I'm not as sold on COTA, I admit to being biased after the way they screwed over Kevin Schwantz, but that place has a long way to go before they can prove long term viability. They've drawn reasonably well for the GP, but F1 fans are much like NASCAR fans. There are a great many who only follow F1, nothing else, couldn't care less about sportscar racing, again, much the same with NASCAR fans. Those fans will show up at COTA for the GP, but aren't going to come out for the WEC, USCC, DTM, MotoGP, whatever. COTA hasn't exactly seen huge crowds for their other race meetings, and they'll need to draw well from those to get by, because you know damn well they're not making any money from hosting F1.
Another thing that concerns me about COTA is, its a hell of a hike to get there from anywhere but Texas. Circuits like Road America, Mid-Ohio, Road Atlanta, etc. are a few hours drive from several different states. Austin is right smack in the middle of Texas, which isn't exactly a road racing hotbed, so to get there from anyplace else, your pretty much having to fly in, not the cheapest thing in the world to be doing. The FIA may not have attendance as a high priority, but the place will need to make money to survive, whether the FIA wants to make it the home of WC events in the US or not.
One other thing that racing people over here don't like to bring up, is that conventional motor racing in the US is in steady decline. TV ratings, attendance, overall interest in all forms of the sport, stock cars, single seaters, sportscars, etc have all seen declining interest. There are many racing fans, myself included who think by the time the next generation rolls around, racing will be a club sport. There's absolutely no interest in racing with young adults and teenagers. You don't see them at races, and they don't watch it on TV. They'll watch those X-Games type of events, but conventional racing has no interest to them. They live in a video game world. Road racing has always been a niche sport over here, like I said, it'll be a club sport by the time I'm a old man. Pro road racing will be dead.
Fax
