Tickets for Sochi Grand Prix go on sale

Tickets for the Russian leg of Formula 1 Grand Prix to be held on October 12 in Sochi went on sale on Friday, May 30. Within the first few two days, about 20 percent of tickets were already sold, Sergey Vorobyev, deputy director of Omega, which is organizing the event, told Vedomosti. The tickets, he said, have gone to private individuals, with “a considerable number” of applications for group trips also being processed. Demand in the corporate segment is also high, according to Vorobyev, with “thousands” of tickets sold to meet orders from companies.

The Sochi track is ready to receive 46,000 spectators. Overall, during the race weekend, in Vorobyev's estimate, the Sochi Olympic Park, where the main race and the other Grand Prix events (support races, and concerts) will be held, will be visited by some 100,000 people. The organizers expect around 20 percent of them to come from abroad.

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“After the peak demand on Friday [the day when the tickets went on sale], we have seen a constantly rising number of tickets sold and we are absolutely convinced that all the tickets will be sold out well ahead of the event,” Vorobyev said. Earlier, the promoter announced that by April 20, it had received more than 30,000 pre-orders, most of which were for two to three tickets each.

The construction cost of the Formula 1 track works out to 11 billion roubles (around $314 million), the head of the track construction directorate at Omega, Gennady Sayenko, said earlier. “Our main business objective for the Grand Prix is to make sure that the operation is not loss-making,” Vorobyev said. After first the two editions of the Grand Prix, the Russian promoter, seeks “to fully cover the operational costs” through the sale of tickets, sponsorships and client services, he added.

The payback period for the track and license payments is considerably longer: one could discuss the recovery of these costs after conducting two races and operating the track for a year, Vorobyev said.

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Tickets for the Sochi race are available on the promoter's official website: http://sochiautodrom.ru/en/tickets. There are 7,000 tickets for the General Admission Area at 5,000 rubles ($143); over 8,000 tickets for the Main Grandstand at 23,000 to 28,000 roubles ($657-800); 23,000 tickets for Temporary Grandstands at 11,000 to 17,000 roubles ($314-485); over 3,000 tickets for the VIP Hospitality area starting at 108,000 roubles ($3,085); and 5,000 tickets for the Paddock Club at about 212,000 roubles ($6,057).

First published in Russian in Vedomosti.

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