Mayor wants to dump Melbourne Grand Prix

Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle says the Victorian Government should consider scrapping the Formula One Grand Prix.

Councillor Doyle has written an editorial in the Herald Sun newspaper suggesting that time is up for the event.

He says the event was underwritten by taxpayers to the tune of $50 million last year and he predicts that figure will rise to $70 million in four years.

Read all about it!

I wonder if Adelaide will try and win it back?

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ya cant do that where am i going to go to a grand prix without leaving the country


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The problem is how you look at it. Yes, the Melbourne council loses 50m a year, but how much extra revenue do local businesses earn (and more revenue = more tax income for the government)? If it's more than 50m a year, he should definitely keep the race. If it isn't, he's right to get rid of it. But it's hard to answer that question.

While it's great for the locals and local economy, and the tax would presumably go towards the central coffers, it wouldn't make anything like that money back, so while the local economy may benefit, the rest of the country (or region) would see none of that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:43PM by gav.

I love Adelaide but I'm not a huge fan of the current layout (I liked the old F1 layout). What other viable options are there?

Bathurst would be best but are the elevation changes suitable for tightly strung F1 chassis?

Other than that there's Surfer's and that's it.


The most likely and most disappointing outcome is simply no AUS grand prix

Quote
loque
What other viable options are there?

Sadly, the race in Russia or some obscure oil rich country a million miles away from having anything to do with motor racing and just wanting a marque sport on their doorstep.

Yah we'll have Qatar next...

If the race does leave Melbourne I'm sure Adelaide will try and get it back. But, as said, there's a good chance Australia will get overlooked in favour of some obscure(F1-wise) country which has more money to offer or an as-yet-untapped marketing potential, if the Australian GP loses its current venue.
Anyways, hope this is groundless speculation. We'd be losing one of our consistently best races. Wish Barcelona's future would be put in question instead.

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As a Melburnian, and someone who has been to the GP for 13 of the 15 yrs it has been held here, it is a great event! The greenies say the park has been ruined by the GP, but truth be known, the GP has turned the location into a modernised, clean and maintained parkland area of the city!! Prior to the first GP of this modern era in 1996, Albert Park was nothing more than a desolate, uncared for swamp with weeds all over the place.
Nowadays, it is surrounded by beautiful grassy fields for local community sporting events, and good safe roads for US the public to drive on.
The neagative press on the F1 GP always state how many millions the event loses, and that is fair enough. That does suck, majorly, if we indeed are losing that much money every year! But we never get told how much the GP earns for our city. Never, ever....

I would naturally love to see the F1 GP remain in Melbourne, and in Australia. If it leaves our shores, I doubt any Australian city really has the money to get and keep the GP in it's current financially demanding contracts! Other nations would jump on the chance to snare one of the rare F1 GP events on offer....

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GPGSL Team Owner Debut - Melbourne, Season 8 - present
GPGSL Test Debut - Hungary, Season 4. GPGSL Race Debut - Adelaide, Season 5.

I'm not sure Adelaide is that likely, as they are unlikely to want to have a night race either.

The next best option might be going to Calder Park then, who have mentioned that they want to do a full upgrade with new lights etc. It may not be anywhere near as good as Albert Park, but at least it would be something.

gav Wrote:
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> While it's great for the locals and local economy,
> and the tax would presumably go towards the
> central coffers, it wouldn't make anything like
> that money back, so while the local economy may
> benefit, the rest of the country (or region) would
> see none of that.

Ron Walker claims that the benefit is $160 million. It's hard to quantify this, as it also probably has a longer term impact as making Melbourne a more likely tourist spot.

Obviously some people in the press are against the GP. You never hear of how much loss other major events make.

Also, the whole country isn't meant to benefit from it, its not a national event.

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2011 10:20AM by SchueyFan.

Quote
SchueyFan
Also, the whole country isn't meant to benefit from it, its not a national event.

Yeah, but do the central government fund the race in any way?

gav Wrote:
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> > Also, the whole country isn't meant to benefit
> from it, its not a national event.
>
>
> Yeah, but do the central government fund the race
> in any way?


The Victorian state govt underwrites it, and basically the state governments are partially funded by the federal government, so yeah, there is at least in part a flow-on effect to the rest of the country.

Apparently there was a meeting today: Yesterday, Premier Ted Baillieu held two hours of talks with Mr Walker about the race's spiralling cost, telling ABC Radio in Melbourne the bill needs to be cut.

Article

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