Edmonton is gone — now what?
IndyCar commentary — By Steph Wallcraft on November 3, 2010 9:33 pmFollowing a harried blitz of breaking news stories that tore across racing’s corner of the internet yesterday evening, the announcement became official today that the Honda Indy Edmonton will not be returning to the 2011 schedule after all. This event went from proceeding optimistically to being shut down in less than 24 hours (from a bystander’s point of view, anyway), and the door now appears most certainly to be closed.
This is such a sad situation for so very many reasons.
- The issue that reportedly divided the City of Edmonton and the event’s newly hired promoter, Octane Motorsports Events Inc., seems so ridiculous as to appear fabricated. (In short: Edmonton City Council closed one of the City Centre Airport’s runways shortly after the conclusion of last year’s event; claiming that they wanted to keep the airport open during the race weekend, they insisted that the circuit be relocated to the other end of the airport but weren’t willing to foot the multi-million dollar bill involved. Octane, quite correctly, also refused to fund this and walked away.) It’s worth noting that Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland used to shut down completely for a full week every year to prepare for and host a race weekend — amazingly, the City of Cleveland found a way to function despite this. Also, the City of Edmonton is placing an awful lot of importance on keeping the airport open for three days considering that they’ve been threatening to shut it down for years. One can’t help but feel that there must be more to the story than meets the eye, and the truth may never fully come to light.
- This is definitely not one of those situations where all press is good press. I couldn’t help but notice earlier today while walking through the Toronto Eaton Centre — one of Canada’s most prominent malls — that the headline for this story made it into the sports ticker of the news service that’s broadcasted throughout the facility. This caused two thoughts to go through my head: for one thing, I’d wager that at least 95% of the people who noticed that headline weren’t aware that Edmonton hosted an IndyCar event in the first place, and that’s not exactly the ideal way for them to find out; for another, when a headline like this is spreading like wildfire, it’s difficult to convince people that the news isn’t directly reflective of the current state of open-wheel racing in America. (It isn’t, by the way. If anything, it’s reflective of what the state of open-wheel racing in America has been over the past few years coupled with the fact that Edmonton City Council has no capacity to look forward.)
- Continuing on the previous point, it’s painfully clear from Edmonton City Council’s unwillingness to budge on this matter that they have no idea what’s good for them. Edmonton’s not exactly a happening town, even in the height of the summer months. Downtown hotels and restaurants are going to have a hard time coming up with other excuses to drastically inflate their prices. The city’s tourism industry (such as it is) will take a pretty hard hit, and it’s difficult to imagine an event of similar scope cropping up in place of this one. They’re cutting off their noses to spite their faces, as the saying goes — and the worst part is that they’ve been working at it for a while now. (The counterargument to this point, of course, is that the City has been covering this event’s losses for past couple of years. However, a conversation with anyone involved makes it clear that this event should never have been in the red in the first place and that the problem stemmed from a combination of poor management by the previous promoter and poor negotiation on City Council’s part.)
- Another point that’s been made through several venues already is that there are people in the IndyCar community who will view the loss of this event as a positive. Edmonton is on a very isolated part of the continent and is quite expensive to get to for everyone involved in the IICS. (For what it’s worth, trying to get to Edmonton domestically isn’t exactly a cheap proposition, either.) There will be exceptions, but many teams and Series officials are unlikely to voice strong concerns about not making the trip in 2011 and some may even be vocal in their relief. This, unfortunately, is likely to be the death knell for any local groups who may try to lobby to reestablish the event.
- Speaking of local groups, Edmonton IndyCar fans are a proud and loyal bunch, and it’s extremely painful to have to watch them mourn the loss of their home race. Support for this event was remarkably strong from the very first day of the first weekend that Champ Car held there, and it waned very little when the IICS took it over. Now, again due to the fact that Edmonton is so isolated, this group of fans is very unlikely to end up with an event that they can call home (with the possible exception of the Calgary rumor panning out — see below). It’s entirely possible that many of these fans will feel abandoned and will be lost, which is a crying shame as they’ve been passionate contributors to the community.
- Lastly, the loss of Edmonton means that, barring a very quick and monumentous effort, the 2011 schedule will only feature one visit to Canada. This is terrible news for the Canadian drivers in particular. Alex Tagliani, Paul Tracy, and James Hinchcliffe have all been banging down doors north of the border looking for sponsorship to carry them through the 2011 season, and their visibility in Canada for next year just got cut in half. It’s not completely impossible that another event might materialize — Vancouver has been presented as a possibility for a return, Calgary is almost certain to be interested, Mont-Tremblant was a popular event for the one year that Champ Car ran there (though the circuit may not produce the greatest race with the current car), and there have been rumors for a little while now of Tag working on taking a street race to Quebec City. However, whether any of these events could be put together in time for next year is anyone’s guess, and the promise of a 2012 event won’t put money into anyone’s pockets for 2011.
In short, this entire situation carries a grade-school argument kind of feel but has deep implications that reach much further. It’s a shame to have it come to this with so many positive developments under way for the IZOD IndyCar Series at the moment — cleaning up a mess of this magnitude is the last place to which Randy Bernard and his team needed to be turning their attention. Here’s hoping they’re up to the challenge.
Tags: Edmonton, Verizon IndyCar Series - Scheduling
Hey, chicky, don’t have any labour pains yet, but there is some shit happening as I type this, maybe there is still a heartbeat. Hopefully, I can say more soon….. there might be a hero or 2 in this mess!
I posted this in the Edmonton gone thread on Trackforum!
When I started the Edmonton might be gone thread, I was ready for the typical “good, another street race is gone” posts, another CCWS track gets dumped, etc, etc.
This is so much bigger than that. It shows how just a couple of missteps in communications can XXXXXX a race, regardless of where it is, regardless of being an oval or a road, street.
These agreements need to be done with cities that realize the benefits of subsidizing/promoting, with promoters that know racing and how to get the population interested and sell tickets, and how to keep the interest going. Many oval track cities have not had the promotion to attract good crowds, many street races are suffering with high costs of setup, high costs of travel, an increasing taxpayer base that questions the need for a street race.
Don’t kid yourself, whether your are an oval fan, street fan or perm road course fan, it doesn’t do any good to see any of the races be lost! But it could happen anywhere! What if a new city council in Long Beach decided that they don’t feel the race is worth supporting? Killed. What if a town council at an oval race city decided the tax breaks given to the track isn’t going to be given any more, Killed. It’s a fine line with EVERY track!
Edmonton pays a good sanctioning fee, gets a good crowd that could be better with a promoter that does care about the fans, and is well received by all the teams and employees.
This year would have been the first year that was going to be run be actual racing people who noticed the lack of fan promotion in their visit last year.
As well, what I think might even be bigger, the Brickyard Nascar race is not going to be run on the same weekend. I know there were a lot of IICS employees being left in Indy to look after this, VERSUS sent 1/2 a crew, etc.
I would have loved to see what could happen this summer with the stars and moon seeming to be aligned for the race here this summer.
There is a concerted effort going on right now with some pretty influential, prosperous, and concerned people in Edmonton right now, they are trying to put together a package that they were never asked to provide before the city council decided to XXXXXX the deal and go to the media. I have my fingers crossed that we might actually get a chance to see a proper promoter do what should have been done 3 years ago.
Even if the race sucks on TV, it is the fans in the seats that actually pay for the races, not any bit of TV revenue goes to the tracks and it is the ticket sales that keeps them financially viable. Come to Edmonton if it does get on the track, you will see what I have seen for 6 races now, that it is a great race to see in person, the facilities and events are 2nd to no other races.
I said Edmonton as it is my home track, but for God’s sake, make a point to support your local track, your local promoter, re-enforce your city council as to the benefits of keeping races in your city and please remember that we all want to see this series thrive, regardless of type of track you prefer.
Hey, 99forever! Here’s a story that may provide some hope for the Edmonton Indycar race:
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Motorsports/2010/11/10/16080561.html