Interesting hypothesis on the motivations to build COTA. Not sure of your basis given that COTA is not a broadcaster so you can't follow the money that path. But maybe you meant something different.COTA was built to make lifetime TV viewers out of 1 time live spectators. Never in any discussion did anyone ever say, "but where will we park the club racers"?
Yeah, I discussed club racers parking with both Tilke designers and COTA people (not Bobby) as it interested me - not because I was going to influence change. I even modeled a full Runnoffs size crowd in CAD to see if it would fit on the campus (it will in my opinion). Again, to get a single main paddock large enough (ie. Bigger than needed for F1 and all in one location) would have required a different track design. That was never going to happen, nor should it have. The support paddock works just fine in large events and has it's own track access. They got the design right for the goal posts in front of them.
I really do respect this whole discussion as I'm a club racer. On the other hand I do a lot of work with professional sports so let me put this in context. Essentially this is like asking an new NLF stadium why they did not plan enough locker rooms for large multi-team high school sports events. High school teams are just thrilled to play in a new NFL stadium. And I'm thrilled to race at COTA even though it's not ideal for club racing as it relates to paddock parking. On the other hand, it's other facilities are fantastic, like multi sector timing, or a leader board that reminds me every lap that I'm not in the top ten , or the 45 cameras that capture track events and make steward decisions far safer and easier, and runnoff with compression barriers which makes it possibly the safest track we race, and a PA that everyone can hear. And the list goes on.
But I sure do wish they had put up one building with rest rooms and showers on each paddock!!
CNJ
Ps. LIllyweld, I went looking for you to give you a Texas welcome, but could not find you. Hope you ended up with a good weekend.