Boston GP failed because only a very few tickets sold (Update)

IndyCar continues to get a black eye from their failed Boston GP

UPDATE Nearly a year after the Boston Grand Prix folded, several hundred ticket buyers are still owed refunds while newly released documents show the bankrupt promoters of the IndyCar race are blaming the ticket fiasco on a prominent fundraising firm that worked for Gov. Charlie Baker’s campaign.

A total of just 1,180 ticket buyers have received refunds through Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, which negotiated a deal with the national IndyCar organization to pony up $925,000 to pay for refunds.

Those ticket buyers got back a total of $700,000, according to a spokeswoman for Healey’s office. Another 300 ticket holders are still owed money. They did not respond to letters from the AG’s office notifying them that refunds were available, a Healey spokeswoman said.

The new figures provided to the Herald confirm that the promoters and the city vastly overstated support for the race. The promoters claimed at one point they had sold 22,000 tickets. But the actual number of ticket buyers was about 3,600, according to bankruptcy records. Some race fans bought multiple tickets, but it still doesn’t approach the estimates the Grand Prix claimed.

The collapse of the race has become a major political liability for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the chief IndyCar cheerleader who is now up for re-election.

Newly released documents also show the Grand Prix alleges that Boston crowdfunding website fundraise.com, which handled Baker’s campaign fundraising, was hired partly because of its political and insider connections.

“After checking FR’s references, including their touting of their work for the campaign of Governor Charles Baker, BGP entered into the agreements with FR," said the attorney for Boston Grand Prix, Michael J. Goldberg, in a letter to the Attorney General’s office.

The letter was written last year but just publicly released by the AG’s office.

The merchant agreement with fundraise.com “played a substantial role in exposing Massachusetts consumers to risk" because it did not hold money in reserve when the race collapsed, Goldberg wrote. Joe Battenfeld/Boston Herald

Bostonians have zero interest in race cars

04/07/17 We predicted that New Englanders would have near zero interest in an IndyCar race. The new figures provided to the Boston Herald confirm that the promoters and the city vastly overstated support for the race. The promoters claimed at one point they had sold 22,000 tickets. But the actual number of ticket buyers was about 3,600, according to bankruptcy records. Some race fans bought multiple tickets, but it still doesn’t approach the estimates the Grand Prix claimed.

The collapse of the race has become a major political liability for Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the chief IndyCar cheerleader who is now up for re-election, and for IndyCar itself which has had its name tarnished yet again..