Ms. Susan Moffat has been one of the most vocal and influential opponents of the Formula 1 project. I believe it is important to acknowledge the many positive things she has done for the city, and in her objections to Formula 1, she did bring up many valid points. I applaud her due diligence and tenacity. Last week Susan stated that SXSW has become the well-known festival it is today without any sort of incentives from the state, and she is correct.
However, I must wonder whether her motives in opposing the track are purely altruistic, or if they are in no small part motivated by envy and resentment that SXSW has not received the same kind of attention that is being given to Formula 1. Your vote today is not about SXSW. Is it really fair to compare a multi-venue music festival with attendees scattered throughout existing locations in the city to one large multi-purpose venue? While SXSW does employ people, many if not most of the SXSW staff are volunteers, and the staff at the venues where the music festival is held are employed not directly by SXSW, but by the hotels, bars, and restaurants who are open throughout the year and would be even without SXSW. Certainly SXSW brings in money to the city from a large international audience. However, it does not create many full time jobs or increase property values.
The Circuit of the Americas facility will create many jobs, not just in the construction phase, but also in the ongoing maintenance, as well as jobs centered around the many events that will take place there. As I stated last week, just the whispers of a track being built here in Austin have been enough to spur some entrepreneurial residents to go out and create companies and organizations that are already creating jobs and economic benefits above and beyond what a race weekend will bring to the city. We saw many examples of that last week, myself included.
Much has been said about putting money into the pockets of out of town billionaires, but little has been said about how much these same billionaires are investing in Austin. If the project fails, they are the ones who have put their personal fortunes at risk, not the city. They are the ones who deserve to reap the rewards. To focus negative attention on Bernie Ecclestone and Formula 1 is to fail to see the larger picture. The Circuit of the Americas is much larger than one race, and for F1 to bear the entire burden of the facility when it will be creating an ongoing benefit for the entire state is unfair. Austin and the State of Texas should be rallying for this new development, and honestly I feel that Austin is getting preferential treatment by not bearing a part of the risk as well. It has been said that opportunity knocks once. I hope the city council will answer the door.
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