Latest news with #Epp
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Welcome to Miami, where F1's sunshine party draws a crowd every sport craves
With a sellout once more expected, this weekend's Miami Grand Prix is building on an appeal to a younger, diverse audience that is a key part of Formula One's burgeoning success in the US. Making its mark on the calendar with a grand, spectacular party in the Florida sunshine since the inaugural race in 2022, Miami is considered something of a showcase. The opening blast of the three meetings now held in the US is a shop window for the sport with three teams, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Ferrari boasting special liveries for the event this weekend. The flamingo pink of the RB is very much making a splash but the clunky corporate blue addition to the Scuderia's scarlet has fallen very flat with fans. Related: FIA president hints at climbdown amid F1 driver standoff over swearing fines Naysayers may have disliked Miami's emphasis on being a show, of presenting a weekend of entertainment where the food and beverages (or F&B as it is bafflingly, for the uninitiated, referred to here) were as fundamental as the racing. Where the atmosphere went hand in hand with the competition. It was perhaps the first of the 'event' races F1 wanted to promote and like it or not, it has succeeded with numbers around this race telling their own story. The atmosphere in the general admission – campus – area of the increasingly popular and affordable tickets away from the high-end hospitality which dominates all the media, is one of unadulterated enjoyment, shot through with the glorious absence of world-weary cynicism. There is an air of, whisper it, hedonism; not all racing must be accompanied by sombre beard-scratching from a grassy bank in the rain. This atmosphere is not least informed by the makeup of the audience. From information from sales, admittedly with the caveat that the data refers only to the purchaser rather than all the ticket holders, Miami is reaching demographics every sport eyes with lustful ambition. 'We've got the high-end luxury buyer that we've really cultivated a relationship with and built their trust,' says Tyler Epp, the Miami GP president. 'But at the same time, we've got some of our entry level motorsport fan data that's telling us we're also a motorsport event for the people who are intrigued and interested and just want to come and see the cars for the first time.' It is these new fans that have led a push for the new single-day tickets and the three-day campus tickets. It is also, most significantly, a young audience. 'The base is growing most aggressively from what we've seen in the 20 and 30-year-old buyer,' Epp adds. 'Our data does not tell us that this is an audience of 30 to 60-year-old white men, that's not what we're seeing now. 'Certainly they're here but it's a much more eclectic diverse group than that and part of that's partially because we're in Miami, which is such a wonderfully diverse market.' Their data is corroborated trackside in both age and ethnic diversity, while the gender differential is also notable, with the race easing toward what might be a 50-50 split in forthcoming years. 'We're tracking about 40% female to 60% male right now,' he says. 'That's on the buyer data and I can also say that the female audience is certainly younger than the male audience. It skews younger.' These are the demographics the sport needs to build on the success it has enjoyed in the US with Drive to Survive and, for all that the sound and fury of Las Vegas might have appeared to have outshone Miami of late, it is undeniable that the race at the Hard Rock Stadium is pulling in the numbers. Last year when McLaren's Lando Norris won his first F1 race here it drew record viewing figures for the US of 3.1 million and Miami now holds the top three live US TV audiences in F1 history. While the season as a whole was pulling in an average of 1.11 million per race. Which, while still small in comparison to NFL and NBA, are considered strong numbers as the sport builds its presence. Epp is in good position to judge how the sport fares in comparative terms. He has worked both trackside and team side in Nascar, IndyCar and sports cars before moving into baseball for four and a half years and then putting in almost nine years with the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL; he is convinced the future remains bright. 'We can be very bullish about Formula One in the United States,' he said. 'I view it as solidified, here to stay and looking at continuous growth, not necessarily ebbs and flows. I think the United States sports ecosystem in general ebbs and flows a bit with competitiveness and competition in particular markets but as a whole we feel really, really good about the state of Formula One.'
Toronto Star
03-05-2025
- Business
- Toronto Star
Hudson's Bay Company records give public chance to ‘reconnect' with ancestors
WINNIPEG - Dyana Lavallee stares at a copy of a photograph on display to the public at the Hudson's Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg. The Metis woman quickly recognizes it as the same one her grandmother had years ago. 'This is my family,' she said referring to the figures in the picture. 'I'm actually shaking a bit.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW It's not the first time Lavallee has visited the archives, but it is the first time she's seen that photo among the thousands of historical documents that are housed at the Archives of Manitoba. The collection, which is owned by the province, features items including the company's first minutes book from 1671, historical maps, videos, audio recordings and so many diaries, letters and research notes that the textual records alone take up more than 1,500 linear metres of shelf space. Hudson's Bay donated the collection to the province in 1994. On Friday, the archives opened its doors to the public to celebrate the 355th anniversary of the company's beginnings, and as North America's oldest corporation is facing its demise. Hudson's Bay filed for creditor protection in March after it could no longer pay its bills due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an intensifying trade war and depressed store traffic. Amid store liquidation and a hunt for buyers for the business and its assets, the company has been given permission by an Ontario judge to auction off the 4,400 artifacts and art pieces in its possession, including the 355-year-old royal charter that launched the company. None of the items in the provincial archives are included in the auction. Since news of The Bay's plans to auction artifacts, archivists, historians and First Nations groups have been calling for the pieces to be returned to Indigenous nations or be given to public institutions where they will be available for all to see. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Lavallee, who works in the Manitoba Metis Federation's Culture and Heritage department, agrees. 'It doesn't make sense to me to lock someone else's history away for personal use,' she said. 'It helps people reconnect with their ancestry. It gives them answers to their past.' Lavallee has been able to use the Hudson's Bay Company Archives to learn more about her ancestor James Bird, a high-ranking officer with the company who was born in England and settled in what is now known as Canada. Kathleen Epp has seen the value in making records accessible to the public. 'There are different questions asked of the records every year, so they stay alive in a way,' said Epp, who is the keeper of the province's Hudson's Bay Company Archives. 'People come with questions that (the company) never would have envisioned when they created the records, and they find value in whatever they're studying and in the answers that they find.' Not only has Epp seen the records used to trace genealogy, but also to study climate change because trading posts often recorded the weather, and animal populations were tracked by visiting and documenting trap lines. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Epp and her team are working to breathe new life into the company's records on Indigenous Peoples. The archives include photographs from Nunavut and Northwest Territories, and the team is trying to identify the people taken in the historical photos. There are also account books that document trading with Indigenous Peoples. 'Those account books often give the names of people but also it may be the Indigenous name or it may show how names changed over time,' she said. 'There's actually quite a lot of genealogical information there for people to trace their families but also to trace names.' First Nations groups have asked for a halt to the auction so that cultural, ceremonial or sacred items in The Bay's collection may be returned to the communities that they belong to. The Bay is expected to return to court at a later date to detail exactly what items beyond the royal charter it wants to sell and how the auction process will unfold.
Winnipeg Free Press
02-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Hudson's Bay Company records give public chance to 'reconnect' with ancestors
WINNIPEG – Dyana Lavallee stares at a copy of a photograph on display to the public at the Hudson's Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg. The Metis woman quickly recognizes it as the same one her grandmother had years ago. 'This is my family,' she said referring to the figures in the picture. 'I'm actually shaking a bit.' It's not the first time Lavallee has visited the archives, but it is the first time she's seen that photo among the thousands of historical documents that are housed at the Archives of Manitoba. The collection, which is owned by the province, features items including the company's first minutes book from 1671, historical maps, videos, audio recordings and so many diaries, letters and research notes that the textual records alone take up more than 1,500 linear metres of shelf space. Hudson's Bay donated the collection to the province in 1994. On Friday, the archives opened its doors to the public to celebrate the 355th anniversary of the company's beginnings, and as North America's oldest corporation is facing its demise. Hudson's Bay filed for creditor protection in March after it could no longer pay its bills due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an intensifying trade war and depressed store traffic. Amid store liquidation and a hunt for buyers for the business and its assets, the company has been given permission by an Ontario judge to auction off the 4,400 artifacts and art pieces in its possession, including the 355-year-old royal charter that launched the company. None of the items in the provincial archives are included in the auction. Since news of The Bay's plans to auction artifacts, archivists, historians and First Nations groups have been calling for the pieces to be returned to Indigenous nations or be given to public institutions where they will be available for all to see. Lavallee, who works in the Manitoba Metis Federation's Culture and Heritage department, agrees. 'It doesn't make sense to me to lock someone else's history away for personal use,' she said. 'It helps people reconnect with their ancestry. It gives them answers to their past.' Lavallee has been able to use the Hudson's Bay Company Archives to learn more about her ancestor James Bird, a high-ranking officer with the company who was born in England and settled in what is now known as Canada. Kathleen Epp has seen the value in making records accessible to the public. 'There are different questions asked of the records every year, so they stay alive in a way,' said Epp, who is the keeper of the province's Hudson's Bay Company Archives. 'People come with questions that (the company) never would have envisioned when they created the records, and they find value in whatever they're studying and in the answers that they find.' Not only has Epp seen the records used to trace genealogy, but also to study climate change because trading posts often recorded the weather, and animal populations were tracked by visiting and documenting trap lines. Epp and her team are working to breathe new life into the company's records on Indigenous Peoples. The archives include photographs from Nunavut and Northwest Territories, and the team is trying to identify the people taken in the historical photos. There are also account books that document trading with Indigenous Peoples. 'Those account books often give the names of people but also it may be the Indigenous name or it may show how names changed over time,' she said. 'There's actually quite a lot of genealogical information there for people to trace their families but also to trace names.' First Nations groups have asked for a halt to the auction so that cultural, ceremonial or sacred items in The Bay's collection may be returned to the communities that they belong to. The Bay is expected to return to court at a later date to detail exactly what items beyond the royal charter it wants to sell and how the auction process will unfold. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2025.
The Guardian
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Guardian
Welcome to Miami, where F1's sunshine party draws a crowd every sport craves
With a sell out once more expected, this weekend's Miami Grand Prix is building on an appeal to a younger, diverse audience that is a key part of Formula One's burgeoning success in the US. Making its mark on the calendar with a grand, spectacular party in the Florida sunshine since the inaugural race in 2022, Miami is considered something of a showcase. The opening blast of the three meetings now held in the US is a shop window for the sport with three teams, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Ferrari boasting special liveries for the event this weekend. The flamingo pink of the RB is very much making a splash but the clunky corporate blue addition to the Scuderia's scarlet has fallen very flat with fans. Naysayers may have disliked Miami's emphasis on being a show, of presenting a weekend of entertainment where the food and beverages (or F&B as it is bafflingly, for the uninitiated, referred to here) were as fundamental as the racing. Where the atmosphere went hand in hand with the competition. It was perhaps the first of the 'event' races F1 wanted to promote and like it or not, it has succeeded with numbers around this race telling their own story. The atmosphere here in the general admission – campus – area of the increasingly popular and affordable tickets away from the high-end hospitality which dominates all the media, is one of unadulterated enjoyment, shot through with the glorious absence of world-weary cynicism. There is an air of, whisper it, hedonism; not all racing must be accompanied by sombre beard-scratching from a grassy bank in the rain. This atmosphere is not least informed by the make up of the audience. From information from sales, admittedly with the caveat that the data refers only to the purchaser rather than all the ticket holders, Miami is reaching demographics every sport eyes with lustful ambition. 'We've got the high end luxury buyer that we've really cultivated a relationship with and built their trust,' says Tyler Epp, the Miami GP president. 'But at the same time, we've got some of our entry level motorsport fan data that's telling us we're also a motorsport event for the people who are intrigued and interested and just want to come and see the cars for the first time.' It is these new fans that have led a push for the new single-day tickets and the three-day campus tickets. It is also, most significantly, a young audience. 'The base is growing most aggressively from what we've seen in the 20- and 30-year-old buyer,' Epp adds. 'Our data does not tell us that this is an audience of 30 to 60-year-old white men, that's not what we're seeing now. Certainly they're here but it's a much more eclectic diverse group than that and part of that's partially because we're in Miami, which is such a wonderfully diverse market.' Their data is corroborated trackside in both age and ethnic diversity, while the gender differential is also notable, with the race easing toward what might be a 50-50 split in forthcoming years. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion 'We're tracking about 40% female to 60% male right now,' he says. 'That's on the buyer data and I can also say that the female audience is certainly younger than the male audience. It skews younger.' These are the demographics the sport needs to build on the success it has enjoyed in the US with Drive to Survive and for all that the sound and fury of Las Vegas might have appeared to have outshone Miami of late it is undeniable that the race at the Hard Rock Stadium is pulling in the numbers. Last year when McLaren's Lando Norris won his first F1 race here it drew record viewing figures for the US of 3.1m and Miami now holds the top three live US TV audiences in F1 history. While the season as a whole was pulling in an average of 1.11m per race. Which, while still small in comparison to NFL and NBA, are considered strong numbers as the sport builds its presence. Epp is in good position to judge how the sport fares in comparative terms. He has worked both trackside and team side in Nascar, IndyCar and sports cars before moving into baseball for four and a half years and then putting in almost nine years with the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL; he is convinced the future remains bright. 'We can be very bullish about Formula One in the United States,' he said. 'I view it as solidified, here to stay and looking at continuous growth, not necessarily ebbs and flows. I think the United States sports ecosystem in general ebbs and flows a bit with competitiveness and competition in particular markets but as a whole we feel really, really good about the state of Formula One.'
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Welcome to Miami, where F1's sunshine party draws a crowd every sport craves
With a sell out once more expected, this weekend's Miami Grand Prix is building on an appeal to a younger, diverse audience that is a key part of Formula One's burgeoning success in the US. Making its mark on the calendar with a grand, spectacular party in the Florida sunshine since the inaugural race in 2022, Miami is considered something of a showcase. The opening blast of the three meetings now held in the US is a shop window for the sport with three teams, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Ferrari boasting special liveries for the event this weekend. The flamingo pink of the RB is very much making a splash but the clunky corporate blue addition to the Scuderia's scarlet has fallen very flat with fans. Advertisement Related: FIA president hints at climbdown amid F1 driver standoff over swearing fines Naysayers may have disliked Miami's emphasis on being a show, of presenting a weekend of entertainment where the food and beverages (or F&B as it is bafflingly, for the uninitiated, referred to here) were as fundamental as the racing. Where the atmosphere went hand in hand with the competition. It was perhaps the first of the 'event' races F1 wanted to promote and like it or not, it has succeeded with numbers around this race telling their own story. The atmosphere here in the general admission – campus – area of the increasingly popular and affordable tickets away from the high-end hospitality which dominates all the media, is one of unadulterated enjoyment, shot through with the glorious absence of world-weary cynicism. There is an air of, whisper it, hedonism; not all racing must be accompanied by sombre beard-scratching from a grassy bank in the rain. This atmosphere is not least informed by the make up of the audience. From information from sales, admittedly with the caveat that the data refers only to the purchaser rather than all the ticket holders, Miami is reaching demographics every sport eyes with lustful ambition. Advertisement 'We've got the high end luxury buyer that we've really cultivated a relationship with and built their trust,' says Tyler Epp, the Miami GP president. 'But at the same time, we've got some of our entry level motorsport fan data that's telling us we're also a motorsport event for the people who are intrigued and interested and just want to come and see the cars for the first time.' It is these new fans that have led a push for the new single-day tickets and the three-day campus tickets. It is also, most significantly, a young audience. 'The base is growing most aggressively from what we've seen in the 20- and 30-year-old buyer,' Epp adds. 'Our data does not tell us that this is an audience of 30 to 60-year-old white men, that's not what we're seeing now. Certainly they're here but it's a much more eclectic diverse group than that and part of that's partially because we're in Miami, which is such a wonderfully diverse market.' Their data is corroborated trackside in both age and ethnic diversity, while the gender differential is also notable, with the race easing toward what might be a 50-50 split in forthcoming years. Advertisement 'We're tracking about 40% female to 60% male right now,' he says. 'That's on the buyer data and I can also say that the female audience is certainly younger than the male audience. It skews younger.' These are the demographics the sport needs to build on the success it has enjoyed in the US with Drive to Survive and for all that the sound and fury of Las Vegas might have appeared to have outshone Miami of late it is undeniable that the race at the Hard Rock Stadium is pulling in the numbers. Last year when McLaren's Lando Norris won his first F1 race here it drew record viewing figures for the US of 3.1m and Miami now holds the top three live US TV audiences in F1 history. While the season as a whole was pulling in an average of 1.11m per race. Which, while still small in comparison to NFL and NBA, are considered strong numbers as the sport builds its presence. Epp is in good position to judge how the sport fares in comparative terms. He has worked both trackside and team side in Nascar, IndyCar and sports cars before moving into baseball for four and a half years and then putting in almost nine years with the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL; he is convinced the future remains bright. 'We can be very bullish about Formula One in the United States,' he said. 'I view it as solidified, here to stay and looking at continuous growth, not necessarily ebbs and flows. I think the United States sports ecosystem in general ebbs and flows a bit with competitiveness and competition in particular markets but as a whole we feel really, really good about the state of Formula One.'
