Our mayor seems ecstatic as do most of the commenters here. I don't know anything about the sport. My first reaction was, "Do they really think they are going to race around downtown Austin like they do in Monaco?" But the press release says "[t]his . . . will be the first time a facility is constructed from the ground up specifically for Formula One in the US."
Ah. New infrastructure. Which means a nice fat capital expense. According to Wikipedia, the new circuit in Shanghai cost $300 million. My guess is that Texas and Austin have agreed to pony up lots of dough, but we'll see. I'll withhold judgment until I see who's paying what.
(Wikipedia already lists Austin as the 2012-2021 host of the United States Grand Prix.)
