Cota $29m 2014

Thought that number might get your attention.

Past and present issues about money at COTA. Kind of long but there is a lot of history in just 4 years.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/is...ack-in-trouble

Money through the Texas Major Events Trust Fund

As for Circuit of the Americas? For FY 2015, COTA is getting $28,562,562 for the 2014 Formula One race, $305,467 for the World Endurance Championship race, and $388,777 for the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship race, held the same day as the WEC race.

That makes COTA’s late-2014 take $29,256,806. By comparison, Texas Motor Speedway, for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race, will get $544,481.

It's a beautiful track and it's cool to have F1 visit, but holy cow that's a lot of tax money for entertainment. Really interesting article. It clearly illustrates how little oversight the state slush fund has. Makes me wish I had buddies in politics too.

Sigh. Too many hands out for the system to work, apparently.

That's a lot of miatas!!

With all that tax money spent you would think it would be cheaper for the public to go the events and use the track.

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Originally Posted by jeff_man

With all that tax money spent you would think it would be cheaper for the public to go the events and use the track.

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The track isn't making much money either, all of it is going into Eccelstone's pockets.

Well, if they would open the track up to the public on a regular basis it would likely generate at least as much in revenue as the state is kicking-in.

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Originally Posted by OZMDD

Well, if they would open the track up to the public on a regular basis it would likely generate at least as much in revenue as the state is kicking-in.

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There are quite a few events on a regular basis between all the clubs and orgs that run there. Just costs 350-500 a day to run.

Yes, but many of those are run by for-profit organizations. The track would see more revenue if it were in the "open to the public" world year-round.

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Originally Posted by OZMDD

Yes, but many of those are run by for-profit organizations. The track would see more revenue if it were in the "open to the public" world year-round.

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A good bit but why does that matter. The track is still making their 50K per day rental regardless of profit or non profit (BMWCCA, PCA, SCCA etc)

Yes, but the article was discussing the fact that the track is potentially going insolvent, and even at-risk of losing some of the $24 million from the state, so COTA getting into the business of operating a public track could generate significant revenue.

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Originally Posted by OZMDD

Yes, but the article was discussing the fact that the track is potentially going insolvent, and even at-risk of losing some of the $24 million from the state, so COTA getting into the business of operating a public track could generate significant revenue.

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I imagine the upkeep costs on the track would be nuts if it was being run on all the time by the public not to mention the liability and I just don't think there is a big enough demand of people paying $500+ bucks to drive the track all the time.

If you read the article carefully, you will see that the track is trying to have it both ways.

The reason they actually want the valuation lowered is to reduce the property tax burden.

The reason they want the attendance #'s and such to be higher is to show value to the community as repay for the Major Event slush fund money. But this implies a higher valuation on the property. Catch-22.

As for the groups that run on the track being for-profit...while true, they don't make all that much on a COTA event. The high fees are due to the stupid-expensive track rental fee and required personnel rental (wreckers, EMS, etc.). Those groups actually do better at other tracks.

Thanks for the perspective. I was thinking there might be more revenue possibilities if the track had weekday public access, but I guess the operating and maint costs are too much to be practical. Also, you lose the F1 cachet.

If you rented the track to 100 cars 365 days a year at $500 per car and assume no additional expenses . . . you don't get there. And what are the chances of accomplishing that?

Track will likely go bankrupt, which is fine -- wipes out liabilities and gives the track a chance (i.e., like when an airline goes bankrupt -- doesn't mean the business closes -- quite the opposite). Question is whether Bernie's contract with COTA goes away in case of such a filing? I'll bet there's a clause about that.

This is very much an international race, brings a lot of people to Austin and Texas that NASCAR and other events don't. A Mexican Grand Prix would be a huge threat to this track, the times I've gone to F1 at COTA, probably 25-30%+ were wealthy people from Mexico.

Seems to me they are not trying very hard to fill their events calendar, whether it be big-ticket auto racing, low-ticket HPDE days/weekends, or even special events such as X-Games or concerts.