Expected massive attendance at COTA will be the latest signal of F1’s rising presence and popularity in the US Getty Images
The projections of “more than 400,000 fans” expected to be at the US Grand Prix and the Circuit of the Americas this weekend “for the 10th anniversary of the Texas race that put the series’ footprint back on American soil … demonstrates the explosive growth of F1 in the US,” according to Jim Vertuno of the AP. Sunday’s race will be the final race of the original 10-year agreement in Austin because the COVID pandemic canceled the race in 2020. But F1 “isn’t going anywhere.” A five-year extension was already announced last year. The Texas race has had “its share of ups and downs.” Attendance “dipped for several years,” but it “began to rebound” when COTA President Bobby Epstein started “tying major entertainment acts into the race weekend.” Artist Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Billy Joel are among the pop stars who have performed Saturday night concerts “on the midfield in recent years.” Epstein said, “We learned from the fans what they wanted. We started out thinking this was just about motorsports.” Fans “love the place and so do the drivers.” Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton said, “This is one of the better circuits we have. We get this crowd that just keeps growing year on year. They just do it differently here.” F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo to Australian, “embraces the Texas atmosphere like no one else.” Every year, he “mimics a Texas drawl and finds a way to connect with the locals” (AP, 10/21).
THE AMERICAN DREAM: In NY, Luke Smith reports starting in 2023, the US will host three Formula 1 races each year, a “sign of the sport’s growing popularity with American fans.” A new Miami Grand Prix debuted this year. Next year, there will be a race in Las Vegas “along the Strip on a Saturday night.” Without the USGP, which has been held at the COTA in Austin since 2012, the additional American races “may not have happened.” Helped “by the success of the ‘Drive to Survive’ series” on Netflix, strong Austin attendance “proved there were enough fans in the United States to justify more than one race there.” Epstein said, “We hoped that we’d be a huge part of what brought the sport forward in the US and carried it, because we brought it back. I don’t think there’d be three races here. There probably wouldn’t be two races here.” Smith notes there were no F1 races in the US from 2008 to 2011. Racing returned when the “new, purpose-built track” in Austin held its first Grand Prix. It “quickly became one of the yearly highlights” for F1 drivers and teams, who “enjoyed the challenging track and exploring Austin.” Last year, 400,000 people attended the race weekend from Friday to Sunday, which was “a record three-day attendance.” This year the track “plans to give out thousands of birthday cupcakes to those attending.” Epstein said that ticket sales had “already surpassed last year’s attendance.” Epstein: “They’ll never have had a crowd this big. It’ll be a fun challenge to the other circuits around the world, like Silverstone [in England] and Melbourne [in Australia], that have drawn some big crowds.” The Austin track has “added new grandstands to help reach that goal.” To keep prices “reasonable,” a general admission ticket started at $300 for the weekend, giving fans “the chance to roam the circuit and watch from a variety of corners without reserved seats.” The cheapest ticket for the Miami race was “about $600.” Epstein said, “We want to make sure that we don’t price fans out” (NY TIMES, 10/20).
LACK OF SUSPENSE? SPORT BUSINESS JOURNAL’s Adam Stern notes Austin will be “missing some of the regular F1 drama,” as Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen “easily romped” his way to winning his second title this year, so the championship hunt is “officially already over” despite the fact that COTA is the fourth-to-last event of the season. Regardless of the “lack of suspense on the track,” Epstein believes the event “will be a success.” Epstein said ticket sales “succeed because of the event itself and what the fans get in terms of overall entertainment of the weekend as much as it is the desire to see the competition on the track.” Epstein added: “People aren’t necessarily buying tickets hoping that the championship gets decided at the race they attend; if that were the case, the ticket prices for our race and the ones after us would be tumbling and the demand would be small. Instead, the prices continue to be strong and the demand is still high enough to have a massive waiting list. I think that says that people enjoy the spectacle and personality of F1 as much as they do the competition on the track” (SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 10/17 issue).
FLYING HIGH: In Austin, Kevin Lyttle writes COTA, “sometimes knocked for being too rural, is flying high these days.” Epstein said that the F1 race weekend is “assured of passing last year’s three-day record” of 400,000 attendance. The “glitzy, jet-setting” F1 renewed its contract with COTA through 2026. MotoGP is “firmly entrenched, despite riders’ occasional criticisms of a bumpy track.” The NASCAR Cup Series is returning for a third go-round in March 2023. The 1,500-acre complex has “expanded at an almost dizzying pace.” Start with “a major concert venue,” which Epstein revealed is being “expanded from 14,000 to 16,000.” A 5,000-seat soccer/rugby stadium, and “next up, a major amusement park.” 14 of the first 26 rides “are on site.” It will “cover 30 acres and include roller coasters and a 25-story swing that will fly out over the lake.” Things “haven’t always been so smooth.” Epstein: “Like when the main grandstand sewer broke in our first year? Or the mudfest in 2015? We’ve improved the infrastructure a lot, but you never can be ready for a 500-year flood event.” Then there were “the dark days of the pandemic” when the track was “basically shut down” in 2020 (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 10/20).
BOLD PREDICTION: In a separate piece, Lyttle reports Epstein said this weekend’s US Grand Prix is “going to be the largest sports and entertainment event in the world in 2022.” Epstein said, “We’re going to smash the all-time attendance record for a three-day Grand Prix. I can assure you that.” Lyttle noted COTA “no longer releases hard attendance numbers,” but F1 officials announced that the 2021 USGP saw “400,000 attendees, including more than 140,000 for the Oct. 24 Austin race.” Epstein said the event is a “proven commodity now and we offer so much entertainment for the price of a ticket,” along with F1 interest in the US continuing to “grow by leaps and bounds.” Lyttle noted COTA this summer installed a “new 3,000-seat grandstand just after the esses of turns 3-5 that will allow some fans to see as many as eight turns.” Epstein said the seats “sold out in about 15 minutes.” Epstein on more fans leading to more congestion at the track pointed to a “new five-lane road on site, an increase from 300 buses last year to 600, a new depot at the front gate, more parking personnel and the widening of FM 812 .” He said, “We’ve never been so ready from a transportation-access standpoint and from on-site fan service.” COTA officials also are “beaming” about their first drone show, which will see more than 300 drones “light up the sky in dance sequences with synchronized and choreographed aerial formations” (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 10/19).
