Just watching the end of the Indy 500. Not everybody's cup of tea, but those buggers drive seriously fast and in close proximity. Anyway, one of the little snippets I picked up - there's 250,000 seats (that'a a quarter of a million fer crissakes!). I wonder how they get there and back> Perhaps Wembley could learn from it.

-- Anonymous, May 28, 2000

Answers

They really should have built it in the middle of Washington DC. That's the way it's done everywhere you know?

-- Anonymous, May 28, 2000

Buy One Get One For Free!

-- Anonymous, May 28, 2000

I once had a weekday business lunch at the "Speedway" bowl at Charlotte in North Carolina. "Speedway" is their term for the Indy car stuff. We were on the home straight, on the 5th floor of the main stand, glass fronted, air-conditioned place. It was 96F outside, perfect inside.

We were given the history of the place and told the capacity was 150,000 but when they put a stand up on the far side it would be 250,000. Awesome it was. The track was a 1.25 mile oval that they just went round and round. There was some testing going on while we were there and they seemed ever so slow until we timed a lap at just under 30 seconds.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2000

Screacher - you`ve just reminded me of something else that we have had to postpone for this year. I`ve been bleating on about not going to the Shih-Tzu National Show in the States this week, and had forgotten that Pete and I had decided to start our holiday in Indianapolis for the 500 before going to St.Louis. Oh well, if you can wait another year, I will be able to give you a first hand account of how the event is organised! First suggestions would be that it is on the outskirts, and as space is not at a premium in the big country, I guess they can accommodate as many as they like. Even with a capacity of 250,000 (and my husband who is looking over my shoulder as I write this says a crowd of 500,000 was mentioned)the tickets are very difficult to get, and it is a sell out way in advance of the event! (:o)

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2000

Gal - I had the figure "500,000" in the back of my mind, but just incase it was the usual "alcohol induced" imagination, I checked out there website. It says 250,000 permanent seats, so I guess the rest might be deck chairs or something!

They're building a GP track in the middle to host the US GP. Tickets are already sold out for the inaugral 2001 race! Oh BTW - they only cost $35. Thirty five bucks!! Cheaper to fly there from here than to buy a ticket for practice in a European GP. Bah!

The web site www.indy500.com has a canny "virtual reality" section. You can view the track from one of 8 places and "move" the camera left , right, up or down. Well, it was interesting when there was no racing going on!

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2000

Screacher - Thanks for the info! Those ticket prices are obscenely low aren`t they! The Indy thing is a carrot really to persuade Pete to take me to the US - purely incidental that it will tie up nicely with the Dog thing! I enjoy motor racing though, but I would say that I prefer bikes to cars - much more excitement and action - usually. I shall be really wifely and call up the web site for Pete to have a look at - creep or what!? (:o)

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2000

Yes, relative ticket prices are interesting. Our seats - decent, but certainly not the best - at the AZ Diamondbacks baseball game a few weeks ago were $16 each ,ie #10.
For comparison, my SJP season tickets (very good seats) for 2000/01 will cost the equivalent of #25 per game, ie. approx. $38, or more than double that for the baseball game!
Actually, of greater concern to me is #42 it cost me to 'fill up' with petrol this morning - now that IS a bloody disgrace, and totally unjustifiable IMHO!!

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2000

Clarky - did you find that when you mention the cost of living in the UK to our American cousins - particularly petrol - the just look at you slack jawed? (:o)

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2000

Absolutely. They actually find it difficult to comprehend.
It was either syme or Pete-in-Canada on here recently who said he just couldn't understand how we make ends meet over here given the high cost of living combined with generally lower wages/salaries.
Petrol is now close to triple the cost over here!!
I guess the answer is a generally lower overall standard of living, which arguably is partially offset by quality of life considerations. IMO, this argument could go either way depending on what elements you were actually considering.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2000

It would be interesting to know how much of the cost of a gallon in the states is creamed off as tax. Sounds like it has to be a bliddy sight less than here.

I think over here it's just another manifestation of the car price thingy - we must be just about the softest touch in the world for these greedy moneygrabbing multi national bastadrs - oil companies being among the greediest and least pricipled.

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2000

A huge chunk of UK petrol price is tax. It's all because of the poxy size of our great country, and the measures needed to reduce the number of cars on the road. Our local environment can't sustain the car culture.

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2000

Eco Warrior,

Then perhaps our visionary leaders should focus seriously on creating a 'no compromise' alternative by utilising the billions they are reaping through increasingly extortionate taxes on the motorist!
Taxing the cr@p out of motorists is purely and simply an easy way of raising taxes - and grotesquely coexists with continuing vascillation over the provision of even basic safety systems on our antiquated and unsafe rail system. Any supposed eco-rational for these motoring taxes is total bollox.

Steps down from soap-box.....

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2000

Oh I agree Clarky. But the pro-car Thatcherist juggernaut will take some time to turn around, and the beefing up the alternative modes of transport could just be a bottomless pit if money is thrown at it willy-nilly. Anyway, this is where I step down, in case anyone starts asking clever questions and works out that I really don't know what I'm talking about...

-- Anonymous, May 30, 2000