Race Day attendance figures.

[Ranger]

Could someone please tell me the attendance figures of all the races (on race day) on last year's calendar?

This question comes from the noticably large crowd (120,000+?) at Jerez last weekend, and reading about how some venues don't fill 20,000 seats come the business end of the weekend.

[leopard]

We are talking about it, see next thread about Jerez, or else we can place this topic in more appropriate place here :)

[ChrisS]

Jerez: 131,162
Valencia: 129,446
Catalunya: 107,101
Sachsenring: 93,748
Assen: 91,500
Mugello: 89,200
Brno: 84,125
Le Mans: 76,200
Donington: 68,319
Motegi: 63,195
Laguna Seca: 51,378
Phillip Island: 44,627
Sepang: 43,182
Estoril: 41,016
Istanbul: 38,123
Shanghai: 32,402
Losail: 3291

[Ranger]

Jerez: 131,162
Valencia: 129,446
Catalunya: 107,101
Sachsenring: 93,748
Assen: 91,500
Mugello: 89,200
Brno: 84,125
Le Mans: 76,200
Donington: 68,319
Motegi: 63,195
Laguna Seca: 51,378
Phillip Island: 44,627
Sepang: 43,182
Estoril: 41,016
Istanbul: 38,123
Shanghai: 32,402
Losail: 3291

Champion! :D Cheers for that.

[ChrisS]

If you look at those numbers, they reveal a problem with MotoGP that also relates to the sponsors discussion we are having.

I think its save to expect about the same numbers this season plus about 75000 spectators at Misano. That would mean that more than 40% of MotoGP spectators come from 2 countries

And that shows on the sponsors as well, Repsol, Telefonica, Fortuna, Spanish companies sponsoring MotoGP mostly because it’s popular in Spain. Fiat, sponsoring Yamaha because of Rossi is extremely popular in Italy. These sponsors are here to get national exposure, not global exposure.

[Corny]

And that shows on the sponsors as well, Repsol, Telefonica, Fortuna, Spanish companies sponsoring MotoGP mostly because it’s popular in Spain. Fiat, sponsoring Yamaha because of Rossi is extremely popular in Italy. These sponsors are here to get national exposure, not global exposure.

For sure that's true.. But prefer to see a race like Mugello a billion times than a race like Turkey, Shanghai or Qatar..

Someone's got a list for about 10 years ago?

[Corny]

Jerez: 131,162
Valencia: 129,446
Catalunya: 107,101
Sachsenring: 93,748
Assen: 91,500
Mugello: 89,200
Brno: 84,125
Le Mans: 76,200
Donington: 68,319
Motegi: 63,195
Laguna Seca: 51,378
Phillip Island: 44,627
Sepang: 43,182
Estoril: 41,016
Istanbul: 38,123
Shanghai: 32,402
Losail: 3291

Mugello less than Assen :eek:

[fatman]

If you look at those numbers, they reveal a problem with MotoGP that also relates to the sponsors discussion we are having.

I think its save to expect about the same numbers this season plus about 75000 spectators at Misano. That would mean that more than 40% of MotoGP spectators come from 2 countries

And that shows on the sponsors as well, Repsol, Telefonica, Fortuna, Spanish companies sponsoring MotoGP mostly because it’s popular in Spain. Fiat, sponsoring Yamaha because of Rossi is extremely popular in Italy. These sponsors are here to get national exposure, not global exposure.

Very good observation Chris. Obviously TV audiences are much much higher for each race but the TV audience means nothing to someone who's looking at sponsoring Ilmor or any of the back markers.

[leopard]

Just looked back at map of mid-east, Qatar, Bahrain, aren't even bigger than Singapore, It doesn't look the right place for us to hope bigger local spectator from such small nations. How much anyway Bahrain can attract local F1 viewer?

Similarly Singapore is currently approaching to host their own F1. This small country, which is to enlarge the land illegally trough reclamation from smuggling tons of sands from my nation, ops politic :D , might encourage running F1 because they are one of the biggest world trade center in Asia.

I am not sure about Qatar and Bahrain, UAE looks more promising in term of International traffic than the aforesaid countries. They might have been listed in F1 and Motogp calendar for solely reason of oil money.

Usually those new race of new nations out of regular nations, will have to be reviewed in every three seasons. Let's see next year, since Qatar started their race from 2005 and this year is the third season, will they be trusted to host the same motorsport event?

[ChrisS]

For 2006 Bahrain got 32,500 seats sold and 40,000 attendance (Bahrain University students were given free tickets) about the same numbers in attendance but probably fewer tickets sold than 2005

That is a common problem with new races at countries without racing background. When the initial excitement for the race is gone it’s hard to get people to go to the race every year. Malaysia had the same problem when they first got a race but they seem to be doing OK now, the 2006 F1 race had 107,000 spectators (60% foreigners). For 2007 they are targeting 125,000 spectators (50% foreigners 50% locals). With Singapore joining F1 it would be interesting to see if the foreign spectators will be divided

BTW Qatar became part of the MotoGP calendar in 2004

[leopard]

A newspaper said for this year's F1 season Bahrain claimed they have sold out all the tickets of some 100 k for the race will be held after Sepang.

Despite without racing background, i think we will remain to see some those modern race. GP France, for instance, a traditional race with such tight racing background will have to disappear from 2008 calendar.

Seeing this year is the 4th season Qatar joined motogp, with such low proclivity of attendance in every season, i think besides money, Qatar has been coming into consideration about modern race.

Singapore is approaching F1 for street race, would be another after Monaco, i don't think they have yet to build a race designed specially for motorsport, would be an acceptable issue as Singapore is one of the busiest traffic of business in the world will attract more foreign come into the country for enjoying leisure and drive for their business.

[ChrisS]

A newspaper said for this year's F1 season Bahrain claimed they have sold out all the tickets of some 100 k for the race will be held after Sepang.

Thats probably for the 3 days of the GP, it cant be for race day since the circuit has 50k capacity

[leopard]

Thats probably for the 3 days of the GP, it cant be for race day since the circuit has 50k capacity

Probably, they didn't specify which GP the 100k tickets sold out for.

[Kropotkin]

Mugello less than Assen :eek:


Assen is a huge event, and a lot of British and German fans come to Assen to see the race too. Actually, I expected Assen to have more spectators, I thought they got over 100,000 on race day.

[Kropotkin]

If you look at those numbers, they reveal a problem with MotoGP that also relates to the sponsors discussion we are having.

I think its save to expect about the same numbers this season plus about 75000 spectators at Misano. That would mean that more than 40% of MotoGP spectators come from 2 countries



Well, it's a little more complex than that. Several of those tracks are at full capacity. If I remember correctly, 51,000 is capacity for Laguna Seca, for example. I believe that Mugello is also more or less at capacity, while Assen can fit another 10,000 people in (though this may also have something to do with those figures coming from the first year after Assen was wrecked, I'm sorry, I mean modified, so there wasn't the space for all the people they wanted.

TV viewing figures may be a more accurate measure of popularity, but again, that's difficult to measure. Again, if I remember correctly, the Valencia race had something like 12 million Spanish viewers (from a population of 40 million), around 10 million Italian views (from a population of about 60 million) and 100,000 viewers in the US. But the US figures also have something to do with the fact that it's on Speed (a pay-per-view channel) and it's not live, whereas the race was broadcast in Spain by the national public broadcaster, TVE.

[ChrisS]

Speed isnt a PPV channel, in New Jersey I used to get it as part of basic cable.

But their international motorcycle coverage (or coverage of any motorsport other than NASCAR) isnt very good. they either show the races as "Same Day Delay" or even worst as part of "2 Wheel Tuesday"

[Kropotkin]

Speed isnt a PPV channel, in New Jersey I used to get it as part of basic cable.


Okay, thanks, I didn't realize. I know that some people have to pay extra to get Speed, as it isn't part of the basic cable package everywhere in the US.

[ChrisS]

BTW speaking of basic and extra channels, why is Eurosport free/part of basic in all of Europe but extra (part of news) in the UK?

[Kropotkin]

BTW speaking of basic and extra channels, why is Eurosport free/part of basic in all of Europe but extra (part of news) in the UK?

Cable contracts. Eurosport is not part of the basic package in all of Europe, just most of it. It depends what the cable company has decided to put in their basic package, based on what they have paid to Eurosport to carry the programming.

[leopard]

I don't know Eurosport whereabouts, it suddenly disappeared from free and paid TV here :\