Indy 500 Ticket Update 2/1

[Chris Paff]

Here is the latest update.. The overall group of tickets available for the Indy 500 is still way ahead of 2005.. Currently there is less tickets available now then on April 19, 2005.. Below are the number of tickets you can buy together in each stand..

11/18-12/4-1/1-2/1

A Box 50-20-20-20
B Box 0-0-0-0
C Stand 69-69-67-60
E Box 0-0-0-0
First Turn Terrance 60-60-22-18
G Stand 26-26-26-26
H Stand 130-130-120-120
J Stand 33-33-29-18
NE Vista Backstraight 70-70-70-70
NE Vista Turn 40-40-40-40
North Vista 70-70-70-70
NW Vista 36-36-36-36
Paddock Box 40-30-20-16
Pit Road Terrance 60-50-50-40
SE Vista 42-42-42-40
South Terrance 47-47-47-47
South Vista 110-110-110-110
SW Vista 60-40-30-30
Tower Terrance 74-74-34-22

TOTALS: 1017-947-833-783

Stands with less tickets available now then in 2005 right before the race
First Turn Terrance: 40 (2005) 18 (2006)
G Stand: 38 (2005) 26 (2006)
Tower Terrance 60 (2005) 22 (2006)

Overall Total Amount of Tickets
2005: 3/29 900 tickets available; 4/19 825 tickets available
2006: 2/1 783 tickets available

Still looking very good..

[skypigeon]

Let's just get it out of the way right now:

Oh, woe is us. Back in the glorious days of yesteryear, the next 500 would sell out 15 minutes after the last 500 ended. How far it has fallen, how low has it sunk, how deep the depths of our misery and despair.

There. I feel so much better. Let's move on...

[Chris Paff]

BTW there was alot of empty seats in the North end of the speedway in the 1971 Indy 500.. Check the race out on ESPN Classic and you will see it.. There is alot more people at the track watching the race then in 1971 or 1981.. I dont count the infield crowd as watching the race.. I go to Preakness to drink, act like a idiot, and look at flashers.. I really could care less about the horse race.. Same goes for the other 100k people who are there with me.. I bet the same about Indy during the infield glory years..

[Jim Wilke]

On a related note, I watched the football playoffs on Fox and their were a number of ads hawking tickets for both the Daytona 500 and the followup race at Fontana. A quick check of the Daytona website shows "plenty of good seats still available."

A quick look around shows that you can still get blocks of 20 together.

[bever911]

Overall Total Amount of Tickets
2005: 3/29 900 tickets available; 4/19 825 tickets available
2006: 2/1 783 tickets available

This is a nice comparison, but the wording isn't exactly right.

In one stand you maybe only can get 20 tickets together, but there might be 3 different sections of 20 tickets available. You don't have anyway to document that.

[jkentner15]

How many more seats are available now than those that were available in the "glory days"..............

[THIRD TURN]

BTW there was alot of empty seats in the North end of the speedway in the 1971 Indy 500.. Check the race out on ESPN Classic and you will see it.. There is alot more people at the track watching the race then in 1971 or 1981.. I dont count the infield crowd as watching the race.. I go to Preakness to drink, act like a idiot, and look at flashers.. I really could care less about the horse race.. Same goes for the other 100k people who are there with me.. I bet the same about Indy during the infield glory years..

Hey Buddy, I sat in the infield from 1952 to 1972 and while I drank a lot of beer, I saw and enjoyed every race from start to finish. I think a lot of other infield people did too.

[Indyknut]

How many more seats are available now than those that were available in the "glory days"..............

By this time of year, during the glory years, you'd be wasting your time trying to order tickets. It was pretty simple, order the day after the race or you won't get a seat and there was no guarantee for newbies they'd get a seat one way or the other.

[jp]

By this time of year, during the glory years...

I'd be curious to know what you consider the glory years.

[Indyknut]

I'd be curious to know what you consider the glory years.

I can only relate to the very early 80's when we first attempted to get tix.
Unless you ordered the day after the race you're chances of getting a ticket were slim and none. About the only thing available past June in those years were low level infield bleacher seats and occasionally a North chute ticket.
Scalpers and ticket brokers were selling tickets at 2-5 times face value.

I can only imagine if the demand had remained what it once was and now, with a lack of infield seating along with GA, getting tickets would be next to impossible even for the crummiest of seats.

[Ren Butler]

First Turn Terrance 60-60-22-18
Pit Road Terrance 60-50-50-40
South Terrance 47-47-47-47
Tower Terrance 74-74-34-22

Are these blokes all related?

[Chris Paff]

BTW listening to my IMS radio coverage of the Indy 500's from the 1970's.. Sid Collins kept incouraging people to order tickets by writing to the speedway.. Its clear that finding a ticket was not hard until the early 1980's.. Since that time i suspect over 50-80k more seats were added between turns 1-2 and 3-4..

[Canth]

Well...I just added one more ticket to turn my block of 4 into a block of 5 in C Stand. Really looking forward to this year's race too after missing last year.

[hdolan]

"Are these blokes all related?"

Yes, to Larry, Darrell and Darrell

[ChampCar#3]

BTW listening to my IMS radio coverage of the Indy 500's from the 1970's.. Sid Collins kept incouraging people to order tickets by writing to the speedway.. Its clear that finding a ticket was not hard until the early 1980's.. Since that time i suspect over 50-80k more seats were added between turns 1-2 and 3-4..

So who was racing there before the 80's that tix were easy to get?
Who was racing there in the 80's that made such a demand on tickets?
Who's racing there now that tickets are available even with less seating?