Shanghai Extend Formula One Deal

Formula One’s Chinese Grand Prix will be held in Shanghai until at least 2017, after a new contract was agreed.

According
to media reports the deal was reached after F1 bosses agreed to charge a
reduced rate to host the race at the loss-making track.

Organisers
have said they will now cut ticket prices and address other problems
that have led to the poor attendances and consequent loss of revenue.

Government-owned
race organisers for the Grand Prix, Juss Events, said in a statement
that Formula One had: ‘effectively promoted Shanghai’s influence as an
international metropolis’.

Formula One debuted at the Shanghai
circuit in 2004, but has seen attendances drop from 270,000 spectators
in 2005 to 155,000 last season.

Shanghai Sports Bureau Deputy
Director Chen Yiping said: ‘we’ve learned that high ticket prices have
led to fans staying away and will try to improve the situation in the
following years’.

The races profile has suffered in recent
years, the only advertising campaign for Formula One in the city’s
centre last year was for the Singapore Grand Prix, and the race also
suffered after Yu Zhifei, the official who brought the race to Shanghai,
was jailed in 2008 in a corruption crackdown.