Quote Originally Posted by anthonyvop
While I agree with you in what IndyCar needs....allowing "players" to openly criticize the series will not help with improving TV ratings nor enhance sponsorship value. What it does do is justify the beliefs of a small but noisy group of hardcore fans who agree with the criticism (These are already locked in and need not be placated) at the same time turning off potential sponsors and fans.
No, the criticism didn't help with improving ratings or sponsor value. But what did the news of this fine and probation do? It gave legs to a story that would have otherwise died as soon as other Twitter posts covered it over. Indy Car's handling of the turbo dispute (as well as the whole Lotus affair) is what has rankled people - not Barnes' Twitter post. That the series needed to make a point with Barnes is fine. I'm just saying that their execution was pretty poor. Large (successful) organizations typically don't spend any amount of time addressing small, individual criticisms - and if they do, they typically don't do it publicly. This was not exactly like Goldman Sachs and "Muppetgate".

Considering the continued state of things in AOWR (though somewhat improved at the margin), it would be better (IMO) for ICS to promote ideas that encourage more competitors to join the series, more sponsors to support the series and more fans to watch the series.