The Long Beach City Council is expected to confirm shortly that it has decided to stay with Indycar in the future, and will not be switching back to Formula 1. The KPMG report into the various opinions seems to have concluded that an F1 race will not produce the economic impact figures that were being suggested and that the costs involved would be more than the bid suggested. The report does not seem to have taken into account the declining attendance and TV numbers in Indycar and the financial fragility of the US series, which continues to survive largely because of the Indy 500 and the support of a few big teams. Formula 1 has already moved on, arguing that the West Coast is no really a priority at the moment because of the problem with time zones that mean that any F1 race held in California would suffer because of the nine hour difference with continental Europe, which would mean that the race would be aired late in the evening unless the start time was moved to the morning in the US, which would not really fit with the strategy of building up the event around the race. It would also be difficult to get any viewers in Asia, as a 2pm start in Los Angeles is 5am in China and 6am in Japan.
The other argument is that Long Beach, while being a long-established racing event, does not fit with where F1 wants to be and that venues such as Anaheim or Los Angeles city centre would be better.
A few years ago Formula E spent a fair amount of time talking to LA about hosting a race on one of three venues: around the Staples Center, close to the downtown area, or at the nearby Dodgers Stadium to the north, or the LA Coliseum to the south. In the end Formula E went to Long Beach. The race has since dropped off the calendar. LA is still interested in F1 but Eric Garcetti, the 46-year-old mayor, who was recently re-elected for a second term of office that will take him to 2023, is currently finalising plans for the 2024 Olympic Games to be held in the city.
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