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View Full Version : So how did St. Pete play with the PRESS?



FRANKY
04-04-05, 02:47 PM
So how did St. Pete play with the PRESS? (I didn't watch)

Anyone have a list of articles?

racer2c
04-04-05, 03:06 PM
Miller slammed the vision again. He claims race day attendance was a bit over 30K. Wow, huge. :rolleyes:

dando
04-04-05, 03:38 PM
AP:

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=2029258

Broadcast partner:

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=2029294

:gomer:


RM @ Speed:

http://speedtv.com/commentary/16039/


Olson @ Speed:

http://speedtv.com/articles/auto/indycar/16038/

:gomer:

Local Press:

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/04/04/Sports/Home_course_advantage.shtml

-Kevin

rabbit
04-04-05, 03:49 PM
Broadcast partner:

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=2029294


Once a hero to CART fans, Michael [Andretti] has emerged as the new face of the IRL and on Sunday he wasn't shy about confronting critics who vilified him for switching sides in the American open-wheel war.

"Those people were ignorant about the product that we have here," Michael said. "Had they been following they would have seen that these cars were good right away on a road course. They're just people who want to say something negative about the IRL and now they've been shut up. The show today was as good as I've ever seen in a street race. There was passing, there was excitement & we had everything this weekend and I think it will shut up a lot of our critics." Hey Mikey,
http://slapnose.com/images/blog/1004/1004_bush_finger_318x254.jpg

racer2c
04-04-05, 03:52 PM
Hey Mikey,


Hey, Mikey is calling us idiots. I guess the IRL has all the fans they can handle!

Michaelhatesfans
04-04-05, 03:56 PM
"There was passing, there was excitement...."

I think you meant excrement.

lone_groover
04-04-05, 03:59 PM
Hey, that guy flipping the bird looks like Doodles Weaver!

:saywhat:

KLang
04-04-05, 04:08 PM
Mikey, kiss my butt. :flame:

Not one dime of mine, ever. :mad:

dando
04-04-05, 04:56 PM
FMA! :flame:

I wonder if he felt the same after seeing daddy doing sumersaults @ Indy two years. Frickin' :gomer: ! He must have had a Kool Aid enima!!! :mad:

-Kevin

Spicoli
04-04-05, 05:03 PM
Mikey is a Calss a F&*(stick. That guy would whore out his mom for a tenderloin and a Slurpee.

Michael hates fans. All he knows is money money money and ego ego ego.

FMA. F all of them. :flame:

oddlycalm
04-04-05, 05:42 PM
Mikey has never been encumbered by the curse of integrity. He and TG are a match made in heaven.

Non-NASCAR racing is a small world in the US these days, so the day will inevitably come when we will get to repay Mikey's favors in kind. I leave it until then to determine who the ignorant truly are. It's easy to talk big with Honda paying the bills, but that won't always be the case.

oc

Andrew Longman
04-04-05, 06:46 PM
AGR put on the show yesterday and they have every right to be proud of the results. I think we all are a little surprised.

And I well recall watching an interview with him at MIS the last year when he looked up at the empty grandstand (well I was one of a few there) and wondered what he was doing risking his life in a car at 235 mph with no one watching.

But Mikey, until you and Barry put on an event, IRL races totally sucked. If you and Honda had stayed in Champcar your event yesterday would have been a champcar event. And it would have been better.

Mikey, what you don't get is these ticket buying fans don't want dumb, greedy, egomaniacs screwing with or testing our loyalties. It is nothing more than that. The product has almost nothing to do with it anymore. We're not ignorant and smarter than you think.

Michaelhatesfans
04-04-05, 07:44 PM
Michael's still pissed from when he asked fans to send in photos and autographs to help celebrate his retirement. Must have been all those mornings walking down the driveway to find an empty mailbox day after day.

DaveL
04-04-05, 07:56 PM
My question is just what did the .1RL do yesterday that was so special and unique? They put on a street race. Big effing deal. There was nothing about that race, save for the utter incompetence of IV and Special Ed, that was any different from anything CART or ChampCar has ever done except the cars were uglier and slower.

The race presents a paradox for the .1RL. If it proves to be more successful than the ovals than it blows the weeds the theory that Murican fans are oval fans and want their "Indycars" on ovals were God intended them. If the race proves no more successful than any other race, then all they are doing is treading water at best and alienated their oval only fans at worse.

gjc2
04-04-05, 08:07 PM
Any IRL event that is not a dismal failure, is then, great success.

George

dando
04-04-05, 09:21 PM
BTW, I attempted to send Mikey my regards (and opinion on what the can do w/hisself), but it appears that the site is 'down for maintenance'. Go figger... :gomer:

-Kevin

nrc
04-04-05, 09:41 PM
There was passing, there was excitement & we had everything this weekend and I think it will shut up a lot of our critics.
He don't know me very well, do he? (http://frogstar.com/wav/displaywav.asp?fil=bbdntknw.wav)

Mikey, you're a Yen Whore. Robert Clarke has your balls in a jar on his desk. He bought and paid for them. When he squeezes, crap like that comes out of your mouth.

Hot Rod Otis
04-04-05, 09:44 PM
My question is just what did the .1RL do yesterday that was so special and unique? They put on a street race. Big effing deal. There was nothing about that race, save for the utter incompetence of IV and Special Ed, that was any different from anything CART or ChampCar has ever done except the cars were uglier and slower.

But they DID pull it off. It wasn't a fiasco like a lot of people, me included ,thought it would be. They didn't wad up half the field on lap 1, the pace car didn't lead the most laps, there was passing, a fairly close finish, plus you had Special Ed and IV for comic relief.. The cars are for sure uglier, and they might be slower, but not by that much, not enough for anybody to really notice.. They looked fast on TV, and and I can garuntee you that nobody @ St Pete really noticed or cared. They proved that they could put on a street race as good as Champcar does. You know darn well they're gonna go after LBeach, Toronto, Mexico City or whatever other successful CCWS venues they can peel away. For all the talk we hear about "The Amigos" great new business plan for Champcar, well Honda, Barry Green, Andretti & the IRL just proved they can do it to. The folks @ Champcar should be very worried.


The race presents a paradox for the .1RL. If it proves to be more successful than the ovals than it blows the weeds the theory that Murican fans are oval fans and want their "Indycars" on ovals were God intended them. If the race proves no more successful than any other race, then all they are doing is treading water at best and alienated their oval only fans at worse.

I honestly believe that the IRL "Braintrust" doesn't give 2 ****s about what their fans think. In the early days, the Central Indiana USAC short track crowd was Anton's most loyal fan base. And who did Anton chuck over the side at the first available opportunity? He doesn't give a crap about what the fans, his or otherwise, think.

racer2c
04-04-05, 09:46 PM
I haven't seen this mentioned here but let us not forget that ABC/ESPN pays to have uninterupted coverage (their picture in picture during commercials)and they still missed the race winning pass for the lead! :gomer:

DaveL
04-04-05, 09:55 PM
But they DID pull it off. It wasn't a fiasco like a lot of people, me included ,thought it would be. They didn't wad up half the field on lap 1, the pace car didn't lead the most laps, there was passing, a fairly close finish, plus you had Special Ed and IV for comic relief..

See, I don't think that's such a big deal. You have drivers who have all done this sort of thing before, many times, so the fact that it wasn't a wreckfest shouldn't come as any surprise. It would be one thing if they pulled it off with the wanker drivers and podunk teams they used to have, but to run a street race with former CART teams and drivers with plenty of experience at it isn't all that impressive.

Now, I don't pooh pooh the threat to Champcar. Don't get me wrong there. I agree with all of those arguments. But I don't see where people get off suggesting the .1RL pulled off some kind of miracle. They had 30,000 people (a lousy crowd if held at an oval) watch a bunch of ex-CART teams and drivers do what they've done for years.

racer2c
04-04-05, 10:12 PM
But they DID pull it off. It wasn't a fiasco like a lot of people, me included ,thought it would be. They didn't wad up half the field on lap 1, the pace car didn't lead the most laps, there was passing, a fairly close finish, plus you had Special Ed and IV for comic relief.. The cars are for sure uglier, and they might be slower, but not by that much, not enough for anybody to really notice.. They looked fast on TV, and and I can garuntee you that nobody @ St Pete really noticed or cared. They proved that they could put on a street race as good as Champcar does. You know darn well they're gonna go after LBeach, Toronto, Mexico City or whatever other successful CCWS venues they can peel away. For all the talk we hear about "The Amigos" great new business plan for Champcar, well Honda, Barry Green, Andretti & the IRL just proved they can do it to. The folks @ Champcar should be very worried.



Of course they "pulled off" the race itself. It's CART for goodness sake. They've done hundreds of street races. We made jokes around here but everyone pretty much agreed that the race itself was going to be a familiar site.
What they didn't "pull off", at least to this Champ Car fan, is the 'event' itself. 35K for a street race in which half of those people got in free is not a "huge crowd" or a "big success". Yeah, big success over 8000 in Phoenix. And they had to have Green/Andretti/Honda backing the show. How will their .04 TV rating factor in "big success"?

Once the IRL media shills write their fluff pieces and Champ Car runs their event in LB, this little street race will be ancient history. How many will the IRL get for their next oval ouside of Indy?

I don't think Champ Car should be 'worried' at all. Keep to their game plan and don't get sidetracked by a 35K little street race. No tit for tat business model. Personally, I think GF and KK are way too smart for that crap.

Champ Car is poised to have one of the best seasons they've had in years, at least the field is very deep in talent. Weldon, Kanaan and Briscoe will look like amateurs compared to Da Matta, Tracey, AJ, Glock, etc, etc.

I thought the cars looked much slower than a Champ Car. Much slower. But it also didn't help that the 'wonderful' ABC/ESPN production team only had their cameras at the slowest corners around the track.

Wally
04-04-05, 11:32 PM
Otis just put the nail home..........OWRS its you move.
Yeah the cars,drivers and teams suck.........joe shmo "nielson" doesnt care.
FTG,mikey and the rest of the gomer f**ks are after LB, Canada, Mexico etc.
because their dead without them...... :shakehead

DagoFast
04-05-05, 11:00 AM
I agree as well. It's hard to "out CART" the group that is now in the .1rl.
They are VERY capable teams and they have done this many times.

As I posted earlier, clearly Ftg really is no longer charting the course. Fonduh is.

Do you think Fonduh would like to be at Long Beach? Would it be a coup for their dealers to sponsor it?

Even if you can't answer the question "Why is Fonduh pouring the money they are into the .1rl?" You can not doubt they are VERY serious.

Unless you feel more warm and fuzzy it was a one time thing. Just so fonduh could show Ftg "see, thats how you do it! Now you go toenee!"

Sean O'Gorman
04-05-05, 11:26 AM
Something tells me that now that its Tuesday, the local media (and those in attendence), have forgotten all about the race and the series until next spring. That's how it goes when you run races at a track that can only be used one weekend a year.

cart7
04-05-05, 12:31 PM
This doesn't help either:


A NEW VIEW: Sebastien Bourdais , winner of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in 2003 when it opened the CART season, was a spectator Sunday. An experienced road-course driver, he would have preferred to be in a car rather than the stands.

"It was a quite a good show actually," said Bourdais, a St. Petersburg resident in his third CART season. "It's just too bad there weren't 30 cars on the racetrack and we were all together. But it's going to happen sooner or later. It's just a matter of time."

RichK
04-05-05, 12:44 PM
Something tells me that now that its Tuesday, the local media (and those in attendence), have forgotten all about the race and the series until next spring. That's how it goes when you run races at a track that can only be used one weekend a year.

That's okay, the local media didn't even acknowledge Laguna Seca on race day, much less the next couple of days.

Sears Point and Watkins Glen will be interesting comparisons with St. Pete this year.

Chief
04-05-05, 12:45 PM
I honestly believe that the IRL "Braintrust" doesn't give 2 ****s about what their fans think.....He doesn't give a crap about what the fans, his or otherwise, think.

I don't think they can steal Street and Road courses at a fast enough rate to keep up with their own DECLINE in ratings and attendance and what that is doing to the already NON EXISTANT return on investment for their sponsors.

Behind the facade of St. Pete you have a desperate series that needed to not just show on every camera angle FULL GRANDSTANDS but also EXCEED previous high water marks established by CART in 2003. DIDN'T HAPPEN. There were no luxury yachts, no RV parking, less grandstands (some made into billboards though). They were "booed" out of Cleveland, while former tracks New Hampshire, Dover, Atlanta, Charlotte, Nazareth all sang the praises of the IRL too. Alientating their fanbase, our fanbase, NASCAR fan base and F1 fanbase actually leaves them with nothing. The IRL is NOBODY'S friend, and targeting 18 to 34 year old males with free tix and guaranteed hearing loss won't cut it in this wacky "hipster" world. They might get some fans if they give out free beer in enough quantities to anesthetize the masses ala the old koolaid routine.

I think the IRL made a fatal mistake with St. Pete and by casting it's lot with the YEN machine it has sealed it's fate. Face it, it's 10 years of 9 $ figure losses (yup in the $100's of millions). All they have to show for it is a possible threat to CCWS by one "quasi" successsful street race? They're doomed.....

Racing Truth
04-05-05, 01:00 PM
But they DID pull it off. It wasn't a fiasco like a lot of people, me included ,thought it would be. They didn't wad up half the field on lap 1, the pace car didn't lead the most laps, there was passing, a fairly close finish, plus you had Special Ed and IV for comic relief.. The cars are for sure uglier, and they might be slower, but not by that much, not enough for anybody to really notice.. They looked fast on TV, and and I can garuntee you that nobody @ St Pete really noticed or cared. They proved that they could put on a street race as good as Champcar does. You know darn well they're gonna go after LBeach, Toronto, Mexico City or whatever other successful CCWS venues they can peel away. For all the talk we hear about "The Amigos" great new business plan for Champcar, well Honda, Barry Green, Andretti & the IRL just proved they can do it to. The folks @ Champcar should be very worried.



I honestly believe that the IRL "Braintrust" doesn't give 2 ****s about what their fans think. In the early days, the Central Indiana USAC short track crowd was Anton's most loyal fan base. And who did Anton chuck over the side at the first available opportunity? He doesn't give a crap about what the fans, his or otherwise, think.

Yep. Dave is right, of course. The IRL, uhhh, "Braintrust," hasn't done anything CC hasn't.

But that's the point. Otis is right. Sure, CC does this, but the IRL really didn't eff it up like we might have thought. They showed they can pull this off nearly as well as CC.

If they continue down this road, the question has to be asked: What is the rationale for CC's existence?

There are plenty of good answers to those who know and are diehards. Question is how many of those are there?

Racing Truth
04-05-05, 01:03 PM
^^That said...


I don't think they can steal Street and Road courses at a fast enough rate to keep up with their own DECLINE in ratings and attendance and what that is doing to the already NON EXISTANT return on investment for their sponsors.

Behind the facade of St. Pete you have a desperate series that needed to not just show on every camera angle FULL GRANDSTANDS but also EXCEED previous high water marks established by CART in 2003. DIDN'T HAPPEN. There were no luxury yachts, no RV parking, less grandstands (some made into billboards though). They were "booed" out of Cleveland, while former tracks New Hampshire, Dover, Atlanta, Charlotte, Nazareth all sang the praises of the IRL too. Alientating their fanbase, our fanbase, NASCAR fan base and F1 fanbase actually leaves them with nothing. The IRL is NOBODY'S friend, and targeting 18 to 34 year old males with free tix and guaranteed hearing loss won't cut it in this wacky "hipster" world. They might get some fans if they give out free beer in enough quantities to anesthetize the masses ala the old koolaid routine.

I think the IRL made a fatal mistake with St. Pete and by casting it's lot with the YEN machine it has sealed it's fate. Face it, it's 10 years of 9 $ figure losses (yup in the $100's of millions). All they have to show for it is a possible threat to CCWS by one "quasi" successsful street race? They're doomed.....

I think this is also solid analysis. They will need CC fans crossing over to make this work. If they don't, they're in worlds of trouble.

Then again, the oval-only plan wasn't setting the world on fire either, so...

Napoleon
04-05-05, 02:49 PM
Sears Point and Watkins Glen will be interesting comparisons with St. Pete this year.

Are you talking as to local media coverage? WG is basically in the middle of no where. Local media may consist of a broadside nailed to a tree. It will be interesting to see what they get in attendance. It is a tough to get to track.

RichK
04-05-05, 03:01 PM
Are you talking as to local media coverage? WG is basically in the middle of no where. Local media may consist of a broadside nailed to a tree. It will be interesting to see what they get in attendance. It is a tough to get to track.

I was thinking about attendance. I doubt either track will have many people.

cart7
04-05-05, 03:02 PM
^^That said...



I think this is also solid analysis. They will need CC fans crossing over to make this work. If they don't, they're in worlds of trouble.

Then again, the oval-only plan wasn't setting the world on fire either, so...
and there aren't enough RR's yet to interest any John Q road race OW fans. The earl is still an oval series with a couple rr's for novelty. In the meantime the ratings/attendance ROI hammer held by Toyota/Honda/Chevy is about to strike a head. The next gen engine announcement is next month and so far all we know is they'll be powered by corn in 07. I believe we'll see Chevy gone after this year and Yoda after the next with diminished team support in 06. Where the earl comes up with another manufacturer is anyones guess. With the crummy ROI of the league, a current manufacturer would have to be a fool to invest in the series. Then again this might be an opportunity for KK to sell Cosworth's to TG. Then, wouldn't we all s**** if KK announces the earl engine spec as Champcars.

Chief
04-05-05, 03:10 PM
Are you talking as to local media coverage? WG is basically in the middle of no where. Local media may consist of a broadside nailed to a tree. It will be interesting to see what they get in attendance. It is a tough to get to track.

Here's the biggest obstacle they face....new 42 row high front straight grandstand seating, 2X capacity of old. They're running the long course too so there's plenty of freebies to give away and lots of grandstand to block off. Certain to fail....err...be subsidized.
http://theglen.com/images/news/wgi_040505_steel_lg.jpg

Napoleon
04-05-05, 03:16 PM
I was thinking about attendance.


It will suck at WG. If the entire population of Watkins Glen, Horseshead, Elmira, Corning and Ithica show up it will still look empty. Only serious fans are going to show up, and how many serious road racing fans does that series have>

rabbit
04-05-05, 09:00 PM
http://autoracing.tbo.com/autoracing/MGB9ZWX447E.html

rabbit
04-05-05, 09:06 PM
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/04/04/Southpinellas/When_seeing_is_believ.shtml

racer2c
04-05-05, 09:11 PM
http://autoracing.tbo.com/autoracing/MGB9ZWX447E.html

From the article rabbit linked.


``What we saw today tells us this is a really good business model,'' said Ken Unger, the IRL's senior vice president of business affairs. ``And it's something we have to incorporate into what we do overall. Will our series not be predominantly oval after this? That won't change. But I think you will see other street events added to the schedule after the success of today.''

:shakehead Unbelievable.