Surfers Paradise 2009

[Oldtony]

Let's get a few figures straight.
The A$25-30 million quoted is the entire outgoing cost for the event. Build and take down circuit, management and promotion, organisation cost etc plus sundries and running the event administration all on top of the actuall race costs.
The A$11.8million is the subsidy put in by the Qld Government.
In past years approx A$1.6 million has come fro the event naming sponsor plus income from trackside advertising.
There is about A$600,000 in services supplied by the City Council but this doesn't appear in any event budget, and is fairly well buried in the City accounts.
The original sanction fee to be paid to VESA (V8SC) this year is "commercial in confidence"but VESA is the TV production company and recieves the right to broadcast fee from and any one else who shows it. Ch7 That is marketed through SEL Tony Cochranes company.
It would seem that the fee to be paid to A1GP was A$3.6 million, and he has already collected half. My understanding is that airfrieght and logistics was to be paid for by A1GP as they were back to backing with China.
In the Champ Car days the arrangement was that the event paid Airfrieght costs ex the US and fares for 7 personel per car, plus accommodation costs for the same amount of crew. In those days the sanction fee paid to CC was approaching A$2.5 million over and above the transport costs.
Probably that was similar to the arrangement offered to IRL. So it was turn up, most expenses paid and grab a share of about A$2.5 million. Of course at the time it was being discussed the A$ was worth about 67c US rather than the 92c US it gets now.
The timing has very little to do with anybodies ego. It is a narrow window of opportunity in October between the interstate family holiday season and the "schoolies" fortnight that both pack the Coast. The only other window is the February to Easter spell which suffers from fairly un reliable weather.

[Toads]

That's good that you have an opinion Oldtony. But please consider, just because you have an opinion, doesn't mean it's factual information. Sometimes it pays to have resources to back up some claims.

Lets start again, with producing some facts shall we? See below the records of last Autumn, recorded at the Seaway which is located 5.5klm from Surfers Paradise Precinct. These statistics have been provided by The Bureau of Meteorology. We'll even throw in the month of February, seeing it needed mentioning.

February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009

Anytime Oldtony or Tourer want to point out to where this "un reliable" or "unstable" weather is on the Gold Coast during Autumn, I'm all ears..

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Toads

Lets start again, with producing some facts shall we?
Anytime Oldtony or Tourer want to point out to where this "un reliable" or "unstable" weather is on the Gold Coast during Autumn, I'm all ears..

You're quire right Toads, earlier this year was pretty quiet - only two weekends in February, one in March, one in April would have been wet so as long as the race had been scheduled for one of the dry weekends then it would have been OK. Mind you, that is only one year's results.

Gold Coast seems much drier now than it was in the early nineties when the decision was made to move the date. Back in them dark days it was still possible for the edge of a cyclone from further north to impact on the Gold Coast - don't know why it doesn't seem to happen so much now.

Maybe it was just the "luck of the draw" but the weather was quite "iffy" for a number of those early events.

In any case, the weather was one of a number of factors working against moving the date to Autumn - it could be that the perception that the weather is less stable is a better way to describe it.

[Toads]

Thanks for your response Tourer, seems we're getting somewhere without just writing off Gold Coast Autumn Weather.

Admittedly, this past decade seems to be drier than the 90's. But with that said, last summer and autumn has produced enough rain to see South East Queensland Dams at their highest levels in the last six or so years. I tried to pull some stats from Seqwater, but they haven't released this year's Annual Report yet.

Also, as you mentioned. There is the possibility that a cyclone could take a wander down this way and dump a lot of rain. But last time from memory that a cyclone has come close to the GC, was back in 1992 in the month of May, that produced 2 or 3 days of torrential rain.

When it comes to the weather affecting Motorsport events on the Coast in the past three decades. There are only 3 incidents I can recall. The last one was the date that JagtechOhio mentioned of October 27, 2002. Which seen rain equivalent to a monsoonal downpour, which was very unfortunate for the event. As the 3 or 4 months lead up to that Sunday, the coast hadn't seen a drop of rain, and if IIRC, the following Monday. The sun was shining like nothing ever happened.

The next, was the delayed start in 1995, that Micheal Andretti won for Newman-Haas Racing, just on dusk where they were running out of light.

Then the last one was from memory, was back in 1985 at the now deceased Surfers Paradise International Raceway at Carrara which at the time was a low lying area of the Coast, that was prone to flooding. I think it was a ATTC round which was held in the month of May. But the old boys didn't let that stop them either.

But getting back to the Surfers Street Circuit during the 90's. There was only two events I missed that decade (91, 95) and what rain we did see is what most would regard as Isolated Showers. It wasn't exactly show stopping weather. The last couple of years, for the open-wheelers they seem to have had the penny drop and moved the start of the race, closer to lunchtime, to reduced the odds of a wet start, and let the V8SC's finish off the days events. Why it took so long for the organisers to realise that, is anyone's guess.

But with all that said, believe it or not. I do agree with the rest of what Oldtony and Tourer have said. It's only Autumn thing I don't see eye to eye with. October does slot in the best for the event, with all things considered. But if need be, to keep the event going. I feel we just can't write off the possibility of an Autumn Event, because at the end of it all. I rather see some motorsport event on the Gold Coast, than none at all.

[Toads]

Oh, also forgot to mention. That's it good to hear Andy report card has improved since last week. Here's hoping the remainder of the weekend is a blast for you. It's something I reckon everyone should experience at least once.

[Oldtony]

Sorry to introduce the subject of weather. I live on the Gold Coast and have lived in SEQ for 40 yrs. Probably my mention of weather is more related to what I have experienced over that period. Believe me Jan Feb March cand be VERY wet and looking up the records for Beaudesert since 1898 they are by far the wetest months. By the way I used Beaudesert because in weather record terms the first available for Southport are mid 1930, and of course the rest of the Gold Coast virtually did not exist before about 1950. I'll grant this the weather patern certainly has changed over the past few years. But theb we are told by some that Climate change is not happening!
My main reason for contributing was to outline the sort of budget that had been used, and potentialy what is available. The whole point about the Government subsidy is that it is intended to be an internationl event, and in particular to attract international TV coverage and international visitors.
With the declining drawing power of Champ Car in it's later years, and the very ordinary show put on by the IRL the V8s have become the dominant drawcard and that has lead to a down market trend in the crowd attracted. It has moved from Champagne and Chic to Beer and Booze. Great party, but the Coast is starting to wonder if those were the guests we wanted to invite.
The other point is trying to find a category that will attract international TV. The F3 carnival linked with Macau is the best suggestion I have heard, and would provide at least some variety for local fans and TV audiences to the V8s. The mobile Museum being shown at present is great, but for one who watched those cars really competing, it is a bit of an anti climax.

[Oldtony]

Oh dear! How you can make oneself look an idiot.
Just had a look at the local weather radar and guess where a nice little intense storm is about to hit

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Oldtony

I'll grant this the weather patern certainly has changed over the past few years. But theb we are told by some that Climate change is not happening!

Climates move in cycles, sometimes 40 year periods and then also several hundred year periods, not to mention El Nino and La Nina that change every few years and heavily influence weather in Australia as it does in the USA.

The weather is just outside of human control so I think they have to pick the best days possible at least in decent seasons like spring or fall and also take in account other factors like holidays and other grand sporting events.

For example picking an early June date for the Canberra race never made any sense.

[mac]

Originally Posted by Oldtony

With the declining drawing power of Champ Car in it's later years, and the very ordinary show put on by the IRL the V8s have become the dominant drawcard...

The IRL show may not have been brilliant last year, but let's not forget that it was a non-championship race for a new series... it was never going to lead to fireworks...

Having said that, a reunified American open wheel series, if given a year or two, still represents the best opportunity for the Gold Coast race to achieve what it always intended...

The dismissal of the series for the good of the V8Supercar calendar was extremely short-sighted.

I fail to see a single period between early April and late September (the IRL season) that presents a compelling reason to knock back the IRL - with the possible exception of five weeks of school holidays.

As for weather, well the current slot hasn't exactly been free of monsoon... it can happen at any time on the Gold Coast...

[Andy Roberts]

Originally Posted by Toads

Oh, also forgot to mention. That's it good to hear Andy report card has improved since last week. Here's hoping the remainder of the weekend is a blast for you. It's something I reckon everyone should experience at least once.

Thanks, its been a great weekend actually. Could only afford to go the one day (saturday) but the rest of the atmosphere outside the circuit has been great as well. Certainly beats any trip to a race meeting back in the UK.

I mean can you actually go and relax on the beach during race breaks back at Silverstone? Hehe

One thing I'll never get the knack of though is ozzies tolerance to beer. Oh my god! You get through the stuff like its water! Funny to watch though so full credit to you

V8s though...... Ripper mate!

[Hubble]

Originally Posted by Andy Roberts

I mean can you actually go and relax on the beach during race breaks back at Silverstone? Hehe

There's always the gravel traps........

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by Oldtony

Let's get a few figures straight.
The A$25-30 million quoted is the entire outgoing cost for the event. Build and take down circuit, management and promotion, organisation cost etc plus sundries and running the event administration all on top of the actuall race costs.
The A$11.8million is the subsidy put in by the Qld Government.
In past years approx A$1.6 million has come fro the event naming sponsor plus income from trackside advertising.
There is about A$600,000 in services supplied by the City Council but this doesn't appear in any event budget, and is fairly well buried in the City accounts.
The original sanction fee to be paid to VESA (V8SC) this year is "commercial in confidence"but VESA is the TV production company and recieves the right to broadcast fee from and any one else who shows it. Ch7 That is marketed through SEL Tony Cochranes company.
It would seem that the fee to be paid to A1GP was A$3.6 million, and he has already collected half. My understanding is that airfrieght and logistics was to be paid for by A1GP as they were back to backing with China.
In the Champ Car days the arrangement was that the event paid Airfrieght costs ex the US and fares for 7 personel per car, plus accommodation costs for the same amount of crew. In those days the sanction fee paid to CC was approaching A$2.5 million over and above the transport costs.
Probably that was similar to the arrangement offered to IRL. So it was turn up, most expenses paid and grab a share of about A$2.5 million. Of course at the time it was being discussed the A$ was worth about 67c US rather than the 92c US it gets now.
The timing has very little to do with anybodies ego. It is a narrow window of opportunity in October between the interstate family holiday season and the "schoolies" fortnight that both pack the Coast. The only other window is the February to Easter spell which suffers from fairly un reliable weather.

Local shopkeepers are bleating they have taken a beating...sales down 70% on last year said one...grog/food sales are still profitable though I gather!