Overheard in Long Beach – Sunday (3rd Update)
05/24/15 We spoke to Toyota GP of Long Beach boss Jim Michaelian at Indy yesterday and he told us that there were slightly under 1,000 more people that attended the 2015 race than attended the 2014 race. They do not make public the exact numbers.
04/19/15
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| IndyCar redeemed itself at the best venue on the calendar |
UPDATE We hear the 42nd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be run on April 17, 2016. Today's crowd was huge with people 5 to 10 deep in most places. The prediction before the race was 90,000 for today and it appears like they got it. After today's excellent run look for Conor Daly to possibly be in the dale Coyne #18 for the GP of Indianapolis but in SPM's third car for the 500 according to Robin Miller and look for Alex Tagliani to be in Foyt's 3rd car. We still have James Davison penciled in for Coyne for the 500.
04/19/15 The IndyCar welfare program – free money teams get for showing up to race, similar to the money the government takes from those of us who work our tails off and doles out free money to the slackers in life that show up at the welfare office and fill out the proper paperwork – has been a constant criticism here on the pages of AR1.com.
If you ask most IndyCar team owners, they would say the program is great. Who wouldn't have good things to say about free money? So to get a team owner to speak honestly on this topic is next to impossible. However, we did find one who we thought might be forthcoming. He shall remain nameless. We asked him this – If every IndyCar race were on network TV and brought in a minimum of 1 million viewers per event, would you be able to sell enough sponsorship on your own to run your team without the free money from the IndyCar Leader Circle welfare program? An absolute 'yes' was the reply.
It's exactly what we have been saying for years. Instead of taking the money from NBC Sports Network which delivers miniscule TV ratings (i.e. no one is watching) but pays IndyCar millions they use to fund the welfare program, IndyCar would be better off negotiating a TV deal with ABC and NBC whereby all the races are on network TV instead of a cable channel hardly anyone watches. This would enable teams to be self-sufficient (land their own sponsorship money instead of relying on ride-buyers to keep the team afloat) and to hire the best drivers on the market, not the ones with the biggest check. You know – the way a sport is supposed to be.
It would also allow a talented driver without a ride who has the business savvy to bring a sponsor to the table for their car. In other words you can't sell 0.27 TV ratings but you can sell 1 million + viewers all day long. With 120 million network TV households in the USA, a TV rating of around 0.8 or higher on ABC or NBC would be all that is needed. And my last point on this topic – any welfare program creates a society of unexceptional people.
Changing topics, IndyCar has stated they are trying to start their season late January or early February and end by Labor Day, which was first recommended on AR1.com 5 years before the Boston Consulting Group recommendation came out. Of course you need warm weather venues in order to do that. Rumor has it that IndyCar is considering a return to Homestead, Florida for their season opener, which is warm enough in late January to have the opening race on the weekend before Super Bowl, first recommended here on AR1.com a decade ago.
With the goal of 4 races before St. Pete, the early schedule could be:
Homestead – Late Jan.
New Orleans – Early Feb
Overseas #1 – Late Feb
Overseas #2 – Early March
St. Pete – Late March
Word is there are now zero open Chevy seats for the Indianapolis 500 and four Honda open seats. Chevrolet announced the last of its 17 entries Saturday – Townsend Bell will drive the No. 24 of Dreyer & Reinbold-Kingdom Racing. The seats open are at Dale Coyne Racing (2), A.J. Foyt Racing (1) and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (1). Drivers looking to fill those seats include James Davison, Ryan Briscoe, Alex Tagliani, Katherine Legge, Conor Daly, Carlos Huertas, and John Andretti. They are all trying to get deals done in time for the open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 3.
We hear that the Toyota Grand Prix is expecting almost 90,000 people for today's race. That is a great attendance and what happens when you have a well-run event at a beautiful venue, and at a time of year when the paying customer is comfortable. Putting a race like New Orleans, St. Pete or Houston in the summer when it is hot and humid will guarantee that your event will eventually fail. Paying customers must feel good at the event and enjoy themselves. Many IndyCar races have failed due to oppressive humidity. Mark C. reporting from Long Beach