Grumble! Grumble..F1...Typical! Grumble Grumble!
Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 3:27 PM So last week a call went out on Facebook promising free tickets to the Korea Grand prix, being held just outside of Mokpo in Jeollanam-do this weekend.
I should have been cautious from the start, but everything seemed legit.
By all accounts Grand Prix sponsor NH Corp (Nyung Hap?) was giving away free tickets - exclusivly to foreigners who could meet at the track at a certain time on Sunday and produce their Alien Registration Card. It was a given amongst those of us who expressed interest in taking NH up on the offer, that this was probably a case of a big Korean sponsor, desperate to fill the stands with foreign looking faces, to make the Grand Prix look like a success.
But it's the Grand Prix right? Tickets retail for W137,000. So a freebie, despite the treacherous journey to Mokpo, is well worth it right!?
Over 700 people had expressed interest in going to the Grand Prix mid-week, but another call went out for the first 600 odd to reconfirm their attendance and details of time etc for picking up the tickets were disseminated. People booked and paid for bus tickets, Love Motels were booked and rides down to Mokpo were organized . (Me with a couple of the crew from caranddriving.net) and a general feeling of excitement for the weekend in anticipation of sucking in the smells of burnt rubber and high performance racing fuel settled across a large swathe of Facebook, and those getting ready for the trip south.
Until Last night (Friday).
When the word came out that sponsors were only interested in giving out 100 tickets, and that those closest to Mokpo and the first to sign up getting the tickets. (about 50 to each).
Arrrgh, you know, OK, 600 people is quite a few. I can perhaps understand a sponsor not wanting to part with 82 Million odd won worth of tickets, but it seems this is just one in a huge line of Korea Grand Prix faux pas and f*ck ups that are leading to the Grand Prix being an international embarrassment for Korea.
Among other things the race has been criticised for being in the best of all the Korean provinces: Middle-of-f*ck-nowhere-Do (some 450km south of Seoul, not to mention 12 hour plus flights to Korea from the rest of the world) . And not quite the Brothels that some in the international press have dubbed them, said press are being put up in some well appointed love motels.
The Telegraph though hit the nail on the head about our current situation:
The organisers say they are expecting 100,000 on Sunday. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility although that is not to say the race has grabbed the locals. Someone pointed out that race organisers in the Far East have previously been known to herd numbers of spectators using ‘incentives’. Free tickets usually do the trick. Allegedly one GP2 race in recent years was packed to the rafters with prisoners on day release.
Day release prisoners....Foreign English Teachers.....half of one etc. etc.
The biggest screw-up seems to have been averted though, with qualifying laps being completed with little fuss. The Telegraph continues:
The track looks OK but I have to admit that there are some out here (mentioning no names) who are waiting, hoping almost, for the wheels to fall off. Clearly the place is way off the pace in some areas and there is a faint whiff of pandemonium in the offing. The circuit is basically a building site in a rather unlovely coastal region miles from anywhere. There is no greenery to speak of. The cobbled paths next to the enormous, deserted car parks look like they were built in a hurry last week..
The organisers are not blind to that fact. They apologised for the state of affairs this morning (making a bizarre plea for understanding which revolved around the size of the towels in hotels) and promised they would do “better next year”. It was all rather sad.
Pandemonium...
Pandemonium noun /ˌpæn.dəˈməʊ.ni.əm/
/-ˈmoʊ-/ a situation in which there is a lot of noise and confusion because people are excited, angry or frightened
Yup. Sounds about right.
Of course tomorrow will tell if everything works out or not, and whether I will get a chance to see the Gran Prix next year.
Meh. I prefer Touring Cars anyway.
Reader Comments (7)
British press looking for something to whinge about, trotting off to the provinces of an East Asian country. Clearly there is no better way to get objective and accurate news than that.
When I started reading love motels described as brothels, I gave up. Thanks, but I'll stick with the Agence France-Presse.
You get what you pay for.
Anytime there is the mention of the word "free" how long is it expected to last?
If one really wants to go to an even like this, should they go just because of free tickets or will they pay for the ticket?
@bikekorea
I agree - you get what you pay for. In this case nothing.
My understanding was that the tickets were sold out well in advance, and so the prospect of being able to go AND not paying was most inticing, despite being to good to be true.
All that being said it's just another screw up in a line of screw ups for the Korea GP.
I wonder if I would have got in anyway - with organizers not honoring free passes dished out by local government and other sponsors.
Oh well. Next year I will need to book well in advance.
I went. It was lovely. The free ticket was actually for one of the 460,000 Won seats in a grandstand. Outstanding. I'm sorry that it didn't work out for everyone...but it seemed dicey to me as well...which is why I went and bought a 42,000 Won ticket on William Cho's bus...thinking that his direct dealings with the F1 people might count for more than that Chad guys wishy washy assurances.
Nothing free is free.
I heard the same thing from a coworker but when my Korean wife went to the Korean F1 website there were still plenty of tickets in many sections. We made our final reservations just one week before the event. The biggest problem was transportation down there. F1 stated that there would be a bus from express bus terminal in Seoul that would go directly to the transfer point at the race track. The driver of the bus was informed just before we left. He didn't know how to get to the drop off point so we all had to walk. Only 15 minutes. But it seems that "the lack of communication" is clearly alive and kicking at any event. Coming back I believe was much worse as the delay of the race caused the finish to be delayed but not the departure times of certain buses.
I had heard that there was a give away of F1 tickets to foreigners in Seoul one week ago and someone else said that all the tickets were given out. I think that the biggest problem is how these companies announce their free ticket ventures. If a company says just to show up then there will be a disaster similar to taking the the train in the morning. Having a Korean helps as they can deal with the language better. But since my wife is a manager of a company she has the skills of finding out how to get things done in more than one way. She asked the F1 management about how to get to Mokpo from Seoul and back and about lodging (which was not in the best of locations).
The main grandstand facilities were finished and I imagine same with the race control buildings, pit lanes and other support. I saw no problems with the main grandstand but I think that had the highest priority since that section would be on world TV live. I did notice during the race that any shots of people in other grandstands were of the individual and not of the section. Even when PIFF started 15 years they loads of problems. Next year they will have nearly all of the movies being shown at their PIFF facility being constructed now. If the racing section wasn't finished but the stands for the spectators were then there would be a lot more negativity. Also this track is the first one that is counter clockwise. So there is something new tried and went well.
How easy or difficult is it to stage an event without anything going wrong? And then to keep at it year after year. APEC and G-20 might not seem that big for three days but a lot practice and preparation go into that just for a one time shot. And most people don't see the mistakes that were made.
Were there problems? Sure there were at F1Korea. But somethings went well and somethings didn't. That gives the event a good idea where to work on for next year.
I posted some pics at my blog (though it's about bikes-I have show off F1!)
http://bikekorea.blogspot.com/
If you are still around next year and have problems getting tickets, drop me a line. I plan to go again and again. And this time get Hamiltons and Shumachers autographs.
@bikekorea. Thanks - that's a pretty good run down of the event (for those of us who didn't make it!) I will definitely get my shut together in time for next year's race.
I understand with the rain and the circuit direction and crashes and safety cars and what not it actually turned into a bit of a nail biter their.
Goodtimes!
Hate to make F1 sound even worse about the free tickets but I heard an interesting bit of news.
I play in the Seoul Dart league on Monday nights in Itaewon and I heard from another player that he knew that one of the Yongsan base commanders had gotten 70 gold tickets (the entire weekend deal) from some organizer to give out for free. Well it seems this commander didn't know how to organize any buses to F1 and just left the tickets at home. They were never used. I am not sure if this story is true but if it were then I would be super pissed as hell coming from a spectator standpoint who couldn't get a ticket(purchase one) and from the organization that gave near 70,000 dollars worth of tickets into the trash pretty much.
I know that it is nice to promote a huge event by giving free tickets, but it would be nice if the DAMN tickets get to the people who want to go. It seems like a repeat of the world cup back in 2002 in which local schools closed so that the seats could be filled with bodies at the stadiums. How many people would pay a lot of money for those events only to find out that those tickets were given to high schools students who were only interested in skipping class?