Bingo!! You nailed it. The problem IS Indiana. The fans want to watch 15$ shows in person and then watch the 30$ show on a recliner. Sounds great to a naive fan, but they also don’t like when their favorite driver leaves to race for more money in another type series. The promoters schedule against each other because of this stupid mentality. A person in the Usac office explained to me years ago that the ISW purses won’t substantially increase because it’s the only time of the year Indiana promoters get along and work together, by not scheduling against each other and adding money to any of those races. He said they make a boat load of money that week and don’t want to give it up. My response was to schedule Usac events at least 500 miles away that week and see how many of the true real local fans show up to every event. I guaranteed him there would not be one sellout. If the fans are the problem forcing promoters to screw one another then take the product away and market it elsewhere properly and it’s a win. Usac has always said they are a sanction body not a promoter. WRG is a sanction body that PROMOTES their product. Not once but twice by adding SLMs. The be careful what you wish for line is easy to say when you are afraid of losing what you’ve got. I firmly believe if half of the Usac events that are scheduled each year in Indiana were removed then all shows would be sellouts. Too easy for people to say I’ll just go to the next one.
I’m from Pa and used to be a weekly fan of winged racing until I started coming to Indiana regularly. Our speedweek is usually a real one, meaning it’s a whole week, not two wknds with a two day nap time. The tracks are packed and the purses are all elevated. Also there is no sanction body. One thing we do have is promotion. The racing is, well it’s wings so take it for what it’s worth. WRG probably has its issues and time will tell what they are. Usac has had all of these years to raise their product to the financial level that WoO has gotten their products to and have failed. I don’t blame any team that leaves for wings or teams that follow WRG. I’m not going to be careful that I wished these guys raced for more money.
This isn’t going to be a work in conjunction thing either. As Gene F. said earlier, this is a step towards a total takeover.