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West Michigan Sports Commission


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People definitely mingled around inside the circuit, just like a festival atmosphere. In fact, it was better NOT to be in the stands I thought, because you could move around and catch different vantage points, which totally changed the tempo of the race. If you wanted to watch the cars hit the straightaway at 100 mph or so down Fulton, you went to that area. If you wanted to see cars moving through some treacherous chicanes (Pearl, Campau, Monroe, Louis, Ottawa, Fountain, Ionia and back down to Fulton), then there were areas to see that. That's where a lot of the crashes were. :shades:

It was definitely loud though, especially with a few of the vintage cars. :shok:

The Taste of GR in the BOB parking lot was an excellent addition. It's hard to believe the Monroe Center parking ramp (at Louis and Ottawa) was not there at the time. It was cool crossing the pedestrian overpasses that were built from the outer area into the inner area. And then they had all kinds of events, like D&W (?) or Meijer had a kids tent where the Marriott is going up now, KLQ had one of those skydiving simulators, bungee jumping, gyroscopes (I think), and a bunch of other activities.

It was great IMO!

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i remember the grand prix, i was going through driver's training at the time and my teacher guy took us around the dt route for our practice session and was like " they gotta seal the sewers or they'll fly off." i went hoping to see a sewer lid fly off but had a blast seeing cars rumbling through dt.

was it a sponsor issue? lack of fan/civil support that killed the grand prix for the third year?

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i remember the grand prix, i was going through driver's training at the time and my teacher guy took us around the dt route for our practice session and was like " they gotta seal the sewers or they'll fly off." i went hoping to see a sewer lid fly off but had a blast seeing cars rumbling through dt.

was it a sponsor issue? lack of fan/civil support that killed the grand prix for the third year?

I think it was a bit of both. A lot of downtown businesses (non-restaurant) objected to it because of the disruption. I can't remember who the lead sponsor was (Maybe Dad remembers) but I think they also pulled out after year two.

I had forgotten about the sewer covers. I remember they had guys tig welding them down all week. I always thought that was pretty amazing.

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i remember the grand prix, i was going through driver's training at the time and my teacher guy took us around the dt route for our practice session and was like " they gotta seal the sewers or they'll fly off." i went hoping to see a sewer lid fly off but had a blast seeing cars rumbling through dt.

was it a sponsor issue? lack of fan/civil support that killed the grand prix for the third year?

It was not a government issue. The race had been approved for 3 years, so it had rights to at least one more season. The Long Beach California Grand Prix, which is also a street circuit, celebrated its 30th anniversary last year.

It was not a fan issue, although more fans would have helped. Ticket sales were at projections and price points were acceptable to the fans.

It was a sponsor issue. There were many great local companies that sponsored the event, Johnson Controls, Dodge, Purple East, Country Fresh, and many, many others paid dearly to have their names displayed around the track. The 3rd year, however, could not produce a major sponsor and the economics depended on those dollars.

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i wonder then if as the GR economy slowly makes an upturn if we could see the GR Grand Prix again in 5-10 yrs?

i also wonder if the sports commission would look into becoming an mls expansion city -- it seems that u.s viewership of the sport is also on the rise....

"Viewership is even giving some established sports here a run for its money this month.

The England-Ecuador match that Beckham won with one of his patented "bending" shots did almost as well as the Nascar race that day, even though it started early that morning, a far less favorable viewing time.

Yes, the U.S.-Italy match on June 17 was the most-watched World Cup contest so far. But interest here is no longer a parochial curiosity. Don't be surprised if the final game of this year's cup is watched by more than the 6.7 million U.S. homes that watched the 1-1 tie that day."

Per an article from CNN.com.

To me anyway, it would make sense to add a major league level team that Detroit doesn't have yet as to not split the fan bases.

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Now that would just be asking for mile-long traffic backups xD

I wish I had seen the races.... does anybody have any video or pictures of the cars racing thru the curvier areas... esp. along Campau?

Here are a bunch of pictures I found online:

http://members.tripod.com/ic_spots/WMGPrix.htm

They also had a couple of heats of motorcycles races. The "pit" and winners circle was right in front of the Arena. Hospitality tents filled the Market/Fulton lot, as did the general stands.

Here's another I found, but I'm not sure from where it was taken:

spo_grandprix.jpg

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  • 4 months later...
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I was one of the attendees at the Peter Secchia called meeting today. A wonderful report was submitted by the GR/Kent County CVB. The handout was nice, the food was nice, but is the commission needed? Could we really persuade the NCAA and other amateur organization, to choose us? I hope so...but... Does anyone have thoughts? I would love to sow time and dollars into it. Is the ground ready for sowing? Is the City a thorn waiting to hinder growth?
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