Fans Reject Izod IndyCar at Kansas

I'm sorry. The headline is harsh but true.

What's more, today's horrid turnout at Kansas was entirely predictable.

The market is naturally segmented. Oval racing enthusiasts have rejected this product yet again. Is there any reason to believe that Chicagoland will be better?

IndyCar has been transformed into an international road racing product, one that has no business staging races at large oval facilities.

Good luck, Randy Bernard. Sadly, it seems that you're going to need a huge dose of it.

Bring on the (subsidized) Streets of Baltimore!

Roggespierre

IndyCar: Kansas joins Ticket Independence Push

Following on the heels of a similar announcement at Chicagoland Speedway, management at ISC sister track Kansas Speedway now says that customers may purchase tickets separately for the NASCAR Cup and IndyCar Series events in 2010.

The Kansas City Business Journal has the complete story.

Sink or Tread Water

Given the demonstrated unpopularity of the series, any change that might force an IndyCar event to live or die according to its ability to generate legitimate value in the marketplace must be considered an unfortunate turn for the league.

IndyCar needs to race at venues such as Toronto and Barber Motorsports Park, where race day attendance of 30,000 or so is thought to be pretty good. Events such as these typically require subsidies of one type or another. They are the unmistakable signs of market rejection.

Incidentally, Milwaukee drew almost 30,000 this year. However, there, the government is not amenable to requests for subsidies. Thus, the Milwaukee Mile is gone from IndyCar racing.

Unfortunately, the International Speedway Corporation is a private, for-profit firm. It undertakes only those projects that might produce an operating profit. IndyCar race promoters must pay the IRL a sanction fee that is in excess of market value; this allows the league to pay its largely insolvent racing teams a sum that exceeds their market value; this is required because operating an IndyCar team costs approximately five times the market value that an IndyCar team produces.

The cascade of prices in excess of values is the reason that IndyCar will not race at Richmond next season.

Sadly, barring a sudden surge of U.S. consumer enthusiasm for international drivers and overpriced cars and engines, a similar fate likely awaits the IndyCar events at Kansas and Chicagoland.

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