New Indycar CEO announced
 

From a tweet
IndyCarPR

Randy Bernard is the new CEO of the Indy Racing League. He was formerly the CEO of the PBR.

News Release found by Z Man TY
http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15717

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

PBR as in the Professional Bull Riders organization?

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Is that Pro bull riding or Pabst Blue Ribbon?
“What we did find was that the women were more interested in the bulls. We thought tight Wranglers would be the top reason women would go, but it wasn't. It was the bulls. So we started merchandising the bulls, and our bull merchandise outsells our cowboy merchandise.”

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

He is probably the right guy for the job. As there is a lot of BS in The IRL.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

the first thing this guy needs to do is get VS back on directv. i will give diretv 2 more months and then i will be forced to change to Dish. Is this a good thing that this person has NEVER been to an IRL race? Indy Star has the article.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Originally Posted by Dyno Don:
He is probably the right guy for the job. As there is a lot of BS in The IRL.

Yet another positive post by Dyno Don.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Originally Posted by Seadog:
Yet another positive post by Dyno Don.

Actually, I thought it was one of his better posts.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Originally Posted by Charles Nungester:
From a tweet
IndyCarPR

Randy Bernard is the new CEO of the Indy Racing League. He was formerly the CEO of the PBR.

Another sports marketing guy? Might as well have chosen Andy Craig. I am not liking this at all.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

If you do some research on this guy you will see what he started with at the PBR in 1995..nothing and he has built it into something huge with a TV deal that nobody ever expected bull riding to get and selling out huge arenas. This guy will know how to put asses in the seats and thats what IRL needs. If you have never been to a PBR event it is a happening in itself. In vegas the riders show up in limos on a red carpet and the bulls are treated like rock stars. I was in New York City a few weeks ago for the show they had at Madison Square Garden and that is not a cowboy kinda town but the place was pumped up with excitement. The only regret I have is I wish this guy was coming to work for USAC. I am sure this guy could right the ship. It may take a year for him to get use to the IRL but he will turn it around.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

I don't expect miracles from Bernard overnight, but I feel he may have what it takes IMO. What we need to remember is that with TG gone, this will be run more as a business and not so much as a sport. TG ruled with his heart, beancounters be damned. And Bernard will be dealing with that same Hulman-George family. The same people that cut off Tony's spending.

There only so much you can do without the generous funding as was the case in days of old apparently.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Link to press release http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=15717

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

like i said on "indystar.com"

the only person they could find to put up with the evil sisters is someone who is used to walking through bull$hit all day........this is going to be a disaster!!! i hope that i have to eat my words.....but i bet i dont!:15:

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

HE SAID HE HAS NEVER EVEN SEEN AN IRL RACE!

*** are they thinkin'?

Jesus, this is death by a thousand paper cuts!
Bring back is Gene Simons.....................Kiddin' just Kiddin':19:

Should be an interesting year for the "few" people that will be watching.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Maybe this guy was holding the right hand at the meetings. Gosh, how many guys does it take to replace Tony.

Lynn

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

I don't know whether Indy Racing can be saved or not. The grandson of Anton Hulman, Jr. had his chance and was not in the process of turning it into a more successful organization. In fact, as screwed up as it sounds, the sport maybe wouldn't survive at all, if it lost it's little tempermental, 100 lb meal ticket. Which it is in the process of doing, starting with the ARCA race @ Daytona.

Here you have this guy, Randy Bernard. He took over part of a sport that had been around forever and had never been commercially successful on a large scale and helped turn PBR into a multi hundred-million dollar, international enterprise. When he was 28 years old! I'm not saying this is the guy that'll be the savior of the sport, but considering his track record, I wouldn't bet against him.

Jerry

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Originally Posted by cmakin:
Another sports marketing guy? Might as well have chosen Andy Craig. I am not liking this at all.

It does seem like a pretty big stage to be doing "on the job training". On the other hand, maybe he didn't know anything about bull riding before he took that job, which he seems to have done well at.

You would think they would have plugged in someone who is knowledgable about Indycar racing. But who knows, maybe a fresh set of eyes and ideas will turn out to be a good thing.

I wish him the best of luck. He has a big challenge ahead of him. Increasing car counts and crowds in this economy isn't going to be easy.

David.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

This will be a disaster, probably, bigger than the kevin miller/usac debacle. The truth is, the irl doesn't have enough time left for "on the job" training. They need somebody who can make some absolutely correct decisions, immediately,with great knowledge of the racing business and its history.
The problem is that nobody with any knowledge of the racing business would touch this job with a 50 foot pole, so they have to find some guy who has never even heard of the irl.
They need to find someone, instantly, that understands that all of their obsession with promotion, hype and marketing is totally useless when the real problem is that THEIR PRODUCT SUCKS! Eight year old specracers with million dollar "guaranteed equal for all" specengines..... only two pro level teams winning 98% of all the race ...... only half a dozen pro level drivers:7:

So, This guy built the "bullriders" up from "nothing".... Building from "nothing" is a whole lot easier than trying to build from the bottom of a very deep hole that is the irl. He would be better off burying the current irl at the bottom of that hole and start over from "nothing".

************************************************** *********
Good Luck!, Randy Bernard, I'm sure you are a swell guy, but you should have read about all of the previous cart, usac, indycar and irl CEOs, presidents, hucksters, dictators, frontmen, and mouthpieces
whose racing careers have be "eaten up" over the past 30+ years......... frasco, campanegro, stokkan, craig, pook, heitzler, ward, kalkhoven and, now, TG......... plus dozens of cart, indycar and irl marketing and PR hacks....
Having a little knowledge and studying a little history could have saved you from making a very bad career decision.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Originally Posted by mac miller:
This will be a disaster, probably, bigger than the kevin miller/usac debacle. The truth is, the irl doesn't have enough time left for "on the job" training. They need somebody who can make some absolutely correct decisions, immediately,with great knowledge of the racing business and its history.
The problem is that nobody with any knowledge of the racing business would touch this job with a 50 foot pole, so they have to find some guy who has never even heard of the irl.
They need to find someone, instantly, that understands that all of their obsession with promotion, hype and marketing is totally useless when the real problem is that THEIR PRODUCT SUCKS! Eight year old specracers with million dollar "guaranteed equal for all specengines" ..... only two pro level teams winning 98% of all the race ...... only half a dozen pro level drivers:7:

So, This guy built the "bullriders" up from "nothing".... Building from "nothing" is a whole lot easier than trying to build from the bottom of a very deep ditch that is the irl. He would be better off burying the current irl at the bootom of that ditch and start over from "nothing".

************************************************** *********
Good Luck!, Randy Bernard, I'm sure you are a swell guy, but you should have read about all of the previous cart, usac, indycar and irl CEOs, presidents, hucksters, dictators, frontmen, and mouthpieces
whose racing careers have be "eaten up" over the past 30+ years......... frasco, campanegro, stokkan, craig, pook, heitzler, ward, kalkhoven and, now, TG......... plus dozens of cart, indycar and irl marketing and PR hacks....
Having a little knowledge and studying a little history could have saved you from making a very bad career decision.

Maybe we need to start a "Bitter Old Racing Guy Forum" on here for guys like Mac. His post should fit in there nicely.:17:

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Originally Posted by Seadog:
Maybe we need to start a "Bitter Old Racing Guy Forum" on here for guys like Mac. His post should fit in there nicely.:17:

I agree with you on this. Guys the PBR did not totally come from nothing. They did have ESPN around for there big events in Vegas. And most big cities had rodeo's each year that were highly advertised. Yes there not apples to apples, but its not like he put the first man on a bull. I am going to look at this a much more simple way. Its time to think outside the box. The past is just about all used up. Time to move on. Maybe this guy can make things better. hopefully better things will trickle down below like it has in the PBR. One thing to remember, not only did he get the PBR up and rolling, but now there is a "support series" of sorts feeding new riders to the big show. There is a direct path. Once you reach the top, if you do not maintain a certain level you drop back down. This guy has never seen an indy car race..... well at least he has not seen several of the failurres from the past.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

This is exactly what the IRL needs. We all sit here and think we know what this needs, or that needs to make it great. He's looking at it from a totally different perspective. He's going to be looking at "how can I put butts in the seats, and make the value of entertainment better" Becasue lets think about this, all racing is... is ENTERTAINMENT! People aren't going to the races, and people aren't watching them on TV becasue they aren't entertaining to watch. This guy said that he's knows TV, he knows promoting, two of the biggest lackluster things in all of racing.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Originally Posted by Panama:
[B][U]
Bring back is Gene Simons.....................Kiddin' just Kiddin':19:

You guys remember the night Gene was on Wind Tunnel? Remember how he told Despain that the IRL was headed towards more American drivers as evidenced by the success of Paul Tracy and Scott Dixon.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

My hope for the new guy is that he remembers the PBR being successful on dirt and brings the dirt mile tracks back to the championship schedule!!! Then we could watch Sarah lap the field while continuing to laugh at Milka gettin lapped every 8-10 laps. Wouldn't need the 100 pound PR machine anymore.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Will there be a clown in a barrel in the middle of each turn now?

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

The way I look at it, they need a marketing guy. A true marketing guy can market anything. They don't need to know EVERYTHING about the product as long as they have people around them that do.

The board didn't like what a racing guy was doing so going with a marketing guy seems to be the exact opposite (TG was and would never be that guy...just not his personality). If you're going to make a change, then you need to make a total change IMO. No idea if it will work or help, but you might as well try something different if you didn't like the results before. I personally would rather have a guy that knows the sport in charge, but I'll give the guy a chance. His job is to market (since he doesn't know anything about the sport) so we'll see what happens.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Originally Posted by Blackduce:
Maybe this guy was holding the right hand at the meetings. Gosh, how many guys does it take to replace Tony.

Lynn

That is exactly what I was thinking?

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

I have a good feeling about this deal. Bull riding is a little different in terms of the sport consists of short bursts of actual competition. As we know, racing is more about duration.

Bull riding is similar in terms that it like racing is considered a "tough" sport. Now I know Danica and Weldon aren't exactly lumberjacks, but that is the perception of racing.

Why I like it is because the PBR is very successful, but it like racing had been around for years. It isn't like it's a new concept, they took an existing concept and built it up from there.

The IZOD sponsorship is bigger than most people realize and they are spending big money betting on Indy Cars.

About the miles: I love the miles and the cars and I feel that the best drivers win on them, but if they are so popular and important; how come no one is coming to watch them? Don't get me wrong; I want them to be successful; but the reality is that they aren't.

My only questions are: Who is going to be the one in the barrell and how are the cards going to stay on the poker table as the cars pass by?

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

how come those women aren't coming down here?most of them thar bulls are raised and kept 10 miles from my house in Oklahoma.

Re: New Indycar CEO announced
 

I know this guy personally. I used to produce PBR Bud Light Cup events when it was on TNN. When Randy came to the PBR from the CA. State Fair Board, he took over from a CEO that was a RODEO guy that understood the sport. Randy only dealt with the PBR when they were part of the state fair. The bull riders that started the PBR saw the marketing potential this guy had and brought him on board to do what they couldn't seem to accomplish, (they were bull riders, not marketing gurus). He took over and turned riders into household names. The PBR and the IRL are very similar in marketing scope, we need to have a group of drivers that america has to see every week. That is what he created with the PBR riders, many from Brazil, Canada, and yes, the United States. He will be the guy, if any, that can possibly bring back American drivers to the IRL. How you may ask. He is very good at aligning sponsors with the Business as well as a certain driver. It's called marketing leverage, and he is a master of that.

Give this guy a little time to figure out all the holes of the IRL and You may see that this just may have been one of the wisest decisions they have made yet. He will figure them out and make some bold decisions whether popular or not and turn this ship around and give it some hope of not sinking like the titanic. USAC openwheel drivers may just have some hope again.

Kevin Thomas, Sr.
256-339-7125