LTC 068-2023 Goodwood Festival of SpeedMIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC# 068-2023 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Honorable Mayor Dan Gelber and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Alina T. Hudak, City Manag�
DATE: February 13, 2023
SUBJECT: Goodwood Festival of Speed
The purpose of this Letter to Commission is inform the Mayor and City Commission of
correspondence received late last week from Tim Sulley, International Director of
Goodwood to request the delay of their plans to bring Festival of Speed to Miami Beach
for March 2024.
While significant progress has been made on an agreement since receiving Commission
approval in December, the Goodwood team has expressed concern about the volume of
pending work to produce an event of that magnitude. Goodwood remains committed to
bringing the Festival to Miami Beach and understands the potential impact of the
requested delay. They believe that delaying the date of their first event to March 2025
will allow them sufficient time. The Administration will continue to meet with the Festival
representatives to bring an agreement to Commission for final approval in your April or
May meeting. Additionally, Administration has offered to provide assistance in seeking
support from other governmental entities.
Goodwood has expressed a desire to host a launch event in 2024, a press and
promotional event that kick-off ticket sales and provide exposure for their sponsors and
partners. We are working with the team to begin discussions of what that event will look
like and when it would take place.
Attached please find the correspondence received from Goodwood. Should you have
any questions or need additional information, please contact Marcia Monserrat at
marciamonserrat@miamibeachfl.gov.
1
COO1wooD
GOODWOO, CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX POI8 OPX
TELEPHONE: O1243 755000 FAX: 01243 755005
w ww.goodwood.com
10 February 2022
To: Alina Hudak Via Email
cc. Mayor Dan Gelber
Dear Alina,
Many thanks for your time last Friday, and we are genuinely sorry that we had to request the delay to our plans to bring the
Festival of Speed to Miami Beach.
We are more excited than ever about the opportunity, and hugely appreciate you and your team's help, support and
enthusiasm for the project. It has given us great confidence that the partnership will be a success for everyone. We have
made terrific progress over the last few months and have thoroughly enjoyed working with the City of Miami Beach team
who could not have been more helpful.
We are, however, deeply concerned about the volume of work that has yet to be completed for us to be able to launch a
world class event in just over one year's time. While our initial conversations with our close sponsor partners have been very
positive about the proposition, we are not really able to go to market in a meaningful way until we have a signed contract
and these conversations are key to ensuring that we are comfortable with the financial risk. The same is also true of supplier
contracts, marketing and ticket & hospitality sales.
It was unfortunate that we lost a little time at the end of last year due to weather events impacting on various meetings-
these things cannot be helped. Following the approval to proceed at the Commission Meeting in December we have supplied
a draft Heads of Tenns but the detailed work involved in drafting that document has simply confirmed our belief that we
have run out of time to deliver an event we can all be proud of in 2024.
With all of this in mind, I am writing to respectfully ask that you agree to us delaying the date of the first event by one year
to March 2025 to allow us the time required to put on a truly world class event that will deliver all the associated economic
impacts that we have discussed, in a first class way.
Although we are very aware that the delay will impact on Miami Beach Live programming and the Commission's
commitment to its electorate, we do think that there are some real benefits in delaying to ensure that the appropriate time is
given to getting the event right and to ensuring the right level of public consultation.
On Friday we discussed providing you with a critical path for the event, and the key timelines by which certain milestones
will have to be met. I have attached this document which, as you can see, sets out our commitment in terms of investment
in people and resources over the coming months. It also shows that we have already begun our commercial conversations.
The commercial agreements are the key element here, and you will see we have given ourselves a set of financial targets that
we will need to meet for us to have the confidence to launch public ticket sales in or around March 2024. I will keep you
informed of our progress in meeting these targets throughout the next 12 months.
There is also significant investment in digital platforms and content over the next 6 months in preparation for the official
launch. This investment will be made ahead of gaining commitment from potential partners.
In terms of a launch event, it is absolutely our intention to hold such an event in 2024. We see this as a major press and
promotional event, aimed at ensuring maximum publicity for our official on-sale moment, gaining coverage for the principal
p a r t n e r s , a n d gi vi ng th e r e s i d e n t s , o ffi c i al s , a n d o u r U S a u di e n c e a ta s t e o f w h a t w e will be bringing to Miami Beach in 2025.
We would, however, want to work with your team on the appropriate timing for this official launch.
We discussed hosting this event in March 2024 during our meeting, but in hindsight we think we need to understand your
priorities for the general Ocean Drive and Lummus Park area around that time of year and in particular how the site and
immediate vicinity can be secured for the media, residents and invited VIP guests. Holding our launch moment 12 months
out from the first event makes a lot of sense, but we are not sure we would utilise enough of the park and beach area to
fulfill your main ambition. We have a concern that if our footprint does not fill the entire space, then inviting the world's
media to Ocean Drive in March 2024 may not present the experience we all want to portray.
The General Manager of Festival of Speed, Jenny Miller, will be in town the week of the 20h February and would like to
meet to start the discussion around what's possible logistically, once she has had this discussion with you we will draw up a
more detailed plan which we hope to have within a month.
Following our discussion about securing agreement for additional funding during Friday's meeting, we have also requested
for Bob to set up a meeting with Mayor Gelber and GMCVB as agreed.
I hope that you understand our commitment to The City of Miami Beach and our strong belief that it is the ideal location
for the first Goodwood Festival of Speed outside of the UK. I hope that you also understand our legitimate concerns about
how the timings make a delay by 12 months to March 2025 the most sensible decision.
We are also very conscious of the hugely important role Commissioners Richardson and Fernandez have made to the
leadership and support this project and would be most grateful if you could bring them up to speed with our discussions.
We would of course be delighted to speak to both of them at the earliest opportunity to explain our concerns if that would
be helpful.
We will shortly be sending out invitations to the City of Miami Beach team and elected officials for this year's Festival of
Speed in July and are hopeful that you and the elected officials will be able to come and witness the event in person. Please
can you suggest who it would be appropriate for us to extend an invitation to.
His Grace the Duke of Richmond will also be writing to Mayor Gelber to personally apologise for any disappointment this
decision may cause but believes it is in the best long term interest for all of us.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Yours sincerely,
Tim Bulley
International Director
+44 7785 515299
rim. bulley@goodwood.com