Cold Turkey: Bernie Ecclestone's white elephant

Sahin Boz prods his cows with his hand as he looks at the vast edifice of the Istanbul Park racetrack, planted five years ago in the middle of what he had considered to be prime grazing land. “Didn't do me any good,” he said of the state-of-the-art facility that will host the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday. “All the people who owned land made profits, but the races don't mean anything to us ... just a lot of noise.”
Istanbul Park has been bleeding money and has failed to attract the punters in its first four years on the Formula One circuit, with the fifth year on course for its lowest attendance.
The track, believed to have cost about $250 million (now about £150 million), is one of the most testing, but its future is uncertain. After three years of “double-digit million-dollar losses”, Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One's commercial rights-holder, stepped in last year to run it, taking over from a messy coalition of Turkish trade bodies and state-linked organisations. It is still making a loss and it is not certain that Ecclestone will renew his contract to hold races beyond 2011.
“This is the worst deal I have done to date,” he said when he initially signed up to run Istanbul Park. “People think I'm mad, but I thought in the long term and I really believe in Turkey.”
Ecclestone reportedly even complained to President Abdullah Gül about sparse attendances. Ticket sales have been low and falling - according to the organisers, about 40,000 people attended the Sunday last year and sales for this year are much worse for the 130,000-capacity facility.
“We were completely disgraced before the world last year - the stadium looked so empty,” said Baris Kuyucu, sports commentator and editor at CNN Türk, which had the television rights until TRT, the state television channel, took over this year. “I reckon there were no more than 5,000 Turks there.” Petrol Ofisi, a Turkish sponsor, also decided against renewing its contract and has been replaced by ING, the financial institution.
“People went there in the first year to have a look and now they have moved on,” Kuyucu said. “Turkey doesn't have the necessary sports culture to make this work. Nobody would dream of making a day out of the races, going for a picnic and socialising like they do in other countries.”
Motorcycling enthusiasts say that the MotoGP, run for three years at Istanbul Park, was taken off the calendar after the 2007 race not only because of commercial losses but because of a lack of custom. Turkey is a football country, with other sports getting short shrift. So at least the Formula One drivers' football match at Istanbul's Ali Sami Yen football stadium might generate some interest.
Ticket prices do not help. The Istanbul Park administration maintains that prices between 90 and 700 lira (about £36 to £280) are cheap by Formula One standards and will not be reduced. But many people questioned by The Times were aghast at the idea of paying so much, especially when they will have to travel for two hours or more from congested central Istanbul to get there.
Koray Muratoglu, a former World Rally Championship driver, who edits Autocar magazine, criticised the costs of hiring the track - €70,000 (about £60,000) a day compared with €16,000 for Silverstone. Although the Istanbul Park administration disputes these figures, Turkish amateur drivers and even big companies wishing to stage events are being put off.
“We had a big tyre company interested in staging a promotional event, but they were shocked by the price and went to Thailand instead,” Muratoglu said. “They threw in a holiday in Phuket and still did the whole thing cheaper.”
Answering criticism that the track is padlocked to outsiders for 362 days a year, Can Güçlü, the Istanbul Park general manager, says the previous administration took on more than it could handle at the start and the new regime is trying to bring about changes. “In the first year [2005], there was the MotoGP, DTM [German Touring Car Masters], WTCC [World Touring Car Championship], Le Mans endurance races, and it all lost a lot of money,” Güçlü said. “Now we have to draw a line, reorganise and start looking at new projects - we are doing Rock'n Coke [a music festival] here, for instance.”
He believes that the race has nevertheless made a significant contribution to the Turkish economy - about $50million a year in terms of hotel rooms, food, travel and shopping.
Critics and supporters agree that interest would rocket with the emergence of a Turkish Formula One driver. But that is a long way off, with go-karting only an embryonic sport in Turkey. Perhaps there are no Turks on the track because they are all already practising on the roads. After all, Jenson Button, the World Championship leader, reportedly said that he would not dare drive in Istanbul ... and hired a chauffeur instead.
Tracks of my tears
Istanbul Park is not the only Formula One racetrack in troubleMagny-Cours Cancelled (too expensive, poor location)Montreal Cancelled (expense)Indianapolis Cancelled (expense)Silverstone Cancelled after this year (failure to upgrade/expense)Spa-Francorchamps, Hockenheim, Budapest All struggling to make ends meetMount Fuji Cancelled (strategic decision by Toyota)Shanghai In danger (lack of interest)Words by Edward Gorman .
Source:The times