Originally Posted by Grocery Guy:
It may be ridiculous there are not more oval races on the Indy Car schedule, but what ovals haven't been tried? Attendance has been terrible at ovals. Even Texas this year was awful. Tracks aren't lining up for oval races if they can't make a profit.
The attendance isn't perfect, but the ovals do perfectly fine. They do just as well as most of the road races, the looks are deceiving because the ovals have a lot more seats than most of the road courses do.
I think Indycar is past the point where a nationwide audience is a target for them. In my opinion, they need to focus on the markets where they have a significant fan following and business partners. Cater to those fans and cities, and possibly host multiple events in them. NASCAR made the mistake of leaving some of their most loyal fan bases and markets to chase growth in areas that were never going to have a long-term interest in their product. Indycar doesn’t have many of those fan bases, but I think they could build them with commitment to their interests.
On that note, I’d like to see some races in the same market paired together with the possibility of some combo ticket packages that offer a discounted ticket for 2 races. Some examples could be the Indy oval and Indy GP, Milwaukee and Road America, Michigan (on Labor Day weekend, return of the “US 500”) and the Detroit GP, St. Pete and Homestead, Nashville Superspeedway and the Nashville GP, Long Beach and the California short track if they ever build it. Maybe even pair Iowa and Gateway. Throw in the races at Texas, Mid-Ohio, Toronto, and Laguna Seca for an 18 race schedule. Barber and Portland could stay on the schedule to get to 20 events. I don’t think the team owners want that many races, but the California short track and a few others I mentioned are major long shots so the schedule would probably stay around 17 or 18.
It really isn't that difficult to understand. If the race is profitable, it will return. If the race losses money, it does not return. Milwaukee has been tried many times by many people and they all come to the same conclusion, it is not a money maker.
It all depends on how it’s promoted, has nothing to do with the quality of racing. For example, Iowa was packing them in when it was promoted well but the ownership changed hands and did less advertising. The race went belly up until Hy-Vee grocery chain got involved and now they promote the hell out of it. Everyone who goes to the grocery store in the state of Iowa sees Indy Car stuff all over the store and all the employees wearing racing shirts. That along with big time music acts as part of the weekend have made this a must see event. Hopefully they can do something similar in Milwaukee and involve the USAC silver crown division also.
One of my latest "pipe dreams" would be a Texas Triple. Friday night Silver Crown @ Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track " The Johnny Rutherford Classic". Saturday Night Silver Crown @ Devilsbowl Speedway "The A J Foyt Classic".
Sunday back to Texas Motor Speedway for Indy cars!
Originally Posted by Rapid Rick:
This would be great to get Indy Cars back to the Milwaukee Mile. I would like to see USAC consider a return for the Silver Crown division. They put on an excellent show up there back in the late 80's.
All this... and the pavement midget series that has been running at IRP/Anderson too. I'd buy a two day ticket for that.
I think what hurt Milwaukee is when they quit running there, and then started back up. The people who used to go, are old now and don't go anywhere. The people who should have taken their place, were never exposed to it. I went there many years ago. The place was packed and the infield was a very fun place. It won't happen overnight.
