It was that time of year again. July was here and that meant one thing: world-level championship motorcycle racing at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey (okay, Salinas) California.
For locals and long-time motorcycle racing fans, the weekend was shaping up as it often had. Two-wheeled tourists began to trickle in mid week. Online message boards were littered with the pleas of last-minute lodging seekers. On Friday, a swarm of bikes of all kinds descended upon the Monterey peninsula like locusts on the last viable crop of the season. Riders abandoned the typical practice of waving to other riders in opposing traffic due simply to their abundance. By day, some of the best roads in California hosted droves of enthusiasts. By night, most found their way to Cannery Row which was an ad hoc pageant of chrome, fur, LEDs, stretched swing arms and other gadgetry.
But this year's MotoGP US Grand Prix was logistically divergent from what fans had come to know and possibly expect from previous events. Nothing in and of itself was all that radical of a change. Motorcycles were given preferential parking at the track. Fans with cars parked their cages at California State University - Monterey Bay (CSUMB) in Seaside and were shuttled to and from the event on dedicated buses.
Traffic management changes are nothing new to motorcycle race fans at Laguna Seca. My family has been attending events there each summer since the World Superbike races in 1996. Every year brings some tweaks in the way people make their ways to and from the track and every year lessons are learned. It is a difficult problem to be sure.
This year's changes were almost predictable. They may even have been considered a win-win for locals and fans as they promised to both minimized the traffic impact on the already-busy Highway 68 while reducing the delay for fans exiting the track Sunday evening. In addition, motorcycle exits were rotated to avoid congestion caused by using a singular route.
Overall, my impression was that the traffic management this year may have helped disperse the traffic load over a larger area, until everyone reached the northbound Highway 1 bottleneck that is. However, a dangerous side effect of the parking changes was overlooked. But before I delve into what that was, let me present some background on the MotoGP at Laguna Seca.
Laguna Seca Raceway is managed by a non profit organization called the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP). SCRAMP rents the track and land from Monterey County for $375,000 per year. To pay that rent, SCRAMP has three main sources of revenue.
First, it sublets the track to track day organizers and regulars like the Skip Barber Racing School. Second, it makes deals with sponsors to provide goods and services in exchange for advertising. Third it hosts five major events per year like the US Sports Car Invitational. As of 2004, the Monterey Historic Automobile Races is the only major annual event at Laguna Seca Raceway that is not directly promoted and organized by SCRAMP. Any profits SCRAMP might realize are said to be donated to local charities.
What most people don't realize is that vendors at the U.S. MotoGP are contractually obligated to purchase all bottled water, whether sold or given to fans, through SCRAMP. Units were sold to vendors in 24-count cases of Dasani 20 oz. bottles. Astute readers will note that the Coca-Cola Company is listed as "Official Soft Drink of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca" on SCRAMP's website. The cost to vendors per case? A mere $48.
It is important to note that this was not likely merely a branding issue. Vendors were not allowed to purchase the same product elsewhere and bring it to the track. Costco carries identical 20 oz. bottles of Dasani water for $11.99 per 24-count case. Vendors were not only forced to be completely reliant on SCRAMP for the supply of water, but they were also required to pay a premium for the commodity and had to trust that SCRAMP had correctly anticipated the demand.
Those who are familiar with Laguna Seca (which incidentally translates literally to "Dry Lagoon") will immediately recognize the potential hazard of an artificially-limited water supply. There are only a handful of potable water sources in the forms of sinks (in bathrooms) and water fountains in the entire facility. This means that a bulk of the water consumed must come from outside sources.
So what does all this have to do with traffic changes? The majority of the 48,000 attendees on Saturday arrived either by motorcycle or by shuttle. This meant that they had to travel relatively light. Most fans were not carrying the water necessary to sustain themselves in the 104+ degree heat. One can typically figure a proper intake of about 1,500 ml of liquid water per day for average activity, and about double that for conditions experienced at the track. That means SCRAMP would have had to supply about five 20 oz. Dasani bottles per person or roughly 10,000 cases to be on the safe side (and that's just for Saturday).
That didn't happen.
Attendees will attest that ambulances were running constantly to and from the track to address the myriad of heat- and dehydration-related problems experienced by fans. The vendor price on water was mandated by SCRAMP to $1 a bottle and water was handed out directly to fans by track officials at key points around the park. Demand was so great that some areas ran out of water before sanctioned cases could be brought to refill the supply.
Some have praised SCRAMP and Coca-Cola for their decision to mandate lower prices and distribute small portions of "free" water. I have chosen to withhold my praise. While I do not subscribe to the theory that Coca-Cola executives had engineered a shortage of water in excessive heat specifically so that they could assume a false beneficence to gain public approval, I will say that the lack of logistical foresight surrounding the water situation (compounded by the inexcusable greed) was at best negligent.
What was done was done to avoid an absolute catastrophe or loss of life and the associated liability. It was neither noble nor praiseworthy. The noble and praiseworthy thing would have been to not put the attendees in the situation in the first place. The negative and dangerous outcome of the water situation was predictable. This is not an instance of hindsight clarity. In fact, I had a discussion with a family member about it months earlier. If two slightly below-average people can predict it, it shouldn't have happened. More measures should have been taken earlier, even if only earlier in the day, before the ambulances started rolling.
I don't care if a 7-Up is $5 a can. Charge $6 for nachos or $10 for a beer. Make calamari $20 per plate. Charge whatever prices the market will bear.
But don't ever mess with water.
Although I'm an opponent of litigation in general (and its propensity for voluntary victimization), SCRAMP will be lucky if they aren't faced with an array of (probably legitimate) lawsuits. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes, and when MotoGP returns in 2007, perhaps they can redeem themselves.
Time will tell.
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