[E90SLAM]

I'm guessing Austin, TX was chosen because of its location is between two major populations in East and West coast. Also the state/city/local government is backing the event.

Given the status of how broke California is, I don't think anyone will have enough money. (I'm not sure how the track and event will be funded).

[JB135MDCT]

It's in Texas because of geogrphical strateeegerrry. At the center and as far away from Montreal. It will generate a larger fan base as a whole for F1. This is the fundamental reason and fortunatley Austin was the city.

Can't be in California because liberal types won't allow the extra pollution generated by the F1 cars.

Unfortunately, NY is way to close to Montreal..

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by JB135MDCT

It's in Texas because of geogrphical strateeegerrry. At the center and as far away from Montreal. It will generate a larger fan base as a whole for F1. This is the fundamental reason and fortunatley Austin was the city.

Can't be in California because liberal types won't allow the extra pollution generated by the F1 cars.

Unfortunately, NY is way to close to Montreal..

The liberals will require all F1 cars run on KERS and thought they are Prius...

[KingOfJericho]

Originally Posted by JB135MDCT

Unfortunately, NY is way to close to Montreal..

That's a cop out answer as there are 8 races within about a 1,000mi radius in Europe.

[lib]

Originally Posted by ///Metak

3cities >22mill? The whole state has 24mill(2009).....

While I was quoting a figure I read elsewhere it's actually fairly close.

http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/popdat/ST2010.shtm

2010 numbers put the state population just over 25.3 million. 22.2 million of those are in various metro areas. Virtually all of those are spread between Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and their suburbs.

Originally Posted by ///Metak

Of the top 25 metro populated areas CA alone has 5. <...>
Then consider 3 more larger cities on the west coast in addition to the 37mill in CA:

Phoenix Metro: 4,281,900(2008 Wiki)
Portland Metro: 2,159,720(2009 Wiki)
Seattle Metro : 3,407,848(2009 Wiki)

I completely agree that CA has a large population (it's a fact) but counting the area from San Diego to Seattle, San Fransisco to Phoenix in order to inflate the numbers is a bit of a stretch. People who are going to spend $500+ on a race ticket aren't going to spend 20 hours in a car - they'll fly. Once you're forced to fly it no longer matters whether you're flying 500 miles or 1500.

You also may not want to use the list of the top 25 cities by population as your measure. TX has 6, CA has 4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population



In the end it really doesn't matter. There are more than enough people in all of the regions discussed here to easily support F1.

[FStop7]

The only places in the USA that Bernie would ever deal with for F1:

Miami (broke)
Las Vegas
NYC (which is completely out of the running, there would be riots in the streets if Bloomberg paid 100+ million in taxpayer money for an F1 race)
Indianapolis (if tony george goes away)
NorCal (Laguna Seca or Infineon)

It's just not gonna happen anywhere else.

Laguna and Infineon are pretty unlikely - Laguna would need to be significantly widened to meet F1 requirements, new facilities would be needed, etc.

Bernie only wants to deal with places where government money can freely be poured in to build tracks and pay his fees. That eliminates pretty much everywhere in the USA except Vegas, honestly.

And you're high as a kite if you think Bernie would ever set one of his snobbish, Prada-clad toes into Texas. F1 is all about snob appeal, and nothing is less appealing to snobs than Americans. Especially Texans. The Eurosnobs would say that Bernie may as well call it the Wal Mart Grand Prix.

[JC919]

^You're wrong

[ghosthi32]

Originally Posted by FStop7

The only places in the USA that Bernie would ever deal with for F1:

Miami (broke)
Las Vegas
NYC (which is completely out of the running, there would be riots in the streets if Bloomberg paid 100+ million in taxpayer money for an F1 race)
Indianapolis (if tony george goes away)
NorCal (Laguna Seca or Infineon)

It's just not gonna happen anywhere else.

Laguna and Infineon are pretty unlikely - Laguna would need to be significantly widened to meet F1 requirements, new facilities would be needed, etc.

Bernie only wants to deal with places where government money can freely be poured in to build tracks and pay his fees. That eliminates pretty much everywhere in the USA except Vegas, honestly.

And you're high as a kite if you think Bernie would ever set one of his snobbish, Prada-clad toes into Texas. F1 is all about snob appeal, and nothing is less appealing to snobs than Americans. Especially Texans. The Eurosnobs would say that Bernie may as well call it the Wal Mart Grand Prix.

[inTgr8r]

lol... FStop7, time for reading 101

[MontegoblueE92]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

That's a cop out answer as there are 8 races within about a 1,000mi radius in Europe.

Other than the Spanish races which ones don't have a lot of history behind them? The US has nothing going for it in terms of modern F1 tracks with history. Europe is also full of F1 fans. This side of the pond is not. So yes, spreading the races will in fact broaden the audience.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by FStop7

The only places in the USA that Bernie would ever deal with for F1:

Miami (broke)
Las Vegas
NYC (which is completely out of the running, there would be riots in the streets if Bloomberg paid 100+ million in taxpayer money for an F1 race)
Indianapolis (if tony george goes away)
NorCal (Laguna Seca or Infineon)

It's just not gonna happen anywhere else.

Laguna and Infineon are pretty unlikely - Laguna would need to be significantly widened to meet F1 requirements, new facilities would be needed, etc.

Bernie only wants to deal with places where government money can freely be poured in to build tracks and pay his fees. That eliminates pretty much everywhere in the USA except Vegas, honestly.

And you're high as a kite if you think Bernie would ever set one of his snobbish, Prada-clad toes into Texas. F1 is all about snob appeal, and nothing is less appealing to snobs than Americans. Especially Texans. The Eurosnobs would say that Bernie may as well call it the Wal Mart Grand Prix.

WTF???

[FStop7]

Guys, the Texas thing is never gonna happen.

[E90SLAM]

Maybe it will, maybe it won't...who knows?
Maybe 2012 end of the world comes early....
ah shit...how would i know....

I have doubts about Austin TX to held F1....but now never exclude any possibilities....
even in 2010, we dun even know if we are going to have Korean GP....the track is still under construction....

and this is 2 years later....how do we know...

another example will be the British GP...Donington park or Silverstone....or Bernie did even said once there might not be a British GP...that issue wasn't being solved until late 2009.

[rambalu80]

Originally Posted by FStop7

Guys, the Texas thing is never gonna happen.

Well, it is about to happen.

Go do some reading: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...0/5/10824.html

[FStop7]

Originally Posted by rambalu80

Well, it is about to happen.

Go do some reading: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...0/5/10824.html

If making things real were as easy as sending out press releases then US F1 would currently be the #1 team on the grid and the British GP would be held at Donnington Park.

[Echo M3]

Originally Posted by FStop7

The only places in the USA that Bernie would ever deal with for F1:

Miami (broke)
Las Vegas
NYC (which is completely out of the running, there would be riots in the streets if Bloomberg paid 100+ million in taxpayer money for an F1 race)
Indianapolis (if tony george goes away)
NorCal (Laguna Seca or Infineon)

It's just not gonna happen anywhere else.

Laguna and Infineon are pretty unlikely - Laguna would need to be significantly widened to meet F1 requirements, new facilities would be needed, etc.

Bernie only wants to deal with places where government money can freely be poured in to build tracks and pay his fees. That eliminates pretty much everywhere in the USA except Vegas, honestly.

And you're high as a kite if you think Bernie would ever set one of his snobbish, Prada-clad toes into Texas. F1 is all about snob appeal, and nothing is less appealing to snobs than Americans. Especially Texans. The Eurosnobs would say that Bernie may as well call it the Wal Mart Grand Prix.

Just because hicks do not like Formula 1, does not mean it has 'snob' appeal.

Have you ever been to a Formula 1 Grand Prix? Have you met with the local demographic at one?

My guess is "No" to both, unless you spent all of your time in the Paddock sipping Mumm and talking about your portfolio.

[Echo M3]

Originally Posted by lib

Yes. There is. You have to remember that no one who lives in Austin actually grew up in TX.

Yes. I know, I know. It's Texas. I used to share your thoughts on Texas.

I grew up in NY. I've lived on both coasts. I used to swear I would never permanently move out of the North East. I was extremely skeptical about moving to Austin. In the end I learned none of what I was told about Texas actually applied to Austin. I was simply ignorant about the area and so are you.

Now, if they had chosen any other part of Texas...

Everyone agrees that NY & LA would have made sense. The problem is neither of those cities are able to do what needs to be done to get F1.

3 of the top 10 largest cities in the US and >22 million people are within 180 miles of Austin.

It's certainly no NY, but if we're honest neither is anywhere else in the world.

Interesting points, didn't know this about Austin. I guess we will have to cross our fingers and hope that the Texas demographics can keep hopes of a U.S. Grand Prix alive.

I wonder what went wrong with Monticello or Watkins Glen, perhaps they just couldn't gather up the necessary funding?

[FStop7]

Originally Posted by pman10

Just because hicks do not like Formula 1, does not mean it has 'snob' appeal.

Have you ever been to a Formula 1 Grand Prix? Have you met with the local demographic at one?

My guess is "No" to both, unless you spent all of your time in the Paddock sipping Mumm and talking about your portfolio.

Yep, been to a couple of USGPs at Indy where the crowds were less than huge. I'm not saying it's anybody's fault but Bernie's. He's crafted an image of elitism and snobbery around F1 in which the USA does not fit.

Look at MotoGP. When they come to Indy it sells out - something F1 never achieved. When they go to Laguna Seca it sells out. MotoGP is the F1 of motorcycle racing. What's the difference? MotoGP's image isn't crafted as some kind of ultra pretentious snob fest.

[gts135]

Originally Posted by FStop7

Yep, been to a couple of USGPs at Indy where the crowds were less than huge. I'm not saying it's anybody's fault but Bernie's. He's crafted an image of elitism and snobbery around F1 in which the USA does not fit.

Look at MotoGP. When they come to Indy it sells out - something F1 never achieved. When they go to Laguna Seca it sells out. MotoGP is the F1 of motorcycle racing. What's the difference? MotoGP's image isn't crafted as some kind of ultra pretentious snob fest.

Didn't know that about MotoGP at Indy. F1 attracted crowds of 100-120,000 or so. So MotoGP filled the place? Isn't that like 250,000 (probably less because not all seats are open due to track configuration?)?

[revster]

Folks, save your brain cells trying to make sense of this.

If they ever pull this off, you can add Austin to the list of nonsense venues like Magny-Cours, the Istanbul circuit, and the Hungaroring.

Bernie found another sucker.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by revster

Folks, save your brain cells trying to make sense of this.

If they ever pull this off, you can add Austin to the list of nonsense venues like Magny-Cours, the Istanbul circuit, and the Hungaroring.

Bernie found another sucker.

Chinese GP with empty stands?
Malaysian GP with free friday entrance?

Don't forgot there's Korean GP coming next...there's a lot of suckers out there who wants to be on the F1 calender...

[JB135MDCT]

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

That's a cop out answer as there are 8 races within about a 1,000mi radius in Europe.

Good point, but look at the direction BE is going, China, Turkey, and sand dunes. At the expense of? Europe.

Who gets dropped in 2012? Anyone? Taking bets. Or perhaps we need another Poll? I pick somewhere in Europe.

Perhaps BE likes Texas for a hot supply of Grid Girls.