Funding A1GP

[Go-Pakistan]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Maktoum could fund this forever entirely by himself if he so wished.

Possibly....but I don't think even billionaires are willing to throw money away....this is a viable business with expected profit within 2-3 years.

He has already made hundreds of millions selling the franchises, TV rights.

Then there's ticket sales, gate money, merchandising......

So it is naïve to think that someone would fund such a costly project just to fulfil his own hobby, doubtful.....it is a business venture to make money.

[Kicking-back]

I'm not saying he would fund it, just that he could.

I've enjoyed watching the series for what it is - entertainment.

Why those who clearly hate A1GP feel the need to keep watching it purely so they can tell us how rubbish they think it is is beyond me.

[danieljboys]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

I've enjoyed watching the series for what it is - entertainment.

Why those who clearly hate A1GP feel the need to keep watching it purely so they can tell us how rubbish they think it is is beyond me.

Fully agree with you, KB. It needs to be given a chance. It's only been going since mid-September so it deserves a fair crack of the whip before it can be knocked. It's a sound concept and if it encourages newer countries to get into motorsport and develop motorsport infrastructure in new markets then it can only be a good thing.

[Roninho]

I can't look into the finances and see if a1gp is actually close to making money, but i must say i am impressed by a lot of things.
Starting up a series & investing in it, the steady and continuing developments the last 1,5 years delivering all that was promised (remember superfund or that series based on footballteams promising a lot, delivering nothing), the nr. of cars running, the type of companies that have invested in franchises (companies like IMG have bought rights), the brands-hatch succes, etc.

There are areas for improvement, for example the tv-deals in europe are not great, most networks they are on are small and tv-ratings will be very low. I have no idea how this is for the rest of the world though (i imagine asia and the arabic countries to have huge ratings, but i'm not sure).

Only thing i'm really dissapointed in is the performance of the cars. 520hp is simply not enough power. Imo they should have put another type of zytek in it, at least 600+hp.

[Kicking-back]

If they want more power the current engine could be tweaked by Zytek's computers - but I reckon given the inevitable mix of experience the cars are about the right speed now

[farooqaziz]

do u know in how much pakistani franchise wasbought? and is it feasible 4 the teams that donot win the prize money.pakistan is sponsersd by three companies ,will this much money is enough to run all expences

[mbathshah]

Anybody have an idea as to how much it costs to run a decent top 10 team in A1GP for a season? Is it similar to GP 2 or higher/lower?

[Go-Pakistan]

Originally Posted by mbathshah

how much it costs to run

As far as I know, all the cars and kit travel together to/from races, so this may reduce travel costs. Possibly subsidised by A1 management.

A top GP2 seat I think costs about £1m, so I guess A1 will be more as GP2 is 12 races only in Europe (+Bahrain), A1 is 12 races all over the world.

All depends on the level of subsidy A1 is giving to the teams, and if the teams get percentage of gate money and merchandise apart from the race prize money.

Another point, I think you mentioned in an earlier post that the countries should be running their own teams with some personnel from their country, I think this is a good idea and will increase the popularity of the events in the home countries. However, this may take a season or two to get running.

[Roninho]

Imo the costs of running the car should be less than a gp2-car since the gp2-car has more hp. I also think that for racing in gp2 you'll have to pay a "premium" for participating during a gp-event, since i cannot believe Bernie lets gp2 race for free.

The costs of transportation will increase the necessary budgets enormously, but i have no idea if this is being payed for by the organisation. The prizemoney will offset a lot, but i've no idea how much it costs to run a season.