Price of trackside tickets, damn!!

odd jim

odd jim

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Is it just me, or are ticket prices going through the roof these days??! I'm starting to find it a little prohibitive these days along with everything else.

I'll use the F1 at Silverstone this year as an example (ok I know its at the top end of the spectrum but bare with me!). I'm only going for Friday practice this year as I'm shooting a show jumping event on Sunday. For a GA ticket on Friday it was almost £60 just for the practice sessions. Race day tickets are obviously far more expensive but the kick in the teeth was this;

For race day the GA ticket starts at around the £100 mark. BUT, you have to pay another £19 to park??

Whats going on? A couple of years ago you could get a GA race day ticket for £50 and I've never heard of parking charges!

Rant over, but I'll be doing a lot less motorsport in the coming years the way this is going.

PS - anyone got any spare press passes kicking about? :nuts:
 
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What about the club level events, they are usually a lot more reasonable, and I've heard of cases where some race series have bought the gate, so free access for everyone.
 
Yeah I'll certainly be doing more of those, and the general testing sessions which are sill free, at the moment anyway, but my passion is F1. Current and historic and now with the in season testing ban on F1 cars the chances of seeing them in the flesh away from race weekend are practically nil. A depressing thought.
 
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Wow I went on Friday a few years back, I'm sure it was £15 a ticket!
 
shabba said:
Wow I went on Friday a few years back, I'm sure it was £15 a ticket!
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It was!
 
Bad time to also mention that I got a garage pass from a guy that works for Renault....

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F1 is corporate hell.

You need to find yourself another sport if you aren't some kind of merchant banker, something setup for the workers and peasants... like BTCC.
 
odd jim said:
Is it just me, or are ticket prices going through the roof these days??! I'm starting to find it a little prohibitive these days along with everything else.

I'll use the F1 at Silverstone this year as an example (ok I know its at the top end of the spectrum but bare with me!). I'm only going for Friday practice this year as I'm shooting a show jumping event on Sunday. For a GA ticket on Friday it was almost £60 just for the practice sessions. Race day tickets are obviously far more expensive but the kick in the teeth was this;

For race day the GA ticket starts at around the £100 mark. BUT, you have to pay another £19 to park??

Whats going on? A couple of years ago you could get a GA race day ticket for £50 and I've never heard of parking charges!

Rant over, but I'll be doing a lot less motorsport in the coming years the way this is going.

PS - anyone got any spare press passes kicking about? :nuts:
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Car Parking on Sunday isn't £19.....................





It's £39:puke::puke::puke:
 
THIRTY NINE POUNDS for PARKING?!! WTF!
 
Ragwort said:
Car Parking on Sunday isn't £19.....................

It's £39:puke::puke::puke:
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That takes the biscuit!!
 
The thing is, people are willing to pay for it, so you can't really blame the BRDC for cashing in. There are only a few events where Silverstone is anywhere near capacity, so it makes business sense to make the popular ones more expensive and keep the price down on the lower profile events.
 
Im glad I'm going on Friday now. Not only do you get grandstand entry for free, and free parking, the F1 cars actually spend longer on the track than they do on race day as you get 90 minutes in the morning and another 90 in the afternoon, lol!
 
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Dont put all the blame on the BRDC, without them we probably wouldn't have a race in this country.

To secure the F1 rights the BRDC had to pay Bernie Ecclestone a ridiculous amount of money & commit to upgrading facilities. The prices, to some extent, reflect that.

However the fact that this weekend Silverstone will be "the place to be seen" allows an even greater price hike. There will be thousands there who only go to this event or have never been to a race before.

If you want to really improve your motorsport photography go to smaller & cheaper events at places like Mallory Park or ignore F1 & go to the Sportscar meetings where you tend to get more time & space to find the best positions.
 
It's not about improving my photography it's about shooting subjects I have a big passion for.
 
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6Hrs of Silverstone Le Mans Series event is only £30 for the whole weekend Fri-Sun! That's probably as close as you'll get to F1 cars in terms of speed with the LMP1 cars there, and they look pretty spectacular too, but if F1 is your thing then it all depends on how much you're prepared to pay for the top dog in motorsport. I'd love to go to the British GP but I just can't justify the cost! You can go to the whole MotoGP weekend for the price of F1 practice, it's just crazy considering they're both the top level racing in their respective categories.
 
Plus you get to see some actual racing in MotoGP... ok, so the field is a bit small at the moment, but hopefully next year that will be fixed (I think there are 4 new teams for 2012)
 
F1, Football, Boxing etc etc all have suffered from 'mission creep' over the years. Money being the mission. Be it for improvements or as a sweetner to hold an event, the result is the same ..... where is it coming from?

The public are not stupid but are forgetful. So it is easier to add 'little' charges (yeh right) to parking, toilets, water etc.

We are all ready to suffer the pain cost of a big event (hence touts) but we just dont factor in the little stuff. Its the RyanAir factor. Getting to a place is £30 but the add ons are twice that.

As with all the things, you pay you go. Dont pay and dont go ...... and next year it will be in India, Africa, China ..... Russia :)

Big events cost big money .... we have less of it ..... all this adds up to 'we are screwed' when it comes to the world stage. we cant even buy ourselves a world cup :)
 
The other half bought both of us a full weekend general admission pass (with camping) for the F1 this year...food for thought: at the £400 that cost we could both have a season pass for 2 years at my local circuit (Castle Combe)

On balance though I personally think it was worthwhile and we are going to go again next year, the fact that they had well over 300,000 admissions during the weekend says to me that actually, the pricing is pretty much spot on.

Bang for buck, Friday at the Festival of Speed is what I personally think is the best value event of the year.
 
odd jim said:
Yeah I'll certainly be doing more of those, and the general testing sessions which are sill free, at the moment anyway, but my passion is F1. Current and historic and now with the in season testing ban on F1 cars the chances of seeing them in the flesh away from race weekend are practically nil. A depressing thought.
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kemble airfield is often used for high speed runs, not testing, oh no... ;)
 
At the cost of attending an F1 race I have to say to Bernie and Sterling thanks for helping me make the choice to not go. I get a better seat/view at home! At something like 230GBP for a three day pass and over 100 for parking over three days I could get a pretty nice brand new tele every year for the GP :). F1 one is not a spectator sport for race fans anymore which is a shame. The cost these days it what is used to cost all in - petrol, food accommodations.......
 
BTW don't overlook CPOP for lots of action and some premium cars. As a car event it's quickly gaining on GW.
 
There are two tricks I will give you to enjoy motorsport more:

#1 Almost certainly what you enjoy about F1 is the people. You want (eg) Hamilton to win because you "know him" and without the personal emotional attachment the racing is boring. Yes, this is true! However, you can find that personal interest in other (cheaper) forms of motorsport, whether its a televised and well media covered national championship like BSB or BTCC or whether you get your butt along to the circuit and befriend a team in the paddock. With the emotion comes the passion. You don't need the BBC to drip feed you. Most of us motorsport loons started with F1, but expand your horizons!

#2 if F1 really, really, really is all you can think of as motorsport, don't go to watch it at Silverstone, go somewhere else in the world and do it as part of your holiday. The costs might even work out less and you will end up with far more of an experience for your money than a soggy wind swept bloody ex RAF base.
 
desantnik said:
There are two tricks I will give you to enjoy motorsport more:

#1 Almost certainly what you enjoy about F1 is the people. You want (eg) Hamilton to win because you "know him" and without the personal emotional attachment the racing is boring. Yes, this is true! However, you can find that personal interest in other (cheaper) forms of motorsport, whether its a televised and well media covered national championship like BSB or BTCC or whether you get your butt along to the circuit and befriend a team in the paddock. With the emotion comes the passion. You don't need the BBC to drip feed you. Most of us motorsport loons started with F1, but expand your horizons!

#2 if F1 really, really, really is all you can think of as motorsport, don't go to watch it at Silverstone, go somewhere else in the world and do it as part of your holiday. The costs might even work out less and you will end up with far more of an experience for your money than a soggy wind swept bloody ex RAF base.
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Well as far as I'm concerned;

1 - nope, its not the personalities, its the machinery, and thats whats always had me hooked. Sure the personalities are an added bonus, so is the drama, politics etc, but for me its the cars.

2 - I've been lucky enough to attend F1 races in Spa, San Marino, Monza, the old Hockenheim, Hungary and Magny Cours and of course at Silverstone, and all were cheaper than attending the British GP. In fact, you could travel to Magny Cours in those days and buy a ticket at the gate and the travelling, ticket, and accomodation would cost less than the price of a 3 day pass at Silverstone. Dont even get me started on Le Mans! Its the cost of the British GP that has outstretched even other F1 races, as us Brits seem to have easy pockets to pick. I've pretty much been there and done it with motorsport, not only watching but partaking in the sport myself (FFord, the old Slick 50 Championship, Caterhams and other testing roles), so I know my way around a paddock but I'm always, without fail, drawn back to F1 which is why I despair at the currents costs of the British GP and i guess thats the crux of my annoyance!
 
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Been to Moto GP at Donnington, wasn't impressed!
 
Well Jim, if its F1 machinery that you like, then nothing else is going to satisfy really.

As for MotoGP at Donington, was it the MotoGP or Donington that was the problem LOL
 
I was impressed with the superleage formula cars, much more impressive than current F1 cars!
 
desantnik said:
Well Jim, if its F1 machinery that you like, then nothing else is going to satisfy really.

As for MotoGP at Donington, was it the MotoGP or Donington that was the problem LOL
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Actually it was donnington, hate the place! So glad Silverstone kept F1, even if they do charge to park!
 
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Tokkelossi said:
Right, outside ... now :LOL:
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Lol it was more the ambience than the race!
 
Know what you mean about Donington!
 
I did MotoGP four years running at Donny before it left for Silverstone and made a weekend of it starting on the Thursday for Day of Champions through to Monday. We took a caravan and tents as a group and had a cracking time every year despite it being dry only once!

I still cant quite work out why there were always complaints but it seemed to mainly revolve around it being too expensive, there wasnt a privately manned toilet for every spectator and the food was expensive - oh and the security guards were generally not liked and it traffic was a nightmare. Now that was when it was free to park and £50-60 for the weekend. TBH, the way people behaved and the state they left the place in due to total laziness would account for a fair amount of grief - the first year some muppet put a disposable BBQ in a giant bin and caused a fire... at least he managed to use the bin which is better than the guy that just emptied the still red hot coals onto the pathway where people and children were walking. Then theres the people that literally smear crap on the toilets and then **** on the toilet roll as a bonus. Add to that the clean up bill from people just dumping their entire picnic waste where thay sat and it doesnt surprise me that the bill to run an event on this scale is astronomical. The final year of Donny MotoGP we waited til almost the very end of the day in the vain hope of a let up in the rain before ditching the shelter (in a bin) and heading off. You couldnt see the grass banking for the sea of trash. So bearing in mind that a race track has to pay a hefty sum to the organiser to run a top tier event and they have few revenue streams to recoup the investement its not a shocker that something like F1 has a silly price tag and they charge for everything they can - but if theres enough punters willing to pay the price then they will.

Top tier sporting events arent for the spectator any more they are for corporates. The average paying punter is chipping in a tiny amount to the coffers and they are more of an inconvenience than anything else so why make it easy for them?

B->
 
I've just always found donnington dirty, chavvy and unfriendly! The only circuit that I've been to in Europe and beyond where I felt like that.
 
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