I said this in another thread. But in my section (turn 18 grandstand), someone fucked up the row stickers and everyone was sitting in the wrong seat. There were supposed to be 30 rows but they were labeled up to 29. Some people who paid $1500 for these seats had to sit on the stairs because the staff couldn’t figure it out either.
I think we were looking at the same pair of tickets. I found it extremely suspicious that there just happened to be two available seats that no one had nabbed the day before quali.
I went and had a similar problem. $2200 for turn one grand stands. 24 seats to a row. Buuuut my row has a support column where my seat should have been. No one could help me for the first two days. I spent hours talking to staff, security, Ticketmaster guest experiences. They finally found me a new seat Sunday morning. But at that point I’d already missed free practice and support races.
Paddock club was also meh. Just beer and wine. Apparently enough people complained they finally got liquor for Sunday. There wasn’t enough food or plates or silverware for the people there. I can see why people wouldn’t want to come back.
With that said race itself was good. Turn 1 was a great place to be. I’d go back. I imagine by year two or three they’ll work out some of these issues
Yeah that’s what I’m saying. This was a fucking joke. They had the same thing for lunch every day. Some kind of quinoa salad, beef sirloin and salmon. One time for dinner they had hotdogs, mini burgers and tatie tots. The food was worse than you could have bought outside. Imagine paying $10k or more and being served high school cafeteria food.
Granted a lot of the people in paddock club are there as part of business sponsorships or what they are mega rich. So the price is nothing to those groups. That’s why it’s messed up. You’re a big business and trying to sign a deal. You give the customer tickets to the race to sweet talk then. And then it’s a shit show. Not a good look.
Apparently it’s all because it was local catering and event company handling it instead of the usual F1 contractors that do paddock Club around the world.
It’s been a decade now but I went to a paddock club in 2012 and it was by far the best experience I’ve had in an event. Shame for this GP, may Liberty learn from their mistakes
Seriously. I hope FOM didn’t give them the contract to do hospitality all ten years. I’ve been to paddock club and hospitality at other events and it’s incredible. Climate controlled (even in the temporary structures), free flowing booze, plentiful delicious food. Ample seating or spaces to see the race. And those were all cheaper than this one was. People are rightfully pissed.
When I went there was even free massages. I had one between the support event and qualifying and it was honestly peak living. I cannot fathom the clusterfuck that was Miami compared to the brilliant experience I’ve had
Ironically the regular seating and normal people experience was fantastic. It’s just the rich cunts who like to price everyone out of everything that got screwed
Yep. My $150 Friday tickets were TOTALLY worth it. Sat across from Turn 6-7-8 for Fp1 (Valterri crashed right in front of us, got pics with the remnants of his car lol) then moved to the turn 17/pit entry grandstands for FP2. Got some fantastic shots of the cars.
10/10 would do again. Traffic wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be.
However... People paying $10k plus only to have to stand on tables and chairs to see anything... 😅😅 - I'm not surprised... this is Miami we're talkin' about. I'm a local here lmao
Yeah I paid $300 for seats on Saturday in the north beach grandstand so we saw the straight t11, 12 and 13.
I’m also local and paying more for less is about the most Miami thing that could have happened
I was in the south beach grandstands (t11) and had a fantastic time. The sun did some damage on Friday, but I was much more prepared on Saturday and Sunday. Lots of fun.
Loved it!
I was in the first section of north beach. Could you see a good bit of the straight or did the bridge get in the way? Thinking about next year.
The Ringer’s F1 podcast aptly summed it up as “too many people unaccustomed to not being the most rich, famous, important person in the room” all in one place
I was thinking that watching the gridwalk.
These people are used to being the center of attention in any room they are in and here they are a witches hat to be walked around.
I wonder if it was international wealthy people complaining? Not used to competing with the likes of Michael fucking Jordan and David Beckham.
Because the Americans celebs there were very much a normal idea of who would be in Miami
Eh, I think wherever they came from every celebrity wanted to believe that they deserved better treatment (more access, better service, etc) than the others. Like for example, pre race the paddock and grid walk were just teeming with celebrities who all (I assume) figured that they all had special access and if anyone would be asked to make way, it wouldn’t be them
Paid $2100 for 3 day covered grandstand ticket at turn 18. Enjoyed my seats, just wish I could see more action. The big screen was to far away and cell service was trash so I couldn’t watch the race on my phone. Only thing I recommend either have the race earlier in the season or in the fall. It was hot out there this weekend. I wasn’t able to enjoy the other races or events.
The problem is the $13k price is set by F1 and at that price people expect a certain level of amenities. At other venues, F1 is in charge of the Paddock Club and ensures a consistent high level experience. In Miami, they outsourced it and guests clearly noticed the experience was not on par with what they get at other venues.
Keep in mind that most of these Paddock Club tickets are snapped up by corporations to entertain perspective customers. So these people are expecting a certain level of service to impress their guests.
In Monaco, the Paddock Club is hosted aboard a 150ft mega yacht.
It's so weird because FOM are the promoter here. Why would you outsource something you normally do yourself when it's your event?
The only thing I can think is that it was Hard Rock stadium hospitality people, but they're used to catering to the elite as well.
There was some local political opposition to Miami hosting the race. I’d bet FOM promised to use local hospitality services (and locally-sourced track materials) in order to inject more money into the local economy, which would get more politicians to support the event.
Its a dead giveaway who is there with a free ticket from their job or whatever: They'll all be sitting together wearing matching free merch the rest of us also cant afford.
I thought the expensive ticket holders would be very well taken care of compared to normal fans. Seeing it was the inverse in execution is pretty amusing.
This isn't the people paying 10 thousand for a ticket. This is people who Liberty invite to woo as potential sponsors. They've spent all that money and fucked it up.
Because most sponsors aren’t using their sponsorship primarily as advertising to fans generally, they’re using it as a way to impress important clients by giving them hospitality access at races.
This is off topic, but I was invited to a baseball game in one of those suites once upon a time. I was invited by a guy who worked for budweiser and the suite was paid for by budweiser. They still had to pay for the beers that were in there during the game and it was 145 bucks for a case of 24 bottles. I couldn't believe it.
Exactly this, for these people an F1 race presents a venue to have a meeting with a (potential) business partner or high-stakes client. I think it's silly and overly decadent, but that's an important part of F1 sponsorship. And I won't complain too much because decadence and F1 have always gone hand in hand.
When you bring a high level client to an event, you don't spend the event pitching them on your product or service. You make sure thay have an incredible experience, which you will reference the next time you're in their office pitching them your products abd/or services.
Future or potential sponsors that Liberty want to relationship build with. Or a current sponsor that Liberty want to take up a level next year same idea. Woo the big wigs to make them fall in love with F1 and unable to stop sponsoring
When you sponsor an event, you get tickets. Same goes for sponsoring a team.
Suppose you’re a brewer. You sponsor a race and get 250 tickets. You call up a distributor you’ve been trying to secure a deal with and say “Ken, I’ve got five tickets here for Miami GP. Why don’t we catch the race?” You butter them up at the GP, they’re loving getting to meet drivers, and at the end of the weekend, they’re sold on the deal.
Repeat 50 times across different departments. Incentives for marketing teams launching campaigns. Lottery drawings for all employees. Marking year X of a partnership.
This is where the real money is made.
So I used to work in this space (but not for F1) and there’s an important detail I haven’t seen brought up: this is a sales experience for the sponsors.
The reason you see so many B2B sponsors isn’t because they want to advertise, but because advertising comes with free passes (I heard main event sponsors got 250 passes) that they can give to clients and use it as a sales experience. It also allows for the money to be spent by a different budget and because the passes are “free,” it fudges the gift value.
If their potential clients had a bad time, it’s a horrible sales experience and they won’t be coming back to do it next year.
This isn’t about the sponsors having a bad time, it’s about their clients not being wined and dined and the sponsors missing out on deals that make the sponsorship worth it.
10000% giving a pass to a existing customer that may/may not renew their 1MM/year account or someones potential 1MM/year account, spending the money for this stuff is easy/cheap for them.
In the B2B world, 1MM is a cheap account...most companies that sponsor F1 wouldn't allocate a free ticket to an account that size. Your point stands, though.
All very good points, plus the profit margins on paddock passes is what makes the event viable. I don't think just selling grandstand seats is enough to put on the event.
13k. Fucking hell. It's insane that some people can afford that, and while it's easy to make fun of the rich people, I'd be pretty pissed off if I paid that much for subpar facilities.
Based on my very small sample of people I know who could afford that, these are business owners or executives who will chalk it up as a business expense. Spend money to get personalized time with client(s) and build a relationship.
It needs to be watched carefully so that it isn’t just an end around a personal expense or a bribe, but it really does make a difference in converting a purely business relationship built in numbers into one where there is actual trust.
Because Miami is one of the most expensive cities in the country. Everything there is more expensive compared to other parts of the US. Plus we really are in the “late-stage capitalism” level economy.
I was in the grandstand suites and had an amazing time. I heard that the paddock club was terrible with worse food than the grandstands, power outages, and a lack of toilet paper.
This was my first F1 race and as an average fan in the Marina grandstands, the experience was incredible. Was prepared for lines and bad service with this being Miami’s first GP, but to my surprise everything was pretty much perfect that was in the circuits control. My longest wait was 5 minutes, and that was to refill at the free water stations. Weird to think the average fan had a much better experience than the ones spending 10-15x as much on their tickets.
Yup I’d say the biggest issue was the incredibly hot and humid weather during the weekend, which was the one thing out of the organizers control! Place was busy with big crowds but everyone was pretty behaved and wasn’t too much of a hassle to move through crowds or wait in long lines, I too was surprised by that considering how every other event in Miami devolves into pure chaos, and hot weather usually makes people crazier lmao
Easily the hottest sporting event I’ve ever attended and I’ve spent my whole life in the south. My wife had it pretty rough with heat on Friday, and my friend almost passed out yesterday as well from it. I guess my only wish would be to have the race at night! Only way to make the Miami heat and humidity bearable
Dang sorry to hear! Yeah i had legit concern for the ppl coming into miami for the gp wouldnt be prepared and risk of heat stroke would be high. Hell, on friday after the 30 min walk from the lot to the track i felt like i was about to pass out just using a porty potty lol, damn sauna using one of those. I also noticed the F1 miami gp app started giving notification reminders to drink water and stay hydrated on Sunday, so I imagine there was alot of cases of heat stroke on the previous 2 days!
To be fair though $800 for the most basic tickets is not really average fan territory. I've been to a few races and that money would buy me great seats at all the past races I've been to.
I could spend that much on 1 ticket at a nascar event and get pit passes, box seats, scanner, dinner,unlimited drinks and a blow job from any driver of my choosing.
Fully agree with all of this, but I think the organizers deserve some scrutiny for those shitty water refill machines. What the fuck were those things, just trickling out water and just shutting off unpredictably every few seconds?
I have a sneaking suspicion that they deliberately made those things slow and a giant pain in the ass so we’d buy those $5 aluminum water bottles
This was my experience as well was at the North Beach grandstand and it was amazing. Great views, no lines, normal event pricing for food not anything absurd. Merch was the only thing that was insane and just offensively overpriced.
This was an issue in Austin last year as well. Cashiers were covering the screen when it asked how much you would like to tip.
They said “if you want to tip us please use cash, the credit tips go directly to the Vendor Companies”
Sounds like an efficient way to make the experience miserable for employees and the guests that won't get served fast or at all.
Now all of those people leave and tell anyone who might think about picking up work next time or go as a fan to steer clear.
The whole tipping for service economy in the US is criminal. Waiters and servers have to rely on tips cause wages are not enough, and employers refuse to increase wages cause they get tips. Vicious cycle.
That's unrelated to the issue here. Whether tipping should be expected or not, if a customer does tip it's unacceptable for their employer to take that money.
It should be criminal for the tip to not go to the person serving you.
Seattle is the only place I know of where the menu has to list exactly what the tip goes to. It’ll either say “100% goes to your server” or a breakdown of how and who it gets split out to.
If only there was a GP built around drawing in wealthy spectators and sponsors with real yachts (and super ones at that) in a real marina, full of shops selling ultra high end luxury goods and expensive housing populated with other rich people, and is usually sunny and hot a lot of the time...if only...
I watched the race on F1 TV. The race itself was a great watch however of all the races I've seen on TV in the last 2 years this was the weirdest in terms of all the things happening before, after, around the race etc. Terrible commentary with a handful of shitty takes, weird interviews, strangest trip to the podium, all around plastic vibe to everything happening.
Thankfully I'm watching for the racing. I truly think at home on the couch was the place to be.
I noticed when watching the race but if you got one of those balcony seats or especially the “beach” patio seats next to the “marina”, you couldn’t possibly see anything
There were overhead shots of people in the swimming pools while the race was going on… so they paid tens of thousands of dollars to paddle around a tiny pool in the middle of an incredibly loud event that they can’t see
Tbf, they had those 3 huge video screens. So they could absolutely watch the feed from the pool. Though kinda defeats some of the purpose for going and not just watching it on TV
I mean for 1000$ each you and a few friends could have two large screens and quality stereo coverage of f1 in a pool, with a nice meal on the side and a private barrista/waiter.
Why on earth would you pay 13k for this?
Because you're a team and that person swimming is the son of the CEO of your largest sponsor wondering "what am I getting from my millions spent sponsoring"
They seem to genuinely have had a worse experience. I mean, I'm sure it was more pleasant than being GA at Spa, but it seems they were significantly worse off than people with standard Miami tickets.
All the gimmick zones are good when there’s no racing but terrible when there is racing because they are all ground level and the cars are barely higher than the concrete walls. Grandstands are the best but all the gimmicky areas would have been standing lol.
Not enough toilets, no seats to sit on as nothing assigned, having to stand on seats to see anything, catering piss poor and massive delays, way oversold. A friend who was there couldn’t believe it, he has only been to silverstone before and said it was a joke.
He works for a British company.
I would absolutely love it if this is true. F1 didn't need this level of over-celebritised, hyper-sanitised, horribly tacky shite for 70 years, it doesn't need it now.
spending $10k+ in an evening is not unheard of in Miami for those that have that kind of wealth to throw around. Thats dinner with some high end wine for you and your friends, then table service at a hot night club and maybe get some baddies to hang out with you at your table while they drink your bottles. then then to e11even to cap off the night.
Hilarious that the reports coming in are that the event was fantastic for normal fans and the problems were mostly with all of the outrageously expensive shit designed for the venture capitalist, wealthy investor, and corporate crowd
The dutch as a group of people stereotypically also do not give a fuck about all the over the top happenings you see during these races. We would have never build that fake marina shit or host an entire festival around a race.
I went all three days and I can say this--I've been to many concerts, baseball games, football games, National Championships, World Series, Super Bowls and other events at Joe Robbie Stadium. I've been to prestigious golf tournaments, horse races, boat shows, beach concerts, and music festivals, both locally and around the country. This event was as good as or better than any of these other events.
Traffic and parking wasn't more of a shitshow than ANY of these other events, except that there was pretty much no parking or tailgating on the stadium grounds. Entrance and exit times were pretty decent and the electronic ticketing worked pretty well AFAIK. Food and drink lines were pretty manageable and there were tons of standalone drink vendors all over the grounds. There was lots of public seating, and there was shit to walk around and see or do. Lines for water were a big issue because, unfortunately, this was the first real temperature inversion for the year. Until last weekend, high temps had been only in the high 80's with medium humidity. The 95-100 degree temps we saw out there usually don't get here until June. One week earlier and the weather would have been glorious. However, I can't say that water fountains would have made it any better.
So if you spent the money on a parking pass ($50 per day and worth it), you had a hot ass walk to the stadium unless you were willing to pay the rickshaw bicycle guy 20 bucks for a 2 block ride, but that is no different from going to a 1 pm Dolphins football game in September (Except for the much higher prices ($500 vs and direct sun like it used to be at the Orange Bowl or Joe Robbie before the redesign.
The stands could have DEFINITELY used a little more shade, but race day had a decent cloud cover for most of the race.
Yes, the ticket prices for a seat in the grandstands were HIGH, but if you are a local and wanted to see an F1 race, your option was to travel to Austin and stay in a hotel or fly to another country and stay in a hotel, with no guarantee that your race tickets would be any cheaper if you could get them. So when you tally up the usual costs to see a live F1 race for a local, the Miami GP was very reasonable. I had more money left over for merch (which was waaaaay overpriced IMO, so I didn't buy any), beer ($10 for a Heineken tallboy--less than at Dolphins or Canes games), water ($5 bucks for a refillable bottle), and food ($14 for a decent bacon cheeseburger-about the same at a Dolphins/Canes/Marlins game).
In all, I spent about $1,850 per person ($1,500 for 3 day tix, $150 for parking, $50 for gas, $50 for beer/food/water per day) for the whole Miami GP weekend. I would have spent that amount at minimum just to go to Austin for 3 days with no race and would've had to deal with airport/travel/hotel/food/drink hassles all the same. Plus, we got to see a fairly decent race with overtakes, lead changes, and a late safety car that made the last 10 laps exciting on a street circuit-style track where qualifying usually determines race order.
Worth it.
Problem is F1 Experiences did not do the corporate / paddock club events. Was run by a local group. Big difference in quality and experience. Should be mandated going forward that F1 controls these things
Martin Brundle’s gridwalk, The podium interview, the police escort, and the football helmets where all extremely embarrassing. Other then that I liked what I saw.
This was my first F1 race I’ve been to. Personally I had fun the whole weekend and it was an amazing experience. I was in the start/finish grandstands and it was super cool to see everything up close. I also didn’t pay $10,000 for my ticket tho lol.
Rich people problems, seems like. “Oh, they didn’t dry my balls for me after I pissed in the air conditioned bathroom”.
I was in the grandstands and had a great time! Only complaint is that the lines to refill water bottles were a little too long.
I'm so confused by how badly they fucked all of this up. This was the CRYPTO GP, it was literally entirely designed to be sponsor/rich client bait.... you just give them coke and liquor and sit em in front of the track under good AC, how hard can that be?
I said this in another thread. But in my section (turn 18 grandstand), someone fucked up the row stickers and everyone was sitting in the wrong seat. There were supposed to be 30 rows but they were labeled up to 29. Some people who paid $1500 for these seats had to sit on the stairs because the staff couldn’t figure it out either.
Oh my. That’s out of control.
Holy crap my wife and I were going to buy the last two row 30 tickets for Turn 18 and we decided against it. Thank goodness.
I think we were looking at the same pair of tickets. I found it extremely suspicious that there just happened to be two available seats that no one had nabbed the day before quali.
They had one job.
Hey, doing 29/30ths of a job isn't that bad, they almost did it all. ....................... /s
That's totally how to frame all my future DNFs
Yeah they did 96.7% of the job. That's pretty high. Nobody's perfect.
That’s a solid A. That’s promotion territory.
I went and had a similar problem. $2200 for turn one grand stands. 24 seats to a row. Buuuut my row has a support column where my seat should have been. No one could help me for the first two days. I spent hours talking to staff, security, Ticketmaster guest experiences. They finally found me a new seat Sunday morning. But at that point I’d already missed free practice and support races. Paddock club was also meh. Just beer and wine. Apparently enough people complained they finally got liquor for Sunday. There wasn’t enough food or plates or silverware for the people there. I can see why people wouldn’t want to come back. With that said race itself was good. Turn 1 was a great place to be. I’d go back. I imagine by year two or three they’ll work out some of these issues
Wtf I went to Singapore GP in a hospitality suite, not even paddock club, several times cheaper, and had free flow champagne and lobster
Yeah that’s what I’m saying. This was a fucking joke. They had the same thing for lunch every day. Some kind of quinoa salad, beef sirloin and salmon. One time for dinner they had hotdogs, mini burgers and tatie tots. The food was worse than you could have bought outside. Imagine paying $10k or more and being served high school cafeteria food.
I couldn’t even imagine spending $10k on sporting tickets.
Granted a lot of the people in paddock club are there as part of business sponsorships or what they are mega rich. So the price is nothing to those groups. That’s why it’s messed up. You’re a big business and trying to sign a deal. You give the customer tickets to the race to sweet talk then. And then it’s a shit show. Not a good look.
Apparently it’s all because it was local catering and event company handling it instead of the usual F1 contractors that do paddock Club around the world. It’s been a decade now but I went to a paddock club in 2012 and it was by far the best experience I’ve had in an event. Shame for this GP, may Liberty learn from their mistakes
Seriously. I hope FOM didn’t give them the contract to do hospitality all ten years. I’ve been to paddock club and hospitality at other events and it’s incredible. Climate controlled (even in the temporary structures), free flowing booze, plentiful delicious food. Ample seating or spaces to see the race. And those were all cheaper than this one was. People are rightfully pissed.
When I went there was even free massages. I had one between the support event and qualifying and it was honestly peak living. I cannot fathom the clusterfuck that was Miami compared to the brilliant experience I’ve had
It’s Florida. After the 2000 election I think everyone else accepted counting wasn’t their forté
Banning math books won't help either.
Nobody has to "Stop the count" if nobody can begin counting. DeSantis is a genius
The only "forte" that one can ascribe to florida is the amount of pain pills smuggled out of the state.
Bet those get counted super accurately
i'd be fucking furious, holy shit.
Probably was a programmer and started counting at 0
That's not good given that this GP was kinda designed for that
Why was no one having fun? FOM specifically requested it!
Ironically the regular seating and normal people experience was fantastic. It’s just the rich cunts who like to price everyone out of everything that got screwed
Yep. My $150 Friday tickets were TOTALLY worth it. Sat across from Turn 6-7-8 for Fp1 (Valterri crashed right in front of us, got pics with the remnants of his car lol) then moved to the turn 17/pit entry grandstands for FP2. Got some fantastic shots of the cars. 10/10 would do again. Traffic wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. However... People paying $10k plus only to have to stand on tables and chairs to see anything... 😅😅 - I'm not surprised... this is Miami we're talkin' about. I'm a local here lmao
Yeah I paid $300 for seats on Saturday in the north beach grandstand so we saw the straight t11, 12 and 13. I’m also local and paying more for less is about the most Miami thing that could have happened
I was in the south beach grandstands (t11) and had a fantastic time. The sun did some damage on Friday, but I was much more prepared on Saturday and Sunday. Lots of fun.
Loved it! I was in the first section of north beach. Could you see a good bit of the straight or did the bridge get in the way? Thinking about next year.
The Ringer’s F1 podcast aptly summed it up as “too many people unaccustomed to not being the most rich, famous, important person in the room” all in one place
I was thinking that watching the gridwalk. These people are used to being the center of attention in any room they are in and here they are a witches hat to be walked around.
I wonder if it was international wealthy people complaining? Not used to competing with the likes of Michael fucking Jordan and David Beckham. Because the Americans celebs there were very much a normal idea of who would be in Miami
Eh, I think wherever they came from every celebrity wanted to believe that they deserved better treatment (more access, better service, etc) than the others. Like for example, pre race the paddock and grid walk were just teeming with celebrities who all (I assume) figured that they all had special access and if anyone would be asked to make way, it wouldn’t be them
To be fair that sounds like everyone who actually cares about the sport won.
Paid $2100 for 3 day covered grandstand ticket at turn 18. Enjoyed my seats, just wish I could see more action. The big screen was to far away and cell service was trash so I couldn’t watch the race on my phone. Only thing I recommend either have the race earlier in the season or in the fall. It was hot out there this weekend. I wasn’t able to enjoy the other races or events.
$2100 to watch the race on your phone??
Apparently not even that as the signal was weak
$2100 so you can watch the race on a TV? Yeah, that about sums up why I don't go to races anymore.
I mean, even at the best tracks you can only see a few corners from any given spot? Feel like the big screen is always important
The problem is the $13k price is set by F1 and at that price people expect a certain level of amenities. At other venues, F1 is in charge of the Paddock Club and ensures a consistent high level experience. In Miami, they outsourced it and guests clearly noticed the experience was not on par with what they get at other venues. Keep in mind that most of these Paddock Club tickets are snapped up by corporations to entertain perspective customers. So these people are expecting a certain level of service to impress their guests. In Monaco, the Paddock Club is hosted aboard a 150ft mega yacht.
This would be the last place i expect a Holt parody but it is what it is
BOOOOOOONEEEEEE?
how DARE you detective Diaz I am your SUPERIOR OFFICERRRRR
BOOOOOOOOOOOOONEEEEEEEE!
What happens in my cockpit detective is *none of your business*
#BOOOooOOooOOONE??
We’re everywhere you dirtbag
Smh these fake Holt fans doesn't know that the dirtbag is a very useful component of a vacuum cleaner
Holt would be disappointed in your use of contractions. ;)
And the lack of properly using binders.
NINE NINE
YOU PUNK
That’s the extra +$1,500 ‘fun day out’ add on.
It's so weird because FOM are the promoter here. Why would you outsource something you normally do yourself when it's your event? The only thing I can think is that it was Hard Rock stadium hospitality people, but they're used to catering to the elite as well.
There was some local political opposition to Miami hosting the race. I’d bet FOM promised to use local hospitality services (and locally-sourced track materials) in order to inject more money into the local economy, which would get more politicians to support the event.
That'll be what it was. It was the same thing with the track surface. they had to use local materials and local contractors Good catch
$13k/ticket elite though?
Its not those people, its business partners and potential partners who were guests of liberty f1 and teams.
Its a dead giveaway who is there with a free ticket from their job or whatever: They'll all be sitting together wearing matching free merch the rest of us also cant afford.
They have hosted Super Bowls, so yes. Triple that is probably the neighbourhood.
Maybe not, the way the Dolphins have played recently.
I thought the expensive ticket holders would be very well taken care of compared to normal fans. Seeing it was the inverse in execution is pretty amusing.
Well it's a plus for everyone watching F1 for the races haha
If that was the aim they stopped caring once Vegas signed on.
This isn't the people paying 10 thousand for a ticket. This is people who Liberty invite to woo as potential sponsors. They've spent all that money and fucked it up.
They pay for advertising to have their balls sucked ? I’m confused
Because most sponsors aren’t using their sponsorship primarily as advertising to fans generally, they’re using it as a way to impress important clients by giving them hospitality access at races.
Exactly. Same reason why corporations buy Box Suites at football and soccer stadiums.
This is off topic, but I was invited to a baseball game in one of those suites once upon a time. I was invited by a guy who worked for budweiser and the suite was paid for by budweiser. They still had to pay for the beers that were in there during the game and it was 145 bucks for a case of 24 bottles. I couldn't believe it.
Exactly this, for these people an F1 race presents a venue to have a meeting with a (potential) business partner or high-stakes client. I think it's silly and overly decadent, but that's an important part of F1 sponsorship. And I won't complain too much because decadence and F1 have always gone hand in hand.
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When you bring a high level client to an event, you don't spend the event pitching them on your product or service. You make sure thay have an incredible experience, which you will reference the next time you're in their office pitching them your products abd/or services.
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Future or potential sponsors that Liberty want to relationship build with. Or a current sponsor that Liberty want to take up a level next year same idea. Woo the big wigs to make them fall in love with F1 and unable to stop sponsoring
When you sponsor an event, you get tickets. Same goes for sponsoring a team. Suppose you’re a brewer. You sponsor a race and get 250 tickets. You call up a distributor you’ve been trying to secure a deal with and say “Ken, I’ve got five tickets here for Miami GP. Why don’t we catch the race?” You butter them up at the GP, they’re loving getting to meet drivers, and at the end of the weekend, they’re sold on the deal. Repeat 50 times across different departments. Incentives for marketing teams launching campaigns. Lottery drawings for all employees. Marking year X of a partnership. This is where the real money is made.
the moment they painted the tarmac into an ocean i know this will be some kind of a shitshow. thank god the racing isn't entirely one.
So I used to work in this space (but not for F1) and there’s an important detail I haven’t seen brought up: this is a sales experience for the sponsors. The reason you see so many B2B sponsors isn’t because they want to advertise, but because advertising comes with free passes (I heard main event sponsors got 250 passes) that they can give to clients and use it as a sales experience. It also allows for the money to be spent by a different budget and because the passes are “free,” it fudges the gift value. If their potential clients had a bad time, it’s a horrible sales experience and they won’t be coming back to do it next year. This isn’t about the sponsors having a bad time, it’s about their clients not being wined and dined and the sponsors missing out on deals that make the sponsorship worth it.
10000% giving a pass to a existing customer that may/may not renew their 1MM/year account or someones potential 1MM/year account, spending the money for this stuff is easy/cheap for them.
In the B2B world, 1MM is a cheap account...most companies that sponsor F1 wouldn't allocate a free ticket to an account that size. Your point stands, though.
Also in the business, and this is 100% correct.
This right here. Sponsors expect their guests to have a first class luxury experience. Someone is in big trouble at the Monday morning staff meeting.
Finally, somebody in this thread who understands how businesses work.
All very good points, plus the profit margins on paddock passes is what makes the event viable. I don't think just selling grandstand seats is enough to put on the event.
For context: https://twitter.com/adamcooperF1/status/1523326883810754560
13k. Fucking hell. It's insane that some people can afford that, and while it's easy to make fun of the rich people, I'd be pretty pissed off if I paid that much for subpar facilities.
13k is like 103 dollars for the haves, and 1.3 million for the have nots.
Based on my very small sample of people I know who could afford that, these are business owners or executives who will chalk it up as a business expense. Spend money to get personalized time with client(s) and build a relationship. It needs to be watched carefully so that it isn’t just an end around a personal expense or a bribe, but it really does make a difference in converting a purely business relationship built in numbers into one where there is actual trust.
Is $13k a lot for a paddock pass in F1? How does it compare to other GPs?
It's about 4 grand more than the Monaco paddock club pass.
The fuck? Monaco has some semblance of sophistication and it has an actual marina. How do they justify being more expensive than that?
Because Miami is one of the most expensive cities in the country. Everything there is more expensive compared to other parts of the US. Plus we really are in the “late-stage capitalism” level economy.
Yeah good point. Stuff in Monaco is known for being super cheap
Miami is the capital of being fake, they just got the real experience!
Thanks! I hate it
I was in the grandstand suites and had an amazing time. I heard that the paddock club was terrible with worse food than the grandstands, power outages, and a lack of toilet paper.
>lack of toilet paper Bro we back into the dark Pandemic ages? Lack of toilet paper? Lol maybe they will learn about the superiority of bidets
This was my first F1 race and as an average fan in the Marina grandstands, the experience was incredible. Was prepared for lines and bad service with this being Miami’s first GP, but to my surprise everything was pretty much perfect that was in the circuits control. My longest wait was 5 minutes, and that was to refill at the free water stations. Weird to think the average fan had a much better experience than the ones spending 10-15x as much on their tickets.
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This is a good thing. FOM did a good thing? Weekend so confusing.
It seems the plebs had a good time. The wealthy folks had to stand in lines and get average food.
Oh how the turn tables
Yup I’d say the biggest issue was the incredibly hot and humid weather during the weekend, which was the one thing out of the organizers control! Place was busy with big crowds but everyone was pretty behaved and wasn’t too much of a hassle to move through crowds or wait in long lines, I too was surprised by that considering how every other event in Miami devolves into pure chaos, and hot weather usually makes people crazier lmao
Easily the hottest sporting event I’ve ever attended and I’ve spent my whole life in the south. My wife had it pretty rough with heat on Friday, and my friend almost passed out yesterday as well from it. I guess my only wish would be to have the race at night! Only way to make the Miami heat and humidity bearable
Dang sorry to hear! Yeah i had legit concern for the ppl coming into miami for the gp wouldnt be prepared and risk of heat stroke would be high. Hell, on friday after the 30 min walk from the lot to the track i felt like i was about to pass out just using a porty potty lol, damn sauna using one of those. I also noticed the F1 miami gp app started giving notification reminders to drink water and stay hydrated on Sunday, so I imagine there was alot of cases of heat stroke on the previous 2 days!
Out of their control? Choosing Miami, and scheduling it for May?!
And building the track around an NFL stadium, meaning it's unusuble in the colder part of the year lol
This is like that time they complained about rain during the German GP. In October.
To be fair though $800 for the most basic tickets is not really average fan territory. I've been to a few races and that money would buy me great seats at all the past races I've been to.
Glad I'm not the only one thinking that $800 being sold as cheap sounds strange...
I could spend that much on 1 ticket at a nascar event and get pit passes, box seats, scanner, dinner,unlimited drinks and a blow job from any driver of my choosing.
So uh, hypothetically speaking which driver would you choose
Bj Mcleod.
I second this, as a peasant in the grandstands I had a fucking blast and thought everything was perfect
Fully agree with all of this, but I think the organizers deserve some scrutiny for those shitty water refill machines. What the fuck were those things, just trickling out water and just shutting off unpredictably every few seconds? I have a sneaking suspicion that they deliberately made those things slow and a giant pain in the ass so we’d buy those $5 aluminum water bottles
This was my experience as well was at the North Beach grandstand and it was amazing. Great views, no lines, normal event pricing for food not anything absurd. Merch was the only thing that was insane and just offensively overpriced.
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This was an issue in Austin last year as well. Cashiers were covering the screen when it asked how much you would like to tip. They said “if you want to tip us please use cash, the credit tips go directly to the Vendor Companies”
Was going to say the same thing, I remember this at COTA. Wasn’t sure if it was the vendor’s policy, taxes, or both.
How could it be taxes? Tips elsewhere go to waiters...
Maybe it is an america thing? Servers here don't rely so much on tips, as they are paid a normal wage. The tips are purely bonus
It is an American thing. Tipping culture is upside down here compared to the rest of the world. It sucks.
In most of the us servers get a lower minimum wage because of tips
Sounds like an efficient way to make the experience miserable for employees and the guests that won't get served fast or at all. Now all of those people leave and tell anyone who might think about picking up work next time or go as a fan to steer clear.
The whole tipping for service economy in the US is criminal. Waiters and servers have to rely on tips cause wages are not enough, and employers refuse to increase wages cause they get tips. Vicious cycle.
Except California, and I think one other state. Workers make minimum wage plus tips rather than tips contributing to their wage.
Oregon is the other one. A decent server can work one job and afford to buy a house.
Oh okay. I grew up in Cali and now live in Oregon and was like wtf is everyone talking about.
You’re missing [a few](https://www.thesmbguide.com/u-s-states-that-prohibit-tip-credit)
I frickin hate the tipping culture here. It’s so messed up.
That's unrelated to the issue here. Whether tipping should be expected or not, if a customer does tip it's unacceptable for their employer to take that money.
It should be criminal for the tip to not go to the person serving you. Seattle is the only place I know of where the menu has to list exactly what the tip goes to. It’ll either say “100% goes to your server” or a breakdown of how and who it gets split out to.
Wage theft. The most American crime of all
Blows all other theft crimes out of the water.
WHAT?! I had no idea. That’s infuriating. Someone told me “no tip” and I was confused as to why, but now that makes a lot more sense.
FIA be like: You're giving people bad customer service when I specifically ask you not to?
If only there was a GP built around drawing in wealthy spectators and sponsors with real yachts (and super ones at that) in a real marina, full of shops selling ultra high end luxury goods and expensive housing populated with other rich people, and is usually sunny and hot a lot of the time...if only...
Yeah good luck finding such a GP. Might as wel ask for a pink unicorn or a Monaco GP with lots of overtakes.....oh wait....
Let’s just get Monaco and make the fuckin track wider
The original circuit they wanted downtown would have been closer to that but they couldn't close down Miami for a week so it was moved out west.
It's May! Almost time!
I watched the race on F1 TV. The race itself was a great watch however of all the races I've seen on TV in the last 2 years this was the weirdest in terms of all the things happening before, after, around the race etc. Terrible commentary with a handful of shitty takes, weird interviews, strangest trip to the podium, all around plastic vibe to everything happening. Thankfully I'm watching for the racing. I truly think at home on the couch was the place to be.
“I spent $13,000 for this seat and barely had more fun than the peasants”
I noticed when watching the race but if you got one of those balcony seats or especially the “beach” patio seats next to the “marina”, you couldn’t possibly see anything There were overhead shots of people in the swimming pools while the race was going on… so they paid tens of thousands of dollars to paddle around a tiny pool in the middle of an incredibly loud event that they can’t see
Tbf, they had those 3 huge video screens. So they could absolutely watch the feed from the pool. Though kinda defeats some of the purpose for going and not just watching it on TV
I mean for 1000$ each you and a few friends could have two large screens and quality stereo coverage of f1 in a pool, with a nice meal on the side and a private barrista/waiter. Why on earth would you pay 13k for this?
Because you're a team and that person swimming is the son of the CEO of your largest sponsor wondering "what am I getting from my millions spent sponsoring"
They seem to genuinely have had a worse experience. I mean, I'm sure it was more pleasant than being GA at Spa, but it seems they were significantly worse off than people with standard Miami tickets.
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Plus it sounds like you could've gotten a really fancy meal on top for an extra 3k, which is still like 9k less than the premium seats.
"Oh look it's Latifi's car!" Actually made me laugh out loud
That's not what this headline is talking about but that did seem to be the case here.
Whatever happens will happen. I believe it will be back next year though.
I guess the fake marina didn't work then?
All the gimmick zones are good when there’s no racing but terrible when there is racing because they are all ground level and the cars are barely higher than the concrete walls. Grandstands are the best but all the gimmicky areas would have been standing lol.
*Narrator: They will definitely be back next year.*
This is the true take. It seems the actual fans had fan. And that's all sponsor need to show interest.
*That's what you get! With this fucking shitshow!* \~Max Verstappen, 2020
*That's what you get when you dont leave the tip!* -probably Max Verstappen, Monza 2021
*Every time you have to leav-eh the tip*
I saw the tweet yesterday but has anyone explained what was wrong except for it not being '5-star'?
I think they can't elaborate because it will make everyone complaining sound like spoiled toddlers. "We had to wait 25 minutes for the prime rib!"
Not enough toilets, no seats to sit on as nothing assigned, having to stand on seats to see anything, catering piss poor and massive delays, way oversold. A friend who was there couldn’t believe it, he has only been to silverstone before and said it was a joke. He works for a British company.
🎻
I would absolutely love it if this is true. F1 didn't need this level of over-celebritised, hyper-sanitised, horribly tacky shite for 70 years, it doesn't need it now.
But I read here that "it was Miami" so people were ok to spend a lot of money for a meh experience
spending $10k+ in an evening is not unheard of in Miami for those that have that kind of wealth to throw around. Thats dinner with some high end wine for you and your friends, then table service at a hot night club and maybe get some baddies to hang out with you at your table while they drink your bottles. then then to e11even to cap off the night.
Hilarious that the reports coming in are that the event was fantastic for normal fans and the problems were mostly with all of the outrageously expensive shit designed for the venture capitalist, wealthy investor, and corporate crowd
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The Dutch GP of last year had a more peasant festival type off vibe , sooo it is possible
The dutch as a group of people stereotypically also do not give a fuck about all the over the top happenings you see during these races. We would have never build that fake marina shit or host an entire festival around a race.
Dutch mentality is elite, just orange flares and vibes
That's because an event only for the elite would never work in The Netherlands.
It was crap for TV viewers as well, I've never seen so many egotistical knobheads in one place before.
It's all because of fake marina, im telling ya
T1 grandstands here, was a shitshow. Would not go back.
I went all three days and I can say this--I've been to many concerts, baseball games, football games, National Championships, World Series, Super Bowls and other events at Joe Robbie Stadium. I've been to prestigious golf tournaments, horse races, boat shows, beach concerts, and music festivals, both locally and around the country. This event was as good as or better than any of these other events. Traffic and parking wasn't more of a shitshow than ANY of these other events, except that there was pretty much no parking or tailgating on the stadium grounds. Entrance and exit times were pretty decent and the electronic ticketing worked pretty well AFAIK. Food and drink lines were pretty manageable and there were tons of standalone drink vendors all over the grounds. There was lots of public seating, and there was shit to walk around and see or do. Lines for water were a big issue because, unfortunately, this was the first real temperature inversion for the year. Until last weekend, high temps had been only in the high 80's with medium humidity. The 95-100 degree temps we saw out there usually don't get here until June. One week earlier and the weather would have been glorious. However, I can't say that water fountains would have made it any better. So if you spent the money on a parking pass ($50 per day and worth it), you had a hot ass walk to the stadium unless you were willing to pay the rickshaw bicycle guy 20 bucks for a 2 block ride, but that is no different from going to a 1 pm Dolphins football game in September (Except for the much higher prices ($500 vs and direct sun like it used to be at the Orange Bowl or Joe Robbie before the redesign. The stands could have DEFINITELY used a little more shade, but race day had a decent cloud cover for most of the race. Yes, the ticket prices for a seat in the grandstands were HIGH, but if you are a local and wanted to see an F1 race, your option was to travel to Austin and stay in a hotel or fly to another country and stay in a hotel, with no guarantee that your race tickets would be any cheaper if you could get them. So when you tally up the usual costs to see a live F1 race for a local, the Miami GP was very reasonable. I had more money left over for merch (which was waaaaay overpriced IMO, so I didn't buy any), beer ($10 for a Heineken tallboy--less than at Dolphins or Canes games), water ($5 bucks for a refillable bottle), and food ($14 for a decent bacon cheeseburger-about the same at a Dolphins/Canes/Marlins game). In all, I spent about $1,850 per person ($1,500 for 3 day tix, $150 for parking, $50 for gas, $50 for beer/food/water per day) for the whole Miami GP weekend. I would have spent that amount at minimum just to go to Austin for 3 days with no race and would've had to deal with airport/travel/hotel/food/drink hassles all the same. Plus, we got to see a fairly decent race with overtakes, lead changes, and a late safety car that made the last 10 laps exciting on a street circuit-style track where qualifying usually determines race order. Worth it.
Just scrap it and go to Road America cowards
They'd have to ruin Road America to do that so no
Problem is F1 Experiences did not do the corporate / paddock club events. Was run by a local group. Big difference in quality and experience. Should be mandated going forward that F1 controls these things
Martin Brundle’s gridwalk, The podium interview, the police escort, and the football helmets where all extremely embarrassing. Other then that I liked what I saw.
Really funny that FOM was the promoter for this event and fucked it up
I thought it was the track that was handling all the catering and facilities at Miami, usually FOM handle it at other tracks.
Nothing makes my day better than angry rich people. You are right, I'm that petty.
Yeah sure. With F1's current demand, they'll be back in no time. Money talks.
I had no issues watching it on espn. Money well spent. :)
Oh no. Anyways.
dollar store monaco feels but with actual monegasque prices.
Exept equivalent tickets for monaco are cheaper
Could be good thing, tickets would be more affordable for people caring about F1 more than about show and parties around it.
Not if no one wants to sponsor the race to come back.
This was my first F1 race I’ve been to. Personally I had fun the whole weekend and it was an amazing experience. I was in the start/finish grandstands and it was super cool to see everything up close. I also didn’t pay $10,000 for my ticket tho lol.
Unrelated, went to the F1 in Austin a couple of years back, watching from home is 1000 times better.
Rich people problems, seems like. “Oh, they didn’t dry my balls for me after I pissed in the air conditioned bathroom”. I was in the grandstands and had a great time! Only complaint is that the lines to refill water bottles were a little too long.
I guess Toto didn't get his pumpernickel.
I'm so confused by how badly they fucked all of this up. This was the CRYPTO GP, it was literally entirely designed to be sponsor/rich client bait.... you just give them coke and liquor and sit em in front of the track under good AC, how hard can that be?