$150m for Indy return Feasibility study looks at track extension, trees

THE start-up costs for the Indy to return to Surfers Paradise for its first few years will reach $150 million, putting huge pressure on the State budget, according to event insiders.

The existing smaller street circuit for the V8 Supercars will need to be extended north and more space found for event facilities forcing the removal of trees from Macintosh Island Park.

Annastacia Palaszczuk has organised a special team within the Premier’s Department to report back on the event’s feasibility as talks continue with US Indy bosses.

The Premier last year announced an ambitious plan to revive the race after a meeting with Australian champion IndyCar driver Will Power in late October.

But an event insider said: “The Indy will cost $150 million over five years.

“The building of the track would need to begin in the first week of January for a March event date. The start (of that work) will be in peak holiday season.

“To accommodate the track, about 36 trees would have to be cut down from Macintosh Island Park.”

Premier Palaszczuk told the Bulletin: “Confidential discussions are under way, and I will be happy to update the people of the Gold Coast once I receive advice from those examining the feasibility of this proposal.”

Former Indy organisers caution that budgets are now “enormously prohibitive”. The cost each year for Victorian taxpayers from staging the Formula One is $62 million.

Indy began in 1991 and across 18 years cost taxpayers more than $218 million.

The estimated economic impact of the event for the Coast was $764 million.

An Indy insider queried the $150 million figure but added that if that sort of money was spent the Government was guaranteed an economic return of $45 million in terms of ticket sales alone.

“Extending the track wouldn’t happen for the 2020 race. The Indy people seem quite happy with the existing track,” the motorsport insider said.

“There might be some trees removed at the end of the circuit but nothing like what is happening with the council foreshore works at the moment.

“The bump-in from late February early March is always challenging, but where there is a will, there’s a way.”