TBK-Light.com

Yes indeed, it's not expensive at all.

Can't wait for the event.

"Nissan and BMW in talks to join Formula E grid as early as 2016/17"
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... la-e-talks

Moscow might be dropped due the city's delays and they're looking for a quick replacement:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.ph ... eplacement

The second part of that article is so depressing as somone from England.

Formula e is flourishing with such great events in America, France, Germany etc and here in England we're trying to crowd fund a legal challenge to block it for short sighted selfish reasons.
You can use the freaking park for 50 other weeks of the year, eff off with your nimbyism.
Awful portrayal of British closed mindedness on the world stage.

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

To be fair if you're going to run an event of this kind in a public park, you cannot exclude the public from going into those parts of the park which are not used by the event, which if I understand things correctly, is what f-e did last year, plus the amount of money they did charge for entry, made the event impossible to attend for the locals, so it's no surprise someone's back has been put up.

They have the old backup plan anyway or running the event around the docklands area, which is privately owned, it would probably make a better track too.

I kind of want them to purchase Battersea Park out of spite and prevent those dunderheaded morons from ever being able to use it.

When they first started their campaign they were posting about the polluting engines of the cars around Battersea park before someone quietly whispered into their ears exactly what Formula E was it quickly changed to the disruption and the pollution of the lorries etc.
They don't even know what they're protesting against they just want to be classic NIMBYs

Most people when they hear that a park or public space is closed for an event, be it a music festival, marathon, sports event or whatever, just say "oh well, can't go there this week, I'll come back next week instead"
These people (though I'm keeping to my theory it's just one furious guy with a twitter account-and one with only just over 400 followers in nearly 2 years kinda shows it's not really a huge issue for most people) demand 24/7 access to the park just in case they have a whim to go there that week.
Park's in frickin London fella, just go to another one slightly further away that weekend. Not a massive ballache and maybe the benefits of having a worldwide event on your doorstep will pay for the upkeep of it all year round.

Giant to all of them.

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

I understand your frustration (and agree he just sounds like a single NIMBY) but concerts don't close entire parks, we had a big one in our local park last year and they only closed off about half of it, the rest was open for GP use, our park is about half the size of Battersea.

LOL at them moaning about pollution of the racing cars haha

Racing courses tend to be bigger than concert venues though (think of all the race tracks that host concerts on a *portion* of the grounds. ). Battersea Park at 0.8 square km is pretty small, and the Formula E track is pretty much a circle around the entire perimeter of the park.

To use the Indycar St. Petersburg GP as an example (just because that's where I'm from), while most areas are pretty much accessible right up until race weekend, the garage area (aka the Mahaffey Theater parking garage) is closed for pretty much a week during the event, which can affect concert schedules there. I think the Dali museum in the middle of the course also reduces activities.

It sounds like Battersea Park is closed entirely for a week as well and that's probably because it's small.

In St. Pete, most are fine with the race these days because St. Petersburg gets a nice dose of exposure and business from it. In the past, there was more grumbling, but more on inconvenience reasons... the city is pretty good at working with business and resident concerns IMHO. A 5K run through the course on Friday even takes advantage of the fact that all the streets are walled off.

It's going to be a much tougher deal if (as it sounds like in this case) you have a bunch of people protesting because they don't want this event for more emotion-driven reasons ("keep the park pure", "save the park", etc.). I guess the Chelsea area has no businesses that would benefit from a Formula E race? I guess one side or the other isn't open to compromise in any way? *shrug*

True, the area Battersea is in is surrounded by council estates, yeah it's being regenerated but it's still a shithole filled mostly with chavs. They'd be better off running it around either the City or Buck house, maybe even just run round Parliament square, up to Speakers Corner past Downing Street then back down the back, it would certainly provide a better backdrop and they could dump the pits in Horse Guards Parade or The Mall.

All those streets are regularly closed for events, most of them were shut for the Marathon on Sunday (although the locals nicked the water, so if it's not tied down, don't expect it to be there at the end of the event).

Actually thinking about it, Blackpool or Brighton would be better, London is just one massive shithole with billionaire's living a stones throw away from the homeless, it's not a very good advert for GB.

Coventry could be a good shout, we already have a semi-street race around the ring road...

https://coventrymotofest.com/

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

I saw a reply to the water being 'nicked'. Apparently after the marathon the public can come and take the water bottles.

After being the operative word there.

Moscow has been dropped

got my ticket for the Berlin today, 42€, grandstand at T2/T3.

Shame, there might be a russian driver out of work very soon....

Maybe for next season?

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Dunno what you mean. Vitaly Petrov was out of work a long time ago.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Hey, look at Mr Richpants right there. In Paris, we pay 22€ to stand up on flat ground behind fences and billboards.




How much did they charge?

IIRC it was £25 per day plus booking fee, so for a typical 2.5 British family you were looking at £75-£100 to stare at the back of a VISA sign.

For most people around there, that's a months food bill (it's easy to forget, or overlook that only a small portion of London is made up of wealthy people, and the other 99% are people living from hand to mouth, or simply under a bridge).

This year they're doing a £15 early bird offer until the end of this month (each day), but I personally still feel this is poor value for money, £10 would be a more realistic figure to throw out there if you want the locals to turn up (although the idea is they don't want them).

Alright, I was guilty of that, probably because all people I know who went there were finance mofos working in the City. Also, the insane real estate/rents and general pricing over there gives that illusion. It's probably the same for anyone coming to Paris as a tourist and seeing it as glamour and romance all around. It's only partially true.

As a still childless guy, I also forget about those pesky lil brats that are a fixed cost with no income. Tickets seem cheap but if there's no family pack it gets ridiculous indeed. I feel privileged now, thank you very much for the guilt

Yeah Battersea is in Wandsworth and it has three massive housing estates in, plus many smaller ones, I haven't been up there for a few years but when I had to for work I had to drive through the area and it was a case of after dark you closed all windows, locked all doors and didn't stop for anything, they are 'regenerating' the area but in reality all this is doing is evicting the chavs (and rehousing them further out) and building new posh flats that are immediately bought up by Arabs or Chinese and stand empty for years.

My old business partner bought a flat round there for £175k about 8 years ago as hush money for some Hungarian bit of skirt he'd knocked up and she sold it a couple of years ago for nearly £2Mil.