Rumored 2009 IC Schedule

[anthonyvop]

And so was I. Again, I invite you to show me a marketing plan for the Kentucky Speedway that would not include two major metropolitan SOUTHERN cities that are both within 70 miles of the track.



So sayeth the marketing and demographics expert who doesn't consider Lexington and Louisville as Southern cities. (450,000 and 1,380,000 population respectively)


Gary

Find Sparta on the Map.
Draw a Circle 100 Miles in all directions around Sparta.
Tell Me again how it is a Southern race.

[indycool]

Oops, Gary, I stand corrected....Henderson is across from Evansville....I was thinking of Covington....don't know why I did that (I've even flown out of Ludlam, is it, the private airport in Cincinnati?).

anthony, a 100-mile circle around Sparta would include northern cities and southern cities. You'd get pretty close to Knoxville. You'd get pretty close to Indianapolis. And you would definitely, as Gary says, get Louisville and Lexington.

[Rex Monaco]

Find Sparta on the Map.
Draw a Circle 100 Miles in all directions around Sparta.
Tell Me again how it is a Southern race.

Draw a 100 mile circle around Ft. Worth and tell me again how it's a mid-west race.

[garyshell]

Oops, Gary, I stand corrected....Henderson is across from Evansville....I was thinking of Covington....don't know why I did that (I've even flown out of Ludlam, is it, the private airport in Cincinnati?).

anthony, a 100-mile circle around Sparta would include northern cities and southern cities. You'd get pretty close to Knoxville. You'd get pretty close to Indianapolis. And you would definitely, as Gary says, get Louisville and Lexington.

Lunken is the small airport in Cincinnati, public not private, actually owned by the city of Cincinnati. It is about a mile from my office.

Gary

[garyshell]

Find Sparta on the Map.
Draw a Circle 100 Miles in all directions around Sparta.
Tell Me again how it is a Southern race.

I did that already. And two of the three closest major metropolitan areas are as previously stated, Lexington and Lousiville. And in addition there is the State Capital Frankfort. I guess none of those are "southern" enough for a South Florida lad, huh? It may not be southern enough for you, but I'd be VERY careful if you propose such a preposterous statement to the residents of any of those three cities. Hell, even the folks in Cincinnati would consider it a southern race. It is in Kentucky afterall!

Gary

[anthonyvop]

I did that already. And two of the three closest major metropolitan areas are as previously stated, Lexington and Lousiville. And in addition there is the State Capital Frankfort. I guess none of those are "southern" enough for a South Florida lad, huh? It may not be southern enough for you, but I'd be VERY careful if you propose such a preposterous statement to the residents of any of those three cities. Hell, even the folks in Cincinnati would consider it a southern race. It is in Kentucky afterall!

Gary

Gary,

You either don't get it or just want to argue.
MARKETING!!!!
I will give you an example.

I am in Miami. Miami is the Southernmost metropolitan City in the Continental US. Geographically it is about as Southern as you can get.

If you market a major Racing Event to a Souther Audience in Miami you might as well pack up your belongings and quit.
NASCAR has a hard time selling out a 65,000 seat Track here.

While Sparta is in the South Geographically a large portion of it's market for an Indycar race is decidely Mid-Western.

You may not like the idea. You may disagree. But it is a MARKETING FACT.

[garyshell]

8 races in the Midwest and 1 in the south!

Yep. The brand marketers would love that schedule.

Gary,

You either don't get it or just want to argue.
MARKETING!!!!
I will give you an example.

I am in Miami. Miami is the Southernmost metropolitan City in the Continental US. Geographically it is about as Southern as you can get.

If you market a major Racing Event to a Souther Audience in Miami you might as well pack up your belongings and quit.
NASCAR has a hard time selling out a 65,000 seat Track here.

While Sparta is in the South Geographically a large portion of it's market for an Indycar race is decidely Mid-Western.

You may not like the idea. You may disagree. But it is a MARKETING FACT.

Ok let's look at the original message that started this off. Now tell me are these marketers looking for a "southern race" or a race that they can market to people who live in the south???? I think we both know the answer is the latter. These potential marketers of an ICS event could not give a rats ass about a "southern race" versus a "midwestern race". They DO care about the number of people surrounding a particular venue that might be in their demographic. In the case of Sparta, they will see a significant number of folks who live in the south that might attend. Likewise with Ft. Worth. They won't see this as a "southern race" or a "midwestern race" they will see it as a race to attract folks who live in the south.

You are the one who wants to argue this ridiculous notion of marketing a "southern race". The marketing FACT is, no one marketing a ICS race will ever market something as a "southern race" or a "midwestern race".

They will all put push pins on a map and see how many folks fall within a certain radius of that pin and market to them BY CITY, not by geographic region.

Gary

[anthonyvop]

Ok let's look at the original message that started this off. Now tell me are these marketers looking for a "southern race" or a race that they can market to people who live in the south???? I think we both know the answer is the latter. These potential marketers of an ICS event could not give a rats ass about a "southern race" versus a "midwestern race". They DO care about the number of people surrounding a particular venue that might be in their demographic. In the case of Sparta, they will see a significant number of folks who live in the south that might attend. Likewise with Ft. Worth. They won't see this as a "southern race" or a "midwestern race" they will see it as a race to attract folks who live in the south.

You are the one who wants to argue this ridiculous notion of marketing a "southern race". The marketing FACT is, no one marketing a ICS race will ever market something as a "southern race" or a "midwestern race".

They will all put push pins on a map and see how many folks fall within a certain radius of that pin and market to them BY CITY, not by geographic region.

Gary

If you take the time to look at my original response you would see that all I was stating was that the IRL's possible schedule was too Mid-West-centric. If you are a National brand and want a good ROI by sponsoring a national series wouldn't you want to be in one that was available throughout various markets in equal footing?
That potential Schedule is great if your brand wants to target the heartland but what about a brand that wants to target other larger and more cosmopolitan markets?

[MDS]

I do hope this isn't really a genuine "leaked" schedule.

Don't worry its not a leaked schedule, just some guesswork and rumors.

We should know what the real one looks like in about a week's time

[indycool]

anthony, the NFL doesn't have a team in LA, so is that a disaster for the NFL? Nobody acts like it and they have a season every year.

There are people on this forum who want Road America. Is Sheboygan a major market? What major market is Watkins Glen in?

Atlanta is a major market. Atlanta is also a lousy sports town. What good does it do to go there and draw flies?

The Indianapolis 500, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco (Infineon), Milwaukee, Kansas City, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Detroit, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Miami and Richmond are pretty spread out examples of major markets. Iowa (Des Moines), Kentucky (Cincinnati, Louisville and Lexington), Edmonton (and Calgary), ain't small markets.

To all that goes into a schedule -- Dates, promoters, TV, weather at various times of the year, where the sponsors want to be, where the competitors want to race, where there are places suitable for racing and what else is going on at the time plus where each INDIVIDUAL sponsor and competitor want to be are never going to be 100 percent perfect for ANYONE.