How to secure a Grand Prix

[WhiteBlue]

Hungaro Ring reported 250,000 visitors on race day. GERMAN Language LINKY We are talking 3 times Silverstone attendance. LOL, LOL, LOL!!!!!

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

The business minders in Hungary managed to outperforme the UK 3:0. They report 11 mio taxes from the race!! Damon should go back to school. Those guys have build their business in halve the time without governement subsidies and made money for themsevelves and Bernie. Chapeau!!!

They deserve to keep the race and hopefully the new track at the Balaton will be a real scorcher.

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, I don't want to diminish your enthusiasm (as if I could...) but the fact is that Silverstone was full to the flags and was sold in advance. The track has 1/3 of the stands, not 1/3 of the people who likes racing (altough I concede a lot of Finnish fans travel to Hungaroring, don't know why). Besides, Hungary is not as "saturated" with so many races and different racing series in a season as England (birthplace of track racing in Europe, hats off to britons, ehem). But if pointing to that makes you happy, enjoy by all means.

Can I ask if the German GP was full?

(if I used LOL signs, I would put one here, actually I would use a "LOM": laughing off muted)

[WhiteBlue]

Ciro, the significant difference is the investment skill shown by German tracks during the Schumacher hay days. People put down some real money and set up capacities beyond 120,000 spectators. Spain is doing the same now with the Alonso mania. It is a dead sure investment strategy if you have a guy like Alonso, Hamilton or Michael Schumacher booked. Hungary has a sold out capacity of 250,000 without having a champ!!! Christ what could the BRDC do if they were not completely up to their necks in their own intestines. I would love to run this business and what do they do? They piss away the biggest money making chance for a British track in the century. booh

[sebbe]

I was wondering how much of a troll does this WhiteBlue character is.
He starts a thread only for the pleasure of talking sh*t about British GP, no intention of a positive contribution at all. Not to mention that his assumptions are dead wrong, as Ciro has just pointed out (in a very polite way, I might add).

If we had time to read each one of his posts, how many of them will be considered as positive?
He's achieve an amazingly big toll of posts in such a short period of time.
Not to mention the fact that he was banned from another F1 related site because he refused to accept a decition of the moderator.

My intentions are good, I just want to improve the quality of the discussions in the forums. I've seen the quality decline in the past months.

[Steven]

I'm not sure how high the prices for the Hungarian GP are, but they will no doubt be a fair bit cheaper. Obviously there is a lot to take into account, an overview which cannot be fully judged if you haven't been there to compare both tracks.

Is there anyone here who have been to Silverstone and/or Budapest? What are the positives and negatives?

[Vitesse]

I'm not sure how high the prices for the Hungarian GP are, but they will no doubt be a fair bit cheaper.

General admission prices for Sunday: Hungaroring (2009) 99 euros, Silverstone (2008) 164 euros.

[WhiteBlue]

Many Finns come to Hungary because there is a very cheap airline ferrying them for a low price. The Ticket prices obviously are also nice.

My main point was the huge capacity that Hungary offers in comparison to Silverstone. There can be very little doubt that Silverstone could sell twice or three times the tickets they sell now, but they refused to make investments in capacity expansion. With Lewis Hamilton they have a huge magnet to attract crowds and that will most likely last for 5-10 years.

I never understood how Silverstone manged to loose that GP despite all the potential they have. Spain just demonstrates how much business there is if you have a national winner.

The point about the problems of German circuits are not comparable. The German capacities were fine when we had Michael Schumacher winning races. It does not look like we will have anything similar for some years. So the there will be only one race. It's not so bad for the Nürburgring because they are very well managed and have many other activities. Hockenheim has a problem because they do not have the Nordschleife and anything close to the heritage of Nürburgring.

Anyway, the whole issue is a bit backwards looking as the GP is lost for Silverstone. I'm not surprised they lost it considering the lack of entrepreneurial vision.

[millerjam]

Hang on a minute, as far as I can see the article on Motorsporttotal.com makes no reference as to whether the 250,000 is on race day or over the whole weekend...
It literally just says in total there were 250,000 spectators, so make of that what you will. So if we're assuming that it's 250,000 over the whole weekend then Silverstone can't be doing too badly if they sell out 240,000 tickets over the whole weekend in 2008:

http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/68611

Also remember that the spectator numbers at Silverstone are being kept artificially low so as to keep the traffic problems to a minimum after the GP in 2001. This is a place after all that sold more than 100,000 tickets on race day during Mansell mania and I've no doubt that they could do that again if they wanted...

So seems like in spite of the higher ticket prices Mr Hill is doing a reasonable job after all!! To be fair though it's more of a reflection on how popular F1 is in the UK if it can sell out at those prices...

[Pup]

Race day attendance at Hungary was 106,000 this year. Source

Don't bother with Whiteblue/Gugucom/Gugu/Gugs - he's a well known troll in F1 forums and has a distinct anti-british bias. [-X

[WhiteBlue]

Don't rather bother with Pup alias Mika Pup. He is well known for attacking the poster instead of the posting.

The German source I refered to talks about 250.000 visitors who saw the 11th run of 18 races of the season. This can be understood to mean visitors on race day. Nevertheless the other source is more specific in the figure of 106.000 and so I'm inclined to see it as more reliable.

Under the circumstances I feel that Silverstone doesn't compare badly. So the issue of this thread is rather void.

About anti british feeling I just reject that. I have a bunch of british friends and aquaintances, having lived in England for many years. I like the country which will not stop me from criticising certain individuals. British people do this to Germans as well. Nevertheless I do not call everybody who criticises the Schumachers, Tilke or Weber anti German.

People should look at the facts and not try to discriminate against other users and try to disqualify them. Every user on this board has the right to his opinion and to voice it. Let's keep it this way.

[Pup]

People should look at the facts...

Agreed.

Damon should go back to school.

To instruct BMW fans on proper research, I assume?

[Chaparral]

People should look at the facts...

Agreed.

Damon should go back to school.

To instruct BMW fans on proper research, I assume?

woof woof - dog speak for hear hear seconded