The excitement of reporting season is here and in pole position for the Chairman’s report optimism race is GP Chairman, Ron Walker in the Grand Prix corp’s annual report:

I am proud to note that the results show the Victorian Government’s financial investment is less than it has been in previous years …. This reflects the Corporation’s continued success in attracting higher estimated attendances, increased revenues and cost savings through prudent management.

Plenty to be proud about!  Reducing Victoria’s welfare by $54.3m instead of last year’s $60.5m is a fine achievement.  Yes, waving the black flag on all this fun, we have prepared a cost benefit analysis of the 2013 Australian Grand Prix.  Our central estimate is an economic loss of $54.3 million, smaller than last year, but still larger than 2011.  For that much money we could have employed 640 nurses.

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Is it worth 640 of these?

The methodology for these calculations is the same as our 2012 assessment.  Information from the 2013 Grand Prix Corporation Annual Report has been used to update financial costs and benefits, while wider economic costs and benefits have been assumed to be unchanged from last year and updated for inflation.

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Sensitivity analysis around this figure suggests the result is robust, the grand prix causes a substantial reduction in the economic welfare of the Victorian community: