IndyCar Texas attendance continues to slide
TMS president Eddie Gossage blamed the series schedule, which has included a Milwaukee race between Indianapolis and TMS since 2006. While TMS still fields the second largest crowd in the series after the Indianapolis 500, attendance has dropped since an estimated 102,000 watched the 2005 race, which immediately followed Indy. It's clear that inserting a race between Indy and Texas had an effect," Gossage said. "We spent more money on advertising and promotion this year than ever before. We've been selling tickets at a great pace since Robbie Knievel's jump was announced, but it wasn't enough to dig us out of the hole we were in prior to that. We love IndyCar racing and hope to get the IRL's help in turning this trend around."
Gossage has persistently lobbied to return to the spot immediately after Indianapolis. The IRL's contracts with TMS and Milwaukee will expire after next season.
The estimated attendances for the IndyCar races at TMS since 2005 when TMS cut back from two Indy Car Series races per year to one:
Year Attendance
2005 102,000
2006 91,000
2007 86,000
2008 83,000 Dallas News