So what I take from that is Bernie is charging so much that even with a full crowd they're still only just breaking even/making a small profit?
More likely that it's the BRDC being the BRDC. They're so caught up in the history of the British Grand Prix that they forget about the future of it. Neglecting the circuit's finances to the point where the event is doomed while their backs are turned as they run around trying to find new owners sounds like exactly the sort of thing that the BRDC would do.
Nothing to do with the tens of millions that Bernie wants for hosting the GP?
The BRDC were the ones who made a huge ruckus a few years ago and got a seventeen-year deal. They clearly said that they wouldn't sign it if it wasn't a good deal for Silverstone. In the time since, they've hopelessly mismanaged it, trying and failing to find new investors and buyers. So if they're in trouble, it's their own stupid fault.
You do, but how long have they been in negotiations over the ownership? Their investment hinges on finding new sources of income, but for them to go from a position of relative stability to having to consider activating an exit clause suggests that it hasn't been managed particularly well. Always be mindful of projects that grow like clockwork. It usually means someone is asleep at the wheel.
The old owners were not stable at all, it was actually a bit dodgy and the circuit was losing money and sending out payments it didn't need to. Since Patrick Allen took over he's been trying to balance the books as much as he can, and just securing enough funding to deal with the ever increasing F1 fees (I think it's £500,000+5% every year or something) is the point of new investors.
Having to find an extra ~£2m every year (£500,000 + 5% of ~£30m) is not particularly sustainable for anyone who is not bankrolled by a national government and/or oil money. They may well be in a bigger pickle due to mismanagement, but astronomical hosting fees is the bigger problem IMO.
Most of them with government funding. And every time the contract comes around, most of them question the return they are getting on their multi-million dollar outlay each year.
How many of them get NO assistance from a government etc? Now take the cost of hosting the race, divide that by the expected number of spectators and then work out how many of them are willing to actually pay that.
Tell that to Hockenheim and Nurburgring.
Everybody forgets that Le Mans winner....Nico Hulkenburg is German. Is it because he is not always winning F1 races ? possibly. The Germans dont seem fussed on F1 at all at the moment and nobody seems to know why. Why dont Germans like F1 anymore ? That really is the million dollar question !
GP racing was originally instituted in 1906 by manufacturers as a means to lure the horse-and-buggy public into buying cars. Now the developed nations are crammed with cars, and manufacturers properly look to developing nations to race their wares. It used to be the drivers sat on top of the cars, with their faces, hands and elbows fully visible. Now they are masked and buried in the cars so only part of the helmet is showing. Racing in developed countries has become a dull, meaningless and boring affair to a new generation of post-relationship millennials with truncated attention spans and their heads always looking down into their devices. F1 faces the same basic problem as NASCAR, and I don't think it can really be solved.
