CoTA to draw more than 1M fans by May

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin will not be able to breathe easy for long after November’s inaugural Formula One race. Three other racing events in the months to follow could have almost as many fans come to town.

Officials have estimated the F1 event will draw 300,000 people to the Southeast Travis County site over the three-day period. Now, new records detail estimated attendance for V8 Supercars , MotoGP and Grand-Am races taking place February through May.

Mass Gathering Permit applications filed by the Circuit of The Americas in the past week for those races include transportation and public safety plans nearly identical to the massive undertaking now in the works for F1. Travis County officials said they will not approve the applications, until CoTA provides specific plans for each event.

Circuit Chairman Bobby Epstein told a crowd at Sunday's grand opening that those events could help bring as many as one million people the area annually.

• The Grand-Am auto event will take place Feb. 28 through March 3. Promoters estimate a maximum attendance of 300,000 during those four days.
• The MotoGP motorcycle event will take place April 19 - 21. Promoters estimate a maximum attendance of 225,000 during those four days.
• The V8 Supercars auto event will take place May 17 - 19. Promoters estimate a maximum attendance of 300,000 during those three days.

One of CoTA’s traffic solutions – a two-thirds mile extension of Kellam Road – is still under construction, and Travis County officials said it would most likely be available for traffic a week before the F1 race. Currently unpaved, the route would eventually add three more lanes as an additional entrance to the track.

The Mass Gathering Permit has been a controversial subject for CoTA in recent months. State law requires such a permit for a large event like F1 as a health and safety check-and-balance. Promoters are technically required to apply for the document before marketing or ticket sales begin, which was not the case with F1.

CoTA has since filed for and been granted F1’s permit, and county officials did not impose any penalties for the delay.

Similarly, CoTA began selling tickets in recent weeks for the MotoGP and V8 Supercars events, though they did not submit an application for their mass gathering permits until last Friday. CoTA also applied for the Grand-Am event’s permit at that time.

County engineers said the permits might not be necessary in the near future, as the City of Austin is currently considering annexation of the race site. The city would not legally need such a permit, and the county would likely still play a large role in the planning process.

Shortly after F1’s permit was approved during the summer, County Judge Sam Biscoe questioned whether the state’s mass gatherings law should apply to permanent sites like the circuit, but instead only to temporary gatherings.

Biscoe said he “intended to make sure someone” addressed the matter with the Texas Legislature in the upcoming session which begins in January. So far, his office has not responded to requests for an update on the matter.