Victoria Wants to Steal Our Clipsal 500

[Will]

The evil empire is once again showing their complete lack of initiative. Why don't they start their own, new events instead of stealing the events of others?

Just like they did with the grand prix, Victoria would ruin the clipsal too.

From the Australian:

SA vows to fight move by Victoria government

Michael Owen From: The Australian March 24, 2011 10:42AM


THE Rann government says it is taking seriously the latest threat by Victoria to poach its premier motorsport event.

As reported in The Australian today, the Victorian government will consider poaching Adelaide's successful Clipsal 500 to replace the Australian Grand Prix if it loses the Formula One race.

South Australian Motor Sport Minister Kevin Foley said the threat should not be downplayed.

"We take any threat to the Clipsal 500 seriously - it is the single biggest event in the V8 supercar calendar," he said.

"But I am confident Clipsal will continue to be a great event in Adelaide."

Melbourne is contracted for the Grand Prix until 2015, the same year as Adelaide's contract for the V8 Supercar event is up for grabs.

The Kennett government poached the Grand Prix from Adelaide 15 years ago.

Victoria has lost more than $250m since it secured the Grand Prix, while the Clipsal 500, which South Australia started 12 years ago as a replacement for Formula One, is currently the only V8 Supercar race to make a profit.

Victorian Major Events Minister Louise Asher said the Clipsal 500 could be a major event of benefit to Victoria.

"Victoria is the major events capital of Australia, we host outstanding major events and compete globally to secure major events," she said.

However, Ms Asher said the government would not discuss details of its "potential future bid".

Legendary international motorsport caller Murray Walker last week said the Adelaide event was "the greatest touring car event in the world, in my opinion", with more than 280,000 people at the Adelaide street circuit on the weekend.

South Australian opposition motor sport spokesman Martin Hamilton-Smith said the Baillieu government was eyeing off the Clipsal 500, after it ordered a comprehensive study to help it weigh up the cost of hosting the Grand Prix against the financial benefits.

"The Victorian government is looking at the success of the Clipsal 500 here and saying 'we could set up the same track, we could do the same theme each year'," he said.

"If they won the Clipsal 500 they could save themselves about $45m a year and get the same crowd numbers in their capital city."

[iTouch]

what capitalist, big-city pricks

[flavze]

surely it's a typical hysterical media beatup, they allready run the V8's at the grand prix, if the F1 left they would just run the V8's as a stand alone event and make it for championship points. V8 supercars wouldn't take the event from Adelaide, it's the 2nd most prestigious event on the calender after Bathurst.

[dsriggs]

I don't buy it. V8SA makes too much money from the 500 each year for them to just ship it to Melbourne.

If anything's gonna happen there, it'll be an addition to the calendar, possibly replacing the Sandown round if anything, rather than a replacement for Adelaide.

[victorious80]

i dont understand this constant petty bickering between the states. why cant we understand that we all live in one country, and the events should be shared around the country for the benefit of all?

look at the Superbowl - every year it is hosted in a DIFFERENT city, regardless of who plays in the game. Great idea - it gives everyone in the country the chance to enjoy such a huge event. note it is often held in cities smaller than Adelaide (New Orleans, Arlington, etc), although they do have very large stadiums.

as an example, I dont believe Demetriou would ever let the AFL (note the A stands for Australian) GF leave Melbourne, but how about having the Brownlow in a different city every year? why does it have to be in the same location every year?

I dont know if the Federal Govt has any say in these things, but i would love to see more strategic view regarding where and when events are held in Australia. If we could spread the events (and hence income) evenly between cities we might find there is less disparity between the states, and a more holistic focus on improving the COUNTRY, not just a few cities.

[Waewick]

they are the events capital of the country

for events that don't make money

time to stop resting on your laurels Victoria and start your own events

[crawf]

The Clipsal 500 wont leave Adelaide. It's been far too successful, won a tone of local and national awards and was the first event to be listed in the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame. The organisers should take this latest news as a complement of the hard work they have put in.

In some ways I wish Adelaide would once again host the Grand Prix. Because when our city hosted the prestigious event, it seems that we never took it for granted and actually made it a much bigger spectacular - compared to Melbourne who is killing the event. Hell there is no mention of the Grand Prix on the main page of their main newspaper's website, except in a small little sports section.

Really if you take in consideration of the Grand Prix saga over the border for the past 5-7 years, Adelaide isn't the only city that loves to whinge

[Wayno]

Yes, this is a testament to how well SA runs major events. Doing a copy/paste of the Clipsal 500 into Victoria will by no means guarantee it's ongoing success.

[metro]

I like to call them Tiny-dicked-Vics!! make your own damn events! like the 'successful' Melbourne to Hobart yacht race

Melbourne is where good events from around Australia go to die. But I guess it depends on who's running the governments of SA and Vic by 2015, if Ballieu wins a 2nd term and if the Libs actually manage to win here, then we could possibly lose the Clipsal 500, just like the GP 20 years earlier.

would be great though if we managed to keep the Clipsal 500 for Autumn and get the F1 GP back for Spring 2016 and have two major races a year.

would also be nice if Adelaide could steal one of Melbourne's events for a change, that international comedy festival would be fabulous for our winter time

[Zills]

what a lot of rubbish. for one thing, there's already an albert park 400.. more propoganda

[AtD]

This story seems to pop up every year at about this time...

[crawf]

The only events that are at risk of being pouched is the Tour Down Under, WOMAD, International Horse Trails, Rugby 7s and maybe a few other events.