The season — circuits bought out
$4.34M
$482K per round · eight exclusive three-day weekends + the Bathurst guest round · 10% contingency included
Nine rounds, seven countries — and at eight of them, the entire circuit is ours: bought out, gates closed, three days of exclusive occupation. Built bottom-up from published rates, government per-diems and live market research, every input classed by evidence and buffered above its ceiling — in racing, the last-minute things are the expensive ones, and this budget expects them. Priced at full spec; no lean version exists, because the experience is the product.
The season is $4.34M — about a fifth of the year. This is not a club selling seats to cover costs: the raise carries the whole machine, because the property is the play. The other four-fifths buys the richest purse in GT racing, a broadcast, a documentary, the world's attention. LIV Golf needed $784M for its first season. Formula E burned $155M reaching breakeven. Nine world circuits, eight of them ours alone, and the biggest purse the discipline has ever seen — $20M a year.
Budgeted for reality: every line is priced at its ceiling and then buffered — roughly $1.1M of cushion sits inside the number before the $395K contingency is touched. Excludes members' own car programmes (arrive-and-drive rental, researched separately at $100–145K per driver per season) — that is the drivers' pay-to-race spend, not a series cost.
Roughly $60,000 of every round is the evening — two private dinners and a curated experience for forty guests: the château table in the Ardennes, the ryokan under Fuji, the golden-hour paddock at Road Atlanta. The majority of round operations is hospitality, and that weighting is deliberate — and now the gates are closed behind it: the paddock, the pit lane, the circuit itself, ours alone. The experience is the product.
| Round | Venue | Circuit — exclusive | Staff travel | Operations | Round total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 · Feb | Road Atlanta — home | $200,000 | $8,673 | $101,700 | $310,373 |
| R2 · Mar | Silverstone | $200,000 | $13,290 | $101,700 | $314,990 |
| R3 · Apr | Sebring | $200,000 | $10,848 | $101,700 | $312,548 |
| R4 · Jun | Fuji Speedway | $250,000 | $15,278 | $101,700 | $366,978 |
| R5 · Aug | Mosport | $200,000 | $10,230 | $101,700 | $311,930 |
| R6 · Sep | Bathurst — guest round, event entry | $10,000 | $21,250 | $101,700 | $132,950 |
| R7 · Oct | Spa-Francorchamps | $200,000 | $13,935 | $101,700 | $315,635 |
| R8 · Nov | Interlagos | $75,000 | $21,495 | $101,700 | $198,195 |
| R9 · Dec | Homestead-Miami — finale | $200,000 | $9,338 | $101,700 | $311,038 |
| Nine rounds + freight $21K + the organization $1.35M + contingency | $4.34M | ||||
"Circuit — exclusive" is the whole weekend: three days of private occupation plus the event-services stack — marshal stations, dual ALS ambulances, fire & rescue, recovery, timing — buffered above researched ceilings. "Operations" per round at full spec: two VIP dinners $32K · experiences & entertainment $18K · fleet livery — printed, applied, removed on twelve rental cars $18K · daytime paddock hospitality $10K · contract officials $6.5K · media crew $6K · event insurance $5K · timing, sanction, trophies $6.2K.
The Paddock Society seat is the retail layer of the property — a revenue line, not the funding model. What the seat delivers: nine countries, a crewed GT4 waiting liveried at every round, circuits closed to the public, a $3.75M purse to race for, and a bespoke evening at every stop. The reference table below is the full cost-recovery math by grid size; actual seat pricing is a commercial choice — the raise carries the program either way.
| Grid | 8 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost-recovery reference per seat | $543K | $362K | $271K | $217K | $181K |
Plus the member's own arrive-and-drive car programme, $100–145K per season (their spend, not a series cost). Sponsorship, broadcast and franchise revenue all land on top of the retail layer — none of it is assumed in the budget.
The raise carries the whole machine — and even so, the season is barely a fifth of it. Seventy percent of the year goes into a single envelope: audience and credibility — the purse, the broadcast, the content, the coverage. It is the playbook LIV Golf proved: the prize money is the marketing. In GT racing it costs a fraction of what it cost in golf, because nobody here has ever put real money on the table.
GT customer racing pays almost nothing today. IMSA's top GT class pays $10,000 to win a standard race — split rules and all. Ferrari Challenge and Lamborghini Super Trofeo publish no cash prize whatsoever. The biggest claim in the category is a $1M-per-season purse-and-prizes program. We put $100,000 on every round.
Every comparable series charges its drivers and pays them nothing back. Here, the top ten in each grid leave every round with a check, and a season spent on the podium banks roughly $225,000. That inversion has never existed in customer racing, and it is the story every outlet gets to write. And the countries race for real money too: the Nations Champion's Fund pays $500K to the winning nation's program — countries fund their drivers; the championship funds the champion.
| Growth envelope — full spec | Season | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Prize purse — $250K × nine rounds + $1M champion's fund + $500K Nations Champion's Fund | $3,750,000 | SET |
| Broadcast & world feed — nine rounds of live production | $3,600,000 | QUOTE-PENDING |
| Docuseries — eight episodes, access tier | $4,000,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Paid media — premium CTV + social | $1,000,000 | PUBLISHED |
| PR — three regional agencies · US, Europe, Asia-Pacific | $900,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Launch activations — three flagship reveals | $600,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Content studio & per-round shoot crews | $150,000 | BUDGET |
| The growth envelope — 70% of the $20M year | $14.0M | |
Anchors: LIV Golf season-one spend $784M against sub-$100M revenue (audited UK filings) — the purse-led launch, proven · independently-produced access docuseries $200–700K/episode at commissioning rates · premium CTV $26–60 CPM, paid social $8–14 · top-tier sports/luxury PR retainers $20–75K/month · broadcast production priced from AV market day-rates — no GT series publishes this line, so it carries the first RFP. Distribution follows the proven challenger route: fund the production, share the revenue, let the rights fees come later.
Nobody spends $20M in a launch year, and this plan doesn't pretend to. The drawdown tiers up $4M a year as the machine earns each next layer — and only one block ramps: the media program. Operations hold at full spec throughout, and the purse is $3.75M from the first green flag, Nations Champion's Fund included — the headline doesn't wait for year three.
Every year is the same construction: operations $4.34M — the circuits bought out at full spec from year one — plus the $3.75M purse (the Nations Champion's Fund in it from day one), both flat. The media program carries the ramp — $3M → $6.5M → $10.25M → $13.5M → $16.5M — with the reserve growing behind it, $0.9M in year one to $3.4M in year five. Five years, all in: $100M.
The full input sheet behind the number — every line budgeted at full spec, each with an evidence tag: PUBLISHED rates are quotable today; DERIVED and QUOTE-PENDING lines are the ones real quotes will replace first. Where a quote comes in under budget, the difference stays in the cushion.
| Per-round operating line | Full spec | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| VIP evening events — two private dinners, ~40 guests | $32,000 | PUBLISHED + BUDGET |
| VIP experiences & entertainment — the bespoke layer | $18,000 | BUDGET |
| Paddock hospitality / daytime F&B — ~40 head × 3 days + tent | $10,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Contract officials — race director, scrutineer, steward | $6,500 | BUDGET |
| Media crew — video pair + photographer × 3 days | $6,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Event insurance — GL layer per event | $5,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Sanction / permit fees | $3,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Timing operator | $2,500 | BUDGET |
| Trophies & awards — 13 pieces per round | $700 | PUBLISHED |
| Fleet livery — printed, applied, removed · 12 rental cars | $18,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Per round (track safety services now live inside the circuit-buyout line) | $101,700 | |
| × 9 rounds | $915,300 |
Anchors: K&K event GL minimum $2,500 · plated dinners $100–200/head published · catering $20–60/head · 2-person video crew $550/day median, photographer $500/day · trophies $15–25/unit · vehicle graphics: sponsor/spot-decal tier $300–1,000/car, partial livery $500–1,500 incl. removal — removable vinyl is mandatory on rented fleets.
| The circuits — bought out, by round | Full spec | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| R1 Road Atlanta · R3 Sebring · R5 Mosport · R9 Homestead — exclusive 3-day hire + full event-services stack (each) | $200,000 | DERIVED + BUFFER |
| R2 Silverstone GP — exclusive hire; safety, medical & marshalling bundled in the circuit's quote | $200,000 | QUOTE-PENDING |
| R4 Fuji — official exclusive-occupation rate card (¥1.13M/hour) + services | $250,000 | PUBLISHED + BUDGET |
| R6 Bathurst — guest round via event entry; the mountain is public road and cannot be privately hired | $10,000 | SET |
| R7 Spa — exclusive hire, bundled services | $200,000 | QUOTE-PENDING |
| R8 Interlagos — municipal hire + federation race services | $75,000 | PUBLISHED + BUDGET |
| Season — eight buyouts + one guest round | $1,535,000 |
Buffered above researched ceilings: published US day rates (inflation-adjusted) plus a fully-staffed services stack — 15–25 marshal stations, dual ALS ambulances, fire & rescue, recovery, timing — with the all-inclusive turnkey precedent at a US Grand Prix circuit ($50–55K/day, everything staffed) as the white-glove anchor. Fuji is the best-priced venue in the set: an official published rate card for exclusive occupation. Interlagos runs on real São Paulo municipal contract values. Silverstone and Spa bundle safety and marshalling into the circuit quote and publish nothing — they are the first two formal quote requests out.
| Staff travel — six people, four nights | Airfare pp | Hotel /night | M&IE /day | Round total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1 Road Atlanta — drive (98 mi RT) | — | $218 | $68 | $6,938 |
| R2 Silverstone | $908 | $108 | $108 | $10,632 |
| R3 Sebring — drive (2 vans) | — | $223 | $74 | $8,678 |
| R4 Fuji | $1,105 | $165 | $68 | $12,222 |
| R5 Mosport | $476 | $85 | $137 | $8,184 |
| R6 Bathurst — allowance, fares unresearched | ~$1,800 | ~$150 | $109 | $17,000 |
| R7 Spa | $902 | $170 | $69 | $11,148 |
| R8 Interlagos — race-week hotel surge | $1,370 | $250 | $124 | $17,196 |
| R9 Homestead | $169 | $177 | $92 | $7,470 |
| Season base — Low ×0.80 · High ×1.25 | $99,468 |
GSA / State-Department M&IE rates, booking-aggregator hotel averages, published fare tracking, IRS mileage $0.76/mi. Homestead fare is the August average — December runs higher.
| Season fixed & logistics | Full spec | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Head office — seven salaries: CEO $150K · CFO $180K · COO $180K · VP Events $150K · Admin $120K · Social Media $80K · Editor $80K | $940,000 | SET |
| Payroll taxes & benefits — 20% employer burden | $188,000 | BUDGET |
| Marketing — operating layer, local event promo · growth marketing lives in the $20M plan above | $120,000 | BUDGET-CHOICE |
| Annual series liability umbrella | $35,000 | QUOTE-PENDING |
| Legal, regulations, entity, accounting | $35,000 | BUDGET |
| Timing hardware — year-one kit | $20,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Branding & signage kit | $10,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Waivers & entry software | $2,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Air freight — 400 kg kit × 4 intercontinental rounds | $14,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Carnets + Brazil temporary-admission broker | $6,000 | PUBLISHED + BUDGET |
| Canada ground freight | $1,000 | PUBLISHED |
| Season fixed + logistics | $1,371,000 | |
| The season, at full spec — with 10% contingency | $4.34M |
Anchors: MYLAPS club timing server $4,876 + transponders · SpeedWaiver usage tiers · custom canopies/flags/banners at catalog prices · air cargo $3.5–8/kg by lane · US carnet $365 issue + 1% bond premium · Brazil left the ATA-carnet system in 2022, hence the broker line.