Ring shut down!!!!

[TrickGTI]

Has anyone else herd of this yet iv being told a little tale that someone is trying to shut it down for being to dangerous. Anyone heard anything about this???? I can't see how try could really as it's such a big tourist attraction!!!

[MAT ED30]

Lots of idiots have tried to close it down but after the millions spent on all the new buildings it's not going to ever happen

[tony_danza]

Urban myth.

[QD MBE]

Not really tony.

[QD MBE]

Something to do with a huge debt run up by the business consortium that built the Complex and Roller coaster.

They faked visitor numbers, and now have saddled the Ring with a huge debt, that either the local taxpayers will cough up, or the prices rise dramatically.

[tony_danza]

There's no doubt they're having troubles, but it shutting down is pure myth.

TF will suffer, less days and more expensive as we've seen with the new prices and focus on getting money into the Ring's other interests (hotel/food/Ringworks/Neurodisney etc).

I think we'll see more track days, as they're guaranteed money no matter the weather and they're not losing whilst the track is shut down.. given the recent ruling where they can no longer charge for track closure time.

[QD MBE]

anyone for €50 a lap?  

Needs some serious turn-round to remain viable.  Similar to the predicament a lot of football clubs are in, they over extend, and the punter (fan) feels the pinch with higher prices.


A summary of its predicament.........

Taken from Nortloop

"Once upon a time there was a famous race track owned by the German state Rheinland Pfalz. Prime minister was BECK, financial minister was DEUBEL. As Schumania was going down the business went down too, at the race track. Of course there was no business at all in the winter. So the plan was make the Ring more attractive. The politicians installed Walter KAFFITZ as head of the Ring Ltd.

They were planning to go big with some all season entertainment stuff and so on. Looking for an investor they found Kai RICHTER as an entertainment park inventor - not investor as he states, they must have missed that point! However the plans look nice with value of €94 million. Before of course some other millions had been spent on consultants and money greedy folks. So construction started in 2007. When politicians discovered that there was no money behind RICHTER they supported him with some special financial tricks. Taxpayers money went through hidden channels to the Ring all managed by financial minister DEUBEL. When the buildings were finished the expected visitors from 150 miles away still stayed away. Nobody is traveling that far for that bullsh*t. Same with that SpacePark in Bremen earlier before. Oh wonder: the concept was from nearly the same managers! Early scepticism and critic from natives like Mrs SCHMITZ and Mr KRAGL were kept down. Mr HAHNE is a famous and critical journalist, same with him. If this was taking place in southern Italy he would be found under a layer of tarmac I guess.

So it got built and when finished still no private investor was found. DEUBEL was in contact with BARANDUN, a Swiss credit broker. He promised to find investors. The politicians believed in the miracle and even provided €180 million for unknown reasons to the Swiss guy. He kept them waiting and showed up with some guy Pierre Sloan DUPONT and €67million.

Politicians proclaimed "Everything solved, private investor found!". However there was no money. And DUPONT isn't from the famous chemical dynasty. Dumb looking faces of dumb politicians. Who's gonna pay for up to now €330 million for a non working rollercoaster, an expensive shopping area and a non visited artificial village that no one wants? Everyone = the taxpayer. Welcome to the real life in Germany. The state took it all over and RICHTER was 'rewarded' as becoming new general manager of the Ring. KAFFITZ was fired and is now general manager of Abu Dhabi race track. At least the prosecution department has started investigations against KAFFITZ, RICHTER and DEUBEL because of betrayal of confidence and/or fraud."

[tony_danza]

It won't be long until we see that day, sadly.

[Janner_Sy]

the money they make on the NF is immense, they couldnt afford to shut it down.  As for being dangerous, its not really that bad.  how many deaths have there been in the last year?  

As stokeballon said the issue is with the rest of the park based around the south loop.  They have the infrastructure to support more races there now, so id imagine they  will be fighting for the F1 german GP to be permanently based at nurburg.

[dnLcal]

I was working there last year for the 1000km of Nurburgring (gp circuit) and we stayed in the new complex(Grune Holle) they have built which was a bling hotel, massive night club(Eiffel stadle*) and a few nice bars (bierhaus*). this had a massive investment to build and i heard rumours the hotel had moved due to being built on swamp land and the entire complex needs to come down. i have heard no more about this (but i haven’t looked to be fair) so i think it is this complex that will suffer from massive debts and the Nordschleife should not be effected by this as it is a pilgrimage for petrol heads around Europe and makes enough money to support itself.

It will be the GP track that is affected but with its FIA accreditation it will have no trouble in getting races and will be out of debt in time (may be a long time).

Cal

[QD MBE]

But won't they bleed money from the more profitable  Ring to pay for the debt ridden Complex, or at least pay some of the debt off?  

Obviously wishing to pay the debt off quickly - Thereby raising prices etc?  The whole lot  (Ring and Complex) is run by the same group IIRC.

[TrickGTI]

Yup that's what I heard that there was a groupe petition on facebook to save it!!!! If she's saying it then it must be serious. But what's to say it's not all a big advertisement con to get people to go???

[joesgti]

i seriously cant see them closing it down, whole communities depend on it for an income.

[QD MBE]

i seriously cant see them closing it down, whole communities depend on it for an income.

Joe, i don't think they will shut it down at all.  I do think they will either put up lap costs to make money to service the debt, or the local (taxpayers) will pay the debt off, and pass on the higher taxes to the Ring users in the form of higher Hotel, beer, Food charges.

They need to make the money somehow.