IndyCar insiders have blamed Versus for the series' poor cable television ratings. However, another niche sport in the United States apparently believes that Versus might just provide the key that will unlock future growth.
According to Broadcasting & Cable, Major League Soccer has initiated preliminary discussions that might lead to a deal with Versus. MLS is apparently impressed with the way that Versus has promoted and increased ratings for the National Hockey League. The package that is the subject of current negotiations airs presently on Fox Soccer Channel.
Major League Soccer is one of few properties that draws fewer U.S. cable viewers than IndyCar. According to Sports Media Watch, the MLS on ESPN2 drew an average of 290,000 viewers per game in 2009. This year's season-opener on ESPN2 drew 285,000 viewers, down 14% from last season.
Some sports that are very popular globally simply do not attract a large audience in the United States.
For proof, we need look no farther than the ManU/Chelsea Premier League match that attracted a whopping 526,000 viewers on ESPN2, a new Premier League record in the United States. That number is in the same ballpark with IndyCar races on Versus.
Culture Matters
In the United States, soccer is a game that is played primarily by suburban school children. In many other nations, the game is both a deep-rooted passion and a very serious business.
Similarly, road and street racing in the United States tends to be great fun for a small niche that likes that sort of thing - the exception being NASCAR Cup at Watkins Glen and Sonoma, the two most popular road races in the United States. Globally, that particular brand of racing is widely considered to be the ultimate test of man and machine.
No racing series can change an entire national culture. Apparently, neither can a professional soccer league. The difference is that racing costs much, much more than soccer. That is why it requires a much larger audience.
MLS might be profitable with an audience of approximately 300,000 U.S. TV viewers. IndyCar enjoys no such luxury.
Roggespierre
Soccer and "American" open-wheel road racing have many similarities, not the least of which is a dependence on imported talent for skills and drawing power.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the IICS, I'm at a loss. I would jettison the thing. The only way I see it surviving is to be recast in its historical context of the National Championship, which was first declared by AAA in 1910 at Indianapolis.
The new series would be 100% oval, with open "Indianapolis Specs" - which I expect would not attract many Belgian or Swiss competitors.
I would also consider some events running 50 mile heats to earn starting positions in the 100 mile feature, creating more and shorter races for television in an attention-challenged environment.
The alternative, IMHO, is to hire the racing equivalent of Beckham and let the circus begin, or pack it in.
Rocketman53,
ReplyDeleteThere is another parallel, I believe.
Millions of American kids and teenagers play soccer and love every minute of it, but they will not watch it on television.
Similarly, tens of thousands of corporate executives, hedge fund managing directors, and public relations gurus will fork over big-time cash for a weekend of Skip Barber or Bertil Roos, but they will not watch racing on television.
That is one reason why I am very skeptical of IZOD's attempts to attract those who lead an "active" lifestyle to IndyCar racing. The regrettable truth is that what IndyCar really needs is people who will sit on their butts and watch a race on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.
The active and well-to-do are too busy being active and doing well. They will never care about IndyCar racing.
I live in Montgomery County, Maryland. The median home price here is $489,400. This county has the highest per capita rate of graduate degree holders in the United States.
I have a hard time convincing the kids on my son's baseball team (I'm the coach) to come to the practices and games. Their parents paid good money so that their kids could play, but they clearly do not care about the cash because they have so much of it.
Junior baseball is just one of many fun and enticing options that they have available to them on weekends. They have lake houses. They take European vacations. They go to soccer games, baseball games, and a zillion other kid-centered activities. They watch the Redskins, but that's about it. They jumped off the Caps' bandwagon just as quickly as they jumped on.
They're never going to watch racing on television. That includes F1, by the way. In fact, they rarely watch anything on television.
And they're not going to drive 40 minutes to Baltimore to watch a street race.
IndyCar racing is a spectator sport. It needs to have lots of people watching - many more than the MLS requires, due to its cost structure.
It's looking in the wrong places.
Best Regards,
Roggespierre
IZOD is buying an image to back their projected image. That's why the Vanity Fair ads and Macy's promotions - they're selling up-scale glamour, and these racing images work in any medium.
ReplyDeleteI know the challenge with kids. Like you, I've coached and put up with affluent parents. (I'm in Howard County, BTW.) I know of what you speak.
Another aspect is that kids today aren't as interested in the mechanical systems we call cars as they were a generation ago. Fewer and fewer ever look under the hood, let alone do routine maintenance. It's cheaper to go to Wal Mart than do an oil change yourself. There is much less personal connection to the car.
And there is that decade-plus gap in maintaining a fan base, or in building a new one.
Rocketman53,
ReplyDeleteYou're in Howard County? That's hilarious. We should do lunch.
Your point about Macy's and Vanity Fair is a good one. It could be any racing series other than NASCAR and short tracking.
I always thought that IZOD's TV commercial - the horribly overplayed one from last year - was good for IZOD's brand but bad for IndyCar's brand. There were no fans. It was all about posers looking cool in front of their buddies and three hot chicks. It was as if they were the only people on the planet. They didn't need anybody else.
That might be fine for IZOD. But it's a very poor image for a racing series that needs to attract millions of couch potatoes every week.
Best Regards,
Roggespierre
Rocketman is correct about today's youth and the auomobile. It is about getting from point A to point B and that's it. Interest is at zero in relation to speed and technology. I do support his view about fan base also. There is no relationship to any of these drivers or teams. That has been long gone. I only see more couch potatoes as our current goverment wants to socialize everyone and make us dependent on them to tell us what to say, do and think. That is a lot to overcome. Politics aside, Indy Car is simply a failing product not reaching anyone in any market other than those of us who grew up loving it.
ReplyDeleteGood point. Out of curiosity I ran a 'share' trendline comparing both 500s from 1987-2009.
ReplyDeleteDaytona 500: trendline starts in 1987 at 23, ends in 2009 at 22. (-4%).
Indy 500: trendline starts in 1987 at 31, ends in 2009 at 10. (-68%).
-John
A question that comes to mind: should the IndyCar product be designed and marketed to get people to turn their televisions on to watch the race OR to get people to change the channel to watch the race?
ReplyDelete-John
"..tens of thousands of corporate executives.." go to Skip Barber and Bertil Roos?
ReplyDeleteThat's right strong. Got a link?
"And they're not going to drive 40 minutes to Baltimore to watch a street race."
I presume that is the appeal of staging events in major metropolitan areas: lots of locals to stop in for the party. No dependance on the requirement to reverse urban flight.
"...they're selling up-scale glamour, and these racing images work in any medium."
Again, the premise is clear to me but I'd like to see statistical results that this strategy is working in this circumstance.
"Another aspect is that kids today aren't as interested in the mechanical systems we call cars as they were a generation ago."
This one is funny, because it is one of the first strategies I came up with.
You can't sell them motor oil and horsepower, true to a large extent. You sell them adaptations of the IndyCar technology that they can utilize to increase efficiency and save money diagnosing their own cars.
HP has since taken the first step, and promote the use of their laptops by IndyCar teams. I'd have looked for a Series sponsor for that role.
Add to that an auto accessory company that sells a cheap interface to access data from everybody's street car ECU. Wrench, you know where I'm going with this.
Now everybody who owns a laptop, or who needs a shiny new HP, can talk to their cars like the big boys do. Monitor their fuel mileage and alter their driving style for efficiency..that's all the rage these days, you know. Very green.
Dad can diagnose his "check engine" light and pay for the interface the first time he doesn't have to trundle the SUV to the dealership.
There's more to the strategy, and it would not have mass appeal like some others. But it would be effective, and HP has planted the same seed.
Right now, only tuner boys buy this kind of gadget. Nobody promotes IndyCar to them, either.
I'm not a class warfare kind of guy...perhaps because I lack enough class for the job. But what Izod doesn't realize, and wealthy graduate degreed suburbanites and IndyCar insiders don't realize, is what it takes to appeal to the broader constituencies.
Average people. The ones who never heard of Vanity Fair, or got inside an air conditioned tent at a racetrack for for boubon and crepes.
This is apparently not the concern of Izod, Apex Brazil, or "public relations gurus". IndyCar has those gurus, behind the velvet ropes and huddled around Simmons-Experian reports. For years.
And they don't sit in the stands, and find out that Joe Bleacher is getting whacked $4.00 for a bottle of water as his kids wilt in the summer heat. And can't hear the PA. And nobody handed him a spotter's guide, like they have in the cool hospitality tent.
So he misses out on a lot of the action, and leaves without a full appreciation, recognition of the drivers, or a schedule that shows him when and where to watch the next race.
No wonder the people I'm talking to don't listen. That's OK, they got it all handled.
Andy
Exceptionally Average
Andy,
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad. They don't listen to anybody else, either - except each other.
John,
Good question about tune-in versus channel changers. I would go with the former. All statistics of which I'm aware indicate that there is a negative correlation between income/education level and hours of television watched. In addition, lower income people tend to be over-represented in the Nielsen numbers.
That would seem like a good place to start.
Best Regards,
Roggespierre
VirtualBalboa,
ReplyDeleteAs usual, your points are extremely compelling.
I have little time at the moment, but I do want to argue that the present direction of IndyCar has little to do with anything for which market demand has been established. IndyCar street racing has been around for more than 20 years. ChampCar used the street racing model exclusively. The kids weren't buying.
The most popular form of spectator motorsports in every major U.S. urban area is NASCAR Cup. The television ratings tell us this. Yes, the kids like to drag race along, but they're not watching drag racing on television.
It isn't about what they like to do. It's about what they like to watch. In my view, that's the difference between "The Fast and the Furious" and "Days of Thunder".
Unfortunately, IndyCar street racing is not akin to either of those. It is "Driven".
Ugh.
Roggespierre
You can delete that second post whenever. Blogger had a freakout today and told me it was broken. But it wasn't. Then it really was.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to the points I was making: I see kids detailing and making modifications to their cars. Many are intended to make them go faster - a la the whole import tuner culture that's been popular for many years. For whatever reason, that's never been moved to translate itself into legitimate racing. Part of that is the appeal of illegal racing from which it stems ("Drifting" was, after all, started by guys on Tokyo freeways who often ended races running from cops), and part of it is creating a form of racing that will keep the attention of those watching and excite them. Rally for the X-Games does, but as a whole, its a tough sell in America when it comes to insurance and to bring in top world talents.
A lot of the complaints here come across as "Get off my lawn you damn kids!" type gripes - They don't respect automobiles, they don't love racing the way they should, they could love racing but they're fat and lazy from video games and liberal policies, blah blah blah. Last I checked, F-1's boom years of the last decade took place primarily in countries where gas is prohibitively expensive for the suburbanite living/transit typical in the US and where public transit in the form of metros and train systems (and $1 airfares) are king. What happened there? How did F-1 (or WRC, for that matter) excite the youth of countries where driving isn't even necessarily an every day event?
Further, if this is all really more indicative of motor racing being a trend that is reaching its logical zenith, then why bother developing solutions? How does trying to bring Indycar back to a period when its proposed that people's relationship with their cars was vastly different solve the problems of Indycar becoming relevant to a new generation?
I have to disagree with your comment on Watkins Glen and Infenion being the "most popular" road race in America. MotoGP at Indy and Laguna, plus the Petite Le Mans, and 12 HOurs of Sebring, not to mention INdycar at Long Beach, all get similar attendance.
ReplyDeleteAttendance at Sebring is generally well over a 100,000. Its easily the biggest road race in the US - and like a lot of marquee events, few are "real fans". Lots and lots of people looking to get hammered. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Hey Roggiespierre,
ReplyDeleteThe Nationwide Race at Nashville on ESPN kicked the Indy Car race at Texas's ass in the TV ratings this past weekend......in Indianapolis.
Yep, that's right. NASCAR's AAA race beat Indy Car's race a week after Indy at "The 2nd Home for Indy Car" at Texas.
Pitiful.
Thanks Dickle. If anyone sees ratings, please post them.
ReplyDeleteThank you for supporting several of my previous positions, VB. Kenny Brack's participation in the X Games was one of the crossover marketing strategies that became apparent when reading about the engine he used in 2009.
That is the Ford Dutatec 4 cyl turbo, producing 800 HP and developed by Olsbergs in Sweden. Brent Mauer of Ford Racing did not see this as an interesting viewpoint.
Now the IRL engine rules have potentially accepted this platform, while at the same time ruling out independant builders.
So one of three existing alternate suppliers is eliminated, potential marketplaces are not attracted, and the variety that could already have been established is quashed.
Andy
Update from above post:
ReplyDeleteThe Indianapolis rating for the Texas race was a .89
That's right. A POINT EIGHT NINE
With the only thing on being the Nationwide race at Nashville. No basketball. No golf. No tennis. No football.
Maybe it was too hot to watch the race on TV?
BTW, Roggespierre,
ReplyDeleteI am not just pulling that number out of the air. They were just discussing the .89 for Texas in Indianapolis, on local Indy sports radio.
That is where the number came from.
VB; Keep this in mind...I understand your point to the sport import crowd but most youth today spend their time racing in the virtual world. Video racing allows far more times to crash and burn than the real thing. Go to a NHRA event and look at all the grey hair. Some kids yes. Most that are, grew up with parents that like the straight line stuff. Getting new butts in the seat is another matter. I respect your thoughts but I am having a hard time seeing it in the real world presently. But your thoughts relating to Indy Car are pretty solid! All I know is with all the high tech stuff kids have to play with, it will be that much more difficult to get them to watch a poor series with names and things they don't understand!
ReplyDeleteoldwrench
dazed & confused myself in relation to Indy Car
Mr. Dickle,
ReplyDeleteWas it JMV's show in Indy?
Many thanks for the information.
Best Regards,
Roggespierre
Dylan and VirtualBalboa,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the information regarding Sebring attendance. I admit that I was unaware.
However, when television viewership is added to the mix, there remains no comparison.
The Sonoma and Watkins Glen Cup races are #1 and #2.
Best Regards,
Roggespierre
I can agree with that regarding Sonoma and Watkins Glen. And undoubtedly, the NWS races at road courses this year (of which there are several) will round out the top 5. Sebring is a situation much like Indy where the cars don't matter - the "scene" matters.
ReplyDeleteAs for the point about Kids And Those Damned Video Games! - Like I said, what is there in the NHRA that speaks to the youth? What about Cruz Pedregon or Larry Dixon is going to get kids who are 11 or 12 watching TV and 19 or 20 year olds out to the race track? Its not that drag racing is dead on the grassroots level. It isn't. There's just nothing about drag racing at this stage that captures the imagination. Maybe throwing all their hopes into John Force wasn't the right idea, but they're going to follow that till the end.
We can sit here and blame "short attention spans"...but then who the hell is watching football? How do young people in Europe and Japan (who have plenty of video games to play and trains to ride) end up so enthused watching cricket? Cricket! It takes like a week for a single game.
Short attention spans can be satisfied just fine, when the competitive level on track permits lead changes between a variety of drivers.
ReplyDeleteWatch an NFL game, and either team can score a touchdown on every play.
That's the 8 second bull ride.
Watch a full race where passing takes many laps and potential winners are few...that's the required attention span that loses IndyCar and Nascar audiences, 8 to 80. Slower pace than a baseball game.
It still leads back to fixing the cars. Speed differential, variety in performance, premium on driving skill. A challenge on every lap.
Not being a contemporary F1 fan, I was under the impression that investment capital and venue selection has been heavily influenced by Middle Eastern and Asian wealth...not by a youth movement in underprivileged countries.
With the NHRA race on in the background last night, I heard one driver begging for sponsorship. And another thanking his benefactors in Dubai.
Maybe all the middle- aged drag race fans will soon start to curse the foreign plague that corrupts their sport. Or call for it's collapse, and watch kids race cheap little cars instead.
Andy
I fucked Crystal Hunt like an animal last night. She is a wild fuck.
ReplyDelete