584 replies to this topic

[Peat]

I was indeed. One of the highlights of my trip. Milkshakes were good, too.

[HaydenFan]

I'm aware of that, but if they get "prize money" for such thing as pretty big achievement (I asume) then they don't earn that much compared to F1 drivers I would say. Few F1 drivers get 100k dollars in like 1-3days

Racing in the U.S. likes to advertise prize money. Local tracks boldly advertise, "$10,000 to Win!" or "$100,000 to Win!" for the big events. And 100 thousand dollars is a big deal, as that's a $100K before taxes (or about $65K take home) that you otherwise wouldn't have had. Even the likes of Alonso or Kimi or Bill Gates wouldn't mind getting an extra 100K for doing nothing more than their job.

[gm914]

inb4 Andrew Hope's list of things he would do for $100k.

[Ross Stonefeld]

1. Watch Cup cars at Loudon.

[SR388]

inb4 Andrew Hope's list of things he would do for $100k.

You should see what he would do for $100.

[techspeed]

Well it looks like Indycar has come out with explanations of Saturdays farce.
http://racing.ap.org...ar-race-control

Although I love the idea that no one thought the cameraman at turn 5 would actually follow the cars and not spend the whole race pointing at the corner.

[Ensign]

Indycar ratings for the Toronto race have plummeted.

The Honda Indy Toronto had a little bit of everything over the weekend, with beautiful weather and plenty of spectators in the stands to watch a compelling storyline unfold that culminated with a stunning double win for Scott Dixon.

But there was one thing missing – a television audience. Rogers Media-owned Sportsnet took over the rights from Bell Media’s TSN this year, and saw an already small niche audience drop by 35 per cent to 151,000 viewers for the marquee Sunday race compared to last year. The first day of racing on Saturday drew 145,000.

Two years ago nearly 550,000 watched the race on TSN.

According to audience tracker BBM, races on Sportsnet have drawn an average audience of 72,300, down 46 per cent from the numbers TSN pulled in last year.

It saw audiences for the Firestone 500 jump by 50 per cent to 62,000 over TSN 2’s broadcast last year, but its audiences for most races are down double digits compared to last year. Its audience for the Indianapolis 500, one of the highest profile races on the circuit, was 157,000 (39 per cent lower than TSN’s last year).

Globe & Mail

The late starts probably didn't help.

[Deluxx]

Eek. I wonder how much promoting has changed as well.

Edited by Deluxx, 18 July 2013 - 18:14.

[Risil]

On the plus side there were plenty of fans at the track. Perhaps it's better to grow with a niche channel than have most of your races unpromoted or bumped down to TSN2.

Only 6,000 viewers increase (145,000 to 151,000) between Saturday and Sunday races. That's an interesting stat.

Robin Miller at Speed has a positive angle:

The Honda Indy Toronto had a good turnout Friday on free day, a nice gathering on Saturday and a damn good crowd on Sunday.

It wasn’t an early ‘90s throng but the attendance was estimated at 35,000 by veteran Toronto motorsports writer Norris McDonald for Race 2 and there were easily 80,00 for the weekend.

Before he got the bum’s rush, Bernard dumped TSN for Rogers and the SportsNet folks spared no expense in promoting the hell out of this doubleheader the past six months. Johnstone pulled everything together, Honda sponsored the Friday for the Make A Wish Foundation and Hinchcliffe won three races and got his countrymen excited about Indy cars again.

“I don’t have the final numbers but the weekend was a huge success,” said Savoree, who also promotes St. Petersburg and Mid-Ohio along with Green. “It was fairly obvious the growth was substantial.”

“Concessions were up 50 percent, Honda’s checkered flag donations went from $35,000 to $57,000 on Friday and it was by far the biggest crowds we’ve seen in our five years.”

Edited by Risil, 18 July 2013 - 19:45.

[Andrew Hope]

Things I would do for a hundred thousand clams? There's not much that isn't on that list. When you work for Target you start thinking of your finances in terms of "I don't really use both my kidneys..".

[Ross Stonefeld]

Repeat after me. The Target car was funtastic today.

[Alfisti]

Norris McDonald estimated 35,000??In that case I bet there were closer to 5,000 or 500,000 people there cos he's a ****ing idiot of the highest order.

I tell you why the ratings are down, not everyone has Sportsnet. For a few years Bell did not have Sportsnet in their basic sports package, they just had TSN so those of us that signed with Bell are missing Sportsnet. if you sign up now Sportsnet is included but you miss out on a bunch of other stuff. TV situation in this country is absolutely insane. It's so fragmented that unless you drop $100+ a month you get ****ed in the arse so hard in regards to missing programming you'd otherwise watch. It's flat out illegal given the way the providers a) collude, b) intentionally screw you with their grouped packages and c) intentionally mislead you in regards to cost so when you get your bill you're ****ing flawed by the final cost.

[Andrew Hope]

Norris McDonald estimated 35,000??In that case I bet there were closer to 5,000 or 500,000 people there cos he's a ****ing idiot of the highest order.

I tell you why the ratings are down, not everyone has Sportsnet. For a few years Bell did not have Sportsnet in their basic sports package, they just had TSN so those of us that signed with Bell are missing Sportsnet. if you sign up now Sportsnet is included but you miss out on a bunch of other stuff. TV situation in this country is absolutely insane. It's so fragmented that unless you drop $100+ a month you get ****ed in the arse so hard in regards to missing programming you'd otherwise watch. It's flat out illegal given the way the providers a) collude, b) intentionally screw you with their grouped packages and c) intentionally mislead you in regards to cost so when you get your bill you're ****ing flawed by the final cost.

Yep, I don't have Sportsnet either. I used to but all their channels "aren't included in your subscription" anymore. They seem to be following the TSN model of buying the rights to everything worth watching and then sticking it all on some shitty pay-to-order channel no one wants to buy.

[KWSN - DSM]

The Canadian TV land is why selling out of the various sports is bad business for everyone. Yes we will all see the Olympics, but F1 in the UK is now on Sky which have a much smaller number of TV sets than BBC have. In the smaller markets some sports channel will buy the rights, that channel is not in all packages and will be too expensive for some to buy. Less eyeballs on the sport, and the reduced number of fans will continue.

The sports of the world are so darn stupid in managing their business.

[gm914]

Norris McDonald estimated 35,000??In that case I bet there were closer to 5,000 or 500,000 people there cos he's a ****ing idiot of the highest order.

I tell you why the ratings are down, not everyone has Sportsnet. For a few years Bell did not have Sportsnet in their basic sports package, they just had TSN so those of us that signed with Bell are missing Sportsnet. if you sign up now Sportsnet is included but you miss out on a bunch of other stuff. TV situation in this country is absolutely insane. It's so fragmented that unless you drop $100+ a month you get ****ed in the arse so hard in regards to missing programming you'd otherwise watch. It's flat out illegal given the way the providers a) collude, b) intentionally screw you with their grouped packages and c) intentionally mislead you in regards to cost so when you get your bill you're ****ing flawed by the final cost.

Sounds like you're getting....



...the Bell End of that deal.

(forgive me today. It's 100F here)

[Ross Stonefeld]

The Canadian TV land is why selling out of the various sports is bad business for everyone. Yes we will all see the Olympics, but F1 in the UK is now on Sky which have a much smaller number of TV sets than BBC have. In the smaller markets some sports channel will buy the rights, that channel is not in all packages and will be too expensive for some to buy. Less eyeballs on the sport, and the reduced number of fans will continue.

The sports of the world are so darn stupid in managing their business.

You have to look at the whole picture though. The guaranteed up-front dollars of subscription coverage, vs the maybe dollars(via sponsorship) of free-to-air coverage.

[Alfisti]

You have to look at the whole picture though. The guaranteed up-front dollars of subscription coverage, vs the maybe dollars(via sponsorship) of free-to-air coverage.

More than that you need to think past your nose. Look at someone like me for example, I would be an ongoing fan of indycar but be damned if i am paying for it via some massively over bundled sports package for an extra $35 a month. So now i am not following the series, i am less likely to go to the race, less likely my boy becomes a fan etc etc etc .. it's extremely short sighted.

[Andrew Hope]

[KWSN - DSM]

You have to look at the whole picture though. The guaranteed up-front dollars of subscription coverage, vs the maybe dollars(via sponsorship) of free-to-air coverage.

I am looking at the whole picture, and see no good business sense in hiding your sport behind walls the paying public is not willing to scale. Cable used to be about Usd 15.00 now it is Usd 100.00 and I am getting more crap than back when I had a set of rabbit ears and no cable.

[Ross Stonefeld]

More than that you need to think past your nose. Look at someone like me for example, I would be an ongoing fan of indycar but be damned if i am paying for it via some massively over bundled sports package for an extra $35 a month. So now i am not following the series, i am less likely to go to the race, less likely my boy becomes a fan etc etc etc .. it's extremely short sighted.

It is short sighted, but they're in survival mode on their own AND the economy is still weak AND the nature of sports sponsorship is changing.

I am looking at the whole picture, and see no good business sense in hiding your sport behind walls the paying public is not willing to scale. Cable used to be about Usd 15.00 now it is Usd 100.00 and I am getting more crap than back when I had a set of rabbit ears and no cable.

But people who do subscribe are paying NOW, and it's really only the faithful that are buying subscriptions or race tickets or sponsor products or or or.

[Deluxx]

You have to look at the whole picture though. The guaranteed up-front dollars of subscription coverage, vs the maybe dollars(via sponsorship) of free-to-air coverage.

This.

Its the same reason why Austin had insane ticket prices. In this market investors want a sure thing rather than a risk

[KWSN - DSM]

It is short sighted, but they're in survival mode on their own AND the economy is still weak AND the nature of sports sponsorship is changing.



But people who do subscribe are paying NOW, and it's really only the faithful that are buying subscriptions or race tickets or sponsor products or or or.

I see less paying spectators at most sports events, more and more can not sell out when the stands used to be full. That to me show that the prices are too high, and that less people are going. My tangent on that is that down the line less people will be exposed to the sports, so less of a potential spectator base. With the cable rates going up, up, up we all have to make choices and for some the choice will be not to buy the specialist channel carrying your sport of choice.

Apart from F1 my favorite sport is American Football, but I do not have the NFL Package is too much money, I used to watch close to every Yankees games on free television, they created their own YES Network which I do not have, never had and never will have since it cost too much.

So yes some people are paying, but less people than wants to pay are paying so the sports are losing income they could have by being smarter both short term and long term. I am certain that smarter business decisions could be made my all sports to make for a higher income than what they manage today using excessive pricing.

[Prost1997T]

A ticket to watch the Pocono Indycar race started at $25. That's orders of magnitude less than F1 or Nascar.

[Deluxx]

A ticket to watch the Pocono Indycar race started at $25. That's orders of magnitude less than F1 or Nascar.

Or any other sport for that matter

[Disgrace]

A ticket to watch the Pocono Indycar race started at $25. That's orders of magnitude less than F1 or Nascar.

You have the popularity of the Nigerian Streaming Club to thank for that one.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Started at, yes.

[Afterburner]

Hello, all.

After a lengthy absence from the IndyCar threads in the interest of spoiler-dodging, I finally caught up to the present by watching all the races I'd thus far missed this past weekend. I've got a little bit I'd like to add about this race in particular.

The standing start was amazing but the director was appalling. Surely you people have seen enough F1 races to see how not to do it.

Who told Scott Dixon he was allowed to transform into Sebastian Vettel that weekend? Cracking drives in both races and a thoroughly-deserved $100k.

Who told Will Power he was allowed to transform into Pastor Maldonado that weekend? Couldn't figure out WTF he was expecting most of the weekend--for someone who claims to be a 'road course specialist' (a term I use quite loosely here ), he looked to be totally in over his head in both races. Not the biggest Franchitti fan, but must agree that he hit the nail on the head when he said that whatever happened, it wouldn't be Power's fault--all he really did was laugh stupidly at the camera and suggest that what he did was 'racing'. Right. 'Squawky Australian head' indeed.

'SATOOOOOOO. NOOOOO.' x 2

Mike Conway was also fantastic and did a terrific job on Sunday, I thought, despite a completely mediocre Saturday. Too bad he didn't do as well in the ALMS race this weekend.

Too bad for RHR. Two races, two sets of totally different problems that really weren't his fault. Talk about bad luck.

Bourdais did an awesome job in the McLare--*COUGH* I mean Dragon Racing car. The look on his face when he dropped the trophy was the look of a kid who broke his new toy trying to get it out of the box.

All in all some good stuff, and I hope they'll do more standing starts or perhaps even transition to using only standing starts on road courses altogether. I suppose this is all old news for you guys, anyway, but I don't care--what are forums for if not for reviving half-dead topics, after all?

[Muppetmad]

Will Power's form this year on road/street courses has indeed been utterly bizarre - especially considering his continued excellent form last year even with the new car. What has changed? I'm inclined to say confidence; I said last year if he didn't win the championship in 2012 he never would. It's obviously too early to say whether that will emerge to be correct, but so far this year Power hasn't been on form - hell, Justin Wilson is beating him in the championship, and Wilson certainly hasn't been driving a rocket ship this year.

[jonpollak]

You have the popularity of the Nigerian Streaming Club to thank for that one.

We MASSIVE..
Jp

PS..yours is no disgrace.
Please pay up the remaining $43.29 at your nearest opportunity.

[teejay]

Streams and torrents are our only options in Australia - so I thank those Nigerians for their tech savy ways.

As a 14 year old I could sneak up at 12am on a Monday night to watch a delayed raced ... 16 years later I do not even see an news report outside the Indy 500.

[Alfisti]

Man I remember staying up all hours in the mid 90's, i used to absolutely love it.

[Prost1997T]

Streams and torrents are our only options in Australia - so I thank those Nigerians for their tech savy ways.

As a 14 year old I could sneak up at 12am on a Monday night to watch a delayed raced ... 16 years later I do not even see an news report outside the Indy 500.

It's on Speed Australia. Heck, you can watch Indycar in *Hungary* on TV...the problem is getting a deal with mainstream channels.

[Dmitriy_Guller]

Started at, yes.

I looked around and saw no system that would prevent someone with a $25 ticket taking a $150 seat.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Same at Milwaukee, once you were inside the property you could do what you want assuming no one else had that seat.

[gm914]

Usually, moving to better seats in baseball stadiums gets you caught. Usually, if you state your case that it's the freakin' Mets, they'll move along.