There are major efforts going on at the moment to try to ensure that there will be a German Grand Prix again in 2019. The previous contract ended with the recent race. This was an agreement that began back in 2007 with the race alternating between Nurburgring and Hockenheim. This ran into difficulties in the first year because of a dispute between two automobile clubs: the Automobilklub von Deutschland (AvD), which sanctions Hockenheim and owns the rights to the title "Grosser Preis von Deutschland" and its rival Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC), which had previously sanctioned the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. The AvD is Germany's oldest automobile club, dating back to 1899, while ADAC was established four years later but is today the biggest club in the country.
However a deal was struck and from 2009 all the races used the same name, with Nurburgring holding events in 2009, 2011 and 2013, and Hockenheim running the events in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. The Nürburgring ran out of money and so there was no race in 2015 and 2017. The authorities at Hockenheim have said they are only able to pay the fees required by Formula One, reckoned to be around $15 million a year, only every second year, and Nurburgring cannot afford the race at all.
The Formula One group has looked at other options but none seen to be sensible and there is frustration that they cannot find a solution in a country that has a strong racing tradition, not to mention Mercedes and a driver at Ferrari. Fans do not seem to be as excited by Sebastian Vettel as they were with Michael Schumacher but the primary problem has been very expensive tickets and a dwindling fan base.
The Formula One group has looked at other options but none seen to be sensible and there is frustration that they cannot find a solution in a country that has a strong racing tradition, not to mention Mercedes and a driver at Ferrari. Fans do not seem to be as excited by Sebastian Vettel as they were with Michael Schumacher but the primary problem has been very expensive tickets and a dwindling fan base.
The best crowd at Hockenheim was in 2006 when 70,000 attended, but this year the organisers claimed 71,000, the number being bolstered by probably 20,000 Dutch fans, who drove the 350 or so miles from their homeland to support Max Verstappen. The three-day total at Hockenheim was reckoned to be 165,000, which was an increase of 35 percent compared to the last race in 2016. In theory there is a track capacity at Hockenheim of 120,000 on race day, so there remains room for improvement.
The average ticket price these days in F1 is around $400 and so in theory the ticket revenues ought to over the fees, with money left over for other things. If the average ticket price came down to $250 and the crowd increased to fill the circuit, the finance would slightly better than it is today, without needing funding from sponsors and so on.
Source: JSMB
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