Australia must prove it wants international sporting events
Columnist
By Adrian Musolino, 28 Mar 2010 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert
Michael Schumacher at the 2010 Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park
Another Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, another Sydney politician popping up claiming the event would be better served north of the border. The race is being overshadowed for another year by the ongoing question marks over its future, fuelled by NSW Major Events Minister Ian Macdonald and his comments regarding Sydney’s goal to snare the race from 2015.
Apart from stoking the flames in the ongoing battle between Australia’s two biggest cities for bragging rights by casting further doubt on Melbourne’s ability to stage the race, there is little reason for the NSW minister to make such comments unless the state is serious about staging the race.
At present their posturing appears just that. After all, we’ve heard this all before from the NSW government, typically at this time of the year, funnily enough.
What they haven’t done is tell us of how they will snare the race, let alone how they are going to do anything differently from Melbourne to limit the financial losses the event inevitably delivers.
If the NSW do intent to use the Homebush precinct, which staged a successful V8 Supercar round last December, then it would cost a similar amount to what the Victorian government pays to build and dismantle the Albert Park facilities. The amount they would have to pay to Formula One Management would be equivalent to what Victoria pay. And considering the distance between Homebush and Sydney’s CBD is far greater from that of Albert Park and Melbourne’s CBD, it’s hard to understand how the event will be better welcomed, served and appreciated in NSW than it is in Victoria.
Also, significant work and improvement would be required to the Homebush circuit for it to be made suitable for Formula 1; work that would require an immense financial investment and commitment which would only multiply if they were forced to switch the event to a night race – as per Formula 1’s wishes – with all the necessary infrastructure.
We need to avoid the empty promises coming out of NSW. It took them years to overcome political bureaucracy and commercial concerns to agree to the Homebush race, and the success of that event was thanks to the promotional work of V8 Supercars Australia as opposed to anything the NSW government did.
All the childish statements being made by officials in both Sydney and Melbourne have achieved is casting doubts about the events future in Australia.
With speculation increasing that the Victorian government is reconsidering its commitment to the event, and reality casting doubts on Sydney’s suitability, the chequered flag could soon be falling on the Australian Grand Prix.
What has cost the event, apart from the financial cost, is Australia’s loss of appreciation for such international events.
Although we are told crowds are up, grandstand seating on the front straight at Albert Park has been significantly reduced in recent years, and yet there were still plenty of empty seats as Mark Webber was battling for pole position on Saturday.
In the media, the first round of the AFL season has overshadowed Webber and co with even F1 star Lewis Hamilton’s hoon antics unable to bump Gary Ablett off the Herald Sun frontpage today.
Australia’s increasingly insular and introverted view of sport is manifesting itself in the loss of interest of international events such as the Australian Open, Australian Grand Prix and more.
It would be no different in Sydney, no matter what the NSW government says.
As for the high cost of the event, the question for the Grand Prix, as well as Australia’s football World Cup bid, is whether it’s all worth the financial hit to taxpayers pockets.
The sort of international exposure and recognition these events generate cannot be quantified in dollar terms, making the debate a very murky one.
Perhaps the reason Australia has become so disinterested in major international sporting events or, more to the point, why so many of us become obsessed with figures and bottom-lines when it comes to such events, is because of a growing feeling we no longer need these events.
It’s a consensus I have increasingly come to believe as I watch Australia fail to embrace the Grand Prix despite the fact an Aussie is in contention.
It’s a real shame.
Without an Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix there would be few sporting events held regularly on Australian shores that can truly reach a substantial international audience.
Australia risks regressing on the international sporting scene if we don’t embrace and respect major sporting events when they visit our shores.
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Michael C said | March 28th 2010 @ 7:21am | Report comment
To me – the current debate about the financial benefits (especially re ‘global branding’ and all those ‘unquantifiable intangibles’ around pride and prestige) re the possible hosting of a FIFA WC (a once off event) – - it is astounding to see people questioning the value of the F1 GP in Melbourne…….
…..either it’s a good idea or it isn’t. And for Melb/Vic, it’s every single year……so too the Aust Open tennis.
At some point though……and this is important……these events need to be considered ‘Australian’ rather than state.
Why is the Fed Govt not pumping more money in?
The ‘Australian Grand Prix’ does have it’s spiritual and actual home at Albert Park……fair enough. Should Sydney/NSW try to nab it? Not really. Get something else.
Likewise, the Australian Tennis open has it’s spiritual and actual home in Melbourne……fair enough.
Some where down the line…..Sydney has to find it’s own way beyond the visual delights of the harbour to become a globally relevant ‘events’ city.
Brendan said | March 28th 2010 @ 10:28am | Report comment
I dare say the original spiitual home of the Aus F1 GP is actually Adelaide. I wouldnt travel to Vic to watch it but id go to Sydney.
Ricky J said | March 28th 2010 @ 7:03pm | Report comment
I wouldn’t object to the race going back to Adelaide, but the subject title about ‘Australia Wanting International Sporting Events’ is a bit rich.
I get the impression that Adrain M is not from Melbourne. Leaving the Grand Prix track yesterday, I was driving through Melbourne’s CBD and saw people in soccer tops and Melbourne Storm tops.
I’d say Australia’s sporting culture (at least in Melbourne) is alive and well.
Marshall said | March 28th 2010 @ 7:52pm | Report comment
Those clubs aren’t international. Think the point of this article is international events
Michael C said | March 28th 2010 @ 9:25pm | Report comment
More thinking of that period in the 1950s when for a number of years the Albert Park ‘Australian Grand Prix’ was in some parts regarded as a high water mark in the pre-modern era. The ‘return’ to Albert Park seemed right….although it might’ve been ‘more right’ to return to Phillip Island…..but the MotoGP is there.
Doug said | March 28th 2010 @ 10:30pm | Report comment
The spiritual home of anything is generally where you first saw it as a child. Presumably those who saw the Australian GP at Albert Park in the 50′s or ’60s think it is there, ditto those who saw it at Warwick Farm or Sandown or Bathurst.
Its nice to know you would travel within Sydney to watch the Grand Prix. But most Grand Prix fans are prepared do travel within their own city. Realistically once you add in airfares and accommodation on top of $600-$1000 for grandstand seating you are out of most peoples entertainment budget.
Michael C said | March 29th 2010 @ 7:33am | Report comment
Going back to the 1950s – there was a period of several years of Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park which attracted some of the best and were the nearest thing in the pre-Ade/Melb era to a fair dinkum Australian Grand Prix…….then the Tasman era sort of took over.
btw – going back further and it’s Phillip Island…….at least the MotoGP is down there.
WHat HAS been stated over and over is that for Australia it appears it’s Melbourne or bust.
So, national interest therefore is surely served by consolidation in Melbourne and the Fed Govt should be supporting this annual event……that after all ensures that Australia/Melbourne is featured in every F1 computer game, season preview and review (books, articles, dvds).
Priceless……year on year……more than a once off like the Olympics or FIFA WC does.
Richard said | March 28th 2010 @ 8:18am | Report comment
I understand that the Grand Prix helps promote the “Melbourne” brand internationally, and that is a good thing. “Sydney” has done that very successfully and internationally and, I have read, is now a better known brand than “Australia”. Giving “Melbourne” international exposure is important, but in my view the Grand Prix had more character when it was held in Adelaide. The city got behind it and it became a city wide festival which truly added to the appeal of “Australia” for foreign and domestic visitors. In Melbourne it is just one of a great number of sporting events and as you say has this year been well overshadowed by the start of the AFL season. The Grand Prix would get lost in Sydney too. We have lots of successful international events, the Australian Open, the golf, the Air Show. They should move the Grand Prix back to Adelaide.
Doug said | March 28th 2010 @ 10:00am | Report comment
Sydney would have to run the grand prix track between the Opera House and Mrs Macquaries chair to have a better situated track than Albert Park. Im sure Bernie would be very happy to have the Opera House as a back drop for the start finish line especially for the night races he is so keen on.
Actually it might be better for the Australia Grand Prix if the states cooperated and it was shared between Melbourne and Adelaide and/or Sydney. It would hopefully increase attendance, though that might be offset by the increased set up costs.
Michael C said | March 28th 2010 @ 9:28pm | Report comment
It DOES appear – well, is stated – that it’s Melbourne or NOT Australia…..that simple.
If that is so – - then it’s perhaps time for K.Rudd to fork out some dough to keep a F1 GP in Australia full stop. Forget state vs state rivalries…….let’s get the nation as a whole behind it….becuase, it’s ‘good for Australia’ and it’s a great party…..(I’ve heard that said a tad lately about another potential but once off event)……
Mike J said | March 28th 2010 @ 12:02pm | Report comment
It’s extremely short-sighted to look at the ‘actual’ GP bottom-line and say “oh, it runs at a loss for Victoria”. Reality is, it stimulates the Victorian economy by many more millions than the race could ever make. I worked for an international 5-star hotel here in Melbourne and it was, and still is, a bumper time of the year for such industries. Rates go up, occupancy goes up, all related revenues around accommodation goes up… And this is for ALL hospitality related industries in Melbourne. There was a chance a few years ago that we would not have the F1 after 2010 and alot industry bodies in Victoria lobbyed long and hard to secure it beyond then.
I can understand why Sydney would want the event and a race around the Opera House and central Sydney would be spectacular! But face facts. NSW is an economic basket-case and the sheer cost of trying to prepare a track in the CBD would be too prohibitive. Staging the race at Homebush holds about as much international allure as holding it in Adelaide!! Let’s face it, the western suburbs of Sydney are a hole!!
Melbourne’s doing a great job of hosting the F1. And it will for quite awhile yet thanks!
GaryGnu said | March 28th 2010 @ 1:13pm | Report comment
Its not that there is a consensus that we no longer need these events. Its that there is a consensus that we no longer need to keep paying for them. If the event can’t stand on ints own two commercial feet then it should go somewhere where it can.
Taxpayer dollars should be spent on something far more useful. The same goes for Olympic funding.
Richard said | March 28th 2010 @ 10:02pm | Report comment
I think the investment of taxpayer dollars in events which promote economic growth is a very good thing for us all. It grows our capacity to earn money, invest in hospitals and education, sponsor personal and economic growth and live a good life. Olympic funding, and special events like the Grand Prix expand our economy, give us national confidence and promote our country as a place in which to invest time and money. I say good on the government for having the sense to invest in this way, and the strength to ignore those who only know how to spend wealth, but don’t know how to create it in the first place.
Chris said | March 28th 2010 @ 6:49pm | Report comment
Adrian:
“Introverted”, “Insular” and “regressing”.
Cultural cringe much?
In Australia we are lucky that we can pick or choose. Personally I like F1′s (finding the Holden-Ford-Ford-Holden-Ford-Ford-Holden-Ford lineups boring) but the reality is the V8′s are king here. Frankly we should be proud that we have something that differentiates ourselves.
Rob said | March 28th 2010 @ 7:35pm | Report comment
F1 at Mt Panorama..Id pay to see that.
Brett McKay said | March 28th 2010 @ 7:58pm | Report comment
now there’s an idea….
Dogz R Barkn said | March 29th 2010 @ 9:38am | Report comment
That actually makes a lot of sense.
Chris said | March 29th 2010 @ 10:28am | Report comment
I’d love to see it but would it work or is it too hilly for the F1 cars? I think a couple of the turns would need to be straightened/smoothed out a bit. The F1′s could probably reach 400km/h down the mountain.
gareth said | March 28th 2010 @ 7:45pm | Report comment
“Australia risks regressing on the international sporting scene if we don’t embrace and respect major sporting events when they visit our shores.”
Agree completely. The F1 circus is big business, big dollars and abig deal on the inetrnational stage. For the nation to lose the race would be travesty as a motorsport fan, a sports fan in general and as an Aussie full stop.
The AGP put Adelaide on the map and the Grands Prix held there are still talked about in hushed, reverential tones in F1 circles. The move the Melbourne has been just as successful and today’s race was an absolute cracker.
Unfortunately for Sydney a city streets circuit is simply not an option. A race at Homebush could be, but in reality it’d be a relatively uninspiring circuit and in an area that is just not quite as accessible nor attractive as Albert Park.
Methinks it’s just postruring from a lame duck Government that is on its way out…
Avalon said | March 31st 2010 @ 10:35am | Report comment
The rumour is that Avalon Airport will have a Grand Prix/permanent motor racing circuit built on it’s grounds to accomadate the event. The land is owned by Lindsay Fox, billionaire, trucking magnate and also owner of Phillip Island.
The other rumour is the Victorian government is looking to pay it’s way out of the contract is has with Formula 1 to stop having the race. There is a lot of anti-GP sentiment in Victoria and would probably be a vote winner.
Having the event at Albert Park is futile. It costs $45 million AUD just to construct the track and pull it down for a 1 weekend a year event. This is all the doing of Ron Walker, pushing the concept of ‘promoting Melbourne’. If he died in hospital the other week, then the GP would have had noone powerful to lobby for it. It would have been a goner.
The other options are Calder Park, which is almost dead. It’ll be housing in another 20 years. Sandown is possible, but unlikely and Phillip Island would be superb, but for the fact it is 2 hours out of Melbourne on a quiet day.