Edmonton is back — now what?
IndyCar commentary — By Steph Wallcraft on January 17, 2011 9:50 amBack in early November when it was announced that Edmonton had been removed from the IZOD IndyCar Series schedule, I suggested that the debacle was a sad situation.
Well, Edmonton is now back on the schedule. Unfortunately, it’s still a pretty sad situation.
Several of the worst points have already been discussed at length and haven’t changed. For one, Edmonton City Council still looks like a bunch of buffoons in spite of the event’s return, and it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to work with them after the way they’ve conducted themselves throughout this entire affair.
For another, Edmonton is still one of the most expensive locales for the Series to visit.
But one point that hasn’t been outwardly addressed in detail — though it’s been alluded to a fair amount — is that, for today’s IICS, Edmonton simply doesn’t appear to hold a great deal of potential for growth.
When Edmonton left the schedule, chatter within the fan base immediately turned toward other Canadian cities that might be effective hosts of a race weekend. A number of people speculated that Calgary could hold a lot of promise, and there were even rumors from credible sources that Tony Cotman had already contacted Vancouver and was finding interest there. Both of these cities are quite a bit larger than Edmonton, and both are much more the type of market that key partners of the IICS are looking to work with.
Now, I’m Canadian, so naturally I’d like to see as many successful open-wheel events as possible taking place in this country. But I’ll be the first to admit that even within a dream-come-true 24-race schedule — let alone the current 17 — the IICS tops out at three Canadian events before it reaches its saturation point. Canada also happens to have three distinct high-profile markets: Southern Ontario (currently served by the Toronto race), Quebec (reportedly in the works), and Western Canada. Tying up Western Canada’s event in Edmonton blocks the IICS from expanding into Calgary or Vancouver, both of which would theoretically be a better fit for both the Series and its sponsors.
On examining these points, one is forced to conclude that Edmonton’s return was driven by the fact that its sudden disappearance left the Series in a serious lurch. When the event fell apart so quickly, INDYCAR found itself with a month-long gap in the middle of the summer and precious little time to do anything about it. Agreeing to go back to Edmonton, while possibly not INDYCAR’s preference, was clearly an easier solution than either settling for the gap or cobbling together a brand new event on such short notice. And given the investment that will be required by all parties to get this race going again, a single-year deal would have been out of the question, which leaves us with the three-year arrangement that we now see before us.
That all being said, though, Edmonton’s return is most certainly not entirely negative. One of the biggest advantages to the new situation is the opportunity to redesign the circuit layout. As an anomaly in the realm of road and street courses, an airport circuit really has no business producing dull racing; it’s the only twisty layout that allows an attending race fan to see the entire course from one vantage point, and wide runways and taxiways with the flexibility to add connecting segments in any configuration allow for unlimited layout possibilities. And yet, despite all of this, Edmonton’s event simply hasn’t been very exciting from a viewer’s standpoint for the past several years. The opportunity to wipe the slate clean and design a new track with both the current equipment and the 2012 car in mind may be just what this event needs to get back off the ground.
The move also puts a little bit more sponsor negotiating leverage back into the hands of the Canadian racers. With three Canucks appearing to have a serious shot at landing rides in 2011 (be still, my beating heart), ensuring sufficient exposure for them north of the border is critical to sealing deals. Back in November, Paul Tracy was particularly vocal about how the loss of Edmonton had put a serious kink into his sponsorship talks with a major Canadian corporation. (Of course, most marketing budgets are finalized in December, so whether the event’s return might be too little, too late on this point remains to be seen.)
And finally, everyone loves a feel-good story about a grassroots fan-based movement making a difference. It was only through the rallying of Edmonton’s extremely passionate existing fan base in partnership with local businesses that Edmonton City Council was finally convinced to return to the bargaining table. (At the heart of this movement, by the way, was a gentleman named Mike Cockrall, who goes by the name Team Canada online. Mike deserves a massive amount of credit for leading this initiative and getting his home race back. If you ever make the trip to the Edmonton, be sure to stop by Mike’s motor home. He’s one of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet, and he gives away free beer.)
And so, regardless of how the positives or negatives balance out in anyone’s view, the Edmonton event now has three years to re-establish itself and cement its place on the IZOD IndyCar Series calendar. Looking ahead from where things stand today, whether the contract will be extended beyond this timeframe is anyone’s guess. It all hinges on whether the new promoter is able to increase both fan interest and revenue to keep Series and sponsor eyes from wandering, whether the new circuit makes for more exciting racing, and whether the parties involved are able to continue getting along and working together effectively.
There are interesting times ahead in Edmonton indeed.
Tags: Edmonton, Verizon IndyCar Series - Scheduling
Steph, Thanks for a terrific, balanced look at the Edmonton situation. Mike Cockrall, Thanks for your work in saving the race.
Perhaps the three year deal gives IndyCar and promoters a chance to properly put something together for Calgary or Vancouver. If I recall correctly, the CART races in Vancouver were pretty successful.
Very glad for Mike Cockrall’s efforts the race is on. Not only did the guy work hard to lobby Edmonton officials and residents, he had many conversations with folks in the States to spread the word as well.
Also Mike keeps lobbying me to come north with promises of free beer. Although this could be bad news for Canada, since I have a jinx effect for events. Plus, the fact I could get free Canadian beer is a sure way to guarantee I never go back across the boarder to the States. lol
Calgary sounds like it could be a great city in the future. I wonder if it might be called the “Indy Stampedes”?
Also I as an American fan would LOVE to see the series at Quebec. I would drive up there for the IICS on the beautiful historic track. I would NOT do that for the NASCAR Busch Series. (And F1 is just too rich for my bank accounts!)
Excellent article. Cheers to Mike for being invaluable in getting this deal done!
Well. Where do I start? I agree the city council really dropped the ball on this, but I do have to give some credit to the mayor that didn’t want the race to leave. He blackmailed Northlands into taking it over unwillingly, and for 3 years it was run rather shoddily. No wonder the attendance dropped, Northlands did very little reaching out the ticket buying public and was more concerned with getting corporate sponsors from a business community that generally doesn’t want to do anything with Northlands. I could write a novel about some of the follies that occurred here in the past 3 years. Could the race have gone to Calgary or Vancouver? Calgary, yes! Vancouver, not too likely with having to jump through a socialist city council to make it work. Calgary has roughly the same population as Edmonton if you also take the communities within 15 minute drive from both. Don’t forget, Molsons was also trying to get the ChampCar race from Vancouver for 2005, so there must have been a bunch of prior work in finding a suitable trace layout etc.. For me, if the race didn’t come back to Edmonton, I agree, Calgary would have put on a good show. They have the marketing moxie with the Stampede Board (Randy Bernard started there, btw) and a city loaded with head offices and a good business/political rapport. Had it gone to Calgary, I would still have been a big supporter of the race.
So, where are we now? First of all, we have a new promoter in Octane. A group that does nothing but put on race events. Their commitment to the fans will have to be very big in getting the ticket buyers back. From all of my conversations with Octane, they put the fans as #1 and know that without them, the race will not succeed. They also are quite good at dealing with government (you have to be with doing an F1 race). I hope that they can use some of their sponsorship search powers from F1 to carry over to INDYCAR. Secondly, local Alberta businesses that left when Northlands took over could very well be enticed to come back. You just have to treat them right and give them a feeling of value for money spent.
Lastly, there is now going to be a new track. This bodes well for creating a surface that will be as challenging as the previous one, but to be able to make it passable for the drivers and exciting for the fans. Prior races have gone the gambit from a complete snore fest (2009) to very exciting (2008). I have been in person to every race here and every single one was a lot more exciting than what was portrayed on the TV. Poor camera angles, poor following of passing and battles outside the front runners, ½ of a Versus crew, a local TV production company that doesn’t have the same level of expertise that could be brought in. I’m hoping that changes for 2011.
One other thing to mention. One of the city council members was questioning the TV ratings for Edmonton. That does make a good point in the fact that Edmonton has always run against the Brickyard 400. Many of the INDYCAR staff, racing journalists and media was all left to stay in Indy for the Nascar race. This year marks the first year that Edmonton will have no other live competition on the TV for racing viewership. I am hopeful that INDYCAR can bring a full staff, many of the racing media have expressed that they will be up here on July 24th, and all of this will do nothing but help in increasing viewership for those not at the track.
I’m hopeful that Octane can bring this back to where it started in 2005 and that this race will be proven to be a good event for the city. Time, and a lot of effort will tell.