Chicagoland Ticket Plan not good for IndyCar

Chicagoland Speedway President Craig Rust is a man of his word. That is not good news for the IndyCar Series.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Rust has followed through on his promise to decouple NASCAR Cup and IndyCar ticket purchases at Chicagoland. Cup attendance was down approximately 20% this year. IndyCar attendance has been in steep decline for some time.

I do not know whether or not the IRL contract with Chicagoland continues past the 2010 season. If it does not, then I think the odds are pretty good that the speedway that was co-developed by the IMS will likely be eliminated from the IndyCar schedule. Possible replacements include a government subsidized race in Baltimore and a harebrained parking lot event at Gillette Stadium in the noted motorsports mecca that is Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Roggespierre

Four IndyCar Ovals & U.S. Driver Participation

Blue - Texas Motor Speedway (June event)
Red - Kentucky Speedway
Orange - Chicagoland Speedway
Green - Kansas Speedway

Declining attendance and television ratings are serious concerns for the Indy Racing League. Market acceptance of the events at Kentucky, Chicagoland and Kansas has waned by every possible measure. The race at Texas remains viable, but attendance has clearly decreased.

These facts are not in dispute, although there is room for debate with regard to degree.

What role, if any, has declining participation by U.S. drivers had to do with the decrease in consumer acceptance? We can not be certain. However, it does appear that some correlation exists.

Roggespierre

IndyCar Chicagoland Attendance Analysis

The graph below is intended for citizens who still believe that U.S. drivers are not essential in order for IndyCar racing to be competitive in the marketplace. Before viewing the chart, please consider the data it represents.

Red represents IndyCar attendance at Chicagoland Speedway from 2001 to 2009. Bruce Martin reported that crowds have declined to 30,000 today from 60,000 in the early years of the event. We calculated the Compound Annual (negative) Growth Rate (CAGR) and indexed the results from zero to 100 based on percentage of the largest crowd, 60,000 in 2001. Note that CAGR assumes smooth year-over-year declines that are intended only to approximate the actual numbers.

Blue represents the number of U.S. drivers in the starting field at Chicagoland from 2001 to 2009. We indexed the actual totals from zero to 100 based on percentage of the greatest number of U.S. drivers in a given year, 19 in 2001. This is factual data from IndyCar.com.




Blue = Number of U.S. Drivers in Chicagoland Starting Field
Red = Attendance at Chicagoland IndyCar Event

The data suggest a strong correlation between attendance at the Chicagoland IndyCar event and the number of U.S. drivers in the starting field. Causation should not be inferred. Nevertheless, this snapshot supports our claim that U.S. driver participation and U.S. consumer demand are indeed correlated.

Roggespierre

Briscoe Tops Dixon in Chicagoland IndyCar

Now that was some outstanding sports entertainment! Ryan Briscoe fought his way to the front after falling to 13th position and nosed past Scott Dixon to win the Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway by .0077 second.

Briscoe increased his lead in the IndyCar points standings with two races remaining in the season. Dario Franchitti finished 3rd at Chicagoland and is 2nd in points, 25 behind Briscoe. Dixon trails Briscoe by 33 points.

The race featured wheel-to-wheel action throughout. Side-by-side racing was the norm and three-wide battles were not unusual. The lone disappointment was that the top three finishing positions once again went to the teams that have figured out how to sell a $1.3 million product for more than $7 million. This remains a fundamental problem, but it is more easily forgiven in light of the quality of racing witnessed by IndyCar fans Saturday night.

One question: why such a late start? Waiting for the end of Shabbat?

Roggespierre