If Simona can do it, why can't Graham, Buddy, PT, and J.R. ???

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Originally Posted by Lousada

They made 2010 and did it with more than 20 cars at every race (probably) and they got a new title sponsor. That's a lot better than I expected a few months ago.
Yet, according to the Indiana Business Journal the IRL lost over 20 million dollars last year. All the races except Indy and the street races lost money for them. I wonder how long this situation will last :bandit:

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Something has got to give.

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Originally Posted by Starter

How did they lose money? Aren't all those races promoted by someone else? The promoter may have lost money, but the IRL should have at least broken even given sanction fees, etc. less their (the IRL's) costs to show up for those races.

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I don't know the precise calculation. But there is at least 20 times 1 million TEAM fees. There is the TV productions which is a couple of million. A large part of the ABC money goes to IMS as tv-rights for the 500. There is Indy Lights which apparently is a big drag. Last year there were still subsidies to some teams. The article also mentioned Belskus has axed literally millions in useless overhead the past winter.
With IZOD, Brazil and the cost cutting, the article thought the loss would be less than 15 million this year.

Of course, it was all "sources close to the IRL said" so who knows what is fact or fiction.

The question I have is, can this "new" IRL still lose $10-15 mill a year, and be considered a "success" by IMS? I think it might, because they make so much off of Indy, and this series is crucial IMO to keeping the 500 a major event.

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Originally Posted by NickFalzone

The question I have is, can this "new" IRL still lose $10-15 mill a year, and be considered a "success" by IMS? I think it might, because they make so much off of Indy, and this series is crucial IMO to keeping the 500 a major event.

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If the new car is really half the price as the current car, they could slash TEAM payments in half. That would cut costs more than anything else. Only question is if they can make it until then.

This issue of the 500 drawing the TV money off to support the IRL is one thing, but the cost of a money losing Indy Lights series NEVER made sense to me. It was one of the few ideas Tony George had from the world go ( the old Infiniti Pro Series was the same thing, different sponsor) that told me he was bent on just replacing CART, not creating something worthy of all the rhetoric. IT has always been a money loser, and it was so stupid to keep around when SCCA was running the Formula Atlantics right up to 2001 or so. It would have been a far better business model to keep the Atlantics around with some sort of deal with SCCA pro racing. Instead, Tony, being the control freak had to have yet another series catering to up and coming drivers.

The whole political scene of OW racing was made far worse by fracturing the sport at the top and in the ladder series, and if the IRL cant make money now, it is the fault of the people from start to finish in all the organizations that messed up the picture.

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Originally Posted by Starter

Are there team fees this year? Thought that had ended.

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I never heard anything about that?? It was specficly said that IZOD would contribute 100.000 per car to TEAM this year.

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Once again, I though Verses was doing, or at least paying for, the production. Sure you're not thinking of CC when they were , for all practical purposes, the production company and the show's sponsors?
You're right about the ABC money. They don't know about. or even want to know about anything but Indy.

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IMS productions is still doing all the tv-broadcasts. The 4 million from Versus should cover this, yes.

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How much can Indy Lights cost? Promoters probably pay some nominal sanction fee to get another show on the card , just to fill the empty space between the IRL sessions on track. There are entry fees from the teams as well. Expenses are minimal. Many of the staff do double duty for both series each weekend. Payouts are pretty minimal too.

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Total payouts for Indy Lights are 4 million. You do the math...

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This is this year. Those have supposedly ended.

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And I said they lost over 20 million last year so I was talking about last year.

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Originally Posted by Lousada

If the new car is really half the price as the current car, they could slash TEAM payments in half. That would cut costs more than anything else. Only question is if they can make it until then.

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Not necessarily.
The cost of the car is only a small percentage of the teams budget. Actually a new car might actually raise the teams budget the first year.
Spare parts, dampers, springs, suspension parts even the steering wheel and mirrors all would have to be replaced.
Even the graphics package would have to re-done.

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Not necessarily.
The cost of the car is only a small percentage of the teams budget. Actually a new car might actually raise the teams budget the first year.
Spare parts, dampers, springs, suspension parts even the steering wheel and mirrors all would have to be replaced.
Even the graphics package would have to re-done.

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True...a stock of spare Dallara parts in most garages makes running the Dallara's cheaper...but if the series is to go anywhere, someone needs to find more money for everyone because a new car is in the cards. It HAS to be....

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Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Not necessarily.
The cost of the car is only a small percentage of the teams budget. Actually a new car might actually raise the teams budget the first year.
Spare parts, dampers, springs, suspension parts even the steering wheel and mirrors all would have to be replaced.
Even the graphics package would have to re-done.

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Supposedly the running costs should be lower and the replacement parts should be cheaper.
But as long as the return on investment is not there all this doesn't matter anyway.

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Originally Posted by Lousada

Supposedly the running costs should be lower and the replacement parts should be cheaper.
But as long as the return on investment is not there all this doesn't matter anyway.

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Cheaper yes, but a team still has to by a lot of spare parts right out of the gate.

Gary