The recent Kuala Lumpur City GP has not gone down well with businesses situated within the vicinity of the 3.2 km track. The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) has claimed that affected businesses have had to incur as much as three to four days’ worth of losses over the event period.
Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan, MEF executive director told The Sun that it was not fair to businesses that were affected by the event, adding that “they had to suffer in silence, there was nothing they could do about it.”
“When people are not able to come in to the area, of course their incomes were affected,” he said, referring to the closure of five major roads within the golden triangle. He stressed that should the KL City GP take place annually, this would be worrying as it would be difficult for companies to operate on such basis.
Shamsuddin then questioned the necessity of organising the race in the city, when there is a first class track readily available, referring to the Sepang International Circuit. “The track in Sepang has all the necessary safety features that are required. They should have just used that circuit,” he highlighted.
As for the KL GP itself, race organiser GT Global Race was chuffed with the way the whole event ran. The company’s president and CEO M. Arrasu said that spectator attendance was significantly higher that what was predicted, with a crowd of about 250,000 reportedly present for for event.
So guys, what’s your stand on the Kuala Lumpur City GP?
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business which forced to close, should have some share of profit from KL City GP.
No, you are wrong. This event brought business, only BERSIH activity will cause disruption & losses to the nation.
Of course it is stupid to have in KL. Disrupt everybody. What is Speang Racing circuit for?
The worst part, it has encouraged the kutu and rempit to now use KL City as their racing track. All the kutus and rempits got motivated with the race in the city and now, they know, can make it their track.
These people are low intelligence. They think, if the Grand Prix can happen, why not they try it. This is the talk from the grassroots in KL. The rempits are all overjoyed.
Bad management by the Government
You forget gov love to hire them?
now everyone wanna try this new racing circuit..
This is typical Malaysian mindset. As long as not in my backyard syndrome (NIMBY). Same like the LRT project going through some so-called ‘high-end’ housing areas. I thought the race was good thing happening in KL. Even though without this race, KLites will still be stucked in traffic jams for hours daily. This is what to expect if you want to work or do business in the heart of KL.
Of course, and this KL City GP thing will make the traffic jam from bad to ultra-worse!
Actually the traffic in the city center was extremely light for the entire weekend. Driving to and from Changkat Bukit Bintang, or through the city from Jalan Ampang to Bukit Bintang was much easier than normal. I think its because everyone though the traffic would be tough, so a lot of drivers stayed away, or used public transport.
I think the race caused great inconvenience due to road closure.
If they really wanna do a street race, it will be less disruptive to do it in areas like Putra Jaya.
And please, stop copying my neighbor in street racing and theme park. Promote our eco-tourism instead.
The next thing the irresponsible organisers and Arrasu can do is show blue film to the masses in KL. Better put it in Dataran Merdeka with the big screen.
Such irresponsible organisers. The only thing KL should be used is to celebrate Merdeka and have our yearly marches.
If we want to make KL into a circus and have all sorts of nonsense done, there will be no limits. What is next? Circus on the streets? With everyone juggling balls and tigers and lions on the street?
Or even better, have Lions and Elephants walk on the steets of KL. Call it City Zoo.
You loss business for 4 days but make profit for the rest of the year….
The Klang valley folks whom couldn’t afford to go to sepang watch F1 …this is the only racing event for them….
So just assume you guys do some National service for this 4 days….
couldnt afford to go to sepang? how costly would that be? and speaking of which, tickets to this event is not cheap either..much better deal could’ve been obtained for f1/supergt/motogp..
Dude, u actually dont need tickets for the race, everyone is invited. Do some reading before u talk.
I think they selling ticket from RM50 to RM350.
that was for the grandstands. To stand on the streets was FOC to my understanding…
Its for the grandstands(RM 50-500). Still can see the action from start to finish.. Better for your self rather than here people talk and reading. Whole 3 days event plenty people come. even for the rm50 ticket.
Dude, u actually dont need to close road cause problems for the race, youtube has more excited race and car crash. Do some reading before you talk.
Its more than 4 days. Its the whole week. Why not you donate 1 week’s salary to the businesses there?
Looks like Remox believes that all business sells burgers or kacang putih. A truly sorry case.
The race is utterly useless and a nuisance. Hotels had cancellations over the weekend because of the stupid race as non motorsports tourist cancelled their bookings in favour of hotels outside the jammed areas.
Also, the barricades setup was poorly managed as workers along the designated track met with accidents because of the barricades and also faced weeks of traffic jams because of this event. Event organizer doesnt even care about any complains or feedback on the event choosing to not respond and turn a deaf ear on individuals who met with accidents and hassled over this.
Not to mentioned that orgnizations had to declare day off or forced leave to accommodate the inconsiderate event.
This event is mainly shiok sendiri for organiser.
i bet jabba the hut didnt see that one coming from his cave
MEF executive they suffer in silence is because of the donation make currency drop like hell….
I saw lots of banglas and other immigrants around the racing track…they must have generated lots of profit for the event.
KL city is living breathing city…
not a sin city filled with rich people that can take a weekend off like monaco….
hardworking asians would like to take the weekend off and spend quality time with the family , not be hampered with a city race that brings no good but to the organizers themselves….
Do it on federal highway next time. Straight road. From klang to kl. Half an hour finish already.
Confirm road no traffic jam… On Federal highway lah.
Aku dah cakap dah , it’ll caused more public complaints & grievances than praises. Scrap and ban the whole City Circuit racing idea and relocate it to Sepang Circuit – case closed!
Yes.Offices also have to close, staff has to take a ‘paksarela’ leave. Just to let a bunch of spoil riches children playing around there. Hello. We have Sepang, and it is safe and sound to use as a racetrack. I thought before this, they says only BERSIH is causing business loss, incovenience, etc. How about this race? For street race, just head to DUKE and see a free Myvi racing enough la.
Don’t be a copycat. We have Sepang. Go and race there. Why make the businesses suffer?
Can’t say much but putrajaya is an option compared to busy kl
I actually went around the area on last Saturday. It was good fun and great to see the cars zoom past really close to you and you could smell the rubber and actually see the car tires flexing as they corner at high speed, which may not be possible at Sepang. However, we have to see the bigger picture as well.
I was driving around that area the Thursday before the event, and the jam the road/lane closures caused was terrible. The openings created for vehicles to enter into some of the compounds of the buildings around the area was significantly small, especially for vans and lorries that needed to access them. There were a couple of instances where I witnessed lorries having to do 3 point turns when they wanted to enter into a building. This, on a congested road, is uncalled for. As a result, tempers flared.
If they are to do this again next year, proper planning and due diligence is needed. There are a lot of stakeholders involved and everyone should be in the know and kept updated on everything that is taking place. Judging by the comments by the people working/living in that area, this was probably not done.
KL is not Monte Carlo. If they wanted to have a sort of city race, can do it at Putrajaya. Lots of roads there. Can close whichever road. Want to hold nascar is also possible with that huge ring road
agreed..menyusahkan rakyat!
Malaysia. Builds USD120mil Sepang F1 circuit.
Many years later, decides to hold a race in the middle of KL city instead.
Judge for yourself.
I kinda do agree about how we already have a great circuit built especially for such races, yet, we still have to shut down main roads and disrupt sales within the vacinity so we can have something as cool and similar to Monte Carlo and Singapore night race.
Its somewhat a breath of fresh air (minus the pollution caused by the V12s) to have a GP with the backdrop of the twin towers, but I think the organisers should have consulted to DBKL and business owners first before making the decision to close roads leading to their premises.
I believe they did not choose Sepang as it is an inaugural racing event. Sepang is just too far for most to travel. Unless if its the ever so popular and expensive F1, then regardless of where you set it up, people will still come.
There are a few reason why the Singapore race is held at night. And one of it is to prevent all this daytime work related issues.
Nope. That’s NOT one of the reason for it to be held at night. The road closure is always done few days prior to the race, day and night.
The timing of the night event meant that it could be broadcast live at a convenient time for European TV audiences
For street racing Sepang circuit may not be suitable but Putrajaya would have been fine politically, business and others.
the organizer said 250k crowd came to the event? is in on 1 day? or the span on 3 days?
even if 80K crowd disperse, i’m sure the nearby malls would be packed with customers.
Unless we have witnesses giving more input, i believe only 2 scenario happened.
1: the organizers over claimed the crowd, making it sound like a HUGE success when it is actually not.
2: the traders association is out of tune with the customer number.
i’ve been to an even where 60’000 strong crowd at a stadium, and the businesses after the event was making brisk business, i.e. foods, drinks, souvenirs etc.
so i cannot believe how a 250K strong crowd not improve business.
Cos most of spectators go there and see. Not spend money. And you are limited in your view for retail eateries only. No one stays out the whole day sweaty and after that go buy clothes. At most they grab a drink. Also, at these events, stalls who sells items need to pay organizer an inflated amounts to sell during the event. Hence to assume that business make money just because there is a crowd is not accurate already.
You are talking about losses when they organizing a grandprix? Would you be talking about losses too when somebody want to organize a political driven mass rally? Yesteryears when the political driven NGOs and parties were having their mass rallies at the other routes do anybody care about their losses? I dont think by organizing events that attracts large crowds will bring losses to you. Heh
At least those NGO rallies made it worth our while and was for a good cause. City Grand Prix? Donation to organizers only.
BS. FOR A GOOD CAUSE? DREAM ON! THEY’RE DOING IT FOR THEIR OWN POCKETS.. ALL OF THEM!
NGO fights for civil rights my fren.
just declare public holiday along the race period.
F1, the biggest and glamorous car race event on earth is held on 4 street circuits, 2 of which in countries abundant with land. What’s the main purpose of such a hectic event? Absolutely tourism!
Therefore, it’s the organizers and the local govt vital task to make sure that every local tenants benefits from the event. Go learn from Australian and Canadian.
Ya same goes to all tunjuk perasaan fella… Want to tunjuk perasaan then just go to suitable place instead of Jln TAR… Rugi my silk business hehehe
No need to come to KL.come to malacca.They already have enough attraction.they don’t need this kind of event.come on come on.make malacca rich.hahahaha.
I feel that if u wanna have street racing u may have it at 2nd tier cities in malaysia such as outskirt of Ipoh, Kuantan, Kota Bharu o etc … Not at the capital…
Even if this clown go through all the events on FIA website, the street circuits are mostly on less dense area / to luxuries areas. Great examples , V8 supercar at Montreal as part of support series for Aussie GP.
IMO, having a event at downtown KL is total MADNESS! if u wanna promote tourism, u always can promote other cities rather than showing to world that only KL is the only option for Malaysia.
Just in case, you guys are not aware… this race are part of DONATION…
So….will this circuit be available on the next gran turismo
city needs business to survive. if business suffers, the whole city is going to suffer one way or another. city gp is thrilling, exciting, yes, but if it affects the local business in a big way, then sooner or later the “fun factor” of the whole race will have to go the way of dodo bird because of the bad economy in the city.
and those affected party are no small corporations, mind you. many are foreign investors some more.
It was actually quite a spectacle seeing a race of this caliber on the streets of KL which we are familiar with.
The RM57 (incl GST) Premium Walkabout tickets were a rip off as none of the ground staff knew anything about what these tickets were for as the whole walkabout area was open to the general public as well.
I personally don’t think 250K people turned up, the grand stands were empty and crowds were mostly at the finish line.
Overall a decent first time event.
Did they really gave any positive effect to surrounding businesses? More like a syok sendiri event for the rich spoilt brats parading their “my-5-year-annual-income” cars, that they have been kept in the garage to collect dust. What’s worse is the bloody nonchalant attitude sudah-kaya-aku-tak-kisah attitude with no urgency on removing barriers/barricades/etc. Its already Wednesday, 3 days has past and its still there causing traffic congestion. Wondering how much “duit raya” those DBKL town planners, tourism execs are making out of this?
Why are the barricades still not removed?!?!