Circuit of the Americas is expecting attendance of at least 30,000 for Sunday's inaugural NTT IndyCar Series race there, track Chair Bobby Epstein told THE DAILY. COTA this year is hosting IndyCar for the first time, and Epstein said that sales are about on pace for where the track was expecting to be for the event. On top of its grandstand seating, the track has retrofitted part of its infield paddock that F1 typically uses and turned it into 80 infield camping spots. Epstein said of sales for Sunday: "It’s got to be over 30,000, but it'll depend on the walkup. We're right about where we expected to be. ... Over three to five years, it'll grow like MotoGP has." The circuit will also hold a concert Saturday with English rock band Muse. As far as the race itself, there has been some social media chatter about how much faster F1 cars are at COTA than IndyCar -- but Epstein says he is expecting IndyCar to put on as good, if not better, of a show than F1 does there. He said: "You're going to have more cars here in this race, and I think they're going to be much closer together. With F1, you have six cars that tend to crush the competition."
CIRCUIT BREAKERS: As far as the track’s overall business, Epstein said things are going well except for a "hiccup," referencing the dispute COTA is in with the state of Texas regarding a $20-25M reimbursement related to the F1 race. Texas is withholding the payment because it says COTA did not have all of its proper paperwork filed in time, but Epstein declined to comment on whether COTA is still negotiating to get that resolved. Epstein said the track reached profitability a couple years ago and is now in the process of booking and building non-racing related activities around the venue like the new soccer stadium being built there for USL team Austin Bold FC. There have been rumblings in recent years that Epstein could be open to selling the venue or bringing in new investors, but he said, “I’ve heard COTA’s for sale for years and hear it all the time, but we’re pretty happy making such good progress right now.”
