Sachsenring GP 2017 – The worst fears have come true. The Sachsenring GP 2017 generated a loss of 0.9 million dollars. Now Promoter SRM must be rescued with cash injections. For years Wolfgang Streubel spoke of a black zero in connection with the Sachsenring GP business. But soon his Sachsenring Rennstrecken-Management GmbH (SRM) was in the chalk with liabilities of around 1.2 million dollars. The high costs on the only non-permanent motorcycle GP track could only be collected by the ADAC Saxony when Dorna (until 2011) demanded a reduced fee of 1.7 million.
Sachsenring GP 2017
When the amount for 2012 was raised to 3 million, ADAC Sachsen quit as a promoter. The SRM stepped in. And it continued to do so when the fee for 2017 and the four years after that was increased to 4 million dollars. Due to this growth in the price of tickets for 2017, admission prices had to be raised by 30 percent, and the spectators stayed at home. On three days, 47,610 fewer spectators came in than in the previous year. The SRM blamed the postponement of the date from July 16th to July 2nd, which was dictated by Dorna in the first week of December.
Advertising campaign
For years, the deficit was then covered by the advertising campaign “So get Sächsisch” with subsidies from the Free State of Saxony, but after paying over 2 million, the opposition uncovered these illegal subsidies. They were incompatible with EU law. The SRM, therefore, got deeper and deeper into the financial mess, and a doubling of the capital cover by Sparkasse Chemnitz in August 2016 could not change this. Dorna, FIM, and ADAC were already looking for alternatives for 2018 in case the SRM could no longer financially shoulder the German GP in 2018. Franco Uncini, therefore, inspected the Nürburgring as FIM Safety Officer on August 21st.
Financial problems
Then the seriousness of the situation was recognized in Saxony. Everything went fast. SRM Managing Director Wolfgang Streubel had a look at the Misano-GP a week ago, saying that a solution to the Sachsenring GP 2017 financial problems was in the offing in Saxony. He had to agree to the rebuilding and defusing of curve 11. It must be raised outside by half a meter. The entire gravel bed must also be raised. That was Uncini’s unequivocal demand at the Misano meeting.
A minus of 900,000 dollars from tax money
It is now clear how the funding gap around the GP will be closed by Germany. And losing 2017 was defined more. The Grand Prix has concluded with a considerable minus of approx. 900,000 dollars. This glaring shortfall is painful because the SRM shareholders are municipalities in neighboring communities such as Oberlungwitz, Hohenstein-Ernstthal, and Gersdorf and the rural district, which are kept alive with tax money. Until the amount of debt and the rescue plan became known, those involved, such as Lars Kluge (CDU), Lord Mayor of Hohenstein-Ernstthal, and District Administrator Christoph Scheurer (CDU), repeatedly refused to make concrete statements about the future of SRM.
Sachsenring Road Safety Centre (VSZ)
Now they were talking plainly. The Sparkasse Chemnitz savings bank is to step into the breach with 400,000 dollars. The Sachsenring Road Safety Centre (VSZ) is to contribute another 500,000 dollars to the SRM’s financial recovery. In addition to ADAC Sachsen, the VSZ’s shareholders include the administrative district with a 16 percent shareholding. The contracts have not yet been signed, but they are in principle signed, reports the “Freie Presse.”This puts us out of the woods,” says Jan Hippold (CDU), head of the SRM supervisory board and member of parliament. Ruben Zeltner, Managing Director of the VSZ: “It is a sign that our region stands together.” The business purpose for which Sparkasse Chemnitz and VSZ are delivering these 900,000 dollars and what is expected to be the equivalent has not yet been leaked.”
“We don’t know what to expect”
Before that, Saxony’s Finance State Secretary Jens Spahn (CDU) had met with mayors of the region and Marco Wanderwitz (CDU), member of the Bundestag, at the clubhouse in Oberlungwitz for an explosive meeting. It was about the so-called team and driver tax, which Sachsenring Rennstrecken Management GmbH (SRM) has to deliver annually to the tax authorities. Wolfgang Streubel (Kommunale Wählergemeinschaft) addressed Jens Spahn on the topic. Since 2014, the SRM has been waiting for a similar tax assessment from the Federal Central Tax Office, Streubel stresses. “We don’t know what to expect,” he complained to Spahn. Since 2014, SRM has hovered around 150,000 dollars annually for the team and driver tax to be paid. Wolfgang Streu fears, however, that the Federal Central Office could well demand twice as much tax as the SRM has set aside reserves.
