2011 Australian Grand Prix may be cancelled
There has always been a fascinating interplay between sporting events and the money they bring in for promoters. While some see the Super Bowl as hyper-commercialized pap, others see it as a way of bringing a worldwide audience together, inviting them to
take part in the fun, cheer for a team and laugh at interesting Budweiser commercials. So, as a general rule of thumb, where there are professional sports, there’s lots of money. And where’s there’s lots of money there’s usually lots of politics and drama.
A fine example of this is the recent spat gripping the Formula One world, threatening to throw the entire 2011 calendar right off the track. Indeed, the Australian Grand Prix is being held hostage because of a row over fees with the Confederation of Australian
Motor Sport (CAMS), the country’s governing body for all motorsports.
When Australian Grand Prix promoters asked CAMS to lower its fees to help facilitate the Melbourne race, the big-wig group refused to budge, causing much antipathy amongst promoters.
Amid the standoff, CAMS recently threatened to file a motion to FIA requesting that the slated Grand Prix be dropped from the 2011 schedule if the dispute is not reconciled by November 19.
The situation has become so heated that the Aussie Grand Prix chief, Ron Walker, flew to Abu Dhabi on Thursday 11 November for a summit meeting with Formula One’s Grand Poobah, Bernie Ecclestone. While on the surface, Walker and Ecclestone proport their
confidence that the dispute can be resolved, there was no mistaking their frustration with CAMS.
“CAMS is threatening us, using the FIA as a big stick, to comply with the request of November 19 or they will apply to have us de-registered off the calendar for next year," Walker said.
CAMS’ hardball tactics in the face of such pressure is almost laudable. One conjures up the image of a lone man, standing defiantly against the economic juggernaut of a massive corporation, refusing to back down from his principles.
However, as far as Walker sees it, it’s not the greedy Formula One machine that is gunning profit, but CAMS that’s nickel-and-diming the F1.
"What we are saying is that CAMS has got to comply with all the other suppliers of services, and that is what CAMS are - they are a supplier of services. We told them they have got to reduce their price by a certain amount and they have said 'no’.”
And why did CAMS refuse? A spokesperson for their organization was unavailable for comment to the press. However, Walker sees their association as the triumph of yet another monopoly infected with the tapeworm of greed.
"They are a monopoly, and the government will not stand for monopolies,” he said, adding, “they are opening a Pandora's Box in a big way by doing this."
When questioned about the blowout with CAMS, Ecclestone was more understated about his underlying frustration. “I have a contract with the government of Victoria for five years”, he said. “It is a very concrete contract and I will not allow CAMS to take
us off the calendar.”
Indeed it’s certain that the Formula One president will be marshalling his considerable political cache in the coming showdown with CAMS, making sure the F1 touches base in the land down under. As a result, most pundits posit that there is more than a good
chance that this issue will be resolved by the stated deadline of November 19.
However, as this unfortunate episode illustrates, as true in F1 as it is in the entire sporting world, when the big-wigs battle it out over percentages, one thing always happens: the fans invariably suffer.
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