Photo Courtesy of the Grand Prix of Boston
The Boston Herald released an article earlier today that the promoters of the Boston Grand Prix have cancelled the event. The race was scheduled for Labor Day Weekend September 2-4 on the streets of Boston near their seaport.
They stated the reasoning behind the decision to cancel comes after the city and state officials demanded the promoters come up with financial commitments they promised. However, the CEO of the local IndyCar group, John Casey, is blaming the Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s administration for being difficult to deal with. Casey and his promotion team are trying to now move the Labor Day race to Providence Rhode Island.
“The relations between BGP and the city and state has deteriorated to the point where I feel we cannot run a successful race,” a source close to the negotiations told the Boston Herald. “But sources close to the Walsh administration said it was clear that the promoters were not telling the truth about reaching agreements with other agencies and landowners to build the course. It wasn’t working out.”
The end to the IndyCar race is a big blow to Walsh, who wanted to show Boston could host a major sporting event after the Boston 2024 Olympic bid collapsed. To add salt to the wound, the race promoters didn’t even give the mayor the courtesy of notifying him the race was cancelled before they made the decision.
The Cancellation might end up causing Casey as well as the Grand Prix investors a lot of money. As part the of the agreement with the National IndyCar group, the Boston Grand Prix agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine if the race didn’t happen. Casey’s decision to cancel also came after he asked for an extension to a May 1 deadline for BGP to fund letters of credit to Massport and MBTA that was promised in a memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month. Gov. Charlie Baker’s legal counsel, John Stephan, agreed to move the deadline to May 6, but only if the promoters had made the agreements they promised to have with U.S Postal Service and a private landowner by the May 1 deadline.
“The City of Boston will always be open to opportunities that will positively showcase our city, however as we continued to work with Boston Grand Prix they were unwilling or unable to meet the necessary requirements to hold an event of this size,” Patrick Brophy Walsh’s chief operation told the Boston Herald. “The Mayor feels strongly in protecting the taxpayers and limiting the impact to residents, and we are not shy that we held them to very high standards.”
Casey feels jilted.
“I feel like I got out of an abusive relationship,” Casey told the Boston Herald. “We’ve done everything that the city and the state agencies have asked us to do. They made us jump through hoops. If there was any situation where we asked for something back — and we’re not talking about any funding or anything like that — but a concession, the answer was always no.”
Upon hearing the news Mark Miles, the CEO of INDYCAR, issued the following statement.
“Unfortunately, about the same time we were reading it in the Boston Globe, we learned from the head promoter group for the race in Boston that he had “pulled the plug” on the race there,” Miles said. They had concluded that constantly-evolving financial conditions the city was trying to impose on the promoter was unsustainable.
“Obviously, there has been some uncertainty around this opportunity for some time and while we have been constantly re-assured that the race would be conducted, we have thought about Plan B scenarios. The next few days and as quickly as possible, we’ll assess the situation in Boston and determine if there is an appropriate opportunity for this Labor Day. We are informing you as well as our other stakeholders, but you should feel free to communicate as you wish.”
