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Comment by KimR on December 7, 2009 at 7:43pm

Hi Jonathon, yes the cycling event used exactly the same circuit. It was funny watching them go thru the chicanes, as the bicycles could go in between the gaps in the tyre barriers, but the commentators thought they were making a mistake. I guess any publicity is good publicity for bikes in this case.

Comment by Paul on December 7, 2009 at 3:35pm

From "The Australian"

Premier Kristina Keneally praised the event for bringing life to the venue. "If you look around here, you have got families. It is using this venue the way it was meant to be used."

Organisers hope to have 250,000 spectators attending the event by 2014. V8 boss Tony Cochrane yesterday suggested a controversial cap designed to limit crowds to 70,000 per day wouldn't be an issue in the future and revealed he ignored it on the Saturday, as 72,610 fans attended.

"I ignored that and I said if they want to lock me up so be it. I'll enjoy the peace and solitude of jail for a few days," he said.


Really Kristina? Olympic Park was meant to be used for V8 Supercars racing around a Street Circuit?

Comment by Paul on December 7, 2009 at 11:51am

That Financial Analysis is worth a read, if only for the two attachments at the end of the document.
Essentially, V8SA estimated the economic impact at $48.5m. However, PRD's (who are they?) estimated the economic impact at $22.5m. That is quite a massive difference, mostly caused by V8SA's nutty assumptions about how much money people would spend on hotels and food in a day, and how long they would stay.

Comment by Duncan on December 7, 2009 at 11:37am

some financial analysis here, for what its worth.
http://www.business.nsw.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/81BB13F4-F6EA-4BE6-9B0A-DD09453B26F1/0/V8_Supercars_SOP_20082012_Cabinet_Summary_web.pdf

Comment by Paul on December 7, 2009 at 8:37am

From Today's SMH:

''I want to make it even more of a spectacle,'' Cochrane said. ''I want more for people to do.'' He also wanted the track to be widened near turn five, which has been dubbed ''death alley''.

Because of trees that were kept, the sweeping concrete-lined blind left-hander is very narrow.

Cochrane met the new Premier, Kristina Keneally, on Saturday, and said she was extremely committed to the Olympic Park V8 event, which is getting $30million from the State Government over five years.


I spoke to a guy at the office here, who attended the event. He said that you could not even see the track from trackside because of the height of the fences. Only those is grandstands, which cost a fortune, had a clear view of the track. In addition, he said about 50,000 people went to the concert, which does suggest that most people only bought tickets to see Cold Chisel. Certainly, from the brief TV footage I saw of the event on Ch 7, I could not figure out where the claimed number of spectators were hiding!

Also, check out the comment above in Bold....apparently they didn't cut down enough trees!

Comment by MadameBike on December 7, 2009 at 7:57am

Another email from the residents' action group cites the following points:
Please consider:
1. The NSW government has committed substantial amounts of public funding to private projects that are formulated with no or unreliable economic data. At best, Ian McDonald boasted that GDP would be enhanced by $100-110 million over five years. When pressed for evidence, the government hid behind a commercial confidentiality clause. This happens frequently: the government subsidised “World Youth Day” with $108.5 million without evidence of its benefits. The donation of $30 million to the “Supercar” event was made despite the unsupported evidence from similar events in other states. In the end, public funding is again used to subsidise the profits of the large corporate investors.
2. The NSW government is committing substantial amounts of public money to projects that could create negative consequences, both socially and environmentally. What is the social or environmental benefit of a “Supercar” race that justifies public funding? Has the government analysed the influence of such an event on the behaviour of people including (i) their preferences for high powered and heavy polluting vehicles and (ii) the economic and social consequences that result from the popular usage of high powered vehicles? When pressed, the government had no response.
3. The NSW government appears happy to embrace climate change scepticism at a time when advocacy for environmental improvement is critical. When pressed, the government could not identify any positive benefits for the environment that would result from this event. It is not self-evident that the removal of trees, and an increase in noise and air pollution, has enhanced the area or increased the healthy recreational use of Sydney Olympic Park.

Comment by Jonathon Troy on December 6, 2009 at 8:12pm

Thanks for the update Kim. I have to say that I had a suspicion that the cycling event would be under the undercard for the event. Did the cycling event use the V8 circuit or were they on a separate circuit.
The crowd numbers as have been said is just like a medievil military trick. Just dress everyone in the village up as a soldier and your enemy sees thousands more troops than what you really have.

Comment by Duncan on December 6, 2009 at 8:06pm

It'll be interesting to see where they get with the noise angle.

I've lived in various parts of Parramatta over the last couple of years, and we can always hear the speedway going full tilt on a Sat night.. and that's way over out the back of Rosehill Racecourse and the refinery.

At least the Newington residents can argue that they were there first.

Comment by KimR on December 6, 2009 at 7:13pm

Channel 7 had a glowing report, not surprising as they were the host broadcaster. They interviewed one of the organisers who said that they had a 70,000 person a day limit for the event, but they broke that and he didn't really care if this was not allowed.

The cycle race (the only real sporting event out there) was around 2 pm, after the fancy sports cars like Porches but before the V8 utes and the V8 final.

Comment by Jonathon Troy on December 6, 2009 at 7:03pm

I also thought I would add that with the amount of negative coverage from the SMH and the ABC the amount of tickets given away would camouflage the lack of spectators.

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