Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldtony
I'm a motorsport fan or I probably wouldn't be contributing to this forum.
I was also involved and a keen supporter of the idea of bringing the Indy and Champ cars to the Coast way back when.
That exercise was a very different proposition to the GC600 V8SC event. It gave the Coast world wide publicity for what was then a vert Telegenic sporting event which received very good ratings in key (then) important and profitable tourism markets.
It worked. It drew local crowds and overseas visitors.
Times, and the event itself, are very different now.
The event itself is no longer of significant International interest. The TV coverage doesn't rate anywhere as well overseas, and probably not as well here in Australia. The crowd the event attracts is almost all SE Qld with little overseas content. Local business will tell you that they are not big spenders. Local residents will tell you that they are not exactly model visitors.
Bluntly the financial return the event brings, and the type of publicity it attracts are not worth the inconvenience or the money it costs.
I'm a Gold Coast rate payer and a Queensland taxpayer. While I love my motorsport the GC600, and keeping the admin at Nerang, are not worth the sort of money being spent on them while we are having so many other services cut by Council and Government.
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For the life of me, I can't work out how they got the Gold Coast 600 over the line. The race in its present form isn't setting the world on fire, the locals aren't exactly in favor of it continuing, and the Gold Coast as a tourist venue is about as popular as a shark attack, with crime levels soaring, massive traffic issues and a lack of beaches. As a motorsport fan and a Sth East Qld resident, there's no way I am even remotely interested in going to the event. Hell, I'd even go to Qld Raceway before I'd risk my life going to Surfers Paradise again.
But, good on them, lets hope that the "freshen up" will be worth waiting for.