Series financial security

[Asa]

A1GP and Zhuhai International Circuit announced that A1GP will return to race there on 15 Nov.

http://www.zic.com.cn/zicen/

[Kiwi3]

wrong thread.

[Flyin Ryan]

edit, already posted

[Kebab]

Just a side note - Tony Teixeira's company, Energem, will cease to be on AIM in about a week if they can't find a new nominated advisor (Nomad) and broker ... their current one withdrew their services due to 'a connected party' borrowing $54million from the company.

Sounds like his whole empire could go pop if A1 does.

[csirl]

A1GP needs to regroup.

With their finances and the current economic climate, the race programme they tried to put together is madness - as was last years. The series should be run entirely in Europe for a couple of years until it is sorted out (unless some foreign promoter is prepared to cover the entire cost of a non-European races, and even then, it may not be a good idea).

Should go with a summer series in Europe in 2010 - scheduled for weeks that F1 is not racing. 10 tracks that can be reached by road in reasonable time from a central base where all the cars are maintained. I know there is competition from other formulae, but I think A1GP would see off superformula and is a notch above WSR.

Keep the costs very low, get rid of all the unecessary extras, give the series free to terrestrial TV etc.

[F3 Rocks]

Originally Posted by csirl

A1GP needs to regroup.


Should go with a summer series in Europe in 2010 - scheduled for weeks that F1 is not racing. 10 tracks that can be reached by road in reasonable time from a central base where all the cars are maintained. I know there is competition from other formulae, but I think A1GP would see off superformula and is a notch above WSR.

Keep the costs very low, get rid of all the unecessary extras, give the series free to terrestrial TV etc.

Where would the drivers come from most of the A1GP current drivers race in other series during the European summer season, thats what is so attractive to drivers and teams alike they get some driving/work during the European winter.

[Mak]

Managment was the problem and extremely stupid decisions by them. Season 3 went well and they were finally able to break even. They were looking to increase television revenue for the next season until someone through a major spanner in the works. Thanks TT.

[jackschmidt]

At this point, I've basically quit on A1GP. All I asked for was a stable Season 5 and they couldn't get their act together. The only way I'll watch is with a totally revamped management team and a total stability. Tony has been irritating me ever since he took control of the series. Thanks for killing a motorsport that I had liked, Tony.

[jondownunder]

It's pathetic, nothing but endless excuses from A1GP. Surely Teixeira knows the positive spin he always comes out with has long been rendered utterly meaningless. We all knew they weren't going to be at Surfer's, why didn't they have the decency to admit it sooner? They seemingly had no real intention of going from all the evidence available (impossible timescale, no airport bookings etc).

[rychard]

Here goes ...........Forensic accountants trawling through the company's many offshoots in several countries – including the tax havens of the Virgin and Canary islands – predict A1GP's debt to soar beyond the $25 million currently assessed.

In a preliminary report in A1GP last month – at a time when the State Government and Gold Coast organisers were still confidently predicting their race would go ahead – Tim Bramston from London insolvency specialists Griffins found A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd lost money in each of the past four years for a total of more $100 million.

Pledges from A1GP boss Tony Teixeira to pay off external creditors had so far amounted to empty promises, Mr Bramston wrote.

He added he seriously doubted that the funds existed to pay off any of A1GP's debts.

The Australian arm of A1GP is not named in the report and details of its finances and its dealings with the State Government are not available.

Mr Teixeira's A1GP group went into receivership in July and its cars were locked up by a freight company last month.

The Sunday Mail has seen two sets of legal advice provided to the Government, warning that the Gold Coast contract could not been terminated any sooner than last weekend when Mr Teixeira finally admitted the cars would not be in Australia.

[Kiwi3]

"He has made his money by digging holes in the ground. He is not in a service industry, he has not made his money by creating a consumer (sic) and satisfying a consumer and listening to public demand and pricing a product right, he's made his money by finding natural resources, mining them, and selling them to the Chinese, you know. Very different and they have brought people from that background, and now they are in a market where the customer is right and the customer will vote with their feet. And they are...and the fact that they are talking about issues like parking at home games suggests that they didn't think about these issues before, and now they are they are being caught on the hop, trying to do things on the fly and trying to be reactive....if they have not done that basic stuff what else have they not done..."

Source: Australian Four Four Two podcast, on the failure of mining magnate Clive Palmer's failure to get crowds to the home games of Gold Coast United, the football club he has created.

A bit off topic but it reminded me of someone else!