Monday, November 17, 2008

Bernie Ecclestone And The Selling Of Dreams

Bernie Ecclestone's verdit is final: there will be no Montréal Grand Prix in 2009, maybe ever. The City didn't feel it was worth losing millions upon millions for a worldwide visibility that merely lasts one weekend. Sure, the Formula 1 race brought more money to the City in a single weekend than any other, even events that last weeks or months cannot compare. But when the asking price is more than the financial benefits, the deficit doesn't make sense.

Montréal isn't the first city to say no to Bernie; Buenos Aires did it before, Indianapolis, Lisboa, Imola, Magny-Cours... Bernie has decided that the traditional Western markets, even if they sell more tickets, will keep watching the races on TV even if they take place in Singapore, Shanghai or Istanbul, who are willing to shell out more money for half-empty races.

But I'm just not sure it's so wise to not have a single race in either Americas...

Anyhow, Bernie had been trying to get Montréal off of its schedule for a decade now. We gave and gave until, for the last three years, we have lost $10M every year. With a worldwide economy on the decline, Montréal decided to play it safe and not keep losing cash. Bernie is trying to suck up all the capital he can before everyone else on the planet goes bankrupt, especially the car companies that make up his product.

By wiping the humanity and common sense from his being, Ecclestone has become the ultimate Business Man of our era, not the richest in the world, but among that elite group and the only one without any competitors to speak of; he will also be the last one standing in his area of expertise, which should be a sign for Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari and the others to never trust him for extended periods of time. As soon as he stops making them money, they should leave his ass behind before he starts eating into their deficits, because that's the type of man he is - a Business Man, for the end of the '90s, the beginning of the New Millenium.

He isn't made for the Conscious People that are on the rise right now, but he doesn't care: the minute he stops making money, he'll just take off with the billions he already has in store and make a comfortable living for himself, by himself. He has nothing riding in anything, no manufacturing plant to take care of, very few employees (everything is subcontracted), he can stop at any given time, which isn't true for anyone dealing around him and making him money.

He is selling other people's services, and the buyers are getting fewer, but as long as there are 15 of them remaining, he will keep raking the money in.

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