R-word and racing

[mbilek]

For those of you old enough to remember, how did racing handle the recession of the '70s?

I would think that the IRL has to get a lot less expensive with the 2010 chassis and engine change over.

markbilek

[irloyal]

For those of you old enough to remember, how did racing handle the recession of the '70s?

I would think that the IRL has to get a lot less expensive with the 2010 chassis and engine change over.

markbilek

Car counts were down a little, but rich guys tend to keep spending money no matter what the economy does.

[drdisque]

Racing was fine in the late 80's too (when costs were closer to what they are today)

[MichaelP]

Car counts were down a little, but rich guys tend to keep spending money no matter what the economy does.

In fact 1981 saw some extremely high car counts and 81 was a pretty tough year. The variety in cars was quite unbelievable too - I don't think there was much more than 3 or 4 of any one kind of specific chassis.

But there wasn't much in the way of consumer oriented big sponsorship. Penske's sponsors were all industry oriented - Gould electronics, Norton abrasives, and ABDick printing presses. The only consumer oriented big sponsors that come to mind are STP, Pennzoil, Valvoline, and Pepsi - which accounted for 5 cars. A lot of the sponsors were the car owners company - Interscope, Alex Foods, Menards, Kraco, Forsythe (yes that Forsythe), and in 1982 you can ad Red Roof Inns to that list.

[CamKing]

You can't compare what happened in the 70's and 80's with today's racing economics.
Back then, you had a lot more regional sponsors, and smaller companies sponsoring cars.
Today, you are dealing with a lot more large corps, and publicly traded companies.

To get an idea of how Indy racing would weather a large economic downfall, you need to look back at how the IRL, CART, and NASCAR were effected by the stock market crash after 9-11 and the .com bubble burst.
Lots of teams lost their sponsors, and went belly up.

[Dr. Russell]

You can't compare what happened in the 70's and 80's with today's racing economics.
Back then, you had a lot more regional sponsors, and smaller companies sponsoring cars.
Today, you are dealing with a lot more large corps, and publicly traded companies.

To get an idea of how Indy racing would weather a large economic downfall, you need to look back at how the IRL, CART, and NASCAR were effected by the stock market crash after 9-11 and the .com bubble burst.
Lots of teams lost their sponsors, and went belly up.

Yes, but, and this is big, most sponsors would rather be in NASCAR than IndyCar. . . . .

[Red Byrd]

The IRL can make it if the LEAGUE used it power to help its TEAMS by approaching NASCAR sponsors looking to get out and selling them on the idea that you can run up front here for 1/4 the cost it does in NASCAR, and still have favorable demographics and strong sponsors.

[mbilek]

My thought is to use the opportunity of a engine and chassis redesign to a) lower costs to where running a non-sponsored effort was possible and b) to re-introduce innovation to American Open Wheel racing.

Now I am not offering suggestions on how to do that, but given the economic climate, it might not make sense to make everyone purchase new engines and chassis unless they wanted to.

markbilek

[Rosco]

The IRL can make it if the LEAGUE used it power to help its TEAMS by approaching NASCAR sponsors looking to get out and selling them on the idea that you can run up front here for 1/4 the cost it does in NASCAR, and still have favorable demographics and strong sponsors.

Problem with OW race car sponsorships, names like Target, Patron, Citgo are plastered on the entire side pod, names like 7-Eleven, Motorola, Penske are very hard to see on Television, another problem is the TV crew very seldom ever mention the sponsors name, the back markers are seldom seen on TV

[CamKing]

The IRL can make it if the LEAGUE used it power to help its TEAMS by approaching NASCAR sponsors looking to get out and selling them on the idea that you can run up front here for 1/4 the cost it does in NASCAR, and still have favorable demographics and strong sponsors.

So you want them to lie to potential sponsors??

[BlueStang]

To get an idea of how Indy racing would weather a large economic downfall, you need to look back at how the IRL, CART, and NASCAR were effected by the stock market crash after 9-11 and the .com bubble burst.
Lots of teams lost their sponsors, and went belly up.

True. Something else I noticed (that I could be mistaken about) was that it took a full season for the 9-11 market crash to reallly catch up to the IRL. 2002 wasn't a bad year at Indy (IIRC, weather prevented bump attempts, not lack of cars), but 2003 saw the field barely get filled.

Reason I mention that is because I am wondering how long it will take the current economic downturn to start showing an impact.

I think the league lost its sponsor as part of the .com burst, too.

[athletics68]

Yes, but, and this is big, most sponsors would rather be in NASCAR than IndyCar. . . . .

Agreed. Especially if NASCAR's ratings continue to go up across the board.

[skypigeon]

True. Something else I noticed (that I could be mistaken about) was that it took a full season for the 9-11 market crash to reallly catch up to the IRL. 2002 wasn't a bad year at Indy (IIRC, weather prevented bump attempts, not lack of cars), but 2003 saw the field barely get filled.

Reason I mention that is because I am wondering how long it will take the current economic downturn to start showing an impact.

I think the league lost its sponsor as part of the .com burst, too.

2003 also was the first year of the current chassis and new engine regs, and there was no grandfathering of the old regs.

[jojo]

Agreed. Especially if NASCAR's ratings continue to go up across the board.

The real problem is far deeper. It will matter little who has the best advertising potential. Listen, we are going to see an oil crisis that will make motor sports a very hard sell if it depends on oil. THAT'S THE BOTTOM LINE.

[VonScratch]

Agreed. Especially if NASCAR's ratings continue to go up across the board.

Actually, NASCAR ratings and attendance are on the slide. They still pull more viewers with practice coverage than any open wheel race in North America, but still, they are declining.