By Les Tan
Talk about lousy timing. Just when Singapore joins the F1 party, they start turning on the lights. Here we were, going to one of the most expensive parties on earth for the first time with the cool people, all dressed up, paid top dollar for the entrance fee but never mind, and then when you get there, some folks are leaving because they think the party is too expensive, making us wonder if we paid too much.
The Canadian Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix are both off the calendar for 2009. The Abu Dhabi GP replaces the Canadian GP while there is no immediate replacement for the French GP although India is supposed to come on stream with a GP in 2010.
In the case of the Canadian GP, the organisers unbelieveably only found out from the media. It’s a popular GP both with the drivers and fans, attracting 300,000 spectators over the three days. By contrast, the Singapore GP drew 100,000. The Canadian GP was dropped apparently because of contractual issues for the first time since 1987. The Canadians probably didn’t want to cough up more money, just like the Americans. The US Grand Prix was also dropped this year because of contractual problems, leaving F1 without a North American race for the first time in 43 years.
For the French GP, the organisers themselves bid adieu, citing the high costs of staging the event. This hasn’t stopped rich countries willing to pay top dollar. The new Abu Dhabi GP in 2009 is estimated to cost £25 million (S$62 million) just in race fees alone. Singapore is estimated to be paying a fee of S$52 million per race and one Singapore GP costs S$150 million, with the Singapore government footing 60% or $90 million. Singapore is contracted to hold four more races.
F1 is built on a mountain of debt and one of the owners is the now bankrupt Lehman Brothers. To finance their debt, F1 has swung east in recent years because countries like ours see the race as a promotional tool for tourism and are therefore willing to pay more than the Europeans and North Americans. Apart from India, South Korea is lined up for a new GP race in 2010. That would make it a total of five Asian countries hosting an F1 GP (Singapore, China, South Korea, Malaysia, India).
My friends from China was telling me that the Shanghai GP organizers are also casting doubts after 4 years. It is indeed difficult to quantify the economic returns and much less on social benefits. However, F1 has now become the iconic event for major global cities, it is almost expected that Singapore should be part of it.