Ayse's 'Occasional Blog'
Wednesday 30th November 2022
ACO Brewery
In my last blog post (22nd October), I referred to the process of buying entrance and grandstand tickets for next year's race and commented upon how efficient the process was. Yesterday, ticketing opened for campsites and parking and while the online process was simple enough, there is a lot to be said nevertheless about what the ACO has done by way of ticketing for Le Mans 2023. Much of what I have to say about it is clouded by a large degree of mystery and ignorance I'm afraid, as at no stage have the ACO informed members of the changes that they are making to the circuit environs in readiness for next year. So most people went into the ticketing process yesterday oblivious to these changes, which was a really poor state of affairs.
Thankfully for us, we don't need to buy camping tickets. But we do need somewhere to park while we stay at the circuit. Ever since I first went to Le Mans with James F in 2010 we have parked in Parking Blanc, a large car park situated right opposite the circuit entrance behind the grandstands. It's always been a great place to park, really handy for entry and exit and benefiting hugely from numbered spaces. So you always knew where you're going to be parking. I was already aware from comments made on Ten Tenths and also mentions on the ACO's website that they were doing some 'reorganisation' of camping and parking for 2023. I can't say I was worried as I assumed that our normal parking area would continue to be available. That was until I happened upon a price list from the ACO which only referred to parking in Expo, Panorama (formerly Parking Rouge) and Mulsanne/Arnage. There was no mention of Parking Blanc, nor indeed Parking Bleu or Parking Vert. So I asked the ACO support people directly if I was going to be able to purchase Parking Blanc tickets and I was assured in writing that yes, I would. A day or two before ticketing opened however, I learned that Parking Blanc would not be available in 2023 and another email secured a response confirming this from the ACO. What also became clear was that the ACO had decided - for reasons that remain wholly unexplained as I write this - to remove all of the parking in Blanc, Bleu and Vert, as well as all of the camping in Bleu. As I say, the camping is of no direct interest to me, however there are many other people who were very worried about where they would end up camping next year.
So, ticketing opened up on Tuesday morning as promised and I quickly secured Panorama parking as well as tickets for Mulsanne/Arnage parking. Within about 40 minutes, all of the parking tickets were sold out. Hardly surprising when so few were on offer in the first place. As the day wore on, it was obvious from comments on Tenths, as well as the likes of Club Arnage, Pistonheads and various groups on Facebook that many (in fact, most) people had failed in their quest to obtain a campsite pitch in their preferred locations. Some locations had completely disappeared while others sold out in a matter of minutes, leaving many people who had already bought their entrance and grandstand tickets back at the end of October with nowhere to either park or camp. We are led to believe that there will be further tickets available for the public next week, however no-one has any idea at all what is going to be available or how many tickets there will be. This is all on top of the bizarre decision by the ACO to limit the number of full week entry tickets to just 15,000, most of which are now completely sold out, leaving people planning to be there for the whole week having to buy midweek and weekend tickets, which don't include access on Monday and Friday. There are also stories that the ticket agencies are also being told that their anticipated allocations will be significantly smaller than they need them to be.
The whole business leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Next year's race sees the 100 year celebration of the first 24 Hours in 1923 and with manufacturers returning to La Sarthe for what we hope will be the best race for years, the ACO have taken steps not to increase access for spectators, but instead to dramatically reduce it. I've already used the word 'bizarre' once, but the whole process and organisation seems to be massively flawed for reasons no-one knows because the ACO have offered no explanation. We might surmise that large swathes of land previously used for parking and camping are being taken over for corporate use and we all know that money talks, but companies, manufacturers and the like come and go and the ACO will always need the loyal supporters of this race, many thousands of whom have been attending for years and years. There must be a high risk that people unable to meet their ticketing needs will go elsewhere, such as Spa. These people may never come back again.
So, we deserve an explanation from the ACO for the shambles that they have created as at this point, it's clear that they are wholly unable to organise the proverbial event in their own brewery....
