COTA Austin - construction and infrastructure

[thearmofbarlow]

My opinion is that Travis county is gone into crisis management mode and is now driving these items instead of waiting for CotA to deliver them. It is also my opinion that a properly managed and proactive permit process would have produced some of these documents without Travis County feeling the need to set dead lines.

Again, you seem to know very little about the process. A council requesting something is just that... a request. They requested a proposal *BY JUNE*. I will say that again... JUNE. One more time. JUNE. COTA is more concerned with construction at this point. Dealing with these requests and all the paperwork can, in fact, wait.

Do you expect COTA to have all of their proposals prepared already? Do you have ANY clue what kind of political red tape they have to clear to get ANYTHING done in this country? If this race doesn't happen it won't be COTA's fault, it will come down to political stalling.

[strad]

...
I read the links..I see no problem with the counsel or the timeline. Your making stuff up to continue your personal spat.

[Pup]

So do we think the Paul DeJoria thing means that the race is getting Patrón sponsorship?

Also, I hadn't heard about this...

http://formulaexpo.com/

Looks like a great lead in to the race.

[WhiteBlue]

Again, you seem to know very little about the process. A council requesting something is just that... a request. They requested a proposal *BY JUNE*. I will say that again... JUNE. One more time. JUNE. COTA is more concerned with construction at this point. Dealing with these requests and all the paperwork can, in fact, wait.

Do you expect COTA to have all of their proposals prepared already? Do you have ANY clue what kind of political red tape they have to clear to get ANYTHING done in this country? If this race doesn't happen it won't be COTA's fault, it will come down to political stalling.

The "red tape" isn't the reason why things are not progressing ideally. The problem is the failure to agree on the cost sharing for the necessary road work and the changes that CotA is doing to the original plans in terms of size of parking facilities, RV parking, bussing schemes and other changes. They appear to have a funding problem which have forced them to go with a "provisional" plan into this years race. All of this is causing delays which could have been avoided by proper funding of the original plan.

I read the links..I see no problem with the counsel or the timeline.

I believe I understand the underlying problems, but you are entitled to your opinion.

Your making stuff up to continue your personal spat.

I reject that part. I have no personal spat.

[Pup]

Let it go, man.

[bhall]

Does anyone blame Indy for that? I know that there's a Max camp and a Michelin camp, but I don't remember anyone blaming IMS. Honest question, I just don't remember. I do know that despite it being a long dead issue, people still get huffy about. So maybe we shouldn't dig it back up lest we start attracting flies.

To me, the only issue with CotA is their deal with Tavo. Everything else just seems to be rumor that seems to either come from leftover resentment from that deal or from local politics. There's never been any actual evidence that they are behind on construction or incompetent in any of their other dealings. It's all 100% speculation and bias.

They are sharks, no doubt. And with the Tavo deal, I'm of two minds. Yeah, they probably did him wrong, but then again Tavo probably had a chance to find a place within the organization and decided to fight it out instead. Just my opinion of course, and maybe we'll never know.

I do like the other risks that CotA has been willing to take. I like the fact that they were willing to halt construction of their project in a face off with Bernie. I like the fact that Bernie is none too pleased with them. I like that they're making bold gambles on ticket demand, and indeed in building the track itself. It's all very stereotypically Texas and I wouldn't have it any other way, really.

I mean, we've got what, 127 pages of talk about this race already. When has any other venue attracted this much attention and scrutiny? It's been a great show already, and they haven't even put down the asphalt.

Returning to the topic at hand, I think it's safe (and reasonable) to say that the events of the 2005 USGP soiled everyone involved to varying degrees. It's a classic case of guilt by association, because reasonable-sounding arguments can be made to support the guilt of pretty much anyone you want to blame.

That doesn't make those judgments fair one way or another, and I cannot emphasize that enough. It's just the nature of the beast inherent to any polarizing event.

And for what it's worth, the fact that the Indy USGPs were never really that good doesn't exactly help matters either.

(For the sake of clarity, I don't wish to bring that topic up again. I only refer to it now as a character witness, so to speak.)

All of that is to say that CotA has quite a bit to live down with regard to restoring the lustre of the USGP, and they're not doing a very good job of it yet. Even if it's all the result of lies, hearsay, or anything else, an appropriate and effective PR response - skills, by the way, absolutely demanded of any entity seeking or dealing with sponsorships, where appearance means everything - could mute many of the criticisms being leveled that way. That it's not happening does seem to lend weight to those who say this entire thing is completely disorganized.

I want this race to happen. But, I'm not holding my breath.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Latest aerial shot today from a jet departing ABIA & tweeted by @cwerlin.

[strad]

I don't think anything that happened at Indy had any real affect on the dyed in the wool F1 fans in the U.S.. Give 'em a race anywhere..in the middle of God forsaken Washington State,,they would still turn out in droves.

[Pup]

...an appropriate and effective PR response - skills, by the way, absolutely demanded of any entity seeking or dealing with sponsorships, where appearance means everything - could mute many of the criticisms being leveled that way. That it's not happening does seem to lend weight to those who say this entire thing is completely disorganized.

I know what you're saying. Part of me agrees, but my take - my hope at least - is that these guys are just confident enough in what they're doing that they feel they can just let the criticism go and not be worried with it. I mean, if come race day they have a killer facility, track, and put on a great show, then whatever criticism there is now doesn't matter one lick. And these guys don't look like idiots.

I think they know that they're outsiders. I think that's part of their strategy, because if you play Bernie's game using Bernie's rules, you aren't going to get far. They don't have a government paying for the track, so they've got to make money - more money than Bernie usually allows the tracks to make. And yeah, the racing community here is a good ole boys' network. They see these outsiders putting an absolute ton of money into this track, and they see them doing it differently than anyone else is doing it, and they're naturally suspicious. Maybe a few of them are even a bit scared that it might work.

Maybe it will, or maybe it won't. But since my money isn't involved, I'm happy just to cheer them on and watch it unfold. But I'll tell you this - I'd love for a US track to not only pull this off, but pull it off in a way that doesn't put them under Bernie's thumb like all the other races on the calendar. I don't want the situation we see everywhere else where the venues are practically begging to stay on. I want them to have a facility and track that the teams will insist on having on the calendar, and I want them to be financially stable enough that they can tell Bernie to go stick it when he starts his usual pre-contract threats.

[strad]

I'd give you a thumbs up but.....
Can I say I agree with Pup?

[bhall]

I think U.S. interest in F1 is enough that the race will take care of itself provided CotA doesn't shoot itself in the foot, so to speak, with regard to ticket prices/value. For me, that's the biggest question mark, and it's almost entirely the product of the wildly optimistic targets they've set with their PSLs.

Though it's improving, the U.S. economy is still weak, and there's considerable market uncertainty due to this being an election year when schizophrenic forces seem to have a preternatural ability to bring anything to a grinding halt. Put another way, people are still struggling, and that's not at all likely to change dramatically within the next 6-7 months. CotA cannot afford to take this for granted, because consumers cannot afford to be even mildly extravagant. The USGP has to make sense to consumers first. Profits come later.

[Pup]

Well we only have to wait and see if their PSL scheme was optimistic or not. I agree that it subjectively seems so, but it's tough to second guess them when we don't have the data that they do. It reminds me in a way of every Apple product that comes out - every time without exception it seems, the pundits say it's way too expensive and doesn't do x or y, and it's surely a signal that they've finally run out of ideas. And then they sell a bazillion of them.

I've learned over time that common wisdom isn't always so wise. So sometimes when someone tries something crazy, you've just got to grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

[strad]

Well we only have to wait and see if their PSL scheme was optimistic or not

All I can say is it didn't fly with me.
I don't see myself needing a seat there for 15 years,,,be lucky to make what,,,maybe two or three F1 races? It would be nice but at my age and soon to be on a fixed income I don't foresee traveling for the V8s or even my much loved MotoGP

[bhall]

Apple is a very well-known and reputable company with a massive, enthusiastic and loyal following. CotA, on the other hand, can claim none of those things.

I'm tellin' you, man, I really want this to succeed. For one thing, I've never even seen an F1 car outside of a television or computer screen. I don't know about you, but I think that's rather weird considering how much time and passion I've put into following this game. So, I'm positively dying to change that as soon as possible. But, I simply cannot ignore the veritable cacophony of voices in my head that urge cautious optimism at best.

[strad]

I can understand that. I'm still stinging from the USF1 or whatever Windsors bad joke was called.