Bull rider to take over IRL
01/28/10 Here is another interesting article in the Indianapolis Business Journal.
01/28/10 This rumor is upgraded to 'strong' today. See related article at SPEEDTV.com.
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| Randy Bernard |
01/28/10 Randy Bernard, who built Professional Bull Riders into a national organization from the ground up, confirmed today to the Indy Star newspaper an offer to become the chief executive officer of the Indy Racing League, replacing Tony George.
Bernard, 42, has not yet accepted the position, although he is strongly considering it. He started PBR 25 years ago.
He is 42 and he started Professional Bull Riders ’25 Years Ago’.
That means the guy was 17 years old when he started with PBR and apparently hasn’t managed anything else. A VERY specialized niche sport that perhaps he learned from the bottom up and navigated well.
IndyCar is in need of a CEO that is not a one trick pony, excuse the pun. Nor does IndyCar have 25 years for someone to learn the business of the IRL and make it successful. At a minimum, one would hope the IRL has consulted with its new presenting sponsor IZOD to make sure they feel the guy is going to be conducive to building on IZOD’s five plus year IndyCar contract.
The IRL, in our opinion, needs a CEO that has a proven track record at the top of the corporate world managing sports related entities or at a minimum public companies that have similar products to sports which rely on the public, sponsors, advertisers, promoters, etc.