Date conflict could force Toronto change
02/24/07 A reader writes, But the suggestion that the Toronto race could just swap dates with Edmonton or St. Jovite is ridiculous. They point out that there are TV commitments that can't be arbitrarily changed, but there is a lot more involved than that. There are travel plans and hotel arrangements for thousands of fans. For example, our airfare to Edmonton is non-refundable. I can change the date for $100 a ticket penalty, but that puts us, personally, out $200 if the Edmonton race were a different date. And I won't be able to get the same low car rental rate in March for July that I got last November for July.
How about our friends who have agreed to rent a chateau for ten people at St. Jovite for race weekend. Will the owner of that property agree to a full refund if the race doesn't run that weekend? Not likely. And is that arrangement available on the alternate race weekend or are they starting from zero to replace arrangements they made months ago.
There are tens of thousands of fans making plans to travel to these races, most of whom would be out money if there was a date change 90-120 days before the race.
And then there are the race organizers. They have been working since the race last year to have all the pieces in place on SPECIFIC DATES this year. All of the components of those arrangements that require having the right pieces or people in the right place at the right time would have to be redone with new dates. That might not be possible with only a 4 month instead of a 12 month window to get it done. At the very least there is a significant cost for the time to redo all of the logistical arrangements to hold a race at a given location on a given date. Marshall Hunt
02/24/07 The popular Champ Car race is set for Sunday, July 8, the same day of an opening-round doubleheader for FIFA's international soccer tournament at BMO Field, Toronto's new stadium at Exhibition Place…
There is also a soccer game scheduled for July 5, the day that Grand Prix organizers plan to have their track fully set up for their prerace media event.
"Most people are genuinely shocked when I tell them that this [scheduling problem] has happened," said Toronto Grand Prix spokesperson Shannon Davidson…
However, Bruce Thomas, the site chair of the under-20 World Cup, said that neither his group nor race officials were informed about the conflict until eight weeks ago. Thomas said he doubted that a solution can be found that will keep both groups of fans happy. Related Globe and Mail article from December so this is not new news
[Editor's Note: It would not be difficult for Champ Car to swap the Toronto date with Edmonton or Mont Tremblant, but they better do it soon. We think the two entities will work out a solution for crowd control.]