Off-the-cuff reactions to the BCG report
IndyCar, IndyCar commentary — By Steph Wallcraft on March 1, 2013 8:29 pmJenna Fryer’s gotten a hold of the report from Boston Consulting Group highlighting their recommendations to the Hulman-George family for IndyCar going forward.
Here are my instant, extremely off-the-cuff reactions.
BCG said IndyCar was “the best pure racing motorsports league in the U.S. … but the series suffers from lack of awareness.”
Well, this is a good start. It’s comforting to know they saw things the same way we do. (Unless this was please-the-client speak — but I don’t get the sense that was their MO here.)
Focus groups suggested that marketing strategies should be geared to “positioning IndyCar as having the most skilled, daredevil drivers and not theatrical off-track personalities.” They indicated they valued fast cars over science and engineering; winning over points challenges; suspense through lead changes over entertainment through crashes; and the diversity of track types rather than ovals.
All of these points are consistent with what I could have concluded from my own casual chats with fans. (We now have documented proof that the ovals-only crowd are the extremely vocal minority. Maybe they’ll finally cool their jets.)
IndyCar should split the schedule into two seasons — a 15-race U.S. calendar from April to August and an international series during the offseason.
HELL YES.
The hypothetical schedule proposed by BCG included seven cities not currently visited by IndyCar. It opened at Houston, then Phoenix, the Indy 500, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Pocono, Toronto, Seattle, Sonoma and Fontana. The “playoffs” portion included Texas, Long Beach and the Indy road course. BCG argued for a playoff because “the current IndyCar schedule lacks consequence and the television ratings are at the lowest at the end of the season because the series does not have a mechanism to create suspense.”
Nice ideas. Moving Long Beach just can’t happen, though. Other than that and Indy, just about everything else could be adjusted to accommodate this. Things have flip-flopped around so often lately that no other events would be adversely affected by another date change.
I still hate the playoff idea, especially the way BCG has framed it — it would come off as a cheap imitation of the Chase. My feeling has been that the end of the schedule has tapered off in recent years due to scheduling missteps, not the lack of a mechanism to create suspense.
I found it interesting to see the IMS road course on that list as the season finale. Every (admittedly anecdotal) sense I’ve had is that fans in Indy have no interest in seeing IndyCars on that track whatsoever. I know BCG proposed this because they want to see IMS host more events so that it will earn more revenue (they suggest such an event could earn the Speedway up to $4.3 million), but I think that could be disastrously wrong.
One television partner, preferably ABC/ESPN, or placing as many races as possible on ABC.
BCG makes this suggestion on the assumption that ABC will be a fair and willing TV partner, and history has proven this not to be the case. As for getting more races on network TV — gee, thanks. Hope the H-Gs didn’t pay too much for that bit of sage advice.
The report also suggested the NBC Sports Network may be in violation of its contract with IndyCar if it promotes any other motorsports series more than IndyCar.
Now that is an interesting revelation worthy of further investigation, especially with Formula 1 being shown on NBCSN for the first time this season.
IndyCar should reduce the Leaders Circle subsidy payments to teams and redirect the funds into a weekly purse based on performance.
I made this exact point on Trackside with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee during Blogger Night a couple of weeks ago and got shot down. (I’ll try not to feel too vindicated.)
The report targets Indy 500 ticketing, suggesting penthouse and deck tickets should be raised from $150 to $200, paddock seats from $90 to $150. Other seats should drop anywhere from $5-$20 and sometimes more. IMS should also lower almost every ticket for the Brickyard 400 and Red Bull Grand Prix.
This wouldn’t be popular, obviously, but it’s probably long overdue. Something tells me no one has looked at the ticket pricing model and ratios since Paddock Penthouse tickets cost about $10 each. Fans would gripe, but they’d pay up.
Other revelations from the report are likely to come to light in the coming days. We’ll inform our readers about any other significant recommendations as they surface.
Tags: Verizon IndyCar Series - Administration, Verizon IndyCar Series - Marketing, Verizon IndyCar Series - Scheduling
” (I’ll try not to feel too vindicated.)” 🙂 🙂 🙂 We shall see 😉
I did not see St. Pete in the list of races suggested. I thought it was a pretty popular race. They are also assuming these new cities want an Indycar race.
I sure hope there is more to the report…otherwise I would ask for my money back.
I’d like to add my two cents or so to the conversation as well, addressing the points Steph highlighted.
I agree wholeheartedly with both you and the report on the first point. Some of that, to me, is INDYCAR’s own failure to promote the series. There are things that INDYCAR can do, in my view, to better promote the series and it’s drivers, as well as the drivers and teams themselves to promote their actions.
Points #2 & 3. Agree strongly with #2. Two concerns: The length of the off-season and who pays for the “international” season. Those issues do have to be addressed for this to bear fruition.
Point #4. This will be the most difficult to pull off. First, there have to be entities in Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Seattle that want to host INDYCAR races. (INDYCAR has previously held races in Miami, Atlanta, and Chicago.) Second, there have to be venues to host races. I know that in the past, there were talks to hold a race near Gillette Stadium-the home of the NFL’s New England Patriots-in Foxboro, near Boston, but that never panned out. There is a track near Seattle, Pacific Raceways, in Kent, Washington, which hosts NHRA Drag Racing and has a 2.31 mile SCCA and NASCAR approved road course. That track does have an INDYCAR history-back in 1969, USAC held a two heat race weekend there. Mario Andretti and Al Unser won the races.
I’m not in love with the “playoff” idea either. But, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot to lose by trying it. I can also understand wanting to get IMS to develop more revenue, but i’m not sold on the idea of an INDYCAR race on the road course.
Point #5. I agree with you there as well. ESPN clearly doesn’t care much about any INDYCAR race except for the 500-and even that broadcast shows a slipshod, uncaring way of producing the race. I do understand that ESPN has a bigger brand name and bigger footprint in sports than NBCSN, but if I were in charge, I’d be very reluctant to trust ESPN to do right by INDYCAR.
Point #6. That is interesting indeed. NBCSN has said they don’t want to give up INDYCAR, but if indeed they are in violation by inking a deal with F1, well, we’ll just have to see how that shakes out.
Point #7. I can see the merit in it, but what concerns me is that the Leaders Circle money makes up a portion of each team’s budget. If that is taken away, where will the shortfall be made up? I do understand not wanting INDYCAR to be a welfare state, but both the teams and series have to find other sources of revenue to make that work.
Point #8. Coming on the heels of IMS asking for state help, that would be potentially very unpopular, as you say. But, it may also be necessary. I can’t really talk to this point much.
I believe this report does contain some good talking points. The key questions, however, are how many of these ideas are viable enough to go from concept to reality?
The recommendations at the top regarding how the series is seen are spot-on and it’s good to see them in the recommendation.
I like the IMS road circuit, and liked F1 on it. Parts of the infield were uninspired, but the viewing of the most interesting bits was great. But the two things that made the event for me were the international crowd (it was cheaper for people to come from Europe than to go to their home grands prix) and the different sights and sounds (standing start, high engine revs, running in the rain). Other than maybe a standing start, IndyCar wouldn’t have those. I’d still go, but it wouldn’t really be a special event. I would also worry that it might cannibalize the Milwaukee crowd, depending on when they’re scheduled.
If they increase Paddock prices, I will gripe, but, yes, I’ll pay up. I think part of the lack of progressiveness is that the cheapest seats have been replaced by viewing mounds (a good move). But still, the premium for Paddock is tiny compared to typical sports pricing structures. A modest increase should bring more revenue without driving people away.
First of all, Consulting Firms, in my opinion are FOR organizations that lack effective leadership. Typically, money (lot’s of it) is wasted. Rarely does a firm come back with findings that actually can be clearly understood or implemented. I think IF the “Leaders” of IMS/IndyCar were not to proud to to simply reach out to their constituants…(We called them StakeHolders.. and that includes Fans.., and SME’s or Subject Matter Experts… put together an Advisory Board) and then Kindly Step Aside….and see what those folks find…They would have saved a lot money….and not be scratching their heads right now…
“We now have documented proof that the ovals-only crowd are the extremely vocal minority. Maybe they’ll finally cool their jets.” Now wait a minute there. Where is their research (“documented proof”) that ovals-only is the “extremely vocal minority”???
When I look back when the IRL was an oval-only/oval-heavy series and compare that to CART/ChampCar it seems like one was successful and the other went bankrupt (*cough* twice *cough*)
I’ll take historical data over the options, of people who don’t follow racing and, how they think the series should be promoted!
These are all comon sence good points… Oh and cavin is a sexist for disagreeing with you btw … Personaly the most important thing to focus on is getting away from spec racing …. As far as they can !!!! Playoffs are a terrible idea