tagged 
Austin, India, Mumbai, New Jersey, corruption, poverty
Austin, India, Mumbai, New Jersey, corruption, poverty Entries in corruption (1)
India
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 12:11PM India is receiving a lot of press at the moment, which is I guess why they wanted the race. Coverage is a two edged sword though if you have the corruption and poverty that India enjoys. The following is a report from Fox News:
Now this is a privately funded race like Korea, based on developing a new city, but they are already discounting race day tickets, and with the cheapest ticket $50 then how are these economics going to work? This all shows up how failed is the F1 business model. I recall my feeling the morning after the 1985 Detroit F1 GP. I had been sent there to observe ahead of our race in Adelaide, and walking around among the trash that morning I could not help feeling the town had just been raped and paid for the privilege.
Mumbai is the other part of India suddenly being mentioned for an F1 circuit. I don't know why this has surfaced now, the tender for someone to build a "business case" to attract private investors was put out about a year ago by the State Roads Board, MSRDC. I was part of one consortium and could have saved them a lot of money, there is no "business case" unless you are the Government. A friend in Mumbai recently sent me two newspaper clippings. The first asked how the MSRDC could build a track when they cannot even fix the roads? The second said the MSRDC was dropping the tender. So why all the press now? As Joe Saward says repeatedly, most web journalists do not bother to check stories properly.
We are all awaiting the New Jersey announcement, but rumors in Texas question if the State will cough up for the Austin race if there are two F1 races, and which one do you think people will opt to go to? Austin is still waiting to get building approval it seems with work on site slow.