5%/year increase, Silverstone has a comparatively inexpensive contract with a rate of increase half what's usually charged.

Well, $20m is definitely sub average - which would be $28m but still beyond what would be a reasonable demand. 5% is also sub average which is 8.5% but the duration of 17years will make it expensive in the end. I must admit that I had slightly different figures in mind.

[hairy_scotsman]

Here's the link to the Flat-12 blog story in which that graphic was posted:

http://flat-12blog.blogspot.com/2012/03 ... point.html

[strad]

Unfortunately for me and much to Xpensives joy, I am afraid I more and more must agree that it's all going to hell in a hand basket and must admit that I agree with this guy and concede Xpensive had it right all along.

It is mind boggling that this venture, which I believed to be a slam dunk, now appears teetering on the edge of becoming only the latest in a series of disappointing chapters in the history of F1 Grand Prix in the United States.

Even if they pull it off it will a disaster in so many ways. I sure hope I'm wrong. [-o<

[WhiteBlue]

Here's the link to the Flat-12 blog story in which that graphic was posted:

http://flat-12blog.blogspot.com/2012/03 ... point.html

There is also a link in the blog that sheds some light on the debate whether repetitive sports events should be eligible to tax refunding.

http://www.statesman.com/sports/formula ... 28648.html

The upshot here is that Jerry Patterson - a prominent anti F1 politician - still pushes his agenda that the statutes of the trust fund are ambiguous or not correctly applied by most sports events. At the core of the problem is the application process of the funding and the awarding of events. They way the statutes are written they do not reflect the reality of how events are awarded by the sanctioning bodies. Past practise has simply overlooked this issue and found a practical way to make the money available.

This could lead to many other events loosing the tax money they enjoyed in the past. It shows that anti F1 activists and politicians could well destroy the hope for an F1 race in Texas and eventually the USA.

[WhiteBlue]

"Breakpoint" LOL...

A harmless German-ism by one of the Tilke boys.

[hairy_scotsman]

"Breakpoint" LOL...

A harmless German-ism by one of the Tilke boys.

I was thinking more of the spelling than the word choice.

[WhiteBlue]

Germans and many foreigners would be prone to that spelling mistake because the pronunciation is the same and their spell checker will not show it up. That chart came from Tilke and it explains why you do get those typos.

[xpensive]

Germans and many foreigners would be prone to that spelling mistake because the pronunciation is the same and their spell checker will not show it up. That chart came from Tilke and it explains why you do get those typos.

I agree, you very often see that particular miss-spelling from Swedes as well, including myself.

Anyway, the Flat-12 link confirms my suspicions of a poorly planned event, notably the access roads and parking lots,
but I believe the real killer is the bizarre PSL-ticket system, a commitment for 15 years as if it was the Dallas Cowboys?

But Strad, it's not like I will celebrate when they run out of cash with a with nothing but a dirt-track to show for,
just that I didn't think building a 350 MUSD Formula One road track from scratch made any sense to begin with.

[FW17]

PSL-ticket system could be targeted at agents and operators, individuals may be secondry.