CoTA sounds like it sucks

[Goofyboy 3,326]

Are there more people in Pit Lane than the Main Grandstand?

[utee94 15,897]

Sure looked like it.  I've always watched races from my seats at T15 but for about half the race on Sunday we just walked into the main grands.

 

[utee94 15,897]

Did anyone else stay for Muse on Saturday night?  I really enjoyed that.  I've liked them since their debut around two decades ago, but had never seen them live. 

[wood 11,620]

1 hour ago, Goofyboy said:

Are there more people in Pit Lane than the Main Grandstand?

It was more crowded, but in the Main GS you probably had a few hundred people spread out over 9000 seats. In the pits you probably had a couple hundred spread out over something like maybe 2000 seats.

[elfenix 34,387]

and i missed a B2 flyover?  fuck!

[Atxracer 798]

If anyone is interested, there is a PCA race and DE at COTA this weekend.  Practice today, qualifying and race tomorrow, race Sunday.   Anything from 944's to Cup cars will be racing and no telling what will show up for the DE.  

[relapse98 634]

18 minutes ago, Atxracer said:

If anyone is interested, there is a PCA race and DE at COTA this weekend.  Practice today, qualifying and race tomorrow, race Sunday.   Anything from 944's to Cup cars will be racing and no telling what will show up for the DE.  

That sounds like something that I, as the owner of a racetrack, would maybe promote and see if we can get some people out, interested in our track, and eat some overpriced food and drink some overpriced booze.

Not a fucking peep on their facebook page. I am continually amazed that we have a racetrack that hosts F1, Indy and MotoGP - I am certain that is the only track doing all 3 currently and it's promoted so poorly. Look atTMS. They are having a free concert Saturday night in the infield and have been promoting the shit out of it. TMS does giveaways every Nascar race, shit like "If country bumpkin wrecks on lap 3, we'll give away 3 hot pit passes" and people go fucking nuts for that. COTA - not a god damn peep.

[Hawndoh 2,401]

I'm pretty sure it's some kind of race track equivalent to the plot of "The Producers". 

I almost expect them to stage Springtime for Hitler at the amphitheater. 

[wood 11,620]

^LMFAO.

[wood 11,620]

It's funny 'cuz it's true.

[Updawg 2,327]

The reason it looked empty on TV

The thing about the venue that a lot of people don’t realize is people like to wander,” Epstein told Autoweek. “They have some of their favorite hills and want to watch in the turns, so they aren’t really sitting in their grandstand seat. We realized that when we priced the IndyCar ticket. There wasn’t really a difference if you had general admission or had a ticket.

https://autoweek.com/article/indycar/indycar-cota-track-boss-epstein-says-event-met-upper-end-projections

[utee94 15,897]

^^^^^

I mean, it's sort of true. I have T15 grandstand seats to F1, and typically only sit there during the race itself.  All day Friday and Saturday I'm wandering around, watching from various hillsides, hospitality tents, or wahooing my way into the main grandstands via the Velocity Lounge.

But, that's not why it looked so empty for Indycar...

 

[wood 11,620]

2 hours ago, Updawg said:

The reason it looked empty on TV

The thing about the venue that a lot of people don’t realize is people like to wander,” Epstein told Autoweek. “They have some of their favorite hills and want to watch in the turns, so they aren’t really sitting in their grandstand seat. We realized that when we priced the IndyCar ticket. There wasn’t really a difference if you had general admission or had a ticket.

https://autoweek.com/article/indycar/indycar-cota-track-boss-epstein-says-event-met-upper-end-projections

That's complete bullshit. LMAO at the whole 'Reserved seat holders were out walking around or sitting in the dirt beside the track, so that's why the place looked so empty' nonsense. The GA crowd was strikingly sparse. There just weren't many people walking around or sitting in GA areas. Certainly not enough to make up for the utter lack of crowds in the grandstands. Epstein's really scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses if he's gonna go down the "People were out walking around" route on this race. The GA crowd was strikingly sparse out in the places he's talking about.

That 'nearly 30,000' figure probably includes Friday & Saturday, & includes the 10,000 mostly non-race attendees he says showed up for the Muse concert (that started two hours after Saturday's track action ended and really had nothing to do with the race). 

Regardless of Epstein and IndyCar putting a happy face on it, it wasn't a good crowd (to put it mildly). That's what usually happens when the local promoter pretty much doesn't promote. Nothing new here. There were just 30,000 reserved seats in use, and they were still only at best around 20% full on average during the race (if I'm being generous). The Main Grandstand, T1 GS, & T15 GS were pathetically empty, and the General Admission crowd was strikingly sparse. The most crowded-looking grandstand was T12, which has been cut in half and is also where they put the giveaway tickets and discounted tickets. There was a moderate GA gathering at T1, but typically crowded GA areas were full of nothing. T6 was not very crowded  & T18 was virtually empty. T11 was deserted. The crowd along the esses was very thin, and there were maybe 25-50 people beyond Turn 6 during the race, probably at least partially due to the fact that COTA wouldn't turn on any TV beyond the esses (as they've also been doing for MotoGP lately). Friday and Saturday, the turnout was embarrassingly bad, both in the stands and in GA. They had to move the concert from the Superstage to the much smaller amphitheater because they knew the small crowd would look ridiculous at the Superstage. Optics are more important than actual crowd numbers at COTA.  They didn't even use Lots L or M, but still couldn't fill Lots A, F, or T, even on race day. And the weather this past weekend was pretty great.

He can say he's happy with the crowd, but if he is, then his bar is pretty low. I can't imagine IndyCar is happy, regardless of what they're saying now. WEC, IMSA, V8SC, and X Games all put a nice spin on things right up til they left COTA. V8SC and X Games both left early, mid-contract. 

[wood 11,620]

And wait a minute - 80000 for F1? That's a lot less than COTA's been telling us.
 

[relapse98 634]

Got my parking pass from Cota for our tailgate. That's the earliest it has ever arrived. I don't know if COTA or the vendor are on their game, but I'm impressed.
I was gonna park off of Elroy Road if it didn't come in - I decided not to sweat it and just pay the little family $10.

If you ever need parking near Cota, Danny & Carmen are great. $10 for Indy and Moto (F1 probably more). Located right on Elroy, right next to the back entrance for Lot T. Walk through T, hop on the shuttle(*) and you can get anywhere on the property the shuttle goes.  I plan to be at our tailgate spot by about 10:40 so I can watch all of Moto3 and Moto2 before taking a booze and food break and then watching MotoGP.

(*) Looks like for Moto they are running the shuttle from T all the way to L... so 2/3 of the facility.

Edited April 8, 2019 by relapse98

[relapse98 634]

Oh, and is Marquez gonna win it, again? Just won Argentina and was 2nd at the first race in Qatar.

[Anton Chigurh 3,323]

Oh, and is Marquez gonna win it, again? Just won Argentina and was 2nd at the first race in Qatar.

Unless he falls, yes. He has never lost on American soil.

[Updawg 2,327]

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Construction crews at Circuit of the Americas violated the city land development code while building the Austin Bold FC soccer stadium, according to city staff.

Crews began work on major parts of the stadium more than a month before city permits were approved.

COTA officials tell KXAN the city knew about the construction and worked in "lockstep" with them to build the stadium before the Austin Bold FC's first game on March 30. 

"Everything was pretty much on a fast track. The entire time the city was in lockstep with us, AFD (Austin Fire Department) was in lockstep with us," said Rick Abbott, COTA's Executive Vice President of Operations. "We had to put a lot of things together pretty quickly."

Sylvia Arzola, the public information and marketing manager for the city's Development Services Department, confirms to KXAN the grandstands, media building, and locker room were all under construction before the city approved the work.

Building Official for the city's Development Services Department, Beth Culver, says she believes Abbott's description of working in "lockstep" is not accurate.

"They have been told to not do work without a permit. They've been told that on several occasions, not just in regards to this project," said Culver, who says she found out about crews working on the stadium in late February and didn't know the extent of the work completed until March.

"We've had a lot of concern about them having the event without completing the permit so we had to make some decisions before that first game on what we would allow them to use or not use," said Culver.

The team had a "symbolic groundbreaking" for the $5 million, 5,000 person stadium in October.

COTA applied for construction permits from the City on January 15, according to COTA Chairman Bobby Epstein, who spoke to KXAN in a phone interview. Crews began construction on the grandstands in early February but did not get city permit approval until March 23: a week before the first soccer game. 

City staff issued COTA a temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO) for Austin Bold FC's first game on March 30. That certificate expired April 1 and COTA must obtain another one for the second game on April 17.  Abbott says the TCO for the next game with be obtained by the end of the week. Without a TCO, the next game cannot go on. 

"If you don't have a certificate, you don't have an event," Epstein said.

In the original TCO, city staff says Circuit of the Americas was not permitted to use the locker room or the media building but the field and the grandstands were approved.

General Manager of the Austin Bold, Roberto Silva, wrote KXAN the unfinished locker rooms were an "inconvenience to the players but not the fans." 

"COTA enjoys a wonderful relationship as it relates to the city, with the AFD, with the police departments, with all the safety organizations," Abbott said. "So we never actually saw this as a big issue."

Abbott says most of the grandstands were built off-site and then transported to the COTA field. 

City staff says it's too early to tell if punishment, fines, or corrective action will come out of this. Right now, DSD sees the project as an active construction site so city staff's priority is to get the project into compliance with city code. 

Culver tells KXAN the city could issue a stop-work order but she says usually when someone works without a permit, the corrective action is to get a permit. COTA is trying to get a permit currently, it's pending, or listed as "active" on the city's online portal.

Staff will evaluate the next steps when the stadium is complete.  The next home game for the Austin Bold will be April 17th. COTA officials hope to have another temporary certificate of occupancy by the end of this week. 

According to the city’s website, the Development Services Department assists “homeowners, business owners, and contractors when they build, demolish, remodel or perform any type of construction to ensure compliance with applicable city and building codes.”

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/cota-soccer-stadium-construction-started-before-approved-permits/1909686457

[wood 11,620]

LOL. These guys ... 

I remember hearing that someone had screwed the pooch and failed to get some important permits on time, but I just figured they'd get the city to push it through. It never occured to me that they'd just say 'fuck it' & build without permits.

[wood 11,620]

Quote

Abbott says most of the grandstands were built off-site and then transported to the COTA field.

Ummm ... BULLSHIT. That's not true.

Quote

"They have been told to not do work without a permit. They've been told that on several occasions, not just in regards to this project," said Culver, who says she found out about crews working on the stadium in late February and didn't know the extent of the work completed until March.

"We've had a lot of concern about them having the event without completing the permit so we had to make some decisions before that first game on what we would allow them to use or not use," said Culver.

So, COA, when are you gonna do something about it & stop being a doormat? Why give 'em a TCO when they built the place illegally? I guess COTA's above the law. Have been since 2012, so why not now ... 

Quote

"COTA enjoys a wonderful relationship as it relates to the city, with the AFD, with the police departments, with all the safety organizations," Abbott said. "So we never actually saw this as a big issue."

Read: "We do what we want, legal or not. Fuck errbody."

Edited April 9, 2019 by wood

[wood 11,620]

Austin: Riders doubtful of COTA bump fix

https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/917399/1/riders-doubtful-cota-bump-fix

[wood 11,620]

More from that Crash article and a Statesman article as well...

 

After COTA repairs, MotoGP riders hope 'Horsepower Rodeo' is less bumpy
https://www.statesman.com/sports/20190411/after-cota-repairs-motogp-riders-hope-horsepower-rodeo-is-less-bumpy

“It’s really bumpy and sends you in many directions, kind of like a rodeo,” said Marc Márquez, explaining the rustic helmet design he’s rocking this week for the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas.

Though the Spaniard has ridden the bumpy Circuit of the Americas track to six straight victories in Austin, even the “King of COTA” had some stern words during the pre-race press conference Thursday when riders were asked about efforts to improve the problems.

...

“I checked a little bit, and I know that they did a few modifications,” Márquez said. “They didn’t fix what we asked from the safety commission. In the first practice we will see what is going on with the track.

“Of course, this track is quite bumpy. One of the most difficult tracks in this aspect of the calendar. Sometimes it’s disappointing because it’s one of the best layouts. We hope that they did a great job, but tomorrow we will see.”
...

In 2017 multiple riders, including Rossi, used the comparison of a motocross track. As for why the bumps exist and why they’re so hard to get rid of, opinions vary. Some point to the presence of F1 and the high downforce cars from that series inflict on the surface. But COTA is far from the only track to host both.

The most popular theory is the one that Australian rider Jack Miller of Pramac Racing floated Thursday.

“I think it’s got to be something to do with the ground around here,” he said. “It looks like it’s a lot of clay, and if I remember correctly, directly after the first year we were here they had a lot of rain, which could cause it to move.

“I’m interested to see the work that they’ve done this year if it’s an improvement or it’s just trying to patch another job and it’s not that great.”

Austin: Riders doubtful of COTA bump fix

https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/917399/1/riders-doubtful-cota-bump-fix

Double title runner-up Andrea Dovizioso is among those that are sceptical of how much can be achieved without a full resurfacing.

"I'm worried it's not possible to really fix the problem that exists with the track. And that is very bad because I think it's one of the most beautiful tracks in our championship," said the Ducati rider.

"The problem is there are bumps everywhere and with the bike it’s very difficult to ride. Not just to be fast. Looks like the asphalt or the dirt under the asphalt moves almost everywhere. So it's difficult to fix if you don’t make a completely new preparation, I think."
As Dovi suggested, while F1 cars are typically blamed for excessive bumps on MotoGP circuits, many feel the geology of the area is the main factor.

"It's a great shame because the track is fantastic and also quite new, but suffers a lot about a bumps problem," said Yamaha's Valentino Rossi. "Maybe something happens from below [the surface].

"In three or four parts they are very big. In the last years they've tried to do something about the bumps but unfortunately they don’t improve. We have to check tomorrow and we hope that it's better."
"The track itself is not that old, as Vale says," Pramac's Jack Miller added. "We go to many tracks on the calendar that have a lot more years on them and are not that bumpy.

"I think it's definitely got to be to do with the ground around here. It looks like a lot of clay and if I remember correctly directly after the first year we were here they had a lot of rain, which could cause it to move.

"But the track was bumpy, especially the back straight, and then last year they ground it down and the bumps actually became bigger and longer. So I'm interested to see if the work for this year is an improvement or if it's just trying to patch another job and not that great."

The Statesman article incorrectly states that "The section including Turns 9, 10 and 11 was fully repaved". In fact, the repave did not include Turns 9 or 11. Only Turn 10 was repaved.

As for the Statesman labeling as 'theories' the comments that the bumps might be caused by the soil conditions, that's a fact, not a theory. It's not the weather or F1 cars as COTA continues to suggest LOL.

[wood 11,620]

On 4/8/2019 at 2:05 PM, relapse98 said:

Got my parking pass from Cota for our tailgate. That's the earliest it has ever arrived. I don't know if COTA or the vendor are on their game, but I'm impressed.
I was gonna park off of Elroy Road if it didn't come in - I decided not to sweat it and just pay the little family $10.

If you ever need parking near Cota, Danny & Carmen are great. $10 for Indy and Moto (F1 probably more). Located right on Elroy, right next to the back entrance for Lot T. Walk through T, hop on the shuttle(*) and you can get anywhere on the property the shuttle goes.  I plan to be at our tailgate spot by about 10:40 so I can watch all of Moto3 and Moto2 before taking a booze and food break and then watching MotoGP.

(*) Looks like for Moto they are running the shuttle from T all the way to L... so 2/3 of the facility.

Hey I parked with Danny Carmen today. Got my 3-day pass for $30. Thanks for the tip!

[Updawg 2,327]

Thinking of going TMR. Any best way to get tickets? I'll just park in someone's yard most likely

[wood 11,620]

4 minutes ago, Updawg said:

Thinking of going TMR. Any best way to get tickets? I'll just park in someone's yard most likely

Just for tomorrow or Sunday, too? My buddy just told me he got an alert from Vivid for $5 tickets for tomorrow.

ETA: I just checked. Vivid & Tickpick both have them starting at $6. No fees on Tickpick...

Edited April 13, 2019 by wood

[Updawg 2,327]

Just for tomorrow or Sunday, too? My buddy just told me he got an alert from Vivid for $5 tickets for tomorrow.
ETA: I just checked. Vivid & Tickpick both have them starting at $6. No fees on Tickpick...

Is that legit?

[wood 11,620]

2 minutes ago, Updawg said:

8 minutes ago, wood said:

Just for tomorrow or Sunday, too? My buddy just told me he got an alert from Vivid for $5 tickets for tomorrow.
ETA: I just checked. Vivid & Tickpick both have them starting at $6. No fees on Tickpick...

Is that legit?

Yep. GA $6 & up. Reserved $9 & up.

https://www.tickpick.com/buy-motogp-of-the-americas-saturday-tickets-circuit-of-the-americas-4-13-19-2PM/3761733/

[Updawg 2,327]

Well shit. I'm getting some for TMR.

[wood 11,620]

Turn 2 bumps...

 

[Updawg 2,327]

so little water and a bumpy track. What can go wrong

[wood 11,620]

Yeah I had to LOL leaving COTA after FP2, listening to the two COTA trackside announcers - Jonathan Greene & that country guy - upset about the riders pointing out the dangers of the excessive COTA bumps. Country Guy literally sounded like he was gonna cry. 

The gist was that the riders are just being whiny babies & should just shut up and ride, that 'no track will stay billiard smooth forever', that 'they just have to ride it and figure out the best ways around the bumps' etc. 

Billiard-smooth forever? LOL. Seriously? It's year 7 of MotoGP at COTA. The riders have been talking about this for 3 years running now, & F1 started having trouble in 2014 or 2015 iirc.

The best part was when Country Guy said Vinales' Lap 2 fall in 2017 was caused not by the T18 bump, but by Vinales "taking the wrong angle" approaching the bump. You just can't make this stuff up.

 

This is what they were crying about ... 

Espargaro: "Super Dangerous" COTA "not at the level of MotoGP"
www.motorsport.com/motogp/news/espargaro-dangerous-cota-austin-track/4369283/

Petrucci: COTA is "like a road, with bumps, holes, and everything ... it's unbelievable we are riding here."
www.crash.net/motogp/news/917548/1/petrucci-unbelievable-we-are-riding-here

Crutchlow: COTA bumps are "like jumps ... It's getting stupid now"
t.co/4WEOzsdYyH

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by wood

[Updawg 2,327]

It's too bad. Everyone loves the circuit but there are just these issus they cheap out on. It's like they give 80% effort if that.

They should be glad tavo designed it. Just think what would have happened if he wasn't around

[wood 11,620]

Jesus ... 

[wood 11,620]

Looks like the surgery on Turn 10 was unsuccessful...

[relapse98 634]

He held it for the required 8 seconds.

[relapse98 634]

It's race day, bitches.

[relapse98 634]

Moto3 has started. Beautiful days and looks like a good crowd coming in.

[wood 11,620]

On 4/12/2019 at 10:44 PM, Updawg said:

It's too bad. Everyone loves the circuit but there are just these issus they cheap out on. It's like they give 80% effort if that.

They should be glad tavo designed it. Just think what would have happened if he wasn't around

Yeah, I saw some of the Tilke designs that were rejected by Tavo. Let's just say they weren't great. Didn't even bother to utilize the Turn 1 hill that's the signature turn of Tavo's design. Completely clueless.

I agree they half-ass pretty much everything, but with MotoGP this past weekend, and last year too, really, it went beyond that to disrespect imho.

There was a Statesman article last year that said the COTA MotoGP contract is up after this race. I don't know if that's right or not, but I do get the feeling MotoGP is done at COTA. The tone of the riders complaining about the track, the track announcers complaining about the riders complaining about the track, etc ... all just seemed to me as if the breakup is imminent, or has even already happened. What someone described COTA moving the motorcycle the parking out into the boonies just seems like another F you from COTA to MotoGP on the way out the door. Hopefully I'm wrong, but we've seen this show before with other series or events leaving COTA, even prior to the end of their contracts ...

[wood 11,620]

P!NK, Imagine Dragons named as 2019 F1 Grand Prix concert headliners http://www.kvue.com/article/news/entertainment-news/pnk-imagine-dragons-named-as-2019-f1-grand-prix-concert-headliners/269-0dd0a180-37f8-4419-94dd-6184723eaacb

[wood 11,620]

USGP pricing ... looks like they're going up again.

[wood 11,620]

Note the days of the concerts ... Friday and Saturday rather than Saturday and Sunday.

Gotta do something to pad those numbers!

[utee94 15,897]

Eh, the concerts were originally on Sunday afternoon with the idea of spreading out the departing crowds.  They added some on Saturday afternoon for the same reason.  It wasn't until the Taylor Swift concert that they grabbed a major headliner and put their biggest concert on Saturday instead of Sunday, with the intent to increase attendance numbers.  For me, the Sunday evening slot is kind of a let-down time anyway, so I don't really care that it's gone.  It's also a weeknight and asking a lot of people out to the track on a weeknight, is asking too much.

In other words, Friday/Saturday makes sense to me and is fine.  I imagine they'll still have some smaller-stage folks playing Sunday afternoon/evening, for anyone that wants to stick around the track and buy some more $12 beers.  JMO of course.

Edited April 17, 2019 by utee94

[relapse98 634]

Follow up to my MotoGP visit.

We had a DD so I rode passenger. We came in 130 to 812 then COTA Blvd to lot F. I think we screwed up and should have come in from the south. COTA Blvd was pretty clogged up at 10:15am.

Parking in F was a cinch. They had a pass lane and a cash lane off the Blvd and a dude checking that you had a pass. Of course the crackheads didn't scan the parking pass (that's only happened once in all my visits) but parking was a cinch, we got a nice close spot. Walked over to RV and this is where the new began. Apparently they now require everyone in the RV lot to have a wristband.  They either never had them before or we never had to deal with it, but they are $25 each, from what I heard. Got past that hilarity and enjoyed all 4 races. Our RV spot was closer to 11 than in the past, so the view was different, but the view from the little raised platform in RV was still just as good.

We sat around just a bit after the MotoAmerica race and there was hardly any traffic to speak of. I took navigation control and we headed our Elroy Road to Jacobson to 812 to 21 and home. The thing I've learned with COTA is - GO THAT WAY. Anything leading back to Austin seems to suck, but head to the boonies and you get moving fast.

[utee94 15,897]

^^^^

Also, just ignore the crackheads and drive around them, when they're trying to direct you somewhere that you know is stupid and wrong.  That's no help for the uninitiated, but for oldtimers that know the ways around, it can save you 45 minutes to an hour.  It also helps the n00bz by getting you off the road they were forced to take.  At least, that's how I justify it anyway.

 

[wood 11,620]

4 hours ago, utee94 said:

Eh, the concerts were originally on Sunday afternoon with the idea of spreading out the departing crowds.  They added some on Saturday afternoon for the same reason.  It wasn't until the Taylor Swift concert that they grabbed a major headliner and put their biggest concert on Saturday instead of Sunday, with the intent to increase attendance numbers.  For me, the Sunday evening slot is kind of a let-down time anyway, so I don't really care that it's gone.  It's also a weeknight and asking a lot of people out to the track on a weeknight, is asking too much.

In other words, Friday/Saturday makes sense to me and is fine.  I imagine they'll still have some smaller-stage folks playing Sunday afternoon/evening, for anyone that wants to stick around the track and buy some more $12 beers.  JMO of course.

Tavo had the idea of using the concerts right after the end of the race just as a way of diffusing the traffic, as you say, but when they started with the big acts, it was never about diffusing traffic at all, but rather about increasing race attendance numbers as you say, which is disingenuous. Bobby claims he's just trying to make new fans of racing. If that were true, he wouldn't have a 2+ hour gap between the end of racing and the start of the concerts. Most of the race crowd is long gone before the concerts start. It's really just adding on two extra events to the race weekend and then counting those attendees as race attendees, even though the majority of the concert attendees show up after the racing action is over. They do this in an attempt to help justify the ~$30M in annual subsidies they receive from the State. Around $200M so far iirc.

Even if someone only shows up for the concert, which is what most concert-goers do, they're being counted as a race attendee. It's also no coincidence that the cheapest way to get into the concerts is to buy a 3-day wristband, and that those wristbands don't have to be scanned on entry. They don't even have a bar code. COTA has no idea how many wristband wearers are showing up, because they aren't even attempting to count them ... but for every one of those that is sold, they are counting it as three days of race attendance, even if they only show up for one night, or even not at all. Yet they still present precise numbers to the State despite never counting the 3-day wristbands. How is that? They pull a number outta their asses. That's how. They've gotten around $200M from the State so far, and have never had to prove shit. It's all about appearances ... optics.

And now they're moving the concerts to boost race attendance on the two least-attended days. Maybe 10,000 people will show up for FP2, and then maybe 10,000 will show up for Imagine Dragons that night, and they'll tell the State there were 80 or 90,000 people there on Friday.

Edited April 17, 2019 by wood

[wood 11,620]

2 hours ago, relapse98 said:

Follow up to my MotoGP visit.

We had a DD so I rode passenger. We came in 130 to 812 then COTA Blvd to lot F. I think we screwed up and should have come in from the south. COTA Blvd was pretty clogged up at 10:15am.

Parking in F was a cinch. They had a pass lane and a cash lane off the Blvd and a dude checking that you had a pass. Of course the crackheads didn't scan the parking pass (that's only happened once in all my visits) but parking was a cinch, we got a nice close spot. Walked over to RV and this is where the new began. Apparently they now require everyone in the RV lot to have a wristband.  They either never had them before or we never had to deal with it, but they are $25 each, from what I heard. Got past that hilarity and enjoyed all 4 races. Our RV spot was closer to 11 than in the past, so the view was different, but the view from the little raised platform in RV was still just as good.

We sat around just a bit after the MotoAmerica race and there was hardly any traffic to speak of. I took navigation control and we headed our Elroy Road to Jacobson to 812 to 21 and home. The thing I've learned with COTA is - GO THAT WAY. Anything leading back to Austin seems to suck, but head to the boonies and you get moving fast.

Yep, if you see a bunch of cars going one way out there, do your best to go the other way. My only time having tickets scanned for parking was during IndyCar, and it slowed things down considerably. 

[utee94 15,897]

1 hour ago, wood said:

Tavo had the idea of using the concerts right after the end of the race just as a way of diffusing the traffic, as you say, but when they started with the big acts, it was never about diffusing traffic at all, but rather about increasing race attendance numbers as you say, which is disingenuous. Bobby claims he's just trying to make new fans of racing. If that were true, he wouldn't have a 2+ hour gap between the end of racing and the start of the concerts. Most of the race crowd is long gone before the concerts start. It's really just adding on two extra events to the race weekend and then counting those attendees as race attendees, even though the majority of the concert attendees show up after the racing action is over. They do this in an attempt to help justify the ~$30M in annual subsidies they receive from the State. Around $200M so far iirc.

Even if someone only shows up for the concert, which is what most concert-goers do, they're being counted as a race attendee. It's also no coincidence that the cheapest way to get into the concerts is to buy a 3-day wristband, and that those wristbands don't have to be scanned on entry. They don't even have a bar code. COTA has no idea how many wristband wearers are showing up, because they aren't even attempting to count them ... but for every one of those that is sold, they are counting it as three days of race attendance, even if they only show up for one night, or even not at all. Yet they still present precise numbers to the State despite never counting the 3-day wristbands. How is that? They pull a number outta their asses. That's how. They've gotten around $200M from the State so far, and have never had to prove shit. It's all about appearances ... optics.

And now they're moving the concerts to boost race attendance on the two least-attended days. Maybe 10,000 people will show up for FP2, and then maybe 10,000 will show up for Imagine Dragons that night, and they'll tell the State there were 80 or 90,000 people there on Friday.

Well sure, but they're going to lie about it anyway, as you say they always have.

For me personally, I'd just as soon have them on FRI/SAT and not SUN.  But I'll be there from THU-MON, camping in Lot N, so my attendance is already taken for granted.

 

[elfenix 34,387]

1 hour ago, wood said:

but for every one of those that is sold, they are counting it as three days of race attendance, even if they only show up for one night, or even not at all.

this really isn't any different than any other sporting event.

[Anton Chigurh 3,323]

Yeah, I mean I’d rather have awesome racing events in my home state than not have them. Seems like not everyone has that sentiment, though.

[utee94 15,897]

4 minutes ago, Anton Chigurh said:

Yeah, I mean I’d rather have awesome racing events in my home state than not have them. Seems like not everyone has that sentiment, though.

Well definitely, lots of people don't give a flip about awesome racing events and would rather COTA not ever see a dime of gubment money.

Personally, I've figured all along that COTA's run was going to be limited and eventually it would implode, so I'm just enjoying it while I can.  I don't get into motorcycles so MotoGP isn't my thing, but I really enjoyed the Indycars, and I've enjoyed various sportscar races, and of course I've been a huge F1 fan since the early 80s which is why I was tickled pink when they said were going to get an F1 event right here in our backyard.  Especially with Eccelstone in charge, I didn't believe it for a second, not until the gates opened I was inside the venue, but sure enough, here we are.

They do lots of things wrong, they half-ass pretty much everything, but I'd still rather have F1 right here in Austin, than not have it.