City of Vancouver to refund $500,000 to failed Formula E race organizers

FIA Formula E in Rome, 2018. (Shutterstock)

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Tens of thousands of ticket holders for the cancelled inaugural FIA Formula E race in Vancouver are still waiting for their refunds.

But Montreal-based One Stop Strategy (OSS) Group, the organizers of the failed-to-launch electric-battery car race event, will now be receiving a refund of $500,000 from the City of Vancouver.

In a bulletin issued Friday afternoon, the City of Vancouver states this refund is for the “performance security payment” that OSS Group provided to the municipal government earlier in planning for the 2022 race — before the event, named Canadian E-Fest, was cancelled.

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The City notes that the refund to OSS Group is paired with conditions that the money must be used by the company to pay its financial obligations associated with the cancelled event, such as refunding ticket holders, suppliers, and/or event sponsors.

“The refund of the performance security payment will be drawn entirely from the amount already paid to the City by OSS under the 2022 Host City Agreement, and therefore has no financial impacts to the City’s operating budget,” reads the bulletin.

The Host City Agreement between the City and OSS Group stipulated that the company would cover 100% of all City costs related to planning, organizing, and staging the event, including policing, engineering, crowd control measures, and sanitation. Without any government funding, this meant OSS Group had to completely rely on ticket sales and sponsors to fund an event that likely costs tens of millions of dollars to put on.

OSS Group also planned to put on a larger scope event than the usual Formula E race seen in other cities. The Vancouver event, spanning three days coinciding with the Canada Day long weekend, entailed not only the race itself, but also two nights of concerts at Rogers Arena and a sustainable transportation business conference. As a public benefit, OSS Group also agreed to install permanent charging infrastructure for the community to use.

Formula E Vancouver circuit and site map. (Canadian E-Fest)

At the 100-day countdown mark before the race, OSS Group reported that about 30,000 tickets had already been sold. At the time of the event’s cancellation in April, OSS Group said they were developing a refund strategy.

The last update to ticket holders was an email on May 9, with OSS Group stating ticket holders would be given the option for a full refund or have their tickets transfer to the “rescheduled” 2023 event.

They also indicated through other channels that the refund process would be carried out over the month of July. But the month is now approaching its end, and zero refunds have been carried out. The event’s website is still up.

Daily Hive reached out to OSS Group earlier this week on their progress of issuing refunds, but did not hear back.

On June 17, UK-based FIA Formula E issued a statement to media that it had terminated all contractual agreements with OSS Group, and that Vancouver would not be included in the provisional race calendar for 2023. But they also stated that “we retain active interest in delivering an E-Prix in Vancouver in the future.”

About two years ago, FIA Formula E contracted OSS Group to bring back a race stop to Canada, and Vancouver was selected, with the race circuit using a portion of the former footprint of the long-defunct Molson Indy race in Northeast False Creek.

“Formula E is mindful that many fans have purchased tickets to the Canadian E-Fest, which included the Vancouver E-Prix, from OSS Group,” reads a statement by FIA Formula E in June.

“We expect OSS Group to ensure that it proceeds to a full refund of these tickets and to provide details on this process in the short term.”

The municipal government’s bulletin today notes that as a result of FIA Formula E’s decision to cut ties with OSS Group, “the City has ceased all preparation and planning work, and no new applications for a future Formula E event have been received by the City to date.”

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