Breaking point?

A few weeks back I was contacted by a couple of enthusiastic supporters of Tavo Hellmund's Austin F1 endeavor.  

Once I recovered from the shock that someone, somewhere was actually reading my blog . . . I realized that the topic of their outreach (my November comments regarding first news that not all was well with the event) suggested that they might know something the rest of us did not.

I had in fact only recently spent a few hours in Austin to put eyes on the proximity of our reserved accommodations to the circuit.     I wanted to get an idea of  the logistics and what sort of traffic challenges might lie in wait.   Construction was certainly buzzing at the circuit that day and I found that encouraging.  

There was, however, no sign of infrastructure or road improvement underway and I wondered if access to the circuit would be limited to the single two lane blacktop I'd parked alongside.     A nagging question, but I left Austin headed home with some confidence that all was indeed well with the return of F1 to US soil.

Flash forward a couple of weeks from that visit and news comes that Tavo Hellmund was suing his former partners in the Circuit of The Americas venture he created.      

I'd wondered whether my November observations were premature.   I am after all but an outsider, with no real connection to what had and was transpiring in Texas.  

Unfortunately, as I read the court filing it was instead looking like my post was spot on accurate.  

It simply made no sense that the one guy within the organization who understood the business of international motor sport had been relieved of his duties.      As if the details of the lawsuit were not troubling enough, other questions arose.  

I'd also read that CoTA had started contacting those who had placed deposits to be on their select seating wait list.    I must have been among the very first to place such a deposit, but two weeks had passed since the process commenced and I'd heard nothing.  

There was other news . . . unresolved questions surrounding CoTA's alleged contract with Moto GP, and renewed questions as to whether the race qualified for the major events trust fund among the more troubling.

Since then, it has started to feel like every day brings another report which only makes one wonder what the hell is going on with CoTA's management?

I have also finally heard from CoTA regarding my wait list reservation and tickets for the USGP.    As they they might say in Texas . . . the news ain't purty.

I had a nice chat with the ticket agent, but the details of his proposal were laughable.     He explained that for the main straightaway grandstand, Turn 1, and the "Grand Plaza" multi apex Turn 15 through 19 complex, one must purchase a "Personal Seat License."     The astronomical cost of this seat license did not include ticket costs and also held the purchaser to a 15 year minimum "season ticket" purchase.
To make matters worse, they are requiring this commitment from the purchaser when CoTA . . . even at this late juncture .  . . still can not say what plans for seating at Turns 1, 15 through 19 will look like.     Really, they want a fifteen year commitment to a seat that right now only exists in theory?!    Nonsense.

Much like consumer product marketing people making movies instead of filmmakers, CoTA believes, quite foolishly IMHO, that they can and should reinvent the wheel.

CoTA has apparently decided to fashion their ticket sales after the model set attracting season ticket holders to new football stadiums and hockey arenas.    This thinking is riddled with so many false assumptions about the race-going public that it makes my head spin.    Worse, it demonstrates complete, total ignorance on their behalf.

CoTA's approach confirms that the current climate of sports marketing in this country looks to marry apples to oranges and boil us all down into one, neat, tidy package.    CoTA must somehow believe that motor sport fans are as generic as a guy watching four different sports at once on his quad partitioned TV screen.    Such a broad generalization across the whole of motor sport enthusiasts only reeks of arrogance.

Race promoters have been selling tickets to F1 Grands Prix for decades.    It's not rocket science.    

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.

The ticket agent also explained that they had taken this ticketing route because F1 is not popular in the US.

Make no mistake, I have long believed to the contrary that F1 should flourish in the United States.   There is no shortage of passionate, enthusiastic fans.    The fans are not the issue.   (there's so much mythology surrounding this topic, but that's another discussion)
   
It is instead more probable that CoTA, sans Tavo Hellmund, may be the latest corporate entity to not understand the sport and its (their) customer base.  

I can only hope for those who recognized the potential in Hellmund's vision that this year's US Grand Prix will still prove a great success.   Perhaps I'm being a bit reactionary.

It did not help matters that the attached, rather vague seating map noted "breaking" as opposed to "braking" points:

   You get my drift.