"Amongst the 18 Grands Prix across the world, 17 of them are owned and operated partially or totally by governments," according to Paul Wilson, vice-president of marketing for Grand Prix F1 Canada, which is reportedly $30 million in debt. The Canadian GP has no government money involved.
FIA reportedly wanted increased fees that would have resulted in doubling to tripling ticket prices for next years' race, the same issue that forced the cancellation of the US Grand Prix for 2008. FIA is a privately owned corporation controlled by Bermie Ecclestone, and thus it's revenues and profits are secret.
Ecclestone has previously stated that "he could always count on" Norman Legault, the promoter who brings the race to Canada, because they "were good friends". On the day of the surprise announcement from Ecclestone in London, Legault was in Paris about to announce a major facelift for the Montreal track and facilities, including a complete track resurfacing. All those plans are now shelved.
The race brings roughly $100 Million in spending to the city of Montreal annually.
Last edited by gordguide; Oct 11th, 2008 at 10:32 PM.
I don't know if I will miss it.. doesn't seem that important to me as a Montrealer to have the event.. causes so many headaches. I hope the gov't is smart enough to stay out of it..but I bet they will invest tons in it... instead of affordable housing or something along those lines...
Well, first of all, despite my choice to live in the nether regions of a distant galaxy, rather than the Center-Of-The-Universe, my Canada includes Montreal.
Secondly, a race on TV at 4:00 AM on a Sunday morning is still a race on TV at 4:00 AM on a Sunday morning. Can I not watch one race a year awhile the rest of the house is awake?
Will TSN continue to bring races to television when they need the Montreal GP to sell the ads that pay for the commitment to the series? Perhaps you prefer we watch a time-delayed race on SPEED with clueless announcers and ads that encourage me to send my money to American advertisers. Excuse me if I find the whole prospect unappealing. Obviously I'm only being selfish.
Aside from mentioning it as a contributing factor in FIA's greed (the promoters of the Montreal GP have a contract with FIA, which they have abided by, to host the race to 2010) I never said I want anyone to subsidize the Montreal Grand Prix.
To dispel any doubt, let me say right now that I most certainly do not.
The petition is to FIA, not Stephan Dion. The teams don't want more money (and nor would they get any of the increased fee FIA is demanding); they want to race in their largest sales market. It costs the teams themselves more come here. They don't mind the extra costs of staging a race in North America; they accept them and pay them gladly.
Toyota doesn't race because they have nothing better to do; Honda doesn't sponsor the Montreal Grand Prix because they have cash to burn, the sponsor it because they make cars here and want to sell cars in Canada and the US. The cost of their F1 Team comes out of the marketing budget, not engineering.
Bernie, who inherited this cash cow from his dad, is simply greedy. He is the one who seeks subsidized cash from Bahrain, China, and Malaysia, not the teams who make up F1.
The petition is aimed at the one person who needs to get a grip, and it's a supporting weapon the F1 teams can use to make their case; they are fully in support of F1 racing in Canada.
Nor are we alone; the British GP is probably next, for all the same reasons, and all of Formula1 feel that the Canadian GP is the key to reviving a US venue.
We have a single, greedy man who has never had a real job in his life versus, I dunno, everyone else except perhaps the completely uninterested. Humour me, if you do care, and sign the petition.
On the other hand, if someone from Oshawa, the town where the entire Canadian automotive industry began with McLauchlain in 1908, doesn't care, then maybe we all should just forget about it as well.
Last edited by gordguide; Oct 12th, 2008 at 01:18 PM.
In that case you are definitely tilting at windmills.
Bernie will never yield his vice-like grip on the whole sad mess.
Oh, you could record the foreign races, no matter what time, and watch them before you read other news/sports sources. Many people do that now, even for N.A. football/basketball.
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