A Roof Above Us

Liberty Media scored a PR coup in working with Ferrari and finding the distraught six-year-old who had been in tears after Kimi Raikkonen’s early Dustin Brown Womens Jersey exit from the race. Thomas Danel from Amiens in France was brought to the motorhome to meet his hero Raikkonen and there were smiles all round. His mother, Coralie Danel, was hugely impressed:“This has been the most fantastic day for us. We could not believe it when they came to get us and took us to Ferrari,” she said. “This is great for fans like us, it really makes F1 and all of its people come alive. Brilliant.”

It is significant in that it is something that would almost certainly not have happened during the Bernie Ecclestone era but Liberty are aware of the importance of social media and the child’s meeting with Raikkonen created massive interest. They have also committed to improving the fans’ experience and took various initiatives at the race to promote what they described as a “fan festival”. It is straightforward stuff, of course, but these are areas that the previous owners ignored for profit reasons while Liberty are starting to make good on some of http://www.officialkingsteamstore.com/Dwight_King_Jerseytheir initial promises. Lewis Hamilton triumphs in Spanish duel with Vettel to set up F1 season Read more … And yet: new owners, same old story On the other side of the coin, Liberty made it clear that feelgood moments for fans are not going to interfere with their pursuit of the bottom line. F1’s chief executive, Chase Carey, was in Spain and he met with John Grant, the chairman of the British Racing Drivers’ Club who own Silverstone, who this year had expressed fears the circuit would have to stop hosting the British Grand Prix due to it becoming financially unsustainable. Their Jake Muzzin Youth Jersey contract, which began at ￡12m in 2010, is set to rise to ￡26m by 2027.

The BRDC had warned it could trigger a break clause to opt out of the contract after the 2019 race but had been buoyed by the initial responses of the new owners and were optimistic that there would be some form of renegotiation. Carey was having none of it in Barcelona. “We will not be renegotiating the contract,” he said. “We value Silverstone and we want the race to be a success and will work with them to help achieve that, but we won’t be redoing agreements that were previously concluded in good faith between two parties. Silverstone made money last year.” This is a key point in how the new owners are going to run the business. Silverstone cannot sell any more tickets, it is as successful a weekend as F1 has in numbers and it is very hard to see what could be done for it to make more money to cover the increasing costs. Liberty talk of putting on rock concerts and the like to attract more fans but Silverstone simply http://www.officialcardinalsbaseball.com/authentic-21-brandon-moss-jersey.html does not need that – it has the fans but it needs a break financially. It is one area where Liberty seem decidedly to be still using the old F1 model

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