New Middle Eastern F1 Track

The track looks a bit of a yawner, but the facilities look pretty cool. Bruno Senna doing some laps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikvjwBEYk50

Where's SPA when you need it?

Feff www.MVPTrackTime.com

was that really pit out? What if someone crashes in the tunnel?

I can't tell if the track is boring or not. Need to see what it looks like with a full grid at race speeds. Mr. Senna was not driving at race speed. That was more of a tour of the track.

The F1 season concludes at this track - Nov. 1, 2009.

I debating going to the race for about 5 minutes. My parents live and work in Dubai. Seemed like a once in a lifetime kind of thing to see and do. But starting grandstand ticket price was $500. I didn't look to hard, but hard to justify probably 2 grand with flight to see a car race.

This is something I never understood about F1. I go to an ALMS race, and grandstand tickets are 40 bucks, general admission is 25. What right do these shiny happy people have to charge so much? And I know, I took a basic econ class, and if the tickets sell, that's what right they have. It just seems like if you're trying to build a fan base, maybe knocking ticket prices down would help. I understand costs need to be covered, but isn't that the whole point of having sponsors advertise all over the track with huge posters? Or is covering costs no longer the issue, now it's just profit, profit, profit?

captainzib wrote: This is something I never understood about F1. I go to an ALMS race, and grandstand tickets are 40 bucks, general admission is 25. What right do these shiny happy people have to charge so much? And I know, I took a basic econ class, and if the tickets sell, that's what right they have. It just seems like if you're trying to build a fan base, maybe knocking ticket prices down would help. I understand costs need to be covered, but isn't that the whole point of having sponsors advertise all over the track with huge posters? Or is covering costs no longer the issue, now it's just profit, profit, profit?

its all Bernie... If it wasnt for him, we would have atleast 2 races in North America, and at a reasonable price...

Bernie needs to protect his fortune.

captainzib wrote: It just seems like if you're trying to build a fan base,

keep in mind that F1 has the largest fan base in the world, NASCAR not withstanding....

so ya they figure they can get away with just about anything....

wbjones wrote:

captainzib wrote: It just seems like if you're trying to build a fan base,

keep in mind that F1 has the largest fan base in the world, NASCAR not withstanding.... so ya they figure they can get away with just about anything....

Yeah I heard somewhere that F1 is the second most popular global sport behind soccer. I dunno, it just burns me that they charge sooooooooo much for a berkeleyin ticket. It's not right I tell ya.

Dubai is a wealthy country, so to them, $500 tickets may not be such a big deal. Same with Monaco, a place where even bus boys have 6 figure incomes.

At the other end of the spectrum is China, where the price of one ticket eats up the lion's share of the average fan's annual income. It's hard to imagine how they can justify spending that percentage of their hard-earned money for a sporting event. I even heard that the Chinese gov't had subsidized large blocks of tickets so that the stands wouldn't look empty. Seems like the ticket prices could be pro-rated to reflect the populace' ability to afford them.

At the end of the day, it's all about Bernie's greed and ego. That power-mad meglamaniacal super-troll just wants to stuff his coffers, and to hell with everybody else.

Meanwhile, North America goes without a race at all.. sigh.

The lack of a North American F1 race really killed the sport for me. I used to love to drive up to Montreal for the Grand Prix. Pretty sad, the largest car market in the world gets stiffed on races, while in places like the Middle East, the grandstands look empty during the race.

The host tracks pay a sanctioning fee to Ecclestone, et al, to the "average" tune of $30M per race. That "average" is calculated on charges ranging from $0M (Monaco) to $62M (Singapore).

Singapore is a new event on the F1 calendar, so it's likely Abu Dhabi is also forking-up a similar amount to stage the event. Ticket prices may reflect an attempt to minimize the loss on ROI.

Plus, someone has to pay for all the cool video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJdBVASjBew&feature=related

yeah, more people watch soccer than F1, but only because there are about 40 matches a week.