2010 Versus TV-ratings are up

[Scotty G.]

1. One of the problems of Indy Car is they can't make up their minds which demo are they going after.

2. All of the other Oval events have dismal attendance and TV Numbers.

1. That's because they are ignorant. I guess they feel there all of these rabid formula car/road racing fans out there in America. The truth is they aren't out there. Never have been and never will be. America is a oval racing country. By a HUGE margin. Road racing is a European model of racing, that Americans don't watch, don't understand and don't give a damn about. Its like selling soccer in America. Never going to work. It works in other parts of the world. But not here. Just like road racing.

Since all of the owners are road racing/sports car bred, they want to make the series into something they grew up with. Ganassi and Penske both go along with what goes on in NASCAR, because they have no choice. They are outsiders there and understand they wield no power in NASCAR with the powers there. Plus if they want to play in America's #1 racing series, they have to go along with spec cars and almost all ovals. NASCAR understands America's preference for oval racing and understands there are far more fans out there that follow that genre. That's why they are successful and will continue to be successful.

Indy Car has the Indy 500 as their premier race. The rest of their schedule is a mis-match of bad street races, road races and ovals. Using road racing cars with international road racing drivers. They don't know what they want to be or who they could appeal to. Do we appeal to oval racing fans? With euro-centric cars and foreign drivers? Not happening. Do we appeal to road racing fans? With as many street races, that becomes harder to do too. So what do we do? We coin the generic phrase "diversity" and say that is what Indy Car is about. A "diverse" championship. That appeals to nobody in particular (fans and sponsors) and fewer and fewer American drivers give a crap about.

2. Texas gets more folks to show up then any other road/street festival does. Iowa's crowd on Sunday will be more then either Brazil or St. Pete. The truth is, these street parties aren't that well attended. They can flat out lie about their attendance, because its hard to tell where people are. But as Talkin Terry Angstadt so stupidly said, "We'd rather race in front of 20,000 folks in some city then race in front of 50,000 in a 100,000 seat stadium". That is the kind of ass-backward logic our leadership has. Plus its all about "atmosphere" and "scenery" at street races. As long as that is good and we can get our announcers to carry on for 2 hours about how "cool" the weekend has been and how "beautiful" and "festive" things are, then that will take people's minds off the fact that the racing (which is the business we are in) is lame and the majority of folks attending not likely to watch another one of your races the rest of the year.

[garyshell]

I guess they feel there all of these rabid formula car/road racing fans out there in America. The truth is they aren't out there. Never have been and never will be. America is a oval racing country. By a HUGE margin. Road racing is a European model of racing, that Americans don't watch, don't understand and don't give a damn about. Its like selling soccer in America. Never going to work.

Do you have any FACTS to back up your usual bluster? (No, of course not.) If your assertion were true, please explain the popularity and success of AOWR in the 80's and 90's.

Your measure of this "huge margin" could be feasible for two reasons only:

1. There are many more oval tracks in this country, because it is MUCH cheaper to build a local Friday night "bull ring" than a road course. More tracks = more events = more spectators, skewing the numbers.

2. The France Family juggernaut, their whispers in King George's ear, his (tunnel) Vision etc have grown a huge fan base.

But none of this shows if the fans truly like or dislike road racing. It only shows what they have an opportunity to see, no more, no less. If fans are spoon feed a constant diet of oval races, they watch oval races.

Gary

[SarahFan]

America is a oval racing country. By a HUGE margin. .

yet of the four races on VS so far this season ALL three twisties have had higher TV ratings than the oval at Texas....even with the 500 as its lead-in...

go figure

[anthonyvop]

1. That's because they are ignorant. I guess they feel there all of these rabid formula car/road racing fans out there in America. The truth is they aren't out there. Never have been and never will be. America is a oval racing country. By a HUGE margin. Road racing is a European model of racing, that Americans don't watch, don't understand and don't give a damn about. Its like selling soccer in America. Never going to work. It works in other parts of the world. But not here. Just like road racing.

Since all of the owners are road racing/sports car bred, they want to make the series into something they grew up with. Ganassi and Penske both go along with what goes on in NASCAR, because they have no choice. They are outsiders there and understand they wield no power in NASCAR with the powers there. Plus if they want to play in America's #1 racing series, they have to go along with spec cars and almost all ovals. NASCAR understands America's preference for oval racing and understands there are far more fans out there that follow that genre. That's why they are successful and will continue to be successful.

Indy Car has the Indy 500 as their premier race. The rest of their schedule is a mis-match of bad street races, road races and ovals. Using road racing cars with international road racing drivers. They don't know what they want to be or who they could appeal to. Do we appeal to oval racing fans? With euro-centric cars and foreign drivers? Not happening. Do we appeal to road racing fans? With as many street races, that becomes harder to do too. So what do we do? We coin the generic phrase "diversity" and say that is what Indy Car is about. A "diverse" championship. That appeals to nobody in particular (fans and sponsors) and fewer and fewer American drivers give a crap about.

2. Texas gets more folks to show up then any other road/street festival does. Iowa's crowd on Sunday will be more then either Brazil or St. Pete. The truth is, these street parties aren't that well attended. They can flat out lie about their attendance, because its hard to tell where people are. But as Talkin Terry Angstadt so stupidly said, "We'd rather race in front of 20,000 folks in some city then race in front of 50,000 in a 100,000 seat stadium". That is the kind of ass-backward logic our leadership has. Plus its all about "atmosphere" and "scenery" at street races. As long as that is good and we can get our announcers to carry on for 2 hours about how "cool" the weekend has been and how "beautiful" and "festive" things are, then that will take people's minds off the fact that the racing (which is the business we are in) is lame and the majority of folks attending not likely to watch another one of your races the rest of the year.

Scotty,

Either you don't understand or refuse to accept that not all markets are the same. Yes NASCAR gets more spectators and TV numbers and will probably continue to do so but that in no way means that all businesses are interested in it.
As I pointed out many companies have no use for NASCAR but covet the road racing fan.

The real funny thing is that the People who run NASCAR are spending $$$ on their own Road Racing Series as they know the value of the market. They even run 2 NASCAR races on Road Course.

But I guess you know more about the Business of Racing than they do.

[EagleEye]

Here's how I see the TV ratings improving:

1) Versus and NBC are now under the same tent. Rework the Versus contract to get some non- Indy marquee events on the big channel and schedule them when there's little other competition (like Fox's F1 coverage this past weekend).

2) Keep the Versus announcing booth (with the exception of BJ who I think stinks). Focus on the driver personality angle and start to build relationships with viewers about certain drivers like NASCAR has done.

3) Keep Versus in the fold and help the NHL build the profile by having Comcast advertise on their web site and bills they send home and their Shaq/Ben Stein commercials.

4) Work on getting away as much as possible from ABC/ESPN. Their coverage is horrible. Their announcing team in horrible (although I'd rather listen to Marty than Jerkins). Who on the planet earth wants to here anything out of Eddie Cheever's pie hole ever??? Who??? The ridiculous display at the beginning on the 500 coverage is unforgivable. That stupid, stupid drama about who is a threat to win- featuring Princess Loseagain- left me puking. The coverage of the Conway incident was some of the worst I've ever seen. If I wasn't a die hard, I would never watch this sport again based on the TV coverage that day (I was at the event and ABC in no way portrayed what was going on there).

The Indycar races, will not be on NBC unless they buy time. Period, and that is not going to happen any time soon.

As I have said in the past, the ratings are so low, it is a non discussion; NBC is not interested, unless they get paid to air races. The ratings needed to go up significantly, and that has not been the case. The ABC numbers are down right horrible. Izod, the best supporter the sport has had, is on the verge of making it one and done, since the ratings bump that was promised for the 500, did not occur.

[SarahFan]

Izod, the best supporter the sport has had, is on the verge of making it one and done, since the ratings bump that was promised for the 500, did not occur.

can you expand on that....

for example:....how much of that is fact vs. opinion

[anthonyvop]

can you expand on that....

for example:....how much of that is fact vs. opinion

That is the big rumor going around the paddock. It is just a rumor...but two things happening behind the scenes provide credence to the rumor.

#1 IZOD's refusal to continue it's sponsorship of their boy RHR.

#2 ICS talking to other companies about series title sponsorship. I know of 2 companies that have been contacted.
That can mean one of two things. The IZOD title deal is conditional until another big sponsor with a bigger checkbook comes along or that IZOD is out.

it goes without saying that major sponsorship deals comes with conditions attached such as TV ratings and sales. The question is how long is the deal before the conditions kick in. If the ICS signed a deal where a marked improvement was suppose to happen so soon into the sponsorship then somebody messed up big time or desperation was sinking in.

[Jag_Warrior]

The Indycar races, will not be on NBC unless they buy time. Period, and that is not going to happen any time soon.

As I have said in the past, the ratings are so low, it is a non discussion; NBC is not interested, unless they get paid to air races. The ratings needed to go up significantly, and that has not been the case. The ABC numbers are down right horrible. Izod, the best supporter the sport has had, is on the verge of making it one and done, since the ratings bump that was promised for the 500, did not occur.

I'm not sure why there is this assumption that Comcast is going to force NBC to air IRL races once the takeover is complete. I mean, is there a Comcast sponsored IRL car or team out there right now? Is Comcast going to come to Ryan Hunter-Reay or Graham Rahal's rescue... making sure they have rides for the rest of the year? Back in CART's final days, and throughout the (short) life of CCWS, I know we as fans wanted to believe there would be a white knight that would ride in and save the day. Not for money or profit, but just to do something valiant. Never happened. It was never going to happen. That's just not how things work. Just today, Comcast got most of the NBC affiliates onboard. Comcast has agreed NOT to shift certain (popular) sports programming to cable, but instead will leave it on free over-air. Can you imagine how they'd react if Comcast tried to force sports programming on them which gets sub 1 ratings, and whose marquee event has been falling in the ratings for 15 years???!!!

Comcast is in this deal to make money, not to find ways to prop up the IRL and lose money (or make enemies of its affiliates).

[Hoop-98]

Anthony, just a thought. Take a pic of a Stagger Gauge, and make it your Avatar. Roam from forum to forum until someone asks you hey, what's your avatar?

Hang out and enjoy your new friends.

[anthonyvop]

Anthony, just a thought. Take a pic of a Stagger Gauge, and make it your Avatar. Roam from forum to forum until someone asks you hey, what's your avatar?

Hang out and enjoy your new friends.

So where are my new friends?