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CoTA sounds like it sucks

Updawg

By Updawg
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Deej
Deej

Maybe if they hadn't been so busy trying to shut down MLS moving to Austin, they would have caught that?

Hawndoh
Hawndoh

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. 

relapse98
relapse98

The pace car was the other thousand of people. This thing was well run, I was amazed. Their map had you come in 812 from 130, through Lot A, Tunnel1, through garages onto pit road and track and exi

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wood

wood 11,225

Posted
Posted

My bad. Here:

https://www.facebook.com/FOX7austin/posts/2480516625323134?__xts__[0]=68.ARA1YVGXq9lxWLelRhCKi1G9KWbv2A7M4Ru-9U1S1FIyt_u5U5T2jrpqUOxdkUYUoEvAyeCEapDDB1bqnY0fsdAWOzWHDw6ESTFNDYABduLl3sofzXN8nISfQzF6trRUp8rAxsfD_3pUTx4bJ6Di63edh-svqydW6rsx0Elxt-x1IoZ8BBhupXlgHoCr7BZ42Bu1D6GSJ1wpIKodz-JwN4zN2VdGxtdN6XuIt_VgkGSPqVv0xp6yxEyneRWipeeIinQNwECSEgWSb31rozAaDXNELKWzxWw3s0tbuNao9rAEg72KOoy5XACy36-i8W8xhSr1rsWk5SqLs2Lll6QCpkX4iA&__tn__=-R

and here:

https://www.facebook.com/KXANnews/posts/10156296142183037?__xts__[0]=68.ARCOllm8hrrRk1ImmUHsJFqH2KMQsqmRqE1GTOCuYy2OeWjcPic4AeoZNVjjBu-arN53zbHj3m6kgTdPMDl17PAnZBn8E-Lv_77mE8pnX7rAlPcWwjGxAi2oD5wHst7zGqFPmn6auLRl960-fT5e40HhggYKPtEvrsuZiEtprraRhxzZBVjKtE1tIMGq6NoVuQgjz6Uu8A0MKJ424WUxXwgQA6fOYME3zFJC6rCVWWduXW8hJoyuvvpZ45ELFG5OOWOrZcELE6sSLQ7rRHGw4R2D9CL6EGnkM5hYd9nEsQaCyXYEamCorlIMZyVHuWr6565o_l076GdZJLucFw&__tn__=-R

 

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wood

wood 11,225

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2 hours ago, Deej said:

When does Epstein get petitions going to shut down the Trail of Lights?

Probably already in the works ... and ACL Fest, SXSW, Texas Football, etc...

He'll probably try to get the MS 150 shut down too after their contract is up and they leave COTA.

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skittlebrau

skittlebrau 474

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While this petition has a vague exemption for ACL and Trail of Lights, it’s definitely aimed at stopping the creation of such entertainment events in the future that would compete with COTA. Which is the real purpose of this petition - not the soccer stadium.

 

”
Part 5. This ordinance shall apply to any sale, lease, conveyance, mortgage, or other alienation of any City-owned land that is or will be used as a sports stadium, sports facility, sports arena, and/or entertainment stadium, entertainment facility or entertainment arena regardless of the effective date of the sale, lease, conveyance, mortgage, or other alienation, except that this ordinance shall not apply to periodic events, such as the Austin City Limits Music Festival or the Trail of Lights, that have been held since prior to January 1, 2018.”

 

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wood

wood 11,225

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Posted (edited)

Hey, any word on where the MS 150 finish line will be this year? I'm also curious if JMBLYA will return to COTA.

I'm guessing it's not a good night for Bobby with the MLS announcement tomorrow and the Live Nation/C3/UT arena in the works. Heh...

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wood

wood 11,225

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Posted
COTA moves IndyCar weekend Muse concert to 360 Amphitheater. They're also offering 3-day ticket holders who only wanted to see the concert a chance to exchange those tickets for Concert/Saturday only passes.
 
My question is "Why?"
 
This is a direct reversal of their recent trend of making the 3-day GA pass the cheapest way to see a race weekend concert.
 
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relapse98

relapse98 634

Posted
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3 minutes ago, wood said:
COTA moves IndyCar weekend Muse concert to 360 Amphitheater.
 
My question is "Why?"

I'll only answer the first part. Having the concert at the ampitheater has got to be a better venue that that muddy hill. I really enjoy concerts at the ampitheater (I think they need more shitters for chicks as that line for the wife sometimes gets pretty long - and I still have my standard complaint about the crackheads running parking and entry).

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wood

wood 11,225

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7 minutes ago, relapse98 said:

I'll only answer the first part. Having the concert at the ampitheater has got to be a better venue that that muddy hill. I really enjoy concerts at the ampitheater (I think they need more shitters for chicks as that line for the wife sometimes gets pretty long - and I still have my standard complaint about the crackheads running parking and entry).

The Amp is definitely better, but if they were expecting much more than the 14K the Amp can supposedly hold, then they'd be having it at the superstage. Two potential reasons I can think of for them to move from the hill to the Amp:

- IndyCar tickets aren't selling well, so the optics of the Amp will be better than a small crowd out in a big field.

- IndyCar cancelled? Not likely, but then maybe they got wind of the nasty cracks & bumps all over the place ... or maybe the Gov won't pay a subsidy for a second Texas IndyCar race?

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relapse98

relapse98 634

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Posted
1 minute ago, wood said:

- IndyCar cancelled? Not likely, but then maybe they got wind of the nasty cracks & bumps all over the place ... or maybe the Gov won't pay a subsidy for a second Texas IndyCar race? 

I would have thought Indy would have said something after the test earlier this year if the track was an issue. And we'll certainly here something after everyone tests on 2/12 at Cota.

Maybe it's the latter.

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wood

wood 11,225

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3 minutes ago, relapse98 said:

I would have thought Indy would have said something after the test earlier this year if the track was an issue. And we'll certainly here something after everyone tests on 2/12 at Cota.

Maybe it's the latter.

Yeah who knows. Most likely thing imho is low ticket sales driving the concert to the Amp.

It's weird that they'd weaken their strategy of boosting 3-day attendance by selling 3-day tickets to people who are only going to the concert. That's the really puzzling part. 

Re: the track, with rain and temperature changes, it's only going to get worse and even accelerate in deterioration until it's fixed. I've heard that would cost $8-12M and that Bobby just doesn't wanna pay for it. You can even see in some pics that water is actually weeping from the cracks onto the track. Not good. Probably not gonna kill the racing this year, but if not fixed, it will eventually.

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wood

wood 11,225

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Posted (edited)
13 minutes ago, woohorn said:

Is there a "dummies guide to" answer for why the track is so bad? Is it soil? aggy concrete??

Didn't TMS have to redo their track soon after opening to? Just strange that the most important element of the track is not sota.

The soil is very bad out there. It's a very porous, expansive clay that absorbs a lot of water and then dries out very quickly, expanding and contracting,  heaving, pitching, and cracking over time ... but the engineers came up with a solution where they would dig out the entire circuit, anywhere from 15-25 feet iirc, lay an impermeable water barrier, and then refill with specifically prescribed layers of road bases to create a sort of 'tube' that the track would rest on. The moisture content of the tube could be managed so as to make it stable. We heard from one guy (that would know) that the drainage for that system was shortcutted/neglected/fucked up, and also that other shortcuts may have been taken. The result is what we've been seeing for a while now - bumps that are getting worse and worse, the track coming apart in places, and now cracks all over the place.

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wood

wood 11,225

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As an example of that, have any of you ever noticed the rather large area that looks like the ground has just cracked open and is collapsing in on itself ... out by the east end of the T3-4 bridge? It's grown into kind of a ravine there. That wasn't there at all when the track opened. Now it's 40 feet wide in places, about a football field long, and only about 150' from the track....

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skittlebrau

skittlebrau 474

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On 1/14/2019 at 11:38 PM, wood said:

Hey, any word on where the MS 150 finish line will be this year? I'm also curious if JMBLYA will return to COTA.

I'm guessing it's not a good night for Bobby with the MLS announcement tomorrow and the Live Nation/C3/UT arena in the works. Heh...

MS 150 finishing there again this year, but I’ve heard they are looking for new locations after this one.

Epstein might have more money to fix the track if he’d stop wasting it on garbage petitions to try and stop MLS.

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wood

wood 11,225

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35 minutes ago, skittlebrau said:

MS 150 finishing there again this year, but I’ve heard they are looking for new locations after this one.

Epstein might have more money to fix the track if he’d stop wasting it on garbage petitions to try and stop MLS.

They probably have a contract then.

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utee94

utee94 15,805

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2 hours ago, wood said:

Some of the comments hint at some paving, but that's grinding. Utee, did your guy say anything else about what they're doing?

 

Nah, he just wrote a quick bit about being out at COTA, presumably because he found it to be unique compared to standard highway work his crew normally does.  (they did a lot of the paving on the MOPAC toll roads over the years and he posted some about that at the time, too).

I'll see if I can follow up and find if he's willing to share any more detail.

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wood

wood 11,225

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Looks like it was a surface grind and re-pave of Turn 10, where a series of bumps on the apex and exit had gotten bad recently. Other than some grinding at the start of the T1 braking zone, I didn't see work anywhere else, but I couldn't see some parts of the track. 

DyLVZR1UcAAzljh.jpg:large

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wood

wood 11,225

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From 'red stick' on Autosport...

Nice going COTA.  The first question in this morning's Robin Miller's Mailbag: 

Q: Recently I purchased tickets to the IndyCar event at COTA and wanted to get paddock passes. They told me they were sold out ($75 each), and I inquired how many they had. The response was 1,000! Are you kidding me? At every IndyCar event that I have been to, whether as a ticket purchaser or a participant in the MRTI in Pro Mazda, access to the IndyCar paddock was a given. That access is one reason why IndyCar is so attractive to the fans. If this is true and only 1,000 fans have passes, this is contrary to the IndyCar mantra.

Further, it reinforces some things about COTA that I am not particularly fond of, particularly after having attended other events. I was able to get passes via a race team but if true, this is insane. The paddock area is huge, and can accommodate many thousands. They also said that they would think 30,000-35,000 for the first year in attendance would be a good start. I would agree, but doing this with paddock passes on top of a premium ticket price will turn off many prospective fans.

Emmett, Texas

RM: When I first read your letter I thought it had to be a mistake, so I called COTA and inquired about buying paddock passes and was told they were “sold out.” I asked how many were sold, and was told “a couple thousand.” I responded that COTA was enormous and could accommodate more paddock people than just about any IndyCar track, and I’d never heard of the paddock being sold out. The ticket rep said between IndyCar and COTA, they had reached their capacity. So then I called IndyCar, and it acknowledged there seems to be a little disconnect, but they were working on it. I suppose after dealing with F1’s limited access this is a whole new world for COTA, but it cannot afford to piss people off who are coming to its first event. I think IndyCar will work something out by March 22-24 so paddock passes would be available to anyone and everyone that wants one. But I thank you for calling this to my attention. 

https://racer.com/2019/01/30/robin-millers-mailbag-for-january-30-presented-by-honda-racing-hpd/

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wood

wood 11,225

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40 minutes ago, elfenix said:

do we know what support races will be in austin for indycar?

Miata Cup and Indy Lights...

Re: the IndyCar paddock passes, I was thinking about it in the shower just now, and this just looks like a typical COTA attempt to push fans toward a more expensive option, like a 'Paddock Club' type package that includes paddock access. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they never sold even one $75 paddock ticket before declaring them 'sold out'.

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