Is the Las Vegas race, the most historic?
Discussion
In the Dec 'Motor Sport' magazine there is an article about the upcoming Las Vegas GP. To be honest the circuit does not look terribly special, it seems to be much more about the spectacle and the place. However, one important piece of information is that Liberty own the land that the race is taking place on. They are actually staging the race. This provides them with a more direct route to making money rather than receiving an amount of money from the circuits, who,in turn, have to make their own profit.
So in theory, if Las Vegas makes money, Liberty could buy old unused circuits or arrange more street circuits and stage F1 races on these, cutting out the existing circuit owners. This, according to Zak Brown of McLaren, gives F1 more control of its own destiny. Thus F1 maybe less Eurocentric, less willing to use traditional circuits such as Spa, Monza, Monaco etc.
I started watching F1 in 1988 and Liberty, for better or worse, have introduced lots of changes. They do not seem to have any 'sacred cows'.
So, is the Las Vegas GP going to be one of the most important races in F1?
So in theory, if Las Vegas makes money, Liberty could buy old unused circuits or arrange more street circuits and stage F1 races on these, cutting out the existing circuit owners. This, according to Zak Brown of McLaren, gives F1 more control of its own destiny. Thus F1 maybe less Eurocentric, less willing to use traditional circuits such as Spa, Monza, Monaco etc.
I started watching F1 in 1988 and Liberty, for better or worse, have introduced lots of changes. They do not seem to have any 'sacred cows'.
So, is the Las Vegas GP going to be one of the most important races in F1?
Wills2 said:
Is the race not taking place on the streets of Las Vegas, I'm not sure liberty media own the streets.
I'm not convinced that can be correct either. The main strip isn't owned by Liberty!?I assume this is what the OP is talking about: https://www.sportico.com/business/real-estate/2022...
Liberty are indeed 'putting on the GP' themselves, not using a third party host. They have also bought a chunk of cheap, under developed land near the strip in order to make it possible to run that event - and probably multiple other events too.
The locals are absolutely hating it. We went 18 months ago when the deal had just been done and announced, they weren't happy then and now with the disruption... The strip is down to one lane each was and has been for weeks, so it's gridlock everywhere.
We go again next April, I don't think i'll pack any F1 team tops though this time!
We go again next April, I don't think i'll pack any F1 team tops though this time!
TheDeuce said:
Wills2 said:
Is the race not taking place on the streets of Las Vegas, I'm not sure liberty media own the streets.
I'm not convinced that can be correct either. The main strip isn't owned by Liberty!?I assume this is what the OP is talking about: https://www.sportico.com/business/real-estate/2022...
Liberty are indeed 'putting on the GP' themselves, not using a third party host. They have also bought a chunk of cheap, under developed land near the strip in order to make it possible to run that event - and probably multiple other events too.
Adrian W said:
I’m not sure about historic, it might be historical, last time it was in a car park, this time they are making every effort to make sure that if you haven’t paid you can’t see it, so Singapore on steroids, it’s going to be s
t
I saw a brief video, which depicts a foot bridge spanning the track which will allow those not involved with the race to go about their business.t To stop a free view, the organisers have clad the bridge's glass walls with an opaque film.
This film has been peeled off by those not happy with the distraction that the race has caused.
There's many, many disgruntled Las Vegans at the moment.
Piginapoke said:
Do we know how ticket sales are going? I’ve heard not so good. COTA had a lot of empty seats on the Saturday.
It’s officially sold out for grandstand and GA tickets, although how many of those remain with resellers and tour operators is a different question. The real s
t-show is going to be the hotels, where thousands of people have booked rooms and suites expecting a certain view, and F1 are now trying to cream off a large pile of cash on top, going as far as deliberately blocking the views of any hotels not playing ball and paying up. Jacksdad133 said:
So in theory, if Las Vegas makes money, Liberty could buy old unused circuits or arrange more street circuits and stage F1 races on these, cutting out the existing circuit owners.
In theory, yes. But I cannot see them doing this because they would assume a far greater financial risk. As it stands at the moment, Liberty receive the same fee from the Circuit Owners / Promoter, regardless of whether 100 people pay to come and watch or 100,000.
It really is unedifying, however it's a vicious circle, teams want more, sponsors want more, Liberty paid with debt and shares so want/need more, everyone wants/needs more hence the whole thing is a bit of a money grab and they are holding it at the mecca of money grabbing so what do we expect.
Wills2 said:
It really is unedifying, however it's a vicious circle, teams want more, sponsors want more, Liberty paid with debt and shares so want/need more, everyone wants/needs more hence the whole thing is a bit of a money grab and they are holding it at the mecca of money grabbing so what do we expect.
100% this. Sandpit Steve said:
Piginapoke said:
Do we know how ticket sales are going? I’ve heard not so good. COTA had a lot of empty seats on the Saturday.
It’s officially sold out for grandstand and GA tickets, although how many of those remain with resellers and tour operators is a different question. The real s
t-show is going to be the hotels, where thousands of people have booked rooms and suites expecting a certain view, and F1 are now trying to cream off a large pile of cash on top, going as far as deliberately blocking the views of any hotels not playing ball and paying up. Piginapoke said:
Cheers Steve- just seen the grandstand prices- wow. I'd rather watch it on telly (seriously).
I did briefly think about going, expecting Singapore-ish prices. But nope, not even close. The website now appears to show a number of fan zone tickets, and some grandstand returns - but the Ticketmaster link to actually buy anything just returns an error message.
https://www.f1lasvegasgp.com/inventory is the official site.
Apparently there’s no flight availability into LAS airport at all during the event, so anyone who’s wanting to go now is looking at flying to LAX (Los Angeles, 300 miles away) and renting a car from there.
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