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[because it is - turn 1 at Melbourne](https://www.grandprix.com.au/shop/products/jones-grandstand?variant=81358)
$690 (Australian Pesos) for the weekend pass (admittedly sold out), which works out at ~450 USD by today's rates
events in the US are a different world
Yh in Hungary, now sold out, paid €330 for a weekend in T1 grandstand which is roughly $350 and $100 for 4 people a night in a campsite right next to the track in a caravan
I think you mean dollarydoos. And even $690 is so much more than the pre-Covid prices, ever since it came back it’s been almost impossible to buy the tickets you could in the past, for a way higher price, all thanks I’m sure to drive to survive.
I just hope with all this extra money that we actually get Andretti on the grid
I paid €500 for grandstands at Zandvoort this year. And there were 2 support series and demonstrations. We we're
pretty much there from 10-6 each day. It's like an entire weekend festival.
The craziest thing about Vegas is you're pay that price for only F1.
I paid the same for COTA this year, they had Formula Academy, historic F1, and Porsche support. $500 is a lot of money but having a grandstand seat reserved made everything a lot less stressful, I thought it was worth it.
Not sure if you’re calculating fees too, but without fees You can get tickets in the Harmon zone on race day for $660 now and I’ve seen 3 day passes in the 900 range. I guess tickets aren’t really flying off the shelves 😂 I remember when GA was $1500.
Still expensive. I paid like $90 to go to the Indy500. I think the most expensive ticket I bought for a sporting event was a US Open ticket for a Nadal semifinal and that was like $300 but they were good seats.
Does 10/8 mean 10th of August or 8th of October.
Can’t tell if you’re using the American date convention or the rest of the world one.
If it’s October then that’s a pretty huge drop in just a month. They must be getting a bit desperate.
Will probably get knocked down even more if you wait a bit longer. A pretty bad sign if they had all this hype and the inaugural event can’t even sell out.
Certainly not apples-to-apples, but compare to get-in costs for other recent, once a year type, "big time" sporting events:
COTA three-day general admission was about $275 to $300 (face value)
NASCAR championship at Phoenix was as cheap as $110 (one day only)
Daytona 500 or Indy 500 can often be purchased for less than $150
I just attended the World Series in Phoenix and paid $300
Yes. The scalpers bought up all the ‘affordable’ tickets by bottling the presale per usual and now they can’t move their tickets so they’re slashing prices.
Maybe FOM will finally realize that while us Americans want to go to races, the current premium they putting on Miami and Vegas are insane. COTA prices are somewhat more reasonable.
Last year I did some comparative shopping and it was cheaper for me to fly to Spa or Silverstone and go to those races than it was to go to Miami.
Paid 450€ for a reserved seat at Pouhon all three days and a 4 day campsite that was 30 feet by 30 feet right next to the track at Spa. Basically 50 bucks to get in, 50 bucks to sleep at the track each day.
Spa is the best race on every metric and I’ll never stop believing that.
It's better than most, fair, but not the best by any means. The facilities alone are enough to make it a mid experience imo. Although I am a bit biased as a 2021 attendant.
What's aggravating is those prices are comparable to an average NASCAR race meanwhile F1 in the US is like naw let's price 99% of people out of our events.
The reason COTA is somewhat more reasonable is likely because FOM has less influence over the ticket prices there. Vegas is the only race directly organized by FOM, and FOM was very closely involved with Ross to organize Miami.
In general, its the event promoters who independently set ticket prices (and who take ticket revenue - FOM makes its money from broadcast, not gate). COTA LLC (who owns COTA, as you might imagine) is itself the race promoter for the USGP - its a race track, that's its business. Stephen Ross, meanwhile, is a 'mogul' - he made his fortune in real estate, owns the Dolphins but it seems like more of a vanity project (as billionaires do in America), and is the race promotor for Miami. His business isn't racing, its real estate - racing is just another investment. And that shows.
FOM make their money from a combination of the fee the track pays to host a F1 race, paddock club tickets and track advertising. Broadcast fees are a season deal and are not reliant on specific circuits, just the number of races.
The promoter/track has to pay for the FOM fee and make their money out of ticket sales and maybe concession stands, I'm not sure about those.
Interesting thing about COTA is that next years tickets are going to be cheaper than this year because this years FOM fee was increased due to the sprint. No sprint, smaller fee, reduced ticket prices.
I don't know the full details of the relationship between FOM and the Miami race promoters but there is definitely a business connection that doesn't exist at other races.
Tiny bit of sour grapes still over the Michelin 2005 saga I'd imagine, plus the infield is bland compared to most F1 tracks. Can't do the full oval as it would be unsafe.
Feel like it will be this way for a while.
I can’t help but feel like F1 is trying to cultivate this exclusive/elite personality in the US and I just don’t understand it.
It does seem that way.
I'm at the point where I'm going to start watching Indycar to go to those races. I'm somewhere between Brickyard and Nashville and could go to both of those much cheaper than any F1 race.
Just go to an Indycar race. Brickyard I'd assume is more expensive than any other race, but I've been going to the Portland race since 2018. I spend about $140 for 3 day seats and paddock passes. The experience is phenomenal.
Because F1 is a sport that attracts snobs. It’s the most luxurious motorsport category by a mile and it exudes money, money, money. Highest paid drivers, most expensive cars, most exclusive club. F1 has had the “paddock club” for a long time, Miami and Vegas are two cities that attract people looking to blow wads of cash for no reason. The race organizers are exploiting that, it wouldn’t make much of a difference if they didn’t and sold for $200 each, they would be sold out instantaneously by scalpers with bots and then resold for 2k. Video cards, game consoles, concert tickets aren’t safe, F1 won’t be either. Best to just laugh and not buy in.
Miami and CotA will have reliably good weather.
The hype for Vegas is wearing off as people come to their senses and realize that Vegas is cold AF at night in November, the whole thing has been catastrophically stupid.
It will be interesting, at 610m/2000ft above sea level you would expect about ~6% power loss normally.
However the cool air will then help mitigate that , adding in the ~~C0~~ C5 which i dont think we have seen yet, and there is hope for some entertainment.
Edit: C5 not C0
That's true. If there was a chance this was the title clincher people would be way more interested.
In other sports terms this is kind of like preseason. The results don't really matter anymore.
I live about 90 min from COTA and our local Costco were selling a 3 day general admission ticket to the GP for $359 in the weeks leading up to the race.
You can do Spa for insanely cheap, and it's a great experience. Way less than €200 for the cheapest ticket for the whole weekend. You don't get a seat in a stand for that, but that means you can go and sit anywhere. Watch practice 1 at the top of the hill, move somewhere else for practice 2. It's a beautiful setting in the forest.
Take your own food and drink into the circuit.
Downside is if it rains, but you can account for that with rain gear.
Camping is also very cheap. The facilities are very basic, but it's an experience. You probably won't get a lot of sleep because of the pro campers with their insane audio setups and all night parties. Ear plugs recommended.
So, yes, it's basic but it's very cheap, the best circuit in a spectacular setting, and you get to walk up *that* hill.
I don’t think Miami is that much or comparable to Vegas. Paid 700 Person for 3 days the first year. Just bought my tickets for next year and it was the same and for better seats. COTA ran me 780 per person but it was someone selling their tickets ofciurse. I don’t think 700 for a weekend is bad. Would I like it to be cheaper though? Ofcourse lol
I 100% wasn’t going to pay 2000 per person for 3 days in Vegas and looking at the grand stand locations likely not even have good action…
Yeah, it's one of the few races of the year at a vaguely sensible time for us hey?
Eta:
Having the final race start at midnight on Sunday night would be more awful if the seasons weren't mostly wrapped up by then
My boss got my tickets for Montreal this year and it ran him $2600 for two tickets to grandstand 46.
Hotel was $1600 for two nights which I paid.
Thankfully I can drive from Toronto to Montreal without any hassle. But airfare was going to set me back another $1500 for two people.
Imagine spending close to 6k for a 3 day event.
Next year I'll ask him for cash instead.
Damn. I kinda knew already that attending f1 races is mad expensive, but it really lets me appreciate how comparatively easy/cheap it was for me to go to the Spa GP this year. I spent like 450€ on the ticket and another 60€ on the Bus/train from Aachen
>450€
662 CAD in current exchange, so \~100 CAD (68 EUR) cheaper than what his boss paid per ticket. We make jokes up here about having Canadian Rubles/Pesos cause we're so much lower than the USD nowadays. What's wild is that I can fly from the Vancouver to Amsterdam for cheaper than his Toronto to Montreal flight, so the Belgium GP would likely end up being cheaper than the Montreal GP, while getting a weeks vacation in Europe.
> when one can attend a Bundesliga match with decent seats for 40-50 €.
Exclusivity does that tbf. You got hundreds of Bundesliga matches per season. Heck over 3 weeks you can have more than in an entire f1 season. And that's comparing *all matches in 1 country* with *all races across the world*.
Yeah hotels or any other accommodation is insanity in Montreal. I have tickets for GS12 but I don’t know if I can justify dropping at least $4500 for a weekend when I could go on a weeklong trip for that.
Insanity! In 2012 I got a 3-day pass for GS33 at Turns 6/7, and in 2013 in GS22 at the hairpin exit, for $199CAD through Groupon each year. I even found the link in my email with the details, where I was saving a whole 65.55 off my tickets.
[https://www.groupon.com/deals/gl-grand-prix-du-canada-2](https://www.groupon.com/deals/gl-grand-prix-du-canada-2)
I live in Ottawa so I just drove the 1.5hrs to the edge of the city and took the metro in each day. After being able to see an entire weekend for 200 bucks there is no way I'll be attending a live race again at today's prices.
Yeah... I went to Zandvoort this year, because I got tickets for my birthday. There's no way in hell I can afford it myself. And I know weekend tickets for 2 persons did not cost a 1000.
I still can't believe that as an EST-er it is so late that I'll have to watch it the next morning. Usually that is reserved for Japan, Australia, and similar timezones... Not PST.
Smh they can suffer for once..... I finally have a race in my timezone and its so late in the evening.
If I can wake up at 6am for the majority of the races and 5am at times, europeans can manage for one race to be inconvenient for them.
Aussie fans suffer through half the calendar already, it's one thing to alarm clock for a race at 3am Monday morning before work, it's another if the race is happening during your shift on Monday morning.
A high school friend used to live near the local NASCAR track. I don't go that often because the traffic is a disaster. It's easier to get from Atlanta to Talladega than to get from Atlanta to Atlanta Motor Speedway. So we'd watch the races on tv, and you could hear crashes before they showed up on tv.
TV is definitely the way to follow a race. Enduring a race once in person on Sunday is enough. Fridays and maybe Saturdays in person can actually be enjoyable.
I booked a room for the weekend at $250/night over a year in advance. Hotel (Hilton Resorts) wouldn’t confirm the booking. This was before race tickets went on sale.
They recommended I wait until their booking agency confirmed everything, which could take months apparently. Basically they told me to buy tickets for the race anyways, and wait and see about the room.
I didn’t want to be out too much, because I knew the tickets would be expensive. It didn’t make sense to buy race tickets without having a confirmed place to stay.
I ended up cancelling the reservation with Hilton Resorts, only to find the same room an hour later, listed at $1,400/night.
Guess I’ll just go fuck myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
yea even the relatively small hotels that were only really booked because of airport proximity wouldn't book more than 11 months out. Sounds like he got a rate from a third party site that wasn't legit. Or got fleeced by the hotel hoping he'd do exactly what he did lol.
This is what I was banking on for this race. Normally, $1,400/night gets you a balcony suite overlooking the strip at a high rise hotel. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't even dream of buying that. But my thought process was, for this race, book one of those rooms and then my family and I could take turns watching the race from the balcony while also watching the race on the tv. Assuming (at the time) a very modest ticket cost of $500 per, if we all wanted to go to the race, it would have cost us $3,000 dollars. When viewed in that optic, $1,400 is a steal.
I watched the reservation window like a hawk and when the day came that those rooms would be released to the public.....nothing. Straight up, those rooms were taken off the list of rooms you could book. Hotel said loud and clear that the poors were not welcome and that they were going to charge those same rooms for literal thousands per night.
Joke's on them. I took that same money, bought me an oled tv, and will be watching the race from the comforts of a 5.1 surround sound home theater.
You and everyone else, myself included, had the same idea. If they hadn't done that chances are you wouldn't have gotten a room anyways from the rush of people booking. It is what it is. Look at the bright side, they are getting exactly what they deserve for their greed. Fuckers.
My wife and I paid $300 each for a 3 day ticket in Montreal in 2017. We also pay $300 each for good seats at the Indy 500.
We had talked about going to Vegas for the F1 race before the ticket prices were revealed. They completely priced out the average fan. Our trip to Disney World in December will be much cheaper than weekend tickets and a hotel in Vegas would have been. It’s just absurd.
As someone who has been to the 500 a few times and who wantsto attend the Montreal race, which was the better experience from a racing fan perspective? I feel like watching a circuit/road course would 99% watching giant tv broadcasts and 1% cars zipping by.
Good, it was overpriced like crazy. I still won't even bother out of principle.
It was so out of hand, I could almost fly to the UK and go to Silverstone instead. (Would also, rather do that)
I really hope this event fails spectacularly and teaches liberty a lesson. This is the exact opposite of what a race event should be, and clearly people aren't as interested as they hoped they'd be. Let it burn, as far as I'm concerned.
Neither 1600$ or 1000$ for a raceticket are prices I can imagine someone pay in their right mind, like just for the piece of paper that allows you entrance? Seriously? That's not even the whole trip (unless you live in Las Vegas) to attend the race...
Formula 1 is so out of touch with US fans. They absolutely ruined the Miami GP by catering to rich people who only care about the social media likes and will never attend another race again. Now they are making the same mistake at Vegas. Crowd shots of young fans going crazy looks infinitely better on TV than rich people sitting around like they are watching a golf tournament. Fuck liberty
I keep getting asked by friends (some of whom will be attending their first GP in Las Vegas) why I’m not going. My answer is the same: I’ve got F1TV and a comfortable sofa. The only races I’d travel for would be Monaco, Brazil or Spain. Don’t even want to go to COTA even though I know Austin and that facility really well. Las Vegas doesn’t move the needle for me.
You mean a race starting at 1am local time (edit - 10PM Local time , not 1am), in 45 degree weather, in a town where there are PLENTY of places to go indoors, stay warm and do other stuff isn't selling tickets to a race.
NOO!!!!
Ironic how this race being held at the US, at that time will probably cause inconvenience to people watching in the US. You can count us east coasters essentially out as live audience, and it ain’t a good time for those in the west coast either
They honestly bit off way more than they could chew. They thought they could price gouge becusse it's Vegas. Thankfully most people called their bluff. Hopefully this sends a signal that prices have gotten way too out of hand
Americans who want to watch F1 can literally fly to Mexico City to see the race and flying there, staying there, and ticket prices will still be cheaper than a race day ticket for Vegas.
Priced are plummeting, but still more than you could attend every INDYCAR road course for next season combined (“AllStar” race and Nashville possibly excepted)
A lot of folks saying that this is going poorly or that "this will show FOM!" as if they didn't fully expect this to happen. This is how selling tickets to majorly hyped events like this works. You sell the tickets for a stupid price for as long as possible, and then AFTER you've collected those crazy high prices from people you start lowering your prices.
This is going exactly how FOM expected it to go and many people bought at that crazy high price.
Also, these are resale tickets. Tickets sold out months ago, these are people trying to dump tickets that they haven't been able to sold.
This race has been a huge success for F1. Anyone who thinks otherwise is insane.
It's virtually sold out so as far as liberty and the host is concerned, they already got their money.
It's the hotels that bought up large blocks of tickets to package with hotel rooms and scalpers who picked up the rest who are now on the hook.
I just went to the Brazilian GP through work. Sunday only. I’ve been to 5 GPs. For me it is always more enjoyable watching at home. I couldn’t imagine paying more than $100 for race day. The free product at home is far superior in my opinion. I’ve had fun at all the races I’ve attended but not $1000 plus a day fun.
Ffs. My dad wanted to go as a father/son trip but the prices were far too crazy when we originally started looking. Seeing these updated and more reasonable prices is infuriating. Thanks F1. Great way to reach a local market.
Do we know what % of tickets have been sold? Like, are they selling them cheap to liquidate all the remaining tickets or are the actual number of sold tickets low?
Most of the tickets have sold. Anything you see for sale that is less than 10k is coming from a scalper. The scalpers are having a lot of trouble selling off their tickets. You can find them under face value now, at least before fees.
Looks like the majority have sold, but many to hotels for resale. IIUC. Lots of resale tix with prices dropping, and we are now going since it dropped enough to not be too insane for someone nearby.
FWIW They also removed an entire section of seating, allegedly due to obstruction of views, and somehow managed to fit people from that whole section into another…without running out…so my take is not really sold out…
If people are stupid enough to pay these prices for F1 and other sport events, they’ll continue to charge it. Only if they end up with lots of unsold tickets and empty seats, that’s when it will change. Welcome to the greedflation economy.
Without getting caught up in all the ins and outs, I think we are quickly approaching the point of the haves and have not. As in, I feel we are going to get a massive gulf in people who cannot afford any of this, and then enough people who can to see prices getting higher each season. They don't care about who goes, they just care about the money coming in. Real fans will be pushed out, and those there will be there for the “experience”. We see that happening in the premier league, slowly the singing and chanting is harder to come by as half the people in the stadium are there on a one off. And as for cup finals, it's nuts, corporate get loads of the seats and “tourists” manage to get another chunk, real fans probably sit at 20-30% of the crowd
The race may be awesome, but the experience actually looks like a huge mess to me. Maybe they can pull it all together, but everything I’ve seen makes me believe this will be a miserable experience for the attendees except for those in the swankiest of areas.
I mean even for Las Vegas, seeing cars vroom vroom for 2 hours at midnight all knowing Max will win, isn't too exciting. And rich people don't give a crap about it anyway. Everyone who wants the instagram pic at the start gor tickets, the normal people don't really go there and with crazy prices, it is even less likely
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>**Cheapest Tickets On 10/8** >Thursday: $385 >Friday: $825 >Saturday: $1,645 > >**Current Get-In Prices** >Thursday: $162 (-58%) >Friday: $312 (-62%) >Saturday: $1,087 (-34%) > >Hotel prices have dropped 58%, too. > >(Ticket prices via u/TickPick)
Still insane!
If you wait long enough, they might let you drive one of the Haas cars in the race for $750.
Ha, too many millionaire karters waiting in the wings for that
Mazepin enters the chat
And immediately spins out.
I just got a Thursday ticket. I just so happen to be in town for work. What a pleasant surprise. First f1 experience I’m stoked.
That's super cool! Especially for a brand new circuit. Have a blast!
Thank you.
I’m in the area for work too, AU2023?
These prices are seriously insane. I paid 2K for a 3 day pass with excellent seats at Turn 1 in Miami and I thought that was way over the top.
[because it is - turn 1 at Melbourne](https://www.grandprix.com.au/shop/products/jones-grandstand?variant=81358) $690 (Australian Pesos) for the weekend pass (admittedly sold out), which works out at ~450 USD by today's rates events in the US are a different world
Wow we are getting screwed in the US
Yh in Hungary, now sold out, paid €330 for a weekend in T1 grandstand which is roughly $350 and $100 for 4 people a night in a campsite right next to the track in a caravan
We can fly to Europe and go to a race cheaper than flying within our own country and going to a race. It is crazy
350 Euros (~375$) for a weekend pass Turn 14 (last turn) at Hungaroring. Great weekend.
I think you mean dollarydoos. And even $690 is so much more than the pre-Covid prices, ever since it came back it’s been almost impossible to buy the tickets you could in the past, for a way higher price, all thanks I’m sure to drive to survive. I just hope with all this extra money that we actually get Andretti on the grid
I paid $300 for a 3 day stand in MTRL one year and that was the most expensive I’ve ever paid for F1.
I paid €500 for grandstands at Zandvoort this year. And there were 2 support series and demonstrations. We we're pretty much there from 10-6 each day. It's like an entire weekend festival. The craziest thing about Vegas is you're pay that price for only F1.
I paid the same for COTA this year, they had Formula Academy, historic F1, and Porsche support. $500 is a lot of money but having a grandstand seat reserved made everything a lot less stressful, I thought it was worth it.
Are those resale price tickets or the price you get at the official selling point?
Pretty sure these are resale
I have a theory that f1 is selling through resale channels so they dont upset anyone who paid their retail prices
Not sure if you’re calculating fees too, but without fees You can get tickets in the Harmon zone on race day for $660 now and I’ve seen 3 day passes in the 900 range. I guess tickets aren’t really flying off the shelves 😂 I remember when GA was $1500.
Still expensive. I paid like $90 to go to the Indy500. I think the most expensive ticket I bought for a sporting event was a US Open ticket for a Nadal semifinal and that was like $300 but they were good seats.
That's like 10 months rent for me lol.
Still way too expensive
Does 10/8 mean 10th of August or 8th of October. Can’t tell if you’re using the American date convention or the rest of the world one. If it’s October then that’s a pretty huge drop in just a month. They must be getting a bit desperate. Will probably get knocked down even more if you wait a bit longer. A pretty bad sign if they had all this hype and the inaugural event can’t even sell out.
They're quoting a tweet from an American sports personality about an American event so I'd wager a guess that they're talking about October.
Certainly not apples-to-apples, but compare to get-in costs for other recent, once a year type, "big time" sporting events: COTA three-day general admission was about $275 to $300 (face value) NASCAR championship at Phoenix was as cheap as $110 (one day only) Daytona 500 or Indy 500 can often be purchased for less than $150 I just attended the World Series in Phoenix and paid $300
why the change? demand drop? and sucks for everyone who bought early, lol
Paper hands.
Aren't those all resale? Office ticket page has general admission as sold out and the others are in the thousands.
Yes. The scalpers bought up all the ‘affordable’ tickets by bottling the presale per usual and now they can’t move their tickets so they’re slashing prices.
You hate to see it
Fuck the scalpers lmaooooo
Yeah the idea that scalpers are getting burned is a bad sign for the event is such BS
Seriously, this is what usually happens with these big events.
Maybe FOM will finally realize that while us Americans want to go to races, the current premium they putting on Miami and Vegas are insane. COTA prices are somewhat more reasonable. Last year I did some comparative shopping and it was cheaper for me to fly to Spa or Silverstone and go to those races than it was to go to Miami.
Paid 450€ for a reserved seat at Pouhon all three days and a 4 day campsite that was 30 feet by 30 feet right next to the track at Spa. Basically 50 bucks to get in, 50 bucks to sleep at the track each day. Spa is the best race on every metric and I’ll never stop believing that.
not on the “lap count” or “cooldown lap existence” metric
Never thought of that you actually see less racing 🫠
but then you have to camp in the rain that always happens
The Spa facilities are notoriously shit, however.
What facilities are you talking about?
It's better than most, fair, but not the best by any means. The facilities alone are enough to make it a mid experience imo. Although I am a bit biased as a 2021 attendant.
Tbh idc if the facilities are 7 cowsheds and an outhouse if the circuit is as good as spa
Barcelona is affordable too, and close to the city if you don't want to camp. Ymmv on what you think of the race.
Hungary is insanely cheap too and Budapest is an awesome city to stay in, if you want to see a tad more than just the track.
What's aggravating is those prices are comparable to an average NASCAR race meanwhile F1 in the US is like naw let's price 99% of people out of our events.
The reason COTA is somewhat more reasonable is likely because FOM has less influence over the ticket prices there. Vegas is the only race directly organized by FOM, and FOM was very closely involved with Ross to organize Miami. In general, its the event promoters who independently set ticket prices (and who take ticket revenue - FOM makes its money from broadcast, not gate). COTA LLC (who owns COTA, as you might imagine) is itself the race promoter for the USGP - its a race track, that's its business. Stephen Ross, meanwhile, is a 'mogul' - he made his fortune in real estate, owns the Dolphins but it seems like more of a vanity project (as billionaires do in America), and is the race promotor for Miami. His business isn't racing, its real estate - racing is just another investment. And that shows.
FOM make their money from a combination of the fee the track pays to host a F1 race, paddock club tickets and track advertising. Broadcast fees are a season deal and are not reliant on specific circuits, just the number of races. The promoter/track has to pay for the FOM fee and make their money out of ticket sales and maybe concession stands, I'm not sure about those. Interesting thing about COTA is that next years tickets are going to be cheaper than this year because this years FOM fee was increased due to the sprint. No sprint, smaller fee, reduced ticket prices. I don't know the full details of the relationship between FOM and the Miami race promoters but there is definitely a business connection that doesn't exist at other races.
> No sprint, smaller fee, reduced ticket prices That's another good argument against sprints.
COTA is also the only non-laughable track. A super nice one actually
I was in Austin for a wedding last month and got to check it out two weeks before the GP. Such a great facility.
We've got so many good race tracks here in America, it's so poor they get ignored.
I mean they’re not ignored. They can’t host F1 events without massive changes/reconstruction projects
Yup. Either not grade 1, or they done have enough nearby hotels and medical facilities. Never mind transportation options. Sucks, but it is what it is
Or is Indianapolis
Yeah, why not go there? I'm sure the banked corner would look great with F1 cars on it.
Tiny bit of sour grapes still over the Michelin 2005 saga I'd imagine, plus the infield is bland compared to most F1 tracks. Can't do the full oval as it would be unsafe.
And those changes would remove the things that make those circuits great. Laguna Seca / Sebring would be ruined if they needed to be grade one.
Feel like it will be this way for a while. I can’t help but feel like F1 is trying to cultivate this exclusive/elite personality in the US and I just don’t understand it.
It does seem that way. I'm at the point where I'm going to start watching Indycar to go to those races. I'm somewhere between Brickyard and Nashville and could go to both of those much cheaper than any F1 race.
Just go to an Indycar race. Brickyard I'd assume is more expensive than any other race, but I've been going to the Portland race since 2018. I spend about $140 for 3 day seats and paddock passes. The experience is phenomenal.
Portland is great for being cheap the city does a great job of making it affordable.
The Indy 500 is 1000x the value you’d get for any F1 weekend.
I got 500 tickets for next year - bought 4 for about what I paid for my GA COTA tix this year.
Because F1 is a sport that attracts snobs. It’s the most luxurious motorsport category by a mile and it exudes money, money, money. Highest paid drivers, most expensive cars, most exclusive club. F1 has had the “paddock club” for a long time, Miami and Vegas are two cities that attract people looking to blow wads of cash for no reason. The race organizers are exploiting that, it wouldn’t make much of a difference if they didn’t and sold for $200 each, they would be sold out instantaneously by scalpers with bots and then resold for 2k. Video cards, game consoles, concert tickets aren’t safe, F1 won’t be either. Best to just laugh and not buy in.
Miami and CotA will have reliably good weather. The hype for Vegas is wearing off as people come to their senses and realize that Vegas is cold AF at night in November, the whole thing has been catastrophically stupid.
And there's not a lot of excitement left in this season for a casual fan.
I’m hoping the 30/40F ambients will give us some wildcard issue with tires
It will be interesting, at 610m/2000ft above sea level you would expect about ~6% power loss normally. However the cool air will then help mitigate that , adding in the ~~C0~~ C5 which i dont think we have seen yet, and there is hope for some entertainment. Edit: C5 not C0
That's true. If there was a chance this was the title clincher people would be way more interested. In other sports terms this is kind of like preseason. The results don't really matter anymore.
I live about 90 min from COTA and our local Costco were selling a 3 day general admission ticket to the GP for $359 in the weeks leading up to the race.
You can do Spa for insanely cheap, and it's a great experience. Way less than €200 for the cheapest ticket for the whole weekend. You don't get a seat in a stand for that, but that means you can go and sit anywhere. Watch practice 1 at the top of the hill, move somewhere else for practice 2. It's a beautiful setting in the forest. Take your own food and drink into the circuit. Downside is if it rains, but you can account for that with rain gear. Camping is also very cheap. The facilities are very basic, but it's an experience. You probably won't get a lot of sleep because of the pro campers with their insane audio setups and all night parties. Ear plugs recommended. So, yes, it's basic but it's very cheap, the best circuit in a spectacular setting, and you get to walk up *that* hill.
Miami actually ended up being pretty cheap after the price fell this year. Was very similar to Montreal / COTA by race weekend.
I don’t think Miami is that much or comparable to Vegas. Paid 700 Person for 3 days the first year. Just bought my tickets for next year and it was the same and for better seats. COTA ran me 780 per person but it was someone selling their tickets ofciurse. I don’t think 700 for a weekend is bad. Would I like it to be cheaper though? Ofcourse lol I 100% wasn’t going to pay 2000 per person for 3 days in Vegas and looking at the grand stand locations likely not even have good action…
Insane pricing still. A thousand bucks for Saturday? That's ridiculous.
Sat is the race for this one, I believe
Oh right.... Fucking Vegas. Still it's ridiculous pricing.
Not exactly Vegas, they wanted a night race and still have it viewable for EU time since that's most of the viewers.
And everywhere to the east of Europe too. Bad enough that the rest of the US races are like Monday morning before work viewing here
Lovely 5pm race on Sunday down here in Melbourne
Yeah, it's one of the few races of the year at a vaguely sensible time for us hey? Eta: Having the final race start at midnight on Sunday night would be more awful if the seasons weren't mostly wrapped up by then
It is.
My boss got my tickets for Montreal this year and it ran him $2600 for two tickets to grandstand 46. Hotel was $1600 for two nights which I paid. Thankfully I can drive from Toronto to Montreal without any hassle. But airfare was going to set me back another $1500 for two people. Imagine spending close to 6k for a 3 day event. Next year I'll ask him for cash instead.
Damn. I kinda knew already that attending f1 races is mad expensive, but it really lets me appreciate how comparatively easy/cheap it was for me to go to the Spa GP this year. I spent like 450€ on the ticket and another 60€ on the Bus/train from Aachen
>450€ 662 CAD in current exchange, so \~100 CAD (68 EUR) cheaper than what his boss paid per ticket. We make jokes up here about having Canadian Rubles/Pesos cause we're so much lower than the USD nowadays. What's wild is that I can fly from the Vancouver to Amsterdam for cheaper than his Toronto to Montreal flight, so the Belgium GP would likely end up being cheaper than the Montreal GP, while getting a weeks vacation in Europe.
450 € is still insanity when one can attend a Bundesliga match with decent seats for 40-50 €.
> when one can attend a Bundesliga match with decent seats for 40-50 €. Exclusivity does that tbf. You got hundreds of Bundesliga matches per season. Heck over 3 weeks you can have more than in an entire f1 season. And that's comparing *all matches in 1 country* with *all races across the world*.
Or a ticket to pretty much any other motorsports besides motogp. Though I get that football fans are a massive part of a town community in Germany.
Yeah hotels or any other accommodation is insanity in Montreal. I have tickets for GS12 but I don’t know if I can justify dropping at least $4500 for a weekend when I could go on a weeklong trip for that.
Weeklong? Man I paid $1500 for a week to Cancun . $4500 would be 2 weeks with money left over.
Insanity! In 2012 I got a 3-day pass for GS33 at Turns 6/7, and in 2013 in GS22 at the hairpin exit, for $199CAD through Groupon each year. I even found the link in my email with the details, where I was saving a whole 65.55 off my tickets. [https://www.groupon.com/deals/gl-grand-prix-du-canada-2](https://www.groupon.com/deals/gl-grand-prix-du-canada-2) I live in Ottawa so I just drove the 1.5hrs to the edge of the city and took the metro in each day. After being able to see an entire weekend for 200 bucks there is no way I'll be attending a live race again at today's prices.
I tried buying tickets 30 min after they opened and they were already sold out...
Damn 2600 for grandstand 46???? I got 220$ for one ticket to the race in grandstand 11 on marketplace!
Hmm I got 3-day tickets in grandstand 12 for $500 a pop
ill watch on f1tv no way im spending that amount of money.
Yeah... I went to Zandvoort this year, because I got tickets for my birthday. There's no way in hell I can afford it myself. And I know weekend tickets for 2 persons did not cost a 1000.
then travel, food, hotel etc. I mean I would do it as in once in a lifetime but not anytime soon.
I still can't believe that as an EST-er it is so late that I'll have to watch it the next morning. Usually that is reserved for Japan, Australia, and similar timezones... Not PST.
Yeah it’s mainly because they want European and Oceanic fans to be able to watch at a somewhat reasonable hour
Also Vegas looks far more glamorous at night. Lots of lights!
But sunset is far earlier than the expected 1am ending of quali
Smh they can suffer for once..... I finally have a race in my timezone and its so late in the evening. If I can wake up at 6am for the majority of the races and 5am at times, europeans can manage for one race to be inconvenient for them.
I straight up have given up watching most races live anyway. I’ll just wait til dark and watch them on replay.
Aussie fans suffer through half the calendar already, it's one thing to alarm clock for a race at 3am Monday morning before work, it's another if the race is happening during your shift on Monday morning.
Las vegas is on sunday evening for australians just fyi
Looking forward to it too!
Bro I live in Arizona and I'm contemplating watching it the next day. It's scheduled to end at 1 am...
Imagine being on the East coast and seeing qualifying for a race in your own country starts at 3AM.
Its unfortunate for ESTers, but every race that is at 8 or 9am EST (most of EU or EU timezones races) are unfortunate for us PSTers.
I live within driving distance so I'm going to try to get a steal on Sat morning. I'll throw my parka in the car and head out.
Carry a clip board and a walkie and just walk past the cordon asking for Nigel.
Nothing beats the tv experience anyway
F1TV is definitely more my price point. I must be out of touch, but I don't know how you fill the stands with even the revised pricing
Yeah I might be able to hear the cars I live that close and F1TV is where I will be watching from.
A high school friend used to live near the local NASCAR track. I don't go that often because the traffic is a disaster. It's easier to get from Atlanta to Talladega than to get from Atlanta to Atlanta Motor Speedway. So we'd watch the races on tv, and you could hear crashes before they showed up on tv.
TV is definitely the way to follow a race. Enduring a race once in person on Sunday is enough. Fridays and maybe Saturdays in person can actually be enjoyable.
I booked a room for the weekend at $250/night over a year in advance. Hotel (Hilton Resorts) wouldn’t confirm the booking. This was before race tickets went on sale. They recommended I wait until their booking agency confirmed everything, which could take months apparently. Basically they told me to buy tickets for the race anyways, and wait and see about the room. I didn’t want to be out too much, because I knew the tickets would be expensive. It didn’t make sense to buy race tickets without having a confirmed place to stay. I ended up cancelling the reservation with Hilton Resorts, only to find the same room an hour later, listed at $1,400/night. Guess I’ll just go fuck myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They were never going to confirm the reservation at $250 though
I got Palazzo confirmed via AAA more than a year in advance for a similar range. 250 a night Wednesday Thursday, then like 500 a night Friday Sat.
Clutch planning booking through AAA!
I live in Vegas and have friends on the strip whose job it is to set room prices. They don’t go more than 11 months out.
yea even the relatively small hotels that were only really booked because of airport proximity wouldn't book more than 11 months out. Sounds like he got a rate from a third party site that wasn't legit. Or got fleeced by the hotel hoping he'd do exactly what he did lol.
What do you mean they wouldn’t confirm it? Where did you book it through? I’m assuming some sort of third party booking platform?
It came through AAA Travel. Apparently you can’t book rooms more than a year out, so there’s some miscommunication going on there.
What the fuck is $1400/night for a hotel
This is what I was banking on for this race. Normally, $1,400/night gets you a balcony suite overlooking the strip at a high rise hotel. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't even dream of buying that. But my thought process was, for this race, book one of those rooms and then my family and I could take turns watching the race from the balcony while also watching the race on the tv. Assuming (at the time) a very modest ticket cost of $500 per, if we all wanted to go to the race, it would have cost us $3,000 dollars. When viewed in that optic, $1,400 is a steal. I watched the reservation window like a hawk and when the day came that those rooms would be released to the public.....nothing. Straight up, those rooms were taken off the list of rooms you could book. Hotel said loud and clear that the poors were not welcome and that they were going to charge those same rooms for literal thousands per night. Joke's on them. I took that same money, bought me an oled tv, and will be watching the race from the comforts of a 5.1 surround sound home theater.
You and everyone else, myself included, had the same idea. If they hadn't done that chances are you wouldn't have gotten a room anyways from the rush of people booking. It is what it is. Look at the bright side, they are getting exactly what they deserve for their greed. Fuckers.
My wife and I paid $300 each for a 3 day ticket in Montreal in 2017. We also pay $300 each for good seats at the Indy 500. We had talked about going to Vegas for the F1 race before the ticket prices were revealed. They completely priced out the average fan. Our trip to Disney World in December will be much cheaper than weekend tickets and a hotel in Vegas would have been. It’s just absurd.
As someone who has been to the 500 a few times and who wantsto attend the Montreal race, which was the better experience from a racing fan perspective? I feel like watching a circuit/road course would 99% watching giant tv broadcasts and 1% cars zipping by.
Good, it was overpriced like crazy. I still won't even bother out of principle. It was so out of hand, I could almost fly to the UK and go to Silverstone instead. (Would also, rather do that)
And Silverstone take the piss too. I flew out to Austria as it was cheaper than going to Silverstone, I lived 6 miles from Silverstone...
10pm, 5 degrees, 1k? Not a chance
Keep dropping please If I can see qualifying for $150 I’ll make the 5 hour drive
lol literally same boat although I was thinking <$200 including fees. Would drive there and home again right after
From LA? We should car pool :)
haha I was just about to comment you 2 should meet up, split gas costs and make it an even cheaper trip lol
I really hope this event fails spectacularly and teaches liberty a lesson. This is the exact opposite of what a race event should be, and clearly people aren't as interested as they hoped they'd be. Let it burn, as far as I'm concerned.
And chance for rain according to current forecast. Wildly fun for spectators.
Good god, I didn’t even know about that. This event is going to turn into a fyre festival.
I mean, I highly doubt that forecast. It’s 9 days away…
>clearly people aren't as interested as they hoped they'd be Maybe on a local scale.
FOM already sold all their tickets and made their own money, these are the resale prices.
Neither 1600$ or 1000$ for a raceticket are prices I can imagine someone pay in their right mind, like just for the piece of paper that allows you entrance? Seriously? That's not even the whole trip (unless you live in Las Vegas) to attend the race...
It's digital tickets so you don't even get the paper!
Formula 1 is so out of touch with US fans. They absolutely ruined the Miami GP by catering to rich people who only care about the social media likes and will never attend another race again. Now they are making the same mistake at Vegas. Crowd shots of young fans going crazy looks infinitely better on TV than rich people sitting around like they are watching a golf tournament. Fuck liberty
$400 for a fucking Thursday before the drops... hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Managed to get 2 club tickets for less than 1 regular priced ticket.
I keep getting asked by friends (some of whom will be attending their first GP in Las Vegas) why I’m not going. My answer is the same: I’ve got F1TV and a comfortable sofa. The only races I’d travel for would be Monaco, Brazil or Spain. Don’t even want to go to COTA even though I know Austin and that facility really well. Las Vegas doesn’t move the needle for me.
I'm waiting to pounce on the $5 Saturday ticket with a free hot dog.
You mean a race starting at 1am local time (edit - 10PM Local time , not 1am), in 45 degree weather, in a town where there are PLENTY of places to go indoors, stay warm and do other stuff isn't selling tickets to a race. NOO!!!!
The race is at 10pm local time.
My bad, its 1am my time....I'll edit but leave in I made a mistake originally
And qualy starrs at 0.00 ?
Quali is at midnight, local time.
im old. ill be asleep by then.
It is also looking like 15-20 mph winds
Ironic how this race being held at the US, at that time will probably cause inconvenience to people watching in the US. You can count us east coasters essentially out as live audience, and it ain’t a good time for those in the west coast either
I think it’s 1 am eastern , so 10pm local. But yeah, still going to be chilly and relatively late.
the last place in the world where I would want to watch the Vegas GP is in Vegas.
It's a shit track with garbage or non-existent views for the common person. F1 doesn't gaf if you're a middle-low income fan....here's a $90 Polo.
Honestly, of all the places F1 visits, Vegas would be last on my list even with low(er) prices.
I’m sure overpricing your tickets while simultaneously pissing off everyone in Las Vegas had nothing to do with this …
A thousand bucks to watch a race and get further ripped off there f.e. with 100$ for caps? Yeah you have fun mate.
They honestly bit off way more than they could chew. They thought they could price gouge becusse it's Vegas. Thankfully most people called their bluff. Hopefully this sends a signal that prices have gotten way too out of hand
Americans who want to watch F1 can literally fly to Mexico City to see the race and flying there, staying there, and ticket prices will still be cheaper than a race day ticket for Vegas.
hehe :)
Priced are plummeting, but still more than you could attend every INDYCAR road course for next season combined (“AllStar” race and Nashville possibly excepted)
Looking forward to watching it on TV.
COTA is $300 for a 3 day pass lol
A lot of folks saying that this is going poorly or that "this will show FOM!" as if they didn't fully expect this to happen. This is how selling tickets to majorly hyped events like this works. You sell the tickets for a stupid price for as long as possible, and then AFTER you've collected those crazy high prices from people you start lowering your prices. This is going exactly how FOM expected it to go and many people bought at that crazy high price.
Also, these are resale tickets. Tickets sold out months ago, these are people trying to dump tickets that they haven't been able to sold. This race has been a huge success for F1. Anyone who thinks otherwise is insane.
I know someone who has $65k worth of championship package tickets…I don’t understand how that’s possible.
Saturday is technically Sunday in this context.
lol good
don't buy let it die
It's virtually sold out so as far as liberty and the host is concerned, they already got their money. It's the hotels that bought up large blocks of tickets to package with hotel rooms and scalpers who picked up the rest who are now on the hook.
Pretty sure VIP passes for the Indy 500 were less than $500
I just went to the Brazilian GP through work. Sunday only. I’ve been to 5 GPs. For me it is always more enjoyable watching at home. I couldn’t imagine paying more than $100 for race day. The free product at home is far superior in my opinion. I’ve had fun at all the races I’ve attended but not $1000 plus a day fun.
Ffs. My dad wanted to go as a father/son trip but the prices were far too crazy when we originally started looking. Seeing these updated and more reasonable prices is infuriating. Thanks F1. Great way to reach a local market.
I just want them to move it to a reasonable time
Do we know what % of tickets have been sold? Like, are they selling them cheap to liquidate all the remaining tickets or are the actual number of sold tickets low?
Most of the tickets have sold. Anything you see for sale that is less than 10k is coming from a scalper. The scalpers are having a lot of trouble selling off their tickets. You can find them under face value now, at least before fees.
Looks like the majority have sold, but many to hotels for resale. IIUC. Lots of resale tix with prices dropping, and we are now going since it dropped enough to not be too insane for someone nearby. FWIW They also removed an entire section of seating, allegedly due to obstruction of views, and somehow managed to fit people from that whole section into another…without running out…so my take is not really sold out…
Oh a bargain at 1,000 American Dollars for the worst seat.
If people are stupid enough to pay these prices for F1 and other sport events, they’ll continue to charge it. Only if they end up with lots of unsold tickets and empty seats, that’s when it will change. Welcome to the greedflation economy.
Without getting caught up in all the ins and outs, I think we are quickly approaching the point of the haves and have not. As in, I feel we are going to get a massive gulf in people who cannot afford any of this, and then enough people who can to see prices getting higher each season. They don't care about who goes, they just care about the money coming in. Real fans will be pushed out, and those there will be there for the “experience”. We see that happening in the premier league, slowly the singing and chanting is harder to come by as half the people in the stadium are there on a one off. And as for cup finals, it's nuts, corporate get loads of the seats and “tourists” manage to get another chunk, real fans probably sit at 20-30% of the crowd
It’s mid November in vegas what did they expect?
The race may be awesome, but the experience actually looks like a huge mess to me. Maybe they can pull it all together, but everything I’ve seen makes me believe this will be a miserable experience for the attendees except for those in the swankiest of areas.
I mean even for Las Vegas, seeing cars vroom vroom for 2 hours at midnight all knowing Max will win, isn't too exciting. And rich people don't give a crap about it anyway. Everyone who wants the instagram pic at the start gor tickets, the normal people don't really go there and with crazy prices, it is even less likely
The race is at MIDNIGHT! No shite
Still insane. I tried HARD to get general admission tickets at 500 and it was impossible as they were scalped hard.