9 replies to this topic

[ebin]

Assuming the land is free (eg. Govt donates it or something like that) how much would it cost in US$ to build a quality 5km long track that would be good enough to host series like CART, ALMS, MotoGP? And how much more to get it up to F1 standards?

[The Sensational]

Well this is pretty ambiguous. Are you talking about the actualy physical track itself that would be of a good enough standard, or are you building an entire circuit with grandstands, timing facilities, control centres, etc, etc?

[ebin]

I guess both. The latter being of more interest.

[Riker!]

40 - 100 Million would be my guestimate. Thats with Infrastructure as well (im guessing).

[random]

A track to those specs was built recently near here. ( www.virclub.com )The figure I heard was around $5 million just to clear, grade and pave the track. The land cost was not included in that figure.

A basic CART, ALMS, Moto GP paddock could be built for very little, as they often operate without many fixed structures. An F1 approved paddock with garages, suites, a starter stand, tower, helicopter access... would cost a minimum of 10 million dollars. Although this figure could easily double or triple.

Permanent grandstands like those at the newer venues in Malaysia or the Nurburgring would cost a few million in addition. Access roads or bypasses like the new one at Silverstone cost over a million per mile. Don't discount the land cost. It could be 1 million or less out in the sticks or insane sums closer to urban areas.

Newer tracks like Malaysia were reported to cost over $100 million to construct from the ground up. But many of the current tracks could be built to their current state for 20% of that. Although I doubt the FIA would approve many of the current tracks in their current state if they were to apply as new events today.

[ebin]

Wow, that's actually less than I expected. I had assumed that an F1 type track would be in the quarter billion range.

Any idea how much money promoters recoup when they hold races at their tracks? This applies for all types of racing. I know CART charges around $2 million for a race. What are the sanctioning fees and what the do the promoters typically get back?

[random]

Sanctioning fees for Formula One are in the 15 Million dollar per year range. And the only way the F1 venues can recoup any of this is through ticket sales. This makes for expensive tickets and large losses for the venues. Most of the F1 venues loose large amounts on F1 every year and can only afford to host F1 through government subsidies and corporate (typically tobacco) sponsorship.

The exceedingly high F1 sanctioning fees are the reason so few north American venues have or will ever desire to host a Formula One event. The Indianapolis motor speedway spent tens of millions preparing the speedway for F1, only to lose large amounts of money on it ever year. Unlike all of the other races at Indy, F1 shares none of the TV revenue with the track (or any of the other venues). With ticket pre-sales rumored to be very low this year, the losses will be even larger. I don't see the USGP being renewed when the current contract is due unless Bernie wants to drop his fees. But this is unlikely when there are half a dozen 3rd world countries begging to pay Bernie's ransom.

The CART fees vary but I think the minimum is more like 3 million (although I'm not certain). They charge a good deal more to the overseas venues in order to cover travel costs.

[Julius]

I heard that Tony George spent 40,000,000+ getting the indianapolis Speddway ready to host an F1 event and I would speculate that the dollars he spent were on the very low side needed to prepare a track for F1 considering the Indy Track already had Grandstands, Spectator Parking, Concessions, Resteraunts, Pressboxes, etc. etc. that most every F1 track needs.

[StickShift]

IIRC, Tilke in an F1 Magazine interview said the figure for building an up to date F1 track (He used Sepang as an example) Is around $500,000,000. Yikes.

[random]

Originally posted by StickShift
IIRC, Tilke in an F1 Magazine interview said the figure for building an up to date F1 track (He used Sepang as an example) Is around $500,000,000. Yikes.

F1 tracks don't cost anywhere near 500 million. You'd be hard pressed to spend that much even if you wanted to, well maybe if you enclosed and air conditioned all the grandstands.;)
All the estimates I've seen put the Sepang construction costs at more like $100 million.

This estimate put the cost at $120 million
http://f1-malaysia.c...angcircuit.html

This estimate puts it at only $75 million. (RM286 million = 75 million US)
http://www.american....ED/formula1.htm

Consider that F1 tracks are very cheap to build in comparison to indoor stadiums or high rise office buildings. They're basically 4 miles of road with a few out-buildings and maybe some permanent grandstands. Grandstands aren't that expensive to build. They don't have electrical, HVAC or other infrastructure costs like indoor stadiums do.

The $40 million dollar amount for the Indy upgrade is very high in my estimation. And the speedway is not known for releasing figures, accurate or otherwise. However they did build a funky new tower and press room. But that upgrade was planned prior to F1, wasn't technically necessary for F1 and would have happened anyway. Their only real expense was rebuilding the pits and paving a bit of the golf course. Maybe 5 or 10 million worth of concrete and tarmac.

There's no reason a modern, safe F1 track can't be built for under $30 million dollars. Of course many of the new tracks have decided to spend a lot of extra money on funky designs and covered grandstands. But even these new tracks don't cost more than $100 million.