If there was a headline to come out of last year’s United States Grand Prix, it was the enormous crowd that Circuit of The Americas was able to attract across the race weekend.
While venues don’t report individual numbers, but rather the cumulative over the four days that fans are allowed into the track, COTA welcomed 440,000 people and set the record for the 2022 season.
For a race that was struggling at times to find the right funding and to pull in capacity crowds, recent events have seen the number growing year-on-year and more grandstands or general admission areas being created to ensure demand is met. But the focus on beating last year’s figure has changed in 2023, even if it’s just a slight pause on that front as attention shifts slightly.
“Actually, not bigger this time,” COTA chairman Bobby Epstein tells RACER. “This is better. Which in terms for us, putting on an event, since we have nothing to do with what goes on on the track; it’s how to get people in and out. How do you provide better food, better service, higher quality, more entertainment? and so that’s been our focus and continues to be.
“We weren’t trying to set an attendance record this year, and if we had… I think we first want to continue to focus so much on the transportation and getting people in and out. So we added another 15 loading stations for buses, which equates to 6,000 people an hour.
“If we can prove out some of the things we’re trying this year then in the future, we can go for an attendance record and beat our own attendance record.”
The landmark figure of half a million became a talking point during and after last year’s race, but even at that stage there was concern about the way the drivers’ championship had already been wrapped up less than one year after the intense interest around the 2021 battle. A similar scenario has unfolded this season with Red Bull and Max Verstappen even more dominant than 12 months ago and both titles already confirmed, but it’s not an aspect that Epstein feels has a major impact on the way COTA might look to increase capacity or sell tickets.
“Most of our tickets are sold well before the competition on the track. So it doesn’t affect much. Maybe there’s some last-minute buyers that wait for that, but most of the tickets are sold out well in advance of anyone knowing when the championship is going to be decided. It’s a nice bonus to have, but it doesn’t really affect ticket sales. It probably affects TV viewership more than it affects ticket sales.”
Another reason for the lack of dissent at the on-track fight is the focus on everything but that from the race organizers. Whether an amazing championship battle is raging or the title winner was known months ago, individual venues can do nothing about that. Instead, they can only focus on providing a fan experience that is enjoyable regardless of the show F1 itself is putting on.
“We have felt this way for years which is we have to transition to give the fans more value for their money, which means more entertainment, more to do, more hours of programming, so that if the track entertainment and the track competition isn’t great, people still want to come.
“What we’ve learned has worked, and we have to rely on that. So people know that if they buy a ticket here, it’s still that that represents great value. And I think when you look at the very passionate race fan who cares about one through 20 – every position down the grid – and appreciates the sort of the ferociousness of the competition, all the way through the grid, then they’re going to get their money’s worth.
“They know that at this track. This track is made for the competition and passing and it makes for great racing. And so the true racing fan that says ‘I care about all the competition’ and they’re not just looking at first place, they’re gonna love it.”
COTA has leaned into being the traditional American race, the venue that rekindled interest in F1 long before Drive to Survive hit the screens and Miami and Las Vegas were added to the schedule. But even though he feels it has an impact on COTA being slightly slower to sell out than a year ago, the latter is seen as a positive for Epstein because very different price points and audiences are being targeted, that can even amplify what Austin provides as it looks to hit those record attendance figures in future.
“I think that’s a result of Vegas coming on, and the first year phenomenon. I think there’s always the novelty of the first year and check it out, and appreciate and learn the differences.
“As with any product, you want to sell your product, and I think that competition means the fan will be the beneficiary of that.”
While Austin didn’t look to increase capacity this year, that has allowed Epstein to make a more clear-cut comparison with last year’s race regarding what does and doesn’t work. But he points out that it would be wrong to put COTA’s success down to F1 alone, as the influence of other major racing series throughout the year helps the whole circuit find a rhythm to hosting big weekends and improve what’s on offer to fans.
“Am I amazed at how much it’s grown? I think I’m relieved at the fact it’s gotten so much easier! And by virtue of having MotoGP and NASCAR throughout the year and have those big events, it’s made our team stronger. It makes it much easier for us to put on an event. If we were just doing one a year, it would be much harder than doing three in a year.
“It’s sort of re-energized some of us here, in that as it gets easier, you can add more things and that’s fun. And when you enjoy what you get to do it does give you the energy and enthusiasm.
“I’m proud that we got to this point, to where we can have fun coming to work and enjoy that, being with each other and kind of all rolling together. So that’s really the outcome of it. It just makes it rewarding and it makes you more excited for next year’s event.”
And who knows? Maybe next year’s event will be the biggest in terms of fan numbers that F1 has ever seen…