F1 Track and Retail - Durban

New bid to revive South African GP

By Jonathan Noble and Dieter Rencken Friday, October 8th 2010, 06:13 GMT


A group of South African businessmen working in conjunction with Abu Dhabi investors are trying to resurrect plans for the country to regain a Formula 1 race.

AUTOSPORT has learned that a proposal is being evaluated for a purpose-built track to be built near Durban airport as the group behind the efforts eye a 10-year contract to host the event.

In exchange for building a £200 million venue, the group wants the local authorities to help support the plans by paying the £36 million per year race fee plus leasing it the land.

The track, which will also feature retail and tourist attractions, will be based on the design originally pencilled in for Gauteng Province but which fell through.

The ambitious plans for the project have not yet convinced the local government though, and the scheme's backers - Nightsbridge Investments and Abu Dhabi's Royal Group – have been advised to make an approach to the national government for assistance. All the parties involved will meet again on 14 October to discuss their next steps.

South Africa last hosted a grand prix at Kyalami in 1993, which was won by Alain Prost in a Williams-Renault.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87254

An article from a few months back, note the highlighted parts...

Premium racing returns to Durban

2010-06-24 14:10

Durban motor racing fanatics may soon get another major event, after the city successfully hosted the A1 Grand Prix for three consecutive years, mayor Obed Mlaba said on Wednesday.

"We have a proposal that has been accepted by the provincial government. The only thing that we have to do is look at costs before a final decision is taken,” Mlaba told Sapa.

The company, which Mlaba didn't name, had made the proposal because it liked how the city and the provincial government hosted the A1 Grand Prix between 2005 and 2008.

“The provincial government is very keen to see it getting off the ground. We are very excited about it. I can't say where it will be held. It may be a bit different from the previous racing event.”

The A1 Grand Prix was held on a 3.2km street circuit near the beachfront. The cost of staging it, including broadcasting to at least 14 countries worldwide, creating a street track and management costs, came to around R91.6 million.

The money was paid by the provincial government and the city of Durban. The three-day event in 2006 attracted more than 105 000 spectators.

The A1 Grand Prix was taken to Johannesburg but ended in its second year. Mlaba believed there was a need for a permanent motor racing event in Durban.

“The world cup has taught us that we have to have landmark events. Permanent events.” He felt these would be a success because the city and the private sector had the capacity to host them.

“Our International Convention Centre is doing very well because of the events. We need more events in our city.”


http://www.wheels24.co.za/Motorsport/General/Premium-racing-returns-to-Durban-20100624

Nice balanced article. lets see how things develop...got a feeling the provincial government might not go with this, others thoughts?

Now It’s Durban’s Turn…

Don’t get too excited about the possibility of Durban hosting a South African Formula One Grand Prix in the near future. Like other such recent, abortive proposals, it has a very slim chance of succeeding.

Talk of the eThekwini municipality and the province of KwaZulu Natal possibly throwing its collective name into the hat to host a South African Grand Prix in the near future emerged earlier this week, along not dissimilar lines to proposals for Cape Town and Gauteng in recent years.

Without going into too many details, both of these folded mainly because of the need for taxpayers to partially fund such projects and authorities baulking at the idea of trying to sell this concept politically.

The basic proposal looks as follows: Local authority to make available land to private investors (at a very cheap price of course) for them to build a facility, including a state-of-the-art Formula One circuit; private investors to build said facility at their own cost, but then reap all the commercial benefits from its use over a long period of time; local/provincial authority to fund F1’s annual hosting fee in order to guarantee the holding of a Grand Prix.

It is mainly this last element that usually becomes an insurmountable hurdle, as politicians find it very hard to justify to their constituents what amounts to exorbitant and unsustainable spending of taxpayers’ money.

From what I can gather, the same people who were involved in the failed effort to bring Formula One to Gauteng are now behind the proposal for KZN – to the extent that they have even included the exact same suggested circuit design in their proposal. The proposed venue is an area of unused land north of the new King Shaka Airport.

The figures are staggering: The cost of the proposed developments, including the race track, will amount to between R1.8 and R2.5 billion (and we all know how inaccurate such estimates can be), while the annual hosting fee (the money that’s paid to Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM concern) will be – and I have this from other sources too – between R140 and R280 million, depending on rand/US dollar exchange rates. This totals between R1.4 and R2.8 billion over a 10-year period, not including an annual escalation of about 10%, which could more than double this amount.

Try justifying this sort of expenditure in a country sorely lacking investment in more pressing social and economic needs!

The rational argument that state expenditure is based on budget allocations and that spending money on such projects doesn’t mean curbing spending in other areas may well be true, but it’s a difficult concept to grasp for all but the most informed few.

The other (valid) argument that holding events such as an annual F1 Grand Prix generates huge benefits for the local, provincial and national economies, and industries such as tourism, not to mention the positive international exposure for the country, also doesn’t wash in the eyes of those who only focus on expenditure.

South Africa is not alone in this.

In Australia, where the state of Victoria covers the operational shortfall of its Melbourne event to the tune of tens of millions of dollars every year, opposition is – and has been – steadfast, if ineffective.

Great Britain, where the motorsport industry is one of the country’s largest, is the only country with zero state funding of some kind for its Grand Prix because neither Labour nor Tory governments have had the stomach to try and convince voters otherwise, while in Texas, where a US Grand Prix is mooted in the state capital of Austin from 2012 – along virtually the exact same lines as the KZN proposal – opposition is mounting.

Make no mistake: I would love to see grand prix racing return to South Africa…it has been, after all, a passion of mine for all but the very first few years of my life. And I don’t buy the argument that hosting an annual race will detract from local motorsport – if anything, it is what got me and I would argue most other people who became involved in any of an array of roles interested in the first place.

But reality is it probably ain’t gonna happen any time soon.

http://www.hendrikverwoerd.co.za/?p=119#more-119

Todt: No South African GP for five years

Friday, 15 October 2010 22:45

FIA president Jean Todt has said that he thinks that it is unlikely that the African continent will see Formula One return for at least five years, despite some early suggestion of a return for the South African Grand Prix.

The party pooper ruins Bernie's '37 races a year' plan.
Formula One has been absent from the African continent since the South African race disappeared from the calendar at the end of 1993.
But recent developments have suggested that the race could be rekindled in the near future, with Bernie Ecclestone known to be interested in returning to South Africa.

He targeted the country with Russia as being his two main new events following the confirmation of the return of the United States GP for 2012.

He signed a contract with Russian authorities for a new race at the Black Sea resort in Sochi from 2014.

A report earlier this month suggested that a new South African company called "Nightsbridge Investments", with backing from Abu Dhabi, were looking to launch a new GP bid, building a new £200 million track near the city of Durban.

But although Ecclestone suggested earlier this year that he could see the sport returning to Africa within three years, Todt has suggested that it might take longer than that.

"At the moment it's only some rumors about some interest for some countries in Africa to organize a Formula One event but I don't see any opportunity in the next three to five years," he lamented during an FIA visit to Kenya on Friday.

Todt's comments back up the thoughts of the boss of Motorsport South Africa, George Nyabadza, who said earlier in the year that he would only be happy to see money spent on an F1 bid should more investment be made in national motorsport.

He went on to suggest that instead the continent should be looking to rekindle their rallying history.

"Africa is a fantastic field to organize road racing," Todt went on, "It could either be WRC or even the Cross Country.

"We are talking with promoters over the possibility to have long-stage rallies incorporated and we are looking at different opportunities to get the best solution from Africa, Europe, Asia and all over the world."

Kenya hosted the Safari Rally round of the WRC until 2003, but it was dropped from the schedule over safety concerns.

http://www.patronisef1.com/index.ph.../3873-todt-no-south-african-gp-for-five-years