Club Arnage

Has anyone heard some confirmed spectator numbers?

Walking around I had the feeling that there were considerably fewer spectators, my best guess is 20-30% less people compared to previous years. It was most obvious for me at the end of the race when the usually fully packed grandstands and the areas in front of them showed big empty spaces.

All of this although the french home team was winning...

A figure of 234,800 was mentioned on the ACO website

I agree Werner, it was more quiet this year

also during the start of the race it was not as crowded as previous years, plenty of room to walk around

Maison Blanche showing empty spaces was concerning as well, we would have all (CA-group BN) fitted in there I think

I heard the same about Expo, no idea why the ACO didn't sell us tickets for this site.

Expo didnt look like it had any spare place by Friday ( tho there was a massive Danish camp with hospitality n all that) in the middle field - the entertainment was like a sort of endless wedding disco!....

F

There was certainly more people camping this year with 3 new campsites all full. There also appeared to be more corporate camping with companies buying space and then selling on. Regarding the race start and finish there was a lot of spaces available on the start line straight but this was I believe because of the large numbers of Brits and Dutch setting out there chairs early to get a good vantage point. This prevented the French last minute brigade who normally turn up minutes before the start or finish and then stand in front of you. I thought it was absolutely hilarious with a snake of  many 100s of French fair weather race fans trying to battle through the chairs only to find no way through with spaces to stand just metres away. They can have no complaint anyway, because they are lucky that they are able to attend as we all know this is a British race that just happens to be held in France.

On eurosport they were talking about roughly 230000 visitors and commented, that F1 would love that kind of numbers!!

from the helicopter pics it looked like MB and KN were very empty indeed. Credit crunch perhaps? or people just being fed up with the ACO

Just the ACO not caring about their visitors, me thinks :-\

As an MB resident, there were at least 30 empty plots scattered around the site, 10 of those were track side just a few plots away from where DFH were in 08. There was plenty of space in addition at the top of the site close to the entry gate. ::)

RLM mentioned 234,000 as the attendance about an hour before the end.

Having camped on BSJ for the last 5 years we again decided to arrive on Monday to ensure a decent pitch.

Needn't have bothered!

We sat for 3 days in the rain wondering if anyone would turn up at all. Even by Thursday evening the place was deserted compared to previous years. The organiser's plan seemed to be to place people near the central roadway through the first two fields before filling up the rest of the areas.

To be honest though the Securite spent most of Monday and Tuesday pacing out 7m x 5m pitches and marking them with wooden stakes and barrier tape. But no one arrived to occupy them. I'm baffled why they conscientiously sprayed the tops of each stake with orange flourescent paint? (Answers on a postcard please)

You can see how bored we were!

If there appeared to be fewer people about during the race I wasn't aware of it like others seem to be. There has over the last 4 years been a significant increase in the number of spectator areas and this year BSJ had its very own brand new viewing area on the inside of the track at the braking area into the Porsche Curves (Excellent). These areas must attract spectators away from the usual melee in front of the stands. I know we haven't bothered for years.

i saw that area on beausejour this year, it was illegally in use 5 years ago by us when we where on BSJ, we where sent of then :D

slow but good thinking of the ACO there, it is a good spot

Plenty of space on HA as well.  Looked odd to see tents and cars absolutely crammed in to the measured spaces from the early arrivals and lots of empty pitches elsewhere.

Although there was quite a lot of space in the Danish encampent.  They seem to have also taken over 2 rows of cattle sheds, which they really didn't need.

Did you notice that the music on Thursday and Friday nights was identical?  No wonder they didn;t play on Saturday.

Oh and anyone know how the person carted off from Expo in an Ambulance on Friday night was?

There were quite a lot of Danish on Expo - didnt specifically notice the main camp had expanded  to the sheds tho.

The music was hilarious... even a bit of death metal thrown in!

Didnt notice an ambulance either!  What time was that?  Where was I?!  ???

MB had quite a few spare pitches this year including two cracking spots opposite us that remained unused. These were twice as deep as the regular pitch and one had a tap on it too. It was very quiet on MB this year- we wobbled back from Houx at 5am on Saturday morning and you could hear a pin drop- I'd say it was quieter than the classic at times!
 Maybe it was the credit crunch? Certainly seemed to be less riff raff / stag do types and chavs about this year.


Si

They had all moved to BN Si  ;D

>Martini...LB

 ;D Yes, seen reports that there was leud behaviour on Nord this year, pikey slyle trouble causing, bonfires, smut and debauchery aplenty. I also hear from my chums at Aston Martin that some ghastly oinks managed to get into their after race party this year too. At least MB remained civilized!

Houx Annexe had spaces, as I have said elsewhere the run alside the road where Steve Brown is normally found was empty for the duration.

I did'nt feel the track was any less busy than normal for the race, but the carrefour did seem quite and the queues a bit less maybe.

Yes, as a local it was much quieter, especially on the roads at times. The hotels in town weren't full many reporting a 50% occupancy. The Hotel Arbor on the Mulsanne wasn't full either but then at 1,400 euros for a four night stay that is perhaps understandable!

Not being a camper I cannot comment on site occupancy levels but my impression when visiting friends on BN was that there seemend to be plenty of room around. Having said that I agree with Nordic - it seemed there were plenty of people around the track during the race, even more in some places we thought.

Generally, I thought attendance was down this year. The start and finish were not as packed as last year. And at the end of the race, the terraces were not jam-packed. There were hardly any Brits-in-chairs where we were (opposite the AM pit).

Arnage and Mulsanne enclosures were not very busy during the night. At sunrise at Mulsanne, there were about 50-60 people on the bank. The last two years have been much busier.

I thought the roads around the area were not as grid locked either. I know the ACO are always trying to improve the traffic flow, but the changes this year were either very effective or were not put to a full test.

The car parks near BN seemed to take a long time to fill up, especially for Thursday quali session.

I suspect there are a number of factors that kept numbers down; money worries, the thought of another wet weekend (not relevant to die hard race fans), the oiks have got bored of it, and the thought of another Audi win (maybe people doubted Pug will finally pull it off).

As for some of the campsites not being rammed, I expect is because of the ACO sold the pitches to agencies that then tried to cream too much profit from them (~40% mark-up and then 2 GE on top of that, with 30% mark-up each) and found themselves holding unsold tickets (I don’t pity them!).

From our position - grandstand above the pitlane, we saw the start of the race. We also talked about what looked like many empty spots on the other side of the start/finish - usually it's so crowded already four hours before the race, but this year, there was plenty of room.

Also walking around the track gave the impression, that there were much fewer attendents this year than, at least, the two previuos years.

Staying at BN for the first time, I can't say whether it was crowded or not, but there was some empty spots near our little camp, so there hasn't been sold out 100%

But still, a great Le Mans again - again!

BN had massive areas un-sold. 2 years ago they kept moving the boundary fence to allow more in, this year, there was half a field un-used.

Good racing though.

Mad friday wasnt very mad?

I was also suprised how 'quiet' (noise and amount of people camping wise) HA was this year. Perhaps the tickets had been sold but the purchasers decided to cut their losses and not travel in the current climate? I'd guess the same was true of most sites (well, amount of campers at least), all of the ones I got to (KN, MB, Bleu) seemed less than full .........

Just found the 2008 figure: 258.500 - So that's app. 10 % less this year.

Don't they always quote pretty much the same figures? It's been around 250,000 every year I've been, as far as I remember.