Singapore Trade and Industry Minister S Iswaran has said it is too early to draw “any major conclusions” about why the city-state’s Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday attracted its lowest ever attendance, but has suggested that economic circumstances are partly to blame.
Iswaran said that economic uncertainty had led to a dip in ticket sales, with Sunday’s race registering a crowd of 73,000. Attendance over the three days of the event – including practice on Friday, qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday – totalled 219,000.
Race promoter Singapore GP said that overall attendance was 15-per-cent lower than the average attendance since 2008. At the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix, in the midst of the global financial crisis, 240,000 people attended the event, with 80,000 turning up for the Sunday race that year.
“It’s really more a reflection of the global environment in terms of economic uncertainty and so on,” Iswaran told the Today newspaper.
“It’s a little bit like in 2009, when you had the global financial crisis. There was a major correction and then it went up again quite strongly.
“Interestingly, the paddock clubs and suites have done well. They’ve held up. It’s more in broad-based areas. That again suggests that at the premium level, the race continues to have very good traction with interested consumers and fans.
“It’s more perhaps at the broader base level that we have some issues because of the economic cycle.
“My sense of it is, there is a clear appreciation of the value that Singapore brings to F1, not just as a venue but in terms of the larger position of the sport and also as a business, and given the potential for development in Asia, I think there are a lot more prospects.”
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