Edmonton's Indy race likely to lose $1M
Delay in making official announcement responsible for lagging ticket sales
John MacKinnon
The Edmonton Journal
Thursday, May 29, 2008
CREDIT: Getty Images
An angry Danica Patrick walks back to her pit box Sunday after attempting to confront Ryan Briscoe, who caused the accident that knocked Patrick out of the Indianapolis 500.
"I am Indy," teased Danica Patrick, the face and -- who's kidding who -- the much-exposed body of North American open-wheel racing, via video.
"Are you Indy, Edmonton?"
It is now. And Edmonton will continue to be Indy through at least 2010, according to the three-year deal between the Indy Racing League and Northlands, owner and operator of the Rexall
Edmonton Indy race.
The deal was sealed last weekend at the Indianapolis 500 and announced Wednesday at a news conference at Northlands.
Now, Edmonton has a date with Danica, along with the wonderfully named Will Power, Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan, sometime dancing whiz Helio Castroneves and the 30-odd other IndyCar drivers on the newly united open-wheel racing circuit.
"It's a big event that will put Edmonton on the map," Northlands board chair Jerry Bouma said of the July 24-26 race weekend that coincides with, and will be married, in a marketing sense, to the Capital Ex, another Northlands property.
The race weekend clearly is a big event in transition, for good and bad.
It's good to have a three-year deal, although a five-year deal would be better. It's good to have a firm race date -- July 26 -- bad that legal issues and contract negotiations delayed its being made official.
"Ticket (sales) are lagging at this time and there's a definite reason for that," said Northlands president Ken Knowles. "It's kind of tough to sell tickets (when people are wondering) is it going to be in the middle of July?
The end of the month?"
Partially as a result, Knowles acknowledged the race at funky, fan-friendly
Edmonton City Centre track probably will lose in the neighbourhood of $1 million this year. He reckons the race can break even in 2009. In 2010, cross your fingers, black ink on the ledger.
It's good the race has been instantly rebranded from the generic Champ Car to IndyCar. For starters, Patrick, the talented, feisty and hugely popular star of the series, kicked the marketing effort up several notches when she won the IRL race at Motegi, Japan, the first-ever Indy car victory by a female.
Throw names like Andretti and A.J. Foyt IV into the mix, along with the grinning, spinning, charming Castroneves, who won TV's Dancing with the Stars last season, and you've got yourself some athletes who cross pop-cultural barriers, some real marketing sizzle.
"These people are really good for the series," said Australian driver Will Power, a Champ Car holdover, who won the Streets of Long Beach race on April 20. "I think it's really great that Danica won her first race -- she deserved it and drove well.
"You need these characters in the series, you need these personalities. I think it's important."
No. They're absolutely crucial for long-term success when IndyCar's competition is the posse of high-profile drivers like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and
Jimmy Johnson that the massively popular, not to mention filthy, stinkin' rich NASCAR circuit showcases.
In Edmonton, the cross-promotional "synergies," as Knowles calls them, between the Capital Ex and the Indy racing weekend make sense, which is good, even if those gears may not end up meshing as smoothly as Knowles believes.
With events like a pro bull-riding competition at Northlands coinciding with the Indy race, the long-established Capital Ex grounds may well be precisely where race fans want to go after a qualifying session, or the race itself, looking for a corn dog and some action after dark.
If so, their IndyCar race ticket will grant them free admission to the
Northlands grounds, and there will be shuttle buses to connect the two sites.
"It's just going to be a huge weekend for the fan who's coming from out of town," Knowles said. "It's going to be the biggest weekend this city has ever seen."
It almost certainly will be the best open-wheel racing experience Edmontonians have ever seen live, a notion Power supported enthusiastically, and not only because he was the pole-sitter here last year when he was racing for Team Australia.
"It's a track that we can be really competitive on because we've actually got some information (on it)," Power said, via satellite hook-up from Indianapolis. "I really enjoy the circuit -- it's bumpy, it's physical.
"I really like Edmonton because it's so good for racing. You make a mistake and you always lose a couple of positions."
So, will the ex-Champ Car drivers have a bit of an edge here, after enduring learning experiences at the 2.5-mile oval at Indy?
"You could say that for the first session, maybe," Power said. "But all good drivers learn the track in about 10 laps.
"It's good to have a circuit that we actually know because every circuit we're going to this year, all the other teams have been to, but the (ex-Champ Car) teams haven't.
"So, if there's any advantage, I think we deserve it, a little."
If the wild, carnage-filled race in Indianapolis is any guide, deserve may not have much to do with it.
Except for this -- after three years of passionate support for open-wheel racing, Edmonton fans deserve to see the race become a long-term fixture on the IndyCar circuit. Which may well happen.
"In business, everything is subject to negotiation," said Terry Angstadt, president of the commercial division for the Indy Racing League. "We have every intent to extend successful venues and relationships.
"We would certainly not be doing our jobs if we didn't."
jmackinnon@thejournal.canwest.com
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