Groups

Sign the petition against alternating Spa with any other race (23 posts)

Viewing post 1 to 15 (23 total posts)

1 2 →

verstappen said 1 year, 1 month ago:

I know, you sign and you’ll never hear of it again…

…well, that’s the way it goes for me with online petitions.

But if there was ever a petition to which no F1Fanatic can object, it’s this one. It’s about the alternation, not about having a grandprix in France. The petitioners think a French grandprix is a splendid idea!

Signing cost me a staggering minute of my life. This forum post another 3.

At least you’ll know you did what was within your power.

http://www.grandprixf1.be/merci.html?Sid=welkom

#
Maciek said 1 year, 1 month ago:

Good stuff – spread the word!

#
F1Yankee said 1 year, 1 month ago:

i’d like to see a race at spa every year, but who is going to pay for it? not the spectators, not the promoters and certainly not bernie.

#
Lord Stig said 1 year, 1 month ago:

I agree with the idea as I like Spa. However, I realize it is really not up to any of us to decide. At the end of the day what FOM think is in the best intrest of the sport will be the calendar we get. Remember most of this money goes to the teams. Bernie does not take it for himself.

#
Dan Thorn said 1 year, 1 month ago:

…No.

If this is the only way we can keep Spa on the calendar for the time being I’m all for it. I’m not going to sign a petition asking the organisers to price themselves out of a Grand Prix altogether.

#
Maciek said 1 year, 1 month ago:

I don’t get the negative reactions. Going by comments here and on other related topics, it seems like many people have come to accept that FOM decisions and especially the race fees somehow become gospel carved in stone the moment they’re announced and that’s that.

Seems to me that if we want F1 to remain a sport, at least in part, rather than just a corporate glamour show, that implies safeguarding certain redeeming values, including certain hallmarks of the sport – which the race at Spa clearly is.

Administrators of other sports, as far as I can tell, do take other things into consideration than squeezing for maximum profit, right now, not later. I think it’s extremely naive to think that FOM has anything like ‘the good of the sport’ in mind. Major sporting circuits the world over take their fan bases into consideration and do just fine on profit margins. So why does F1 have to be stuck with a neo-con mentality?

#
sam3110 said 1 year, 1 month ago:

hey, if you have the millions upon millions of euros to pay up keep it running every year, then go ahead and pay up, if not, just be thankful that we will still see Formula 1 at Spa every two years

#
Prisoner Monkeys said 1 year, 1 month ago:

I agree with @sam3110, because right now, the choice is (something like) the following:

1) Alternate Spa with Paul Ricard for the next decade or so, and then consider moving back to an annual event once the European economy stabilises.

OR

2) Don’t alternate with Paul Ricard and hold a race at Spa every year for the next five years, at which point the organisers will run out of money and fall off the calendar for good.

It’s a no-brainer. Unfortauntely, this petition was conceived by people who don’t understand why the alternation is being proposed, but are vehemently opposed to it.

#
Maciek said 1 year, 1 month ago:

Unfortauntely, this petition was conceived by people who don’t understand why the alternation is being proposed, but are vehemently opposed to it.

That is a) false and b) irrelevant. The petition was drafted by local residents and business people who don’t want to lose an annual event that injects tons of cash into the local economy and Belgian race fans who don’t want to lose a great race.

Arguments supporting the alternation – such as that anyone opposed just doesn’t understand the situation – are based on the insidious and neatly circular premise that FOM conditions define the parameters of discussion without being up for discussion themselves.

#
verstappen said 1 year, 1 month ago:

To all the people just thinking that there are no real alternatives, I came up with one a feew days ago in a comment:

Good for Spa! I hope they can negotiate a deal good enough so they won’t need to alternate.
Still, in my opinion it’s simple: if some F1 teams get more money because of heritage, then the same should apply for circuits. Monaco Has it, but Canada, Spa, SuZuka, Silverstone, Monza and Brasil should also get it.
Let Bahrain and Abu Dahbi pay. Oh and Russia and the USA too. What better advertisement for oil than F1? And I know that at least Bahrain and Abu Dahbi won’t bat an eye if their fees quadrupeled. They’re swimming in money over there. And to be part of the historic circus F1 is, comes with a price.
Bernie’s getting old. He doesn’t ask those countries what they easily can afford…
So, I don’t want to hear anything about contracts etcetera, it’s not too hard to get the same money but keep all real circuits.

(I editted out three spellingmistakes but for the rest the comment is untouched)

The comment was posted at:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/03/31/313-2/

In a reply to @Jord93

Jord93 said on 31st March 2012, 8:20
I’ve read a report online: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120330/F1/120339980
They’re basically saying Belgium’s holding up the deal at the moment, since the Wallonia government, who provides the taxpayers’ money for the race, wants to renegotiate with F1 themselves. One minister was quoted as saying the alternation was “not the answer”.

@Prisonermonkeys I would happily sign for your 5 year program. Maybe someone else is at the helm of FOM at that time, so if there’s any possibilty to get such a deal, you should always go for it (as well in real life).
(Oh and if the economy isn’t fixed enough in 5 years, I guess all of us have some other problems than F1. Like: what am I gonna eat?)

#
matt90 said 1 year, 1 month ago:

If nothing else it is an announcement that as fans we don’t want to lose the race. It probably will not achieve anything, as if anything Bernie needs to lower his fees or the race needs government backing, but what is wrong with putting your name down to say that you are unhappy/sad with the situation?

#
ed24f1 said 1 year, 1 month ago:

@Maciek If the businesses think they will lose money, then maybe they should consider putting some money into the circuit to help them in the long term…

#
VettelS said 1 year, 1 month ago:

Unfortauntely, this petition was conceived by people who don’t understand why the alternation is being proposed, but are vehemently opposed to it.

Whilst I understand how alternating could make sense from a financial point-of-view, I don’t see how it can be good for F1. It’s like the BBC-Sky deal- I understand that the BBC can not afford F1 any more, but I don’t see that moving F1 to pay-TV was a good idea. Just because it generates more money, less people watching F1 surely can’t be a good thing in the long-term.

The same goes for Spa. If keeping Spa on the calendar means that the teams, FOM and the shareholders get less money in the short-term, then so be it. I just can’t see how losing such an iconic venue is good for F1 in the long-term. Sometimes I think F1 pays too much attention to the next couple of seasons without concentrating enough on the coming decades.

#
Prisoner Monkeys said 1 year, 1 month ago:

@verstappen

I would happily sign for your 5 year program. Maybe someone else is at the helm of FOM at that time, so if there’s any possibilty to get such a deal, you should always go for it (as well in real life).

The risk is not worth the reward. There is a very real chance that, at the end of the five years, the race at Spa will cease to exist (and the five years is just an estimate; it could be two or three in reality). That’s why the organisers of the Belgian Grand Prix are doing this – it’s because they think that having a yearly race will result in the event being so totally unfeasible that it is removed from the calendar indefinitely. If they didn’t feel that way, they wouldn’t be doing it.

#
Maciek said 1 year, 1 month ago:

That’s why the organisers of the Belgian Grand Prix are doing this – it’s because they think that having a yearly race will result in the event being so totally unfeasible that it is removed from the calendar indefinitely. If they didn’t feel that way, they wouldn’t be doing it.

Yes well, that’s rather pounding away at the obvious, isn’t it? The underlying issue, of course, is whether FOM’s motivations have anything to do with the long-term health and sustainability of the sport – as a sport, that is, and not only a cash cow to be milked before moving on to whatever else pays the quickest dividends.

#