IndyCar To Contribute $925,000 As Part Of Settlement For Canceled Grand Prix Of Boston

IndyCar and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on Thursday announced an agreement for the governing body to "provide $925,000 to ticket buyers still waiting for refunds" from the canceled Grand Prix of Boston, according to a front-page piece by Mark Arsenault of the BOSTON GLOBE. Healey on Thursday also filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court against the Grand Prix of Boston and company President & CEO John Casey, "seeking additional money to fully refund the remainder" of the roughly $1.67M owed to ticket holders. Arsenault notes about 4,000 people "bought tickets to the event before race plans collapsed in late April." Some customers received refunds and others "successfully initiated chargebacks with their credit card providers to remove the ticket costs from their accounts." The AG's office will "determine which ticket buyers are still waiting to be repaid, and then decide how to disburse the money provided by IndyCar" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/8). ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass noted the state lawsuit "alleges that when tickets went on sale in March, Casey knew he still needed to obtain permits to comply" with a Seaport District flood plan "in order to have the race." The confirmation that came with the ticket sales "guaranteed a refund if the event was canceled." The Grand Prix of Boston in its bankruptcy filing this week said that it "prepaid IndyCar $487,500 for the race." IndyCar said that it is owed as much as $4.2M (ESPN.com, 7/7). In Boston, Donna Goodison notes Healey had "threatened to sue IndyCar before the settlement was reached." An IndyCar spokesperson "stressed it did not sell race tickets or receive ticket revenue and had no legal or contractual obligations to cover ticket refunds" (BOSTON HERALD, 7/8).