Instead of supporting a new race in Cleveland, IMS did this:

[bugeyedgomer]

I'm surprised stateside OWR lasted this long. Once it became a spec series, it was doomed, no matter what the intentions were. If their contingency plan for success was based on Penske, Ganasis, et al to follow suit - it failed miserably.

So now, unbelievably, the bigger question is how much longer the 500 will last. Not to mention if someone with the character of Hulman/Rickenbacker integrity is still around to resurrect the event before it becomes erased from national memory.

Sort of makes me wonder if the CART/IRL would have occured had anyone been able to forecast the onslaught of social media and virtual gaming systems.

Lots of family dollars and sucker city councils and track owners who believe the BS spun by likes of ASM using 20 year old CART attendance data and photos. Andretti told NOLA Motorsports Park that his races average 100,000 in attendance and he doesn't run the 500

Source: ToshPointOh
Just take a look at a few of the slides from Andretti Sports Marketing's NOLA 2015 presentation that I've put into an Imgur album:
http://imgur.com/a/P9tYP/layout/blog


That's a whole lotta BS right there