Sydney to Steal Melbourne Grand Prix Under $180 Million Plan by Premier Mike Baird

Formula 1 Race Car in Sydney -Image: Joseph Gale

AN audacious bid to bring the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix to Sydney and possibly race it across the Harbour Bridge will be launched by a ­­­re-elected Baird government.

Premier Mike Baird will today announce that, if ­­re-elected on March 28, work would start on taking the Grand Prix off Melbourne.

Mr Baird would establish a bid team featuring Rod ­McGeoch, who led Sydney’s successful 2000 Olympics bid, and former News Corp CEO John Hartigan, the chairman of Destination NSW. The team would report to government by the end of the year on the economics of the race.

It is understood the Premier is interested in a minimum three-year bid which would cost NSW taxpayers up to $180 million to stage the event.

One option is for the event to race across the Harbour Bridge, back through the ­Cahill Expressway past the Conservatorium of Music and then down Bridge Street on to York Street in an approximately 5km circuit — about the same length as that of ­Melbourne’s Albert Park.

If the bridge were used, chicanes would have to be installed to ensure the cars went slower because the shape of the bridge’s road surface would otherwise cause the cars to lift up.

The CBD would be shut down for the race, which would see F1 stars such as ­Australia’s Red Bull ace Daniel Ricciardo doing high-speed battle over the harbour.

It is understood the ­government has plans to set up a street circuit similar to ­Monaco and Singapore.

The key would be to feature the Harbour Bridge and Opera House as part of the race to a worldwide television audience.

A public holiday would likely be created on the Friday of the event, if it came to Sydney, to get everyone into the spirit.

Mr McGeoch and Mr Hartigan will examine all aspects of a potential bid — including cost to taxpayers, benefits to the economy, infrastructure implications and potential routes. The Australian Grand Prix runs in March, with this year’s race run this weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo driving at the 2014 Australian Formula One Grand Prix - Source Dailytelegraph.com.au

Victoria’s contract expires in 2020 but a decision on an Australian host city is expected to be made by the Formula One governing body in 2018.

The bid would take ­advantage of the fact that the man who helped negotiate its transfer from Adelaide to ­Melbourne in 1996, Ron ­Walker, has just stood down as head of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

“I want the Formula One to come to Sydney, because no other city in the world could provide a more spectacular backdrop for this event,” Premier Mike Baird said.

“We know this event is watched by up to 30 million people around the world, and securing the Grand Prix would put our already successful events strategy in pole position.

“But we need to get all the facts, before we move to bid stage. Rod McGeoch and John Hartigan are the right people to make this happen.”

Last month, the government announced it would top up its major events budget by $123 million if elected with hopes for an American National Football League (NFL) game, another Major League Baseball game, a National Basketball Association game or the F1 for Sydney. The extra money would take the major events budget to $643 million.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews ordered his major events teams to reconsider how his state attracts events after the NSW government successfully snared more than 130 sporting, cultural and lifestyle events in 2014, injecting more than $500 million into the state.

The 2014 Australian Grand Prix drew an ­attendance of 314,900.

The Grand Prix moved to Melbourne in 1996 after 10 years in Adelaide but it has always attracted ­controversy, especially from the residents near the Albert Park circuit.

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Ricciardo insists Red Bull is ready for Melbourne

Lead driver dispels questions over lack of pace and reliability ahead of season opening Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo believes that Red Bull is ready for the challenge of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, despite a series of setbacks in pre-season testing.

Ricciardo was forced to walk back from his stranded car in the opening minutes of the final test at Barcelona on Sunday, following an ERS problem.

“For me personally, I feel ready to race – we’ll be good for Melbourne,” he said.

“We did a bit on the lower fuel (today), I guess more performance style, then we did some longer runs as well.

“So, yeah, I think it was OK. The good news is we’re going to Melbourne.”

When asked about where he sees Red Bull in the overall pecking order, he replied: “It’s hard to say.

“I mean, I think Mercedes are the ones in front, then I think it’s pretty close between Williams, Ferrari and us at the moment. We’ll see in Melbourne.”

On the subject of the reliability issues the team has suffering, including the ERS problem on the Renault power unit this morning, he said: “It’s not too worrying, it happens and it’s still early on.

“You’d prefer not to have them, for sure, but it’s better than last year!”

Red Bull now has some upcoming filming days at Barcelona, and Ricciardo hopes that will be of benefit ahead of the opening Grand Prix.

“Every bit of mileage we can do helps,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of those coming – they’re definitely more for the guys behind the laptops.”

Source: http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ricciardo-insists-red-bull-is-ready-for-melbourne/

Ricciardo Revved Up for F1 Melbourne

Ricciardo revved up for F1 Melbourne

Australian superstar Daniel Ricciardo was in Melbourne today to launch the 2015 Formula 1® Australian Grand Prix, as the event prepares to celebrate a milestone of two decades in Melbourne on 12-15 March.

Ricciardo took to the steps of the iconic Flinders Street Station, posing for photos alongside a Formula One car in an Australian Flag design, as excitement builds ahead of the event.

The spectacular Albert Park street circuit will again play host to the season opener of the 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship™ – with the V8 Supercars  once again part of the line-up – and Ricciardo believes the opening weekend in Melbourne is easily the most anticipated of the year.

"The Formula 1® Australian Grand Prix is pretty much the best way to start the season for me. It's one of my favourite events, not just because it's on home soil but because it's the first race, the first time you really get to put everything on the table and see where you stack up," Ricciardo said.

"The last year has been an incredible year for me, I couldn't have wished for a better start to my career with Infiniti Red Bull Racing. The fans and the support we get at the Australian GP is incredible and last year I definitely felt it on track. I'm looking forward to getting out there already – I'm excited!"

The Minister for Tourism & Major events, the Hon. John Eren MP, was also in attendance – he said the event is a proud part of Victoria's major events calendar.

"As the Formula 1® Australian Grand Prix prepares to stage its 20th consecutive race since it came to Melbourne in 1996; there is no question that the event holds huge value to the State. This significant milestone is a timely reminder of how truly entrenched this event is in the social, cultural and sporting fabric of the city,” Minister Eren said.

"We are delighted the Formula 1® Australian Grand Prix has been secured until 2020, the benefits to the tourism industry and the economy are indisputable. The global broadcast of the race is the perfect platform to showcase Melbourne to the world, with images of our stunning city skyline and parklands shown to millions across the globe.”

Australian Grand Prix Corporation Chairman, Mr Ronald J Walker AC CBE, said with the most promising local driver in decades set to line up on the grid; anticipation for the 2015 event is particularly high.

"We have an exceptional talent in Daniel Ricciardo; his fighting spirit and infectious smile have captured the imagination of all Australians. He has built on the strong foundations of Mark Webber, and we are incredibly fortunate to have the privilege of seeing him challenge the world's very best on home soil this March,” Mr Walker said.

Sunday General Admission tickets purchased before 1 March, 2015 are available at the early bird price of just $79. For more information, visit www.grandprix.com.au.

Summer Sporting Extravaganza to Boost Australian Economy

In Australia, summer is all about sport. This season the addition of two major international events to the calendar is a big bonus, not just for sports lovers but for the economy as well.

Australians who don't enjoy sport turn off the television and head for the beach at this time of year.

For everyone else, there's a smorgasbord of Test and one-day cricket, PGA golf, an internationally famous yacht race, a grand slam tennis event, cycling and Formula One races.

The country is set to enjoy an unprecedented quantity of world sport worth an estimated A$320m ($267m; £172m) to the economy thanks to the addition of two major events.

The Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup - being held across five cities in January - and the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, which will be played in Australia and New Zealand in February and March, eclipse other events in size and dollar value.

The Asian Cup is the biggest sporting event in Asia and the cricket World Cup is the third biggest sporting event in the world after the summer Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.

Australia's summer of sport

• December 9 - January 10: Four cricket Test matches, Australia v India.
• December 11-14: Australian PGA golf Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast.
• December 26-30: Sydney to Hobart yacht race.
• January 9 - January 31, 2015: Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup.
• January 16 - February 1: Cricket one-day international tri series, Australia, India and England.
• January 17-25: Tour Down Under cycling classic, Adelaide and South Australia.
• January 19 - February 1: Australian Open grand slam tennis, Melbourne.
• February 14 - March 29: ICC World Cup.
• March 12-15: Australian Grand Prix Formula One, Melbourne.

Every year, between 1 December and 1 April, there are five million tickets on sale for sport and entertainment events across New South Wales, according to state government body Destination NSW. For the same period in 2014-2015, there are eight million tickets on sale.

"That's what happens when you add an Asian Cup and a World Cup to the calendar," says Asian Cup chief executive officer Michael Brown. "There's going to be a lot more people spending a lot more dollars."

Test Cricket

Australia's golden summer begins with the first of four Test cricket matches between Australia and India on 9 December. The fixtures were rescheduled to start later in the month because of the sudden death in late November of 25-year old Australian Test player Phillip Hughes.

Golf

The first Test now clashes with the Australian PGA golf event, while the Sydney to Hobart yacht race - which organisers claim is the largest spectator sporting event in the world - competes with the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

An estimated one million spectators will watch the start of the yacht race - about 300,000 of them from the water and another 700,000 lining Sydney's harbour and coastline, says chief executive officer of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Mark Woolf.

Economic Ipmact

The economic impact, however, is incalculable, says Mr Woolf, because it is a free spectator event.

"The metrics that come out of this race are enormous," he says. "It's not a stadium event. We don't have a captive audience. But there are tentacles everywhere.

"There's the investment of transporting and accommodating 118 boats and crew for the start. The crews bring their friends and families. Then there's provisioning and fuelling and self-catering for spectator picnics.

"Even the NSW town of Eden gets an economic lift. It's the last safe harbour for boats to refuel and restock before crossing Bass Strait. Once they reach Hobart the boats and crews have to get back to Sydney.

"Then there's the impact of those TV pictures of a perfect Sydney harbour beaming into Europe and America in the middle of winter on their Christmas night. It's hard to quantify the publicity and future tourism impact."

Asia Cup Soccer

As the Test cricket ends the Asian Cup kicks off on 9 January, with 16 teams playing 32 matches in Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

According to Mr Brown, PricewaterhouseCoopers has said the event will pump A$225m into the economy. Asian Cup organisers target ticket sales of 500,000, with 50,000 international visitors expected to attend.

Three of Australia's top ten trading partners - China, Japan and South Korea - have qualified, which means hosting the Asia Cup is a unique tourism, trade and investment opportunity for the country and the region, he says.

"The Asian Cup is Asia's biggest sporting event and football is the biggest team sport and the most popular sport in Asia," Mr Brown says. "In Asia, football outstrips cricket as a sport."

Tourism Tsunami

But the Asian Cup will also have to compete for spectators and TV audiences with the Tour Down Under cycling classic in South Australia and the Australian Open grand slam tennis tournament in Melbourne.

ICC World Cup Cricket

Then, the biggest sporting event of the summer begins on 14 February. More than one million people are expected to attend 49 one-day matches featuring 14 teams playing in the ICC World Cup at venues in Australia and New Zealand.

ICC World Cup chief executive officer John Harnden says 500,000 tickets have already been sold and tens of thousands of international spectators are expected to attend, creating a tourism tsunami between the two countries.

"There will be a lot of travel between Australia and New Zealand, and then India, the UK and the US are the three primary points of origin (for spectators)," says Mr Harnden.

"It is a great opportunity to showcase ourselves to the world and benefit from that great word of mouth from all those tens of thousands of tourists saying what a great time they had. If the Australian and New Zealand teams do well, that will be an even bigger bonus."

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Tourism Set to Cash In On Big Summer For International Sport

An unprecedented summer of international sport is set to boost Canberra's tourist numbers after a major decline in business stays and spending in the past year.

With seven Asian Cup football games including a quarter final, three cricket World Cup games and an extra one day International in November, Canberra's tourism boss expected locals to be joined by a mass of regional and international visitors for the sporting feast.

VisitCanberra director Ian Hill said it would be the strongest summer of sport the city had enjoyed. 

"Two absolutely world class events, and I certainly know tickets for those cricket World Cup games have been selling really well."

The National Visitor Survey released last month showed visitor nights were down 790,000 in the domestic business sector for the year to June, a drop of 37.5 per cent. Overall domestic nights were down 16.4 per cent and expenditure down 11.4 per cent, or $14 million. 

International visitor nights also fell 12 per cent, or 570,000 nights, in the same period, with expenditure down 6 per cent.

Mr Hill said the tourism authority was working closely with hoteliers and organisations elsewhere to help them package and promote events.  

"One of those [Asian Cup] games is a China [vs] Korea game; China don't play in Sydney and there's a big group of Chinese background people who live in Sydney, so we're working with some of the multicultural media in Sydney," he said. 

The tourism chief said the key to maximising the windfall for Canberra was ensuring visitors saw other attractions  during their stay, and a rejuvenated cultural and hotel scene would help.

"Places like Braddon are important, Lonsdale Street Roasters is an important place, New Acton, and with new hotels like Hotel Hotel, Peppers has just rebranded, we've seen QT do a fit out at Rydges, the Kurrajong is about to reopen after being refitted – a great location for visitors in the Parliamentary Triangle. I think visitors are seeing a new side of Canberra," Mr Hill said. 

Mr Hill said stories on last week's OECD finding that Canberra was the world's best city to live in,  trumpeted in the New York Times and elsewhere, helped spread the word. 

The Australian Hotels Association ACT recently told ABC TV that occupancy rates were at about 65 per cent, down from the same time last year, but investment was strong, with another 500-600 hotel rooms available by mid-next year. 

Perth V8 Supercar fans get more on-track action in next year’s schedule

Jamie Whincup, Garth Tander and the rest of V8s field will return to WA in 2015. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

PERTH will host the fifth round of next year’s V8 Supercars championship from April 17-19 at Barbagallo Raceway in Wanneroo.

The Perth event will feature two SuperSprint races on the Saturday and a 200km Sunday race.

The Perth SuperSprint will be one of eight races in this format across the championship and will include 120 minutes of Friday practice to incorporate team testing, meaning the fans get to see more on-track action.

A V8 Supercars statement today said the refined formats had the goals of maximum attack and multiple race winners.

“Building on a season where all manufacturers and multiple winners featured, V8 Supercars has made minor modifications to formats which include two signature events returning to their customary race distance,” the press release stated.

The Castrol Townsville 400 returns to its original 200km race format each day. The Clipsal 500 Adelaide and Sydney 500 at Sydney Olympic Park retain the 2x125km Saturday format, as daytime races.

The ITM 500 Auckland has returned to its traditional November date as a SuperSprint event.

The New Zealand event moves into a critical stage of the Championship immediately following the Pirtek Enduro Cup, into a clear sporting space and an ideal weather period.

The sharp Saturday sprint races are designed to encourage drivers to attack by alleviating the need to be conservative while trying to maintain tyre life.

“Our research shows that the existing formats have been highly successful,” V8 Supercars CEO James Warburton said.

“The emphasis was on improving the racing product, and giving drivers the opportunity to attack at all times without external factors preventing them from being aggressive.”

Each SuperSprint event will include 120 minutes of Friday practice to incorporate team testing. Teams will be able to test at these eight SuperSprint events with one discretionary private test.

“It made sense that instead of testing away from the fans to combine Friday practice and allow teams the ability to adopt testing procedures as required,” Warburton said.

“That achieves two key objectives: more V8 Supercars on track for the fans and reducing the high costs to teams of testing away from race meetings.”

Source: http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/motor-sport/perth-v8-supercar-fans-get-more-ontrack-action-in-next-years-schedule/story-fnhq61x5-1227056900296?nk=0b37bee270a89676325370d660377fa0

Sydney 500 to Enter the Twilight Zone as V8 Supercars Tweak Schedule

V8 Supercars' season-ending Sydney 500 in December will preview the introduction of several twilight races in next year's new-look series.

As well as adopting three standardised event formats, the 14-event V8 championship next year will include at least five Saturday races that finish in early evening fading light. As a precursor to next year's more regular twilight races, the first 250-kilometre leg of the Sydney 500 at the Olympic Park street circuit on December 7 will be run from late afternoon to the approach of sunset.

V8 Supercars confirmed the Saturday race switch to a dusk finish this year with the release on Monday of next year's series schedule, which will feature up to seven Saturday races finishing near nightfall.

The Sydney 500's new twilight opening race will start at 5.10pm and end by 7.30pm, and will be shown live by the Seven Network. It is timed to finish about 30 minutes before sunset to ensure there is enough light to race in overcast conditions.

The events to include Saturday twilight races next year and their timings will be finalised in the new year following consultation with Seven, which will broadcast them on one of its three channels.

As well as the Sydney 500, other big two-race street circuit events such as the season-opening Adelaide 500 in early March and the Gold Coast 600 in late October are likely candidates for their Saturday races to be run in early evening.

''We would like to think those massive, marquee street races could become twilight events on the Saturday evening,'' V8 chief executive James Warburton said. ''If you look at the events where the sun sets quite late, there is potential for five or more events to include a twilight component.

''We will investigate all of those and speak to the parties involved, including Seven, before we make those decisions.'' There will be no V8 events outside Australasia next year after the decision to postpone a return to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, until 2015.

The track hosted V8 racing's first visit to the US in mid-May, but it is staging the X Games at that time next year, and an alternative date that worked for both V8s and the track was not available. Despite V8's poor record of holding onto events on other continents, Warburton is adamant Texas will be reinstated, possibly twinned with a second event in the region.

''There is genuine interest from other North American venues,'' he said. ''We will decide with COTA on the best approach to the 2015 event to make it bigger than this year's success, on and off track.''