Isn't it late for that, he's already told THEM he's f#@K'n off.

I can't believe that Bernie is forgetting the first rule of marketing.
The price should be pegged at what the market will tolerate, not what CVC "needs".
Somehow I get the feeling this was not Bernie's call.
Normand the promoter was his bum buddy and friend.
Also note that Bernie sold the whole thing years ago and is now just the hired gun for CVC.
The fact that they paid too much for the rights, means big loans which means high prices need to be charged.

I predict a couple of scenarios might happen.
a-the promoters should form an association and negotiate with a united front. Difficult to make happen since they all kiss Bernie's butt to get the deal.
b-other venues will also question the financial wisdom of the race and the accountable ones will also not renew.
c-Bernie will sign up the un-accountable venues and the face of F1 will change significantly over the next few years.
d-CVC may find the whole thing not viable given their current debt load and dump F1 on someone else.
e-Bernie will buy it back for 10 cents on the dollar. He'll run it leaner since the debt load is gone.

If Montreal, with all the best desire and support from 3 levels of government can not make it happen, then there is something seriously wrong with Benie's model.

Mansell won at Montreal in 1986...

Could this foreshadow what is to come for F1? Given the current economic climate I expect we'll see other venues choose not to renew their contracts.

They still have it for 2009.

Isn't Germany losing wads of cash on the GP as well?

Mansell in 1986. Brain fade on my part... sorry.

Without a single North American Grand Prix, can F1 continue to be marketed as a "World Championship"? Actually, Interlagos is the only race contested in the western hemisphere. Ridiculous.

If the Americans can get away with calling their baseball comp a world series then I'm damn sure F1 can.

Exactly what I've been suggesting a while ago...
Local fans are well into the sport now that they could easily fill up the seats of a great event that would become "24 Heures de Montréal"!!!
Plus all the tourism that it would bring!!!
Do it Mr. Mayor!!! Call ALMS or the organizers from LeMans and build the event!!!(or maybe even bring their event for 1 year to start off the Montreal race!!!)

Once again Bernie demonstrates that the greed factor is what his business decisions are based on.

F1 is looking like WWE.Screw the fans,hail the dollar

Not to mention the NBA and NFL guys call themselves "World Champions" when they win the league.

Despite my anger at the loss of the Montreal race, there is no need to knock the "world" aspect of F1. The FIA championship is a 'world' championship because it is open to anyone in the world. A driver can be of any nationality, a team owned by anyone from any nation. Team members can be from around the world. Do not mistake the desire to have races "around the world," which is impossible with 200+ countries, with the fact that the people of the world can compete. There are always limits.

Good point.

Bernie Ecclestone and Vince McMahon must of gone to the same business school.

This is a bitter moment in the history of sports in Canada.

Hopefully they can bring the race back in the future.

Who really plays American syle football but people in the US? IF no one else is doing it, doesn' that mean world champ? You think the teams from the Euro league would really make a game of it (does it exist anymore?).

NBA is a little different as there are other basketball leagues but how many times were was the US squad challenged and many of the national teams had NBA players on the roster....

Back to F1...it has lost its way. Now resorting to becoming like Nascar or IRL. Who ever thought that would happen? Turns its back on the fans, tracks, its history for money from countries that are just as likely to stop watching next year as not. Bernie better hope that the old fans still care by then. Really, F1 is prime for a rival series that gets the manufacturers behind it especially if Max's one engine thing ever goes in to practice.

Actually, Wrestling actually cares about its fans.....

It is not open to anyone in the world. You have to buy a franchise (limit 12) to participate. There are currently 2 open because of teams folding.

As far as the rest of your statement...it can be said of almost every series...WRC, IRL, even Nascar now has drivers from other countries ....well at least the Americas. There is 1 race in the Americas, Australia is on the verge of loosing its race. F1 is basically a Euro/Asian series with 1 Autralian and 1 South American race. In that way, not too different than IRL this year with 1 Australian and 1 Asian race.

even if they don't respect their intelegence......

That's like Piquet Jr. at Singapore!

yeah, as noted, I think it was 86, the year DeAngelis died iirc. Nigel was awesome in Canada that year. Really on top of his game. I shoulda placed a bet cos I was 4 for 4 on choosing winners that weekend.

RIP Canadian Grand Prix.

Great clip.

Jimm,
You say F1 is not open to anyone. Can you please tell me what nationality is banned? What countries are listed as not allowed to participate. The limits are logistical, not nationalistic.

Is someone not a world champion figure skater, for example, just because the world championship was held in one location? Was Jim Clark less a world champion because F1 didn't race in China during his years?

IRL does not have an European race, does it?

Not currently but it has races on 3 different contenents...For now, F1 covers 4...used to cover 6.

No nationality is banned in the IRL or Nascar either...For that matter, I am pretty sure that my local Karting series is also open to any nationalilty. What is changed is the emphasis toward where the money is to build expensive tracks and away from where F1 fans are. In 1992, F1 had races in Asia (1), Australia (1), North America (2), South America (1), Africa (1) and Europe (10). Maybe too weighted toward Europe but you get the point.

At least WWE labels itself as sports entertainment and adimts it is essentially a show. Over the last few years there has been plently of disrespect of fans' intellegence.

Bernie needs to sit down have a quiet drink and realise that huge big empty but lavish stadiums are not the way to go, Melbourne and Canada and last lap Silverstone are always full and great events, but don't count, as they are loss losers or just old venues to Bernie, you could get into Shanghai or Malaysia almost free, so how long is it going to last?....I don't believe for a moment that Melbourne or Montreal run their events badly, I have been to both and are excellent events, losing them will be losing the heart of the sport, what's next, Monza for another race in the sand dunes or another trip around the warehouses and back streets of Valencia, (maybe they should hold it at night?), Bernie's a salesman, and bigger the better will always get him the sale, but quality will always sell, and how much dosh does he have in the bank, doesn't seem to spend much to help out now does he.

I don't quite agree with this. What you're describing is pretty much any series, regional, national, etc, throughout the world. When i was involved in racing in Canada, for example, there were lots of British staff, cars, etc. It doesn't matter where you go in the free world the racing is open to people/ teams from all nationalities. Senna, Piquet, etc raced in British F3, JV raced in Italian and Japanese F3, Ralf raced in Japanes F3 etc. Yet none of these are called 'world championships' despite being open to participants from all over the world. What makes F1 a 'world championship' is that it travels the globe and Grand Prixs are hosted in different countries every two weeks. In fact the rules require exactly that.

i belive tobe classed as a world series you need to visit several different contients or something. for the ETCC to change into the WTCC i think it hadtodo 3 events outside europe.

oddly i kinda consider nascar/IRL now and CART as semi-world series, as there quite major series based in a huge ass country

Craven Morehead and Ping666, I understand your view and can agree with it somewhat, but it also makes the FIA 'world' championship invalid in some years (like 2009 with no N.A. race?) and many past years with no races in China, for example. Yes, you can use words like "some different" and "at least four" and the lije but in the final analysis you're going to miss the mark sometimes. And with the way Bernie's plan is going we may miss the mark by a wide margin!!

I prefer races in many venues too, but I won't tie it to "world" status.

In the fifties there was only one race in America for some years too, and often F1 drivers didn't participate. Nevertheless it was a World Championship. I agree that there should be races in NA, but at least there is a race in A, which is more than can be said about Africa. Bernie hails himself for haveng withdrawn the race because of Apartheid, why isn't he bringing it back now then?

Anyone see this new link from Bernie about offer details. He wanted 165 million over 5 years and attendance. Claims that's perfectly reasonable.

http://www.mytelus.com/ncp_news/article.en...ticleID=3040803

How the hell is a promoter or country even break even at all by paying $35 Million per annum (not sure on the currency for that), but I did a quick estimate of average ticket price for Montreal. My quick calculation was $18 million in income over the three days (in CAD). Probably another 10-15% for concessions and you still need to find another $10 million not to be pissing money away. Good luck with that.

Link fixed

broken link jdanton.

Torto(french RDS) said before the start of the Australian GP that the Canadian GP could be reintegred this year because of the difficulty occurs in the preparation of Abu Dhabi GP($$). It could be placed just before the last GP, Brasil GP, in october.

a Middle East country having problem with money ??
and Canada can afford it all of a sudden ??

thanks Bernie - job well done !!

Won't it be snowing in Montreal at that time of yeat? :\

before october 15, no chance of snow, maybe cold, this kind of temp in the ardennes at Belgium GP in september anyway.
but, i wait from another source before i can jump on that story to take this serious.

This is still speculation, but the recent economic struggles is evident even for places like Abu Dhabi. It might be a long shot for Canada to be reinstated this year. Let's remember that Montreal has all the infrastructures in place and this decision would greatly please the FOTA members wishing to come back to North America.

Normand Legault, who organized the race for many years, was quoted in an interview this weekend in a local paper that he thinks that race can make a comeback before 2011.

Link: http://monvolant.cyberpresse.ca/course-aut...-pour-la-f1.php

Gee it can get a bit cold for a race but not cold enough to be a real issue. Would be sweet.

If FOTA Shmota want it, we know Bernie will not let this happen.

Even this year with US and Canada dropped, F1 visits 16 countries, 8 of which are outside of Europe.

You can argue until you're blue in the face but that seems fairly international to me when you take into account the huge majority of first / second world countries are located in Europe, and the history of the sport post WW2.

I'd so much prefer Canada than Abu Dhabi.

the 1 thing i'd say is if canada did replace it sometime in october............wouldn't that be round about the time they start getting the really harsh weather (freezing cold,snow,etc)

Sitting in the 35c heat and sun is pretty bad. With the dust, the dirt and the drunk rednecks.

However, sitting on those same unforgiving aluminium grandstand benches would be brutal in the November climate. Add to that the reduced seating form bundled up people taking up more space on the grandstands...

NO WAY in hell that they would hold a race in November. Absolute rubbish to think it would be done. Bridgestone makes wets, intermediates and drys. I have never seen an F1 winter tire. Maybe they can run with chains or studs? Kimi would love it.

**OPTIMISITC** November Weather in Montreal:

* Average November temperature: 7ºC / 45ºF
* November average high: 11ºC / 52ºF
* November average low: 1ºC / 30ºF

http://www.criacc.qc.ca/climat/suivi/200511_e.html

November 1st 2009 will be a cold day indeed. Even living here in the warmest part of Canada (Vancouver) I have seen it snow on Hallowe'en. Montreal? Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Montreal race needs to be between May-August. Even September has risk for poor weather.

the race (if scheduled) will be on october 11, 1 week before Brasil GP.
No chance of snow at this date, a little bit cold, but you know indian summer ?...

No chance of snow? My how quickly we forget our Canadian history! Gilles Villeneuve won here in 78 and it snowed during & after the victory celebrations. Not much, just a few flakes, but snow. And the date was.... Ah, you can look it up yourself.

Most moderate, maybe. Warmest, not a chance.

it was a tremendous grand prix, on October 8 1978, i remember and the stands was filled for the Great Gilles.
less a 1 week later , what the problem ?