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Keeping it Off The Wall |
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Rio held hostage |
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"…'king pole-a-teeshuns!" (f***king politicians! an derivation on the expletive Emmo was overheard saying years ago trying to lap Hiro Matsushita) "What's that, Emmo? You're starting to break up again…and breaking up is hard to do," I said. "…'king cell phones and pole-a-teeshuns! Everything was going fon-tos-tick until those pole-a-teeshuns realized that they could make a buck on our event if they stick in their noses," Emmo clarified. The Brazilian O Globo newspaper had just reported that the financial conflicts surrounding this event are, again, listed in the "unsettled" column. The City of Rio de Janeiro passed a measure that took effect on January 1, 2001 authorizing "added" fees to be collected by the city in order for the CART event to receive the City Council's final approval. Additionally, Rio's City Council and its recently re-elected Mayor, Cesar Maia, have indicated that they will not pay any CART sanctioning fees in excess of the $1.2 million that was originally assessed by CART for the inaugural Rio race in 1996. Just the previous day Emerson Fittipaldi and his fellow race promoters had been optimistic that a compromise had finally been reached. The State Governor, Anthony Garotinho, had offered $2 million of state funds to save the event. That amount, however, was judged to be in excess of the legal limit of what a state or municipality is permitted to contribute. "The city and state hope to unite private and public entities to pay the full amount," commented City Attorney Julio Rebello Horta. Furthermore, Horta believes that the promoters will now either have to go to court in order to resolve the stalemate or, perhaps, find the funds needed to bail out the event from CART sponsors. Obviously, that means Brazilian CART sponsors. There is speculation among Brazilian "pole-a-teeshuns" that $15 million or so should do the trick. You might think that a big, profitable sponsor company like Hollywood Cigarettes would pony up with that kind of dough in order to insure that their teams and drivers - and the rest of the large Brazilian CART contingent, for that matter - could continue racing in their homeland. But when you realize that they are already close to being that many dollars out-of-pocket for their annual participation in the FedEx Championship Series it puts this whole sordid hostage crisis into its proper perspective. "…'king pole-a-teeshuns! Where are we supp-hosed to find $15 million? At the rate that our attendance has been going in Rio we would have to charge an average price of $428 per ticket…just to cover the ransom money. How could we ever break even?'' Emmo lamented. "I hate to admit this about Brazil but, these days, it is filled with cor-oop-shun." Suddenly, even the so-called Brazilionaires find themselves in a much bigger quandary than merely having to worry about whether Tarso Marques or Gualter Salles can secure enough sponsorship to buy a ride in our "American" series. Suddenly, even the #1 Brazilian optimist, Emerson Fittipaldi, can't squeeze enough oranges or sell enough custom wheels and cigars to keep up with the "rate of inflation" in his mother country. Having a disproportionate number of Brazilians in our beloved speed sport could be very harmful to CART if the money should ever stop flowing out of that country. Perhaps we have finally been given a non-xenophobic reason to push for increased American participation, or at least less Brazilian participation, in Champ Car racing. Contact Ed Donath via e-mail: speedwriter@hotmail.com Go to our forums to discuss this article Comments can be sent to the AutoRacing1 at contacts@autoracing1.com. |
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