Nurburgring is bankrupt.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dennisch
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It sucks, but I'll never drive there and it's already been mapped perfectly. If it just keeps losing money....
 
I agree with everything niky has said. As much as it saddens me if the Ring closes, I'm not sure how it could have continued and operated with losses each year. As much as it's an icon, it's still a business in the end.

Before we all go on knocking the current owners about their business sense, I want to say that they are probably pretty smart folks. One doesn't simply just get millions of dollars and convince a government to go into a partnership with you. Hindsight is 20/20, and with what little we know now, it may seem easy to judge, but I'm not sure it was as simple or black and white when the owners were trying to make the Ring profitable.

I was planning on driving the Ring when I go yo Germany next month. I guess I now really have to since it could be my last chance.
 
Crash
Before we all go on knocking the current owners about their business sense, I want to say that they are probably pretty smart folks. One doesn't simply just get millions of dollars and convince a government to go into a partnership with you.
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If this was only true.

Sad truth is: it's exactly this easy to drain money from the public. Big media coverage in Germany the past week: former head of state of Baden-Würtemberg, his investment banker buddy and two brothers, one venture capitalist, one another investment banker, signed a 3 billion € deal on buying back the formerly state owned energy company without any backing from the state parliament.

I have an academic economy background and turned civil servant late in my career life. If you want easy money, go do a private-public partnership.
 
So does this mean no "Nur" in future Gran Turismo games?
 
ICEYOU
So does this mean no "Nur" in future Gran Turismo games?
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No, this doesn't mean "No Nur in future Gran Turismo games".
 
They should do a marathon,> 2 laps.. Do fund raising, donations, media coverge thing to try to help save the ring. Call it "runnin for the ring". Lol
 
ItsHim
If this was only true.

Sad truth is: it's exactly this easy to drain money from the public. Big media coverage in Germany the past week: former head of state of Baden-Würtemberg, his investment banker buddy and two brothers, one venture capitalist, one another investment banker, signed a 3 billion € deal on buying back the formerly state owned energy company without any backing from the state parliament.

I have an academic economy background and turned civil servant late in my career life. If you want easy money, go do a private-public partnership.
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While I agree with this, in part, that works mostly if you're the middleman contracted by both the public and private sector to build the project (in the case of infrastructure developments like the Nurb).

Either way... public-private, private-private, public only... there are always people who will try to game the system... but yeah... more money in it if you can screw the government out of the billions it's holding for taxpayers. :D

It's just as easy for government to screw the private partner by withdrawing support... for example... they guarantee a set profit or subsidy then pull out when the economy or project turns sour... poof.

And as a tourism boosting venture, many theme parks and sports venues require support. The government of Hong Kong has been subsidizing Hong Kong Disneyland for years. Despite relatively good attendance, they're living off of government subsidy because the profits don't cut it.

The question is whether tourism revenue is worth it. There's rumors the Singapore GP might not last much longer. Having used it to boost tourism and the country's profile, the rumor goes, the Singaporean government is looking at cutting the spending, seeing as how it's done its job and they don't want the direct business interruptions caused by street closure, any longer.
 
ICEYOU
ok srry I was to lazy to spell out the full name.
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The AUP States:

AUP
You will post all messages in English.
You will not use “textspeak” (“r”, “u”, “plz”, etc.) in your messages. Decent grammar is expected at all times, including proper usage of capital letters.
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This is just sad. A unique course is being broken apart. :(
 
Didnt even know about this, and I'm going to go there for some laps during next month, like I've done so each year for last 7 years.
I hope I can still go at there in the future.

Makes me wonder, are the Treehuggers the biggest threat this time, Germany has gone into "Green" since the Tsunami that happened in Japan, no for Nuclear power etc.

In Finland Treehuggers has nearly killed the whole racing world, hopefully that wont be happening everywhere else, would make the world less satisfying.
 
Lambo24
What do you mean?
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If the Nurburgring just happens to be bought and the new owner decided to give it a new design then we could have a new track in GT5.
 
The local government owns the track. The Local government is owed money by the company running the site. Therefore the track won't change. It's a toll road most of the time.

There is a feature about this debacle in the first part of this.

http://audio.rpix.org.uk/mwm/7/mwm7-26.mp3
 
There will not change to much in my opinion, the only way to make sure the liquidators get money is by organizing races, so that is what they will do, unless it gets bought by someone, but even in that case, nothing will change....
 
The whole thing just went down the drain with the build of the 'amusement park' next to The Ring. The Nordschleife track days and Touristfahrten are not the cause of the losses, it's probably the most profitable part of the whole organisation.
If you take 1000 laps every day, at 20 Euro/lap, it makes 5 million Euro's a year. Running costs are quite reasonable, and if you're dumb enough to crash into a barrier you're paying for the repairs to the infrastructure and the loss of track time for other drivers.
 
Hockenheim have been struggling recently as well. Isn't it Ironic that the country with all the money is struggling with keping major attractions going. I dont see Monza struggling.
 
I don't think NASCAR tracks have amusement parks around them. And if they did I'm sure the rides would work.
 
I will go the N24 next year just to support it!
 
I've been visiting today. I have seen for myself the touristenfahrten makes alot of money, busy busy :)
 
niky
The Nurburgring, like Lotus Cars, is too iconic a name to go down without some interested party buying it. The question is who. And that's an important one. If it's a serious buyer like VW (again... VW has its own rather large testing track already), then they can foster it and make it profitable.

If, like Lotus, it goes to a buyer with lots of money but little direction... then... :indiff:

If, like TVR, it goes to a buyer who doesn't know what to do with it... then... 👎
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Agreed.

It can be saved, but its future will be determined by whoever decides to save it.
 
poolhaas
I've been visiting today. I have seen for myself the touristenfahrten makes alot of money, busy busy :)
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Cool, did you have a go yourself?
 
Norbert Haug says he is sure the place will be saved. Even if Schumacher has to buy it lol.
 
Blaze_409
Norbert Haug says he is sure the place will be saved. Even if Schumacher has to buy it lol.
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Does Schumacher get a Buy 1 Get 1 Free offer when he buys the Nurburgring :dopey: ?
 
MarcoM
Cool, did you have a go yourself?
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No, I can't do that to my car :)
I don't know the track that well, maybe in GT5 but that's different, I don't want to crash into something expensive.

This was a bit unlucky aswell :scared:
 
At least it was a Civic/CRX
 
Somehow waving the fee charged for hosting a race isn't gonna help that much lol.

With any luck he might see a bit more sense and offer then a couple of hundred mil towards sorting the mess out.

Bernie would also be the right guy to pool together a number of potential investors, to buy it outright, and get the debt cleared.
 
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