I have to give credit where it’s due. King Eddie made the return happen.
Red Bull is back in town, only this time Windsor is the base. The planes will be using Windsor Airport as the home airport.
The event is scheduled for June 13 – 14. Hopefully not too many of our tax dollars are going to be wasted, but at least this time the event is in Windsor not like the waste of funds spent on the Grand Prix.
Great news, it was a great time last year. Hopefully some lessons were learned from last year’s event.
Should be a great time, and one thing our beleaguered city can hang our cap on.
I cant wait. Already added myself to the e-mail list for when tickets come availible. I’m amped up for this just as much as I was when the Grand Prix came back so much so I’d volunteer to help out for that like I did for the DBIGP if there was a need for them. Thank you Eddie for doing some dirty work and make facetime with the organizers to bring it back.
I hold a lot of respect for what these pilots can do with their machines. I do a similar form of racing called autocross in empty parking lots over in Detroit (no one organizes these events here in Windsor…hmm I wonder why? Just read some of the comments about this events return on the Windsor Star site there’s your answer) I find just driving a car in a parking lot around traffic cones hard enough. These pilots have to maintain Roll, Pitch and Yaw as well as altitude at insane (~400km/h!) speeds and G forces (up to 12Gs). For that I tip my race helmet to them and hope for the best competition the world has seen from out backyard. SMOKE ON!
It’s going to be planes theme this summer as we have another air show scheduled for August 28-30. More info here: http://windsorinternationalairshow.blogspot.com/
As far as funding for this event goes, I heard a rumour that the province is picking up the $3.2 million or so tab.
$3.2 mil.. Yuppers! There is an article in the Windsor Star this a.m. about it, along with the prerequisite photo of Ms Pupatello’s smiling face. 🙂
A well-needed shot in the arm for downtown Windsor any way you look at it.
It was in today’s paper that the Province is picking up the $3.2 million tab. The province saved it, not the mayor. And, so the province should be spending it in Windsor because the province told MPAC (contracted by the province) to lower the provincially owned casino’s municipal taxes by $6million a year this year. That’s Windsor’s money to begin with.
And, where’s the other $2.8million the province owes us for this year? Does it get sucked out this economically depressed region to be spent in bloated, overpriced Toronto??
And, what hell did Eddie do anyway since it’s costing taxpayers $3.2million? He didn’t convince Red Bull to host it for free! Detroit was too broke to pick up the tab this year, so Eddie made two phone calls and now he’s justified his $140,000 a year salary?? And, if he’s such a hero, what is the mayor doing to get the other $2.8million back that the city is losing this year from the lost casino property taxes??
What is his plans to convince the province to spend the lost $6million a year in upcoming years in Windsor?
Eddie is a walking disaster! Only in the public sector… If he were working in the private sector, he’s be fired in a heartbeat for all the costly mistakes he’s made us…
I agree that some kudos are in order for Eddie Francis. However, Windsor also dropped the ball (from my sources) and was one of the reasons Red Bull didn’t want to come back. Windsor just didn’t do much of anything even though it was a co-host of sorts. Eddie HAD to do this because of the return on investments. Any idiot knows that spending a few million for a return of upwards of $70 million is a smart move.
My curiosity is why did San Diego get another kick at it when we clearly had twice the amount of people show up?
Anyway, looking forward to it again this year.
It is very good news that the Air Race is back in Windsor. Hopefully it will bring a lot of first-time visitors to the area, and that it will reflect well on the city and the region.
As for why did San Diego get another shot – simple, it’s San Diego!!!
Of course, will Division/Airport Road be widened to 5 lanes by then?? No way Jose. Traffic will be chaos.
hummm… money from the province. i’m thinking of all the other things that would last the city longer than this event if we were given 3.2 million. but if it was anything else, maybe we wouldn’t be so lucky to get it. if it brings people downtown though i’m all for it.
This is a good summertime event for Windsor to promote and market to other regions. It should attarct people from out of town and the money invested by the province will easily be returned in economic activity from hotels, restaurants, shopping etc. Sure we could’ve used that money for some water main repairs or roads but I think the city needs to continue attracting top attractions, festivals and investments to encourage people (retired?) to the city and diversify the economy.
This is great news. Many locals are unaware how privileged we are to have such spectacular event in the area. If it’s any indication of the crowds last year, 2009 will be even better and hopefully help to lift the spirits of downtown Windsor.