F1 to take $3.3B loan

According to an article in Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal, Formula One is close to borrowing $3.3B according to financial sources. By comparison the NFL has borrowing commitments of $2B and the NY Jets and Giants are borrowing $1.3B to build their new football stadium in the Meadowlands of NJ.

Of the $3.3B, $1B will be to refinance the debt taken to purchase F1 last year by CVC Capital Partners. The remainder it is assumed will be used to help F1 expand in Asia as well as fund the acquisitions of a hospitality firm and a marketing company F1 announced last year.

F1 is so huge it generates an estimated $4B per year in broadcast and licensing revenue alone and its cumulative TV viewership for the year tops 1/2 billion worldwide. Bloomberg reported last November that F1's net income (profit) in 2005 was $312M.

"The reason F1 works is because it has the largest worldwide reach beyond the Olympics and World Cup soccer," motorsports consultant Tim Frost to SportsBusiness Journal. "In addition, you have new markets that are really trying to get into it and will pay to receive it. You have incredible investments by Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Turkey" (not to mention Valencia and Singapore.)