Re: Open Wheel Racing 2013...year of the driver swap!
I tend to agree with Alfa on the 500. I don't really care if the cars get new (better?) engines for the 500 compared to the quali engines. Much like Alfa, it's because the car setup is so different between the two.
I personally believe that the problem with Indycar is that there is nothing for the casual fan to identify with. There is no superstar driver or even a driver that is recognized outside of the hardcore racing fans (maybe Helio thanks to DWTS?). That is an issue. People like to whine about no American drivers and yet when a American wins what happens? Nothing. No promotion, not a peep about making it a bid deal. I don't think nationality makes a bit of difference to anyone younger than 40ish. My favorite baseball player is Panamanian, my favorite driver is Brazilian, there are lots of Europeans in the NBA, latins in MLB, Canadians in the NHL (
). It's more important that they have a noticable personality than what country they were born in.
There is no identifying with a car manufacturer either. There was a reason that NASCAR developed the looks of their latest car. It was so people could identify with it and root either for it or against it. Since Indy cars look alike nobody cares about them. Different engines just don't move the needle with casual fans. But cars that looked different and have a different manufacture name will. Look at F1, all the cars look pretty much the same except for a few features to a casual fan but they all have identifiable names behind them that get people care. It is all about caring about the product, people, and the manufacturers. It doesn't matter if people hate or love, as long as their passionate to some degree.
Indycar has a decent race product right now. They simply have horrible, miserable, god awful, marketing department (I assume they actually have a marketing department) that a bunch of third graders could out do. IMO, when the DW12 came out, Indycar would have been better if they had decided to keep all of the cars almost identical except for maybe one or two noticeable pieces of bodywork that have basically no impact on aero, and let manufacturers buy the naming rights. So instead of driving a Dallara, they would be driving a Dallara/Chevrolet/Chevrolet (Chassis/Aero/Engine) or a Dallara/Honda/Honda or a Dallara/Swift/Honda, etc. Yes I know those combinations are not likely but you all get my point. It would have been much better than the whole aero kits that were suppose to come but probably never will. That would have started to get a casual race fan to get some interest. There is just nothing for a casual sports fan to grab onto to and make them take interest.
I don’t personally buy the Versus/NBCSports cable network problem that people want to throw out. Yes, it is somewhat of a hindrance, but if Indycar car could market their product properly then maybe, just maybe people would seek the channel (race) out. There are plenty of channels out there that are showing programs that are much worse, yet those shows and channels exist. It’s a weak excuse in my book.
Indycar should be spending some money this weekend in conjunction with NBC to buy some ad time to promote the next race (Milwaukee right?). It would be money well spent, but of course they won’t. It’s easier to save a hundred thousand and then whine later that they can’t get ratings and can’t get people to watch or come to the races.
