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...several hundred million dollars" to have their logo plastered all over F1, says Andrew Barrett, the company's VP of global sponsorship, who recently inked such a deal. "We were looking for as broad a global reach as we could get with one sport, and nothing else even came close." (See the 50 worst cars of all time...
...what the big numbers and the gaudy pageantry hide is how close the sport came to a total crack-up last year, and just how rickety it remains. At times over the past few years, Formula One has looked as ungovernable as California: big teams quit, and more threatened to do so; the financial industry canceled its lifeblood sponsorship almost en masse; track attendance is down; and scandals have tarnished everyone from a world champ to the former head of motor sport itself. Bernie Ecclestone, the septuagenarian who is usually described as F1's principal stakeholder (a description that doesn...
...wind tunnel, for example, costs close to $40 million to construct, not counting the corps of engineers needed to run it. Average annual team budgets had climbed near $300 million and the biggest teams spent $500 million. Sponsorship and prize money rarely brought in half that. "Very few of the teams could actually make any money," says Caroline Reid, who co-authors Formula Money, the authoritative guide to F1's finances. (See a brief history of Formula...
...terms of F1 economics, however - and this is especially true for the newest hosts - it doesn't matter if none of F1's race promoters comes close to covering costs. The shortfall is increasingly paid for by governments who view television coverage as a giant TV commercial for their city or country. Singapore hosts a spectacular nighttime race on city streets beneath twinkling lights. In 2008, its first year, the race took in $51 million, but cost $100 million, according to Formula Money. That's O.K. with Singapore. The government kicked in $60 million, leaving the local promoter with...
None of this bodes well for the U.S. Ratcheting up indiscriminate sanctions will likely close the window for diplomacy, leaving Obama in the same position as Bush placed himself. But Tehran's tendency toward confrontation might lead to the situation spiraling out of control. Military confrontation, which no one in the Obama Administration favors, may become unavoidable...