yeah, but Bernie knows what a media blunder this whole thing is going to be and should have put the F1 attorney's on it from August 1st and found a way to come to a reasonable solution before now....in the meantime, the track has been pouring money into the facility for months seemingly unnecessarily...and it is now all coming to a head...and as far as I can see, no comes out smelling like a peach and looking good...but Bernie being a prominant figurehead will come out looking more disgruntled than the comptroller...she'll just look incompetent while Bernie will look like a "Pay me my money or I am going to take my game away and go home!" kind of spoiled brat/bully...

But that is Bernie's MO and everyone knows it. If the state would have done their homework, then we would not have a half built race track. This whole thing is in writing, Bernie actually has a leg to stand on. He's still a douche, but in this case he's right. I guess no F1 in the US for a while longer.

Quote from: zooom on November 17, 2011, 04:27:54 AM
when in the end, this is a simple matter of Bernie being an asshole and wanting to show the world how people bend to his will when he threatens things...

This take (with excerpts from the opening salvos of the war of press releases) makes it sound more like infighting & collapse within the initial investment group was the proximate cause of this debacle - that F1 (ie., Bernie) found itself negotiating with a new partner for which BE wasn't inclined to offer a one-off sweetheart deal, and that the Texas Comptroller was looking at the prospect of leaving the taxpayers holding the bag for the world's finest mudbogging facility. My guess? There's not one single villain here, nor a single angel.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20111116/FREE/111119900

Quote from: triangleforge on November 17, 2011, 08:34:27 AM
  There's not one single villain here, nor a single angel.
 

that statement right there is the truest thing about this whole debacle...

there's a whole lot of vagaries about with regard to Tavo and his contract.  maybe he simply bolted once the state promise turned out to be vapor.  bernie said that tavo is 'happy', whatever that means.

effed, regardless.

Quote from: gm2 on November 17, 2011, 09:46:03 AM
there's a whole lot of vagaries about with regard to Tavo and his contract.  maybe he simply bolted once the state promise turned out to be vapor.  bernie said that tavo is 'happy', whatever that means.

effed, regardless.

yeah... without knowing the context of tavo's "breach," it's really hard to know what to think.  the fact that bernie isn't completely throwing him under the bus leads me to think that there's a lot more to the story.

yup.  saying breach and happy in the same paragraph does not sound like Tavo was in control of the problem. 

Tavo discussing this NOW

http://www.statesman.com/multimedia/statesman-live-video-player-1625003.html?cxntcid=breaking_news


edit:  NM.  the feed is dead.

btw, i love this:

"It's all very simple â€" they don't have the money," Ecclestone told The Associated Press on Thursday.

calling out a few billionaires that "can't" get a letter of guarantee for $25-50MM.. hehehe.

Quote from: derby on November 17, 2011, 04:47:04 PM
btw, i love this:

"It's all very simple â€" they don't have the money," Ecclestone told The Associated Press on Thursday.

calling out a few billionaires that "can't" get a letter of guarantee for $25-50MM.. hehehe.

I hope some of them thar Texas oil Billionaires get riled up and shove the money down Bernie's gullet in a "chickenshit-do you wanna fight?" fashion whilst fondling the ivory handle of a Colt 6 shooter....

Quote from: zooom on November 18, 2011, 04:01:33 AM
I hope some of them thar Texas oil Billionaires get riled up and shove the money down Bernie's gullet in a "chickenshit-do you wanna fight?" fashion whilst fondling the ivory handle of a Colt 6 shooter....

well considering bernie has $4.2 billion of his own...

hell, his 23yr old daughter just paid $85 million for aaron spelling's house.

Why? I guess because she can.

Quote from: fastwin on November 18, 2011, 10:00:44 AM
Why? I guess because she can.

duh: she got married.  so obviously they need a 57,000 sq foot house.

and i'm sure her existing $91 million home in london was cramping her style.

my point is that there's really no good reason the cota guys haven't upheld their contractual obligations. they have the money, they're just dickin' around.

more:

http://www.racer.com/q-a-tavo-hellmund-on-funding-for-austin/article/217058/

so it sounds like tavo and the cota guys don't exactly agree on how things should be done. he offered to buy out the cota guys, the cota guys said "no" and offered him a buyout which he's accepted pending reaching agreeable terms.

in the meantime, the group hasn't met their contractual obligations, fom has cancelled tavo's (10 year!) contract for the event, the cota guys decided to renegotiate and, as a result, are probably being asked for the "usual" sanctioning fee of $37-50MM+ instead of the buddy-deal $25MM that tavo had. on top of that, the state decided they're not going to pay up front for the event.

amazing...

http://www.racer.com/sexton-2013-a-possibility-for-austin/article/217032/

Responding to renewed threats by Formula 1 commercial rights manager Bernie Ecclestone that the United States Grand Prix in Austin is on the brink of cancellation, Circuit of The Americas president Steve Sexton issued a statement saying track organizers now hope the race can be pushed back to 2013.

idiots...