Land of the free?

Since voicing my candid appraisal on the entire "PSL" ticket debacle, I've spent the better part of 2012 trying to turn a new leaf, trying to approach the USGP in Austin as an optimist.     I freely admit that this is a trait I'm probably not best known for in certain circles . . . LOL.

The closer truth is that at heart I am a realist who does not suffer fools nor arrogant schemers gladly.     However, it is with caution that I want to initiate this thread on this week's release from CoTA regarding "Prohibited Items."

I am currently seeking clarification on a couple of points regarding their somewhat unexpected, highly unusual, and rather vague proclamation.    Key to my interest is learning the criteria entrants will be judged upon and how this process of exclusion will be implemented.     Given that most attendees will be shuttled to the circuit, thus unable to easily return prohibited items to their vehicles, this raises many questions about how CoTA plans to address the challenges this places upon their ticket buying customers.

From the outset, I think it is important to set a proper perspective on this question.  

This is NOT a policy brought upon CoTA from the FIA, FOM, nor any sanctioning or commercial body remotely associated with F1.     (Many will blame Bernie . . . geez, sometimes I really have to feel for him.)

This is NOT consistent with other F1 Grands Prix staged around the world.  

This is NOT consistent with motor sport events . . . road racing and ovals . . . held in the US.

Therefore, this dilemma, the questions it raises, and the discussion which will certainly follow across the internet is of their own making.

Hopefully this coming week will bring some degree of clarity, qualification, and adjustment from CoTA before the real debate begins . . . but I am certain that debate will be fierce.  

For the sake of those who have worked to bring the USGP to Austin I hope that CoTA will pay attention.   No sensible motor sport enthusiast will pay hard earned money only to put up with such nonsense.  

I will not, and I'm certain that I'm not alone.

Show us your PSL's

My sales consultant from the Circuit of The Americas certainly made it seem like people were snatching up the "Personal Seat Licenses" like hotcakes.      For some reason, I don't quite know . . . I'm a touch skeptical.

If you've purchased your PSL for the upcoming United States Grand Prix in Austin, I'd love to hear from you.    Please tell us about your experience, whether you opted for the main straight, Turn 1, or the Grand Plaza multi apex complex.     If you don't mind, it might be nice to get an idea of your total cash investment, for those so willing to discuss.    

 Looking forward to your comments . . .

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.