Race in Montreal?

[bowers]

Looks like there are rumblings of the IRL taking the open race date at Montreal due to the confirmation of F1 skipping town next year. Back in the ChampCar days they raced there for a short stretch of 3 years I think it was. Keep in mind however that IRL has inquired about running during the Nationwide NASCAR weekend and got shut down last minute... although there's still gonna be a bitter taste in Tony George's mouth about dealing with the track again, I'm going to say this is logically a sure thing (and I'm thinking it will have it's own date).

[Rex Monaco]

It won't happen.

1. Canada is a smaller market than Texas and not very important to American companies.
2. In the '80's some sponsors said they don't want to race in international markets.
3. It's much too hard to co-ordinate the marketing efforts of McDonalds Canada and McDonalds USA due to the language barrier, eh.

/sarcasm

[Chamoo]

It won't happen.

1. Canada is a smaller market than Texas and not very important to American companies.
2. In the '80's some sponsors said they don't want to race in international markets.
3. It's much too hard to co-ordinate the marketing efforts of McDonalds Canada and McDonalds USA due to the language barrier, eh.

/sarcasm

I almost didn't notice the sarcasm note and was going to rip you apart lol.

[champcarray]

There is still the possibility of F1 returning to Montreal, which would essentially negate and ICS race.

***

The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal may yet return to the F1 calendar in 2009, announce leading Québec politicians following a 'constructive' meeting with the sport's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone.

It appears the door has not been entirely closed on the possibility of the Canadian Grand Prix returning to the Formula 1 calendar in 2009 - as long as a new race promoter is found.

That was the message delivered by Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay, Québec economic development minister Raymond Bachand and federal minister of international trade Michael Fortier following a meeting with the sport's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone in London.

Ecclestone spoke with Canadian international trade minister Michael Fortier, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay and Quebec provincial economic development minister Raymond Bachand.

Mr Tremblay, who said losing the race would be an enormous blow to his city because it generates US$60 million (S$90 million) in tourist income, termed the meeting positive but the race is neither on the schedule or without hope.

'We have a better understanding of the issues,' Mr Tremblay said. 'We still have a lot of work to do, to evaluate all the options, but it is still possible to hold the grand prix in Montreal in 2009 and in subsequent years.'

[Dr. Krogshöj]

There is still the possibility of F1 returning to Montreal, which would essentially negate and ICS race.

***

The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal may yet return to the F1 calendar in 2009, announce leading Québec politicians following a 'constructive' meeting with the sport's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone.

It appears the door has not been entirely closed on the possibility of the Canadian Grand Prix returning to the Formula 1 calendar in 2009 - as long as a new race promoter is found.

That was the message delivered by Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay, Québec economic development minister Raymond Bachand and federal minister of international trade Michael Fortier following a meeting with the sport's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone in London.

Ecclestone spoke with Canadian international trade minister Michael Fortier, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay and Quebec provincial economic development minister Raymond Bachand.

Mr Tremblay, who said losing the race would be an enormous blow to his city because it generates US$60 million (S$90 million) in tourist income, termed the meeting positive but the race is neither on the schedule or without hope.

'We have a better understanding of the issues,' Mr Tremblay said. 'We still have a lot of work to do, to evaluate all the options, but it is still possible to hold the grand prix in Montreal in 2009 and in subsequent years.'

It's old news. Since then, the Canadian politicians put out a news release saying the race couldn't be saved because of the 'unreasonable' demands of Mr Ecclestone. Essentially, the City of Montréal, the Province of Québec and the Government of Canada commited 10 million Canadian dollars for the race fees. What's that, USD 8 million? Less than half of what Hungary pays.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/081120114047.shtml

[Dr. Krogshöj]

There is still the possibility of F1 returning to Montreal, which would essentially negate and ICS race.

***

The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal may yet return to the F1 calendar in 2009, announce leading Québec politicians following a 'constructive' meeting with the sport's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone.

It appears the door has not been entirely closed on the possibility of the Canadian Grand Prix returning to the Formula 1 calendar in 2009 - as long as a new race promoter is found.

That was the message delivered by Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay, Québec economic development minister Raymond Bachand and federal minister of international trade Michael Fortier following a meeting with the sport's commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone in London.

Ecclestone spoke with Canadian international trade minister Michael Fortier, Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay and Quebec provincial economic development minister Raymond Bachand.

Mr Tremblay, who said losing the race would be an enormous blow to his city because it generates US$60 million (S$90 million) in tourist income, termed the meeting positive but the race is neither on the schedule or without hope.

'We have a better understanding of the issues,' Mr Tremblay said. 'We still have a lot of work to do, to evaluate all the options, but it is still possible to hold the grand prix in Montreal in 2009 and in subsequent years.'

It's old news. Since then, the Canadian politicians put out a news release saying the race couldn't be saved because of the 'unreasonable' demands of Mr Ecclestone. Essentially, the City of Montréal, the Province of Québec and the Government of Canada commited 10 million Canadian dollars for the race fees. What's that, USD 8 million? Less than half of what Hungary pays.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/081120114047.shtml

It's actually worth reading.

Indycar may put on a show for a lot less, but will that draw a 100K+ race day crowd and 300K+ over the weekend? Will it result in an event that has a USD 75-100 million economic impact?

[Chamoo]

It's old news. Since then, the Canadian politicians put out a news release saying the race couldn't be saved because of the 'unreasonable' demands of Mr Ecclestone. Essentially, the City of Montréal, the Province of Québec and the Government of Canada commited 10 million Canadian dollars for the race fees. What's that, USD 8 million? Less than half of what Hungary pays.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/081120114047.shtml

It's actually worth reading.

Indycar may put on a show for a lot less, but will that draw a 100K+ race day crowd and 300K+ over the weekend? Will it result in an event that has a USD 75-100 million economic impact?

It may only be 10 million, but it may be all the government can afford. Right now most governments world-wide are not looking to grow their budgets, as they are probably trying their best to save as much as they can.

On top of that, the government is providing 10 million more then previously, which means that Bernie bumped up his sanctioning fees by more then 10 million dollars CN over the last year. That is rediculous.

I do think a IC race could be beneficial for Montreal, obviously not to the tune of approx. $100 Million in economic impact, but it would lessen the blow to the city and surrounding areas. With the money thrown at the F1 race, they could take a fraction of that, and promote the IC race strongly and bring in good crowds. It is worth it for both parties.

[seppefan]

IC need this one. Lets see if the mangement can grab it rather than lose another good venue, market and circuit that always throws up interesting races in F1. I have a feeling KK would have got it, lets see if TG can. Hope so.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

It may only be 10 million, but it may be all the government can afford. Right now most governments world-wide are not looking to grow their budgets, as they are probably trying their best to save as much as they can.

On top of that, the government is providing 10 million more then previously, which means that Bernie bumped up his sanctioning fees by more then 10 million dollars CN over the last year. That is rediculous.

He did nothing of the sort. The goverment didn't want to provide 10 million more (all previous contracts would have been null and void), but an annual $10 million period. The following are excerpts from the Canadian offer.

"Government funding: City of Montreal, Government of Quebec and Government of Canada together to commit $5M towards each Event and additional $5M indirectly from other sources."

"Guarantees: Newco shall not obtain letters of credit or governmental undertakings or to guarantee the performance of any of its obligations under the Race Promotion Contract."

As I said, Hungary commits and guarantees $18M+ annually. It's in the national budget. You say governments right now aren't looking to grow their budgets. Well they should be. As far as I can remeber, fiscal expansion is the right answer for an economic recession, unless you are struggling with an enormous debt.

I am not aware of Canada being in that position. But if it was, how smart a policy would it be to contribute to the cancellation of an event that has an economic impact of $75-100M? With this penny-pinching attitude, the Canadian politicians just contributed to the economic downturn in Montreal. And then tried to blame someone else for it.

[Easy Drifter]

Spend your way out of a recession? Try telling that to anyone in Ontario. In the recession in the nineties Bob (Booby) Rae as NDP Premier of Ont. tried that. Massive defecits we are still paying for, reduced credit rating for the Province and close to bankrupting the Province. The NDP are very left wing.
He is now running for the leadership of the Federal Liberal Party.
By the way the details of Canada's offer are available from several news sources and are far higher than what you are suggesting. The 15 mill was just the Govt. guaranteed amt. There was more money on the table plus 75% of the first 10 mill. in profit and 25% of any further profit.
Bernie demanded 110 mill over 5 years plus all the box rental income plus all the on track advertising revenue. Much of the advertising was by the Prov. of Quebec and the Govt. of Canada.
There are requests for billions by the big 3 car companies and now the parts manufacturers are asking for money as are the dealers.
Much as I love F1 (for 50 odd years) I think the general economy is far more important than a race. I have my thoughts on why the big 3 are in such a mess but I have no intention of discussing that.

[NickFalzone]

IndyCar.com currently has a poll asking fans if they would like the Montreal race added to the calendar. Not to say it means they'll follow a poll, but it probably wouldn't hurt to vote.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

A couple of weeks ago the people voted to keep Surfers on the schedule even as a non-championship race on indycar.com.