The prize money seems to be a bit feeble given that they are charging $20,000/slot (so they take in $180,000) and are only giving $100,000 for the top prize and down from there, so not a lot of "out of pocket" for the publicity they will get. On the other hand a "slot" owner needs to negotiate with a driver. Since this is held in February the U.S. drivers would not be missing out on any huge purse money, but still if you owned the slot you would probably have to give a top driver at least $25-50,000 plus pay expenses for a few round trips to AU, hotel, meals, rental cars, meals etc. So the slot owner would definitely be in for $100,000 by the time all is said and done. Thus, this is definitely not a promotion to help the slot owner make $$, but rather have the slot owner generate publicity (so might be worthwhile for a breeder, commercial sponsor etc.) The only people with a chance to make money out of buying the slot would be the "locals" in AU, as they would not bear the expense tabs for travel etc.; however, their bigger races ARE during that time frame, so some of those drivers would most certainly have an "opportunity cost."
