Motorsports Venues - Austin City Council Endorses F1 Subsidies
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(Editor's Note: Okay, so I had two ways to go with the art supporting this article. On one hand, I could have included a dry and certainly boring shot of the Austin City Council. Or, I could add a shot of beautiful women in bikinis standing next to an F1 car. Sorry, but I picked the bikini shot - I'm a guy, so shoot me.)
Austin, June 29, 2011: Austin City officials have passed a commercial endorsment supporting next year's USGP at the new Circuit Of The America's (COTA).
The council vote was passed 5 to 2 after two weeks of tense negotiations between the city, local environmentalists, and venue organizers. Final passage means that they are now eligible to receive up to $25 million a year in commercial subsidies from Texas' Major Events Trust Fund. The fund's goal is an evergreen program leveraging national and international sporting events that create new revenue opportunities state-wide.
In return for receiving the council's green light, event organizers agreed to several environmentally-sensitive alterations to the original facility plan. These include the addition of new groves of trees throughout the venue aimed at reducing the design's landscape carbon-footprint, and the purchase and operation of a fleet of low-emission buses to support venue park and drive programs.
Last week, COTA organizers agreed to provide up to $4 million a year to an affiliate local business trust entitled the Major Events Trust Fund (METF). The goal is to insure that year-over-year underwriting costs for the USGP will be operated on a revenue-neutral basis throughout its complex 10-year commercial licensing agreement between the City of Austin, COTA organizers, the Formula One Group, CVC Capital Partners and JP Morgan.
According to Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, "What we have now is a purely upside potential and no (business) downside...so I'm wholeheartedly in support of (the project)."