I think I read somewhere that there's only around 70 thousand there for the race...
I think that's actually fairly decent for an F1 race. The circuit only has a total seating capacity of 135,000, so 70,000 would be just over half capacity. However, I don't know whether these figures include "general admission" whereby you just sit on a hill somewhere. F1 race venues don't normally have seating capacities of 167,785 like Daytona, 175,000 of Talladega, or 257,325 of Indianapolis. As I recall, these stadium-like tracks here in the US haven't been all that packed in recent history, either, although even being just half-full would still produce some numbers greater than 70,000.
It's worth noting, however, that F1 tickets are substantially more expensive than tickets to something like a NASCAR or IndyCar race, so filling seats is harder due to the prohibitive ticket prices. Even Daytona 500 tickets start at only $74 for 2014, several seating options are below $100, and almost all are below $200. Tickets for the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix, on the other hand, do have one seating option for 84 and then one for 159, translating to $113.88 and $215.56 respectively, while every other grandstand option goes from 345 to 625, or $467.72 to $847.31, and VIP ranges 1600 to 2500, or $2169.12 to $3389.25.
How does he do that?
