How Could Comcast's Acquisition of NBC Affect IndyCar?

According to AOL's finance page, Comcast and GE are nearing an agreement in principle on the value of NBC-Universal - $30 billion.  It's a complicated deal, and there are several roadblocks that will need to be cleared before Comcast (who owns Versus and the Golf Channel) takes control of the Peacock Network.

But if this deal does transpire, how does this affect the Izod IndyCar Series, which airs nearly all of its races on Versus (with selected races still airing on ABC, including the Indianapolis 500)?  We've taken a stab at it before, but let's try and tackle how the Izod IndyCar Series can continue its forward momentum if Comcast were to buy NBC-Universal.

The Izod IndyCar Series

Even without the benefit of sound for this afternoon's Izod IndyCar Series press conference, you could notice the excitement in the press room at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The runway-styled press conference helped reinforce the relationship between Izod and the IndyCar Series moving forward.  Seeing IMS President Jeff Belskus for the first time in what seemed like months was a nice touch, as well.  Between Belskus, Brian Barnhardt and Mike Kelly, everyone said the right thing.

To me, though, lying just under the surface of the title sponsorship is a major key to the deal: the IndyCar Series is aligning itself with a high-profile, yet middle-class sponsor.

(Well, that and the fact that it appears that Ryan Hunter-Reay will drive for Andretti Racing in 2010; on a day when one young, popular American driver continues her dalliance with NASCAR, it's nice to see another young, talented American driver staying in the Izod IndyCar Series.)

Most of Izod's line of "Izod for Indy" clothes are relatively affordable - making it a key to activating the sponsorship.  I am right in Izod's demographic (I think) - a 27-year old young professional.  Now, for a minute, let's just say that I didn't know anything about IndyCar racing.  With Macy's locations around  the country, odds are that I'll run into the Izod for Indy product sooner or later.  The biggest thing about the line, to me, as someone living on a limited budget, is that if I liked the vintage Wing-and-Wheel design, I could actually buy the shirt.

As opposed to some other sponsors of the Izod IndyCar Series (i.e. Ritmo Mundo), the average fan can find this product and buy it.

Yes, the other details of the announcement are quite intriguing (my comments in parenthesis):

•  Increased and enhanced nationalmedia initiatives with television partners ESPN on ABC and VERSUS (makes sense to me).
• Multi-year, multi-million dollar commitment to participate in the IZOD IndyCar Series Team Enhancement and Allocation Matrix. Introduced in 2008, TEAM provides a guaranteed financial foundation for every team committed to running the entire schedule.  (If this helps increase the size of the field, even better.)
  
• Access to drivers and 100 years' worth of motorsports assets and graphics from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, including current and vintage cars, for both on- and off-track events in and out of race markets.  (Something that Izod and the IndyCar Series did masterfully last year were their events, both on and off the track, especially in New York and Macy's stores in IndyCar markets.  If this continues to improve, activation will be even better, theoretically.)
  
• Shared Web initiatives and online promotions.  (Sure, makes sense.  Driving traffic to each others' web sites will increase the number of hits, and as such, allow for increased ad rates.)

I have been an advocate of the Izod IndyCar Series' need to add more middle-class sponsors, in order to relate to the biggest group of consumers of the Series.  In landing Izod in a bigger role, the Izod IndyCar Series has enhanced their relationship with one of their biggest activators, theoretically enabling an already promising relationship to grow further.

Driving home from work today, I listened to Terry Angstadt on local radio today (1260-AM, WNDE) - his comment was to the effect of:

It might not be as important a day as unification, but it's close.

If the Izod-IndyCar relationship grows as expected, it may be even more important in terms of securing the future viability of American open-wheel racing.

A Shot Across the Bow

There is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms!

Who knew that sections of Patrick Henry's speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses would apply 235-or so years later?  With ESPN and NASCAR continuing to float the rumors that Danica Patrick will sign a deal to drive the soulless Minor League cars and trucks of NASCAR, it's a pretty obvious attempt to steal some of the thunder away from the IndyCar Series' announcement about signing a title sponsor.

Now, I'm not going to spend any time wringing my hands over who is leaking the information, when it's being leaked at specific times (it does seem similar to the Chinese Water Torture-level of baseball and steroid-related leaks, though) and the reasons why.  Por que, you ask?  Because, for IndyCar fans, today is a day to celebrate, just as another major press conference back in February of 2008 was a cause to toast IndyCar racing.

Today, watch it here, and know that the IndyCar Series is taking another step back into the public conscience with their partnership with Izod.  The die has been cast, the Rubicon crossed - the IndyCar Series is not going to fade away, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will not be sold.  And NASCAR's place as America's most popular form of auto racing is hereby under assault.

The war may not be won in a day, a month or a year.  But slowly, with a unified series and strong sponsorships (like Izod), the IndyCar Series will be back.  And hopefully, we will look back on this day as one of the major steppingstones in the process.

Izod It Is

Per the omnipresent Curt Cavin, Izod will officially be named the title sponsor of the IndyCar Series in a press conference on Thursday.  I saw Mr. Cavin at the IUPUI Basketball Banquet on Monday afternoon, so kudos to Curt for burning up the phone lines after the banquet to break the story.

For all of the recent talk to 'how can the IndyCar Series attract new fans?' making the Izod the title sponsor seems to be one sure-fire way to do so.  For all of the sponsors the IndyCar Series has, Izod seemed to be at the front of the line as far as sponsor activation goes.  In virtually every market the series goes to, Izod was hosting a signing, fashion show, or both to promote their relationship with the past, present and future of the series.

Say what you will about the line of clothing Izod put out (I for one thought the shirts were overdone; simpler is better to me), but if they continue to aggressively promote the series (i.e., creating more than one commercial), this is a relationship that can continue to move the IndyCar Series towards mainstream America.

Greg Moore

I was 17 when Greg Moore passed away, and honestly, I don't remember much of his career, outside of him filling Jacques Villeneuve's seat with Player Ltd. Racing (and Villeneuve was one of my favorite drivers in the mid-90's).  I was busy being a junior in high school, and while I watched open-wheel races, outside of the 500 I wasn't rushing to the TV to watch the races.  

I remember hearing about Moore and seeing the crash on ESPN, but in today's Indianapolis Star, Curt Cavin writes an excellent remembrance of Moore and how a star on the rise was cut down entering the prime of his career.

There's some great stuff in Cavin's article, including some interesting insights for where Moore might be today and how open-wheel racing might has changed as a result, too.

For some more information, too, check out Oilpressure.com's excellent piece on Moore as well.

Bringing IndyCar to the Masses, Part III

(The third in a series looking back at the 2009 IndyCar season and how the series can improve moving forward.)

Thus far, we've tackled IndyCar's move to Versus and the need for additional sponsors.  Honestly, these two issues go hand-in-hand.  And they also weave their way into the third issue facing the IndyCar Series - how to bring news fans to the track(s).

Growing up in Indianapolis, you know about racing; it's tough to spend any length of time here and not know that the month of May is a special time in the city, from the Mini-Marathon (come to think of it, what's special about running 13.1 miles?) to the parade to qualifications to the 500.  IndyCar racing takes on such a big part of Indianapolis' sporting spectrum that it is virtually impossible not to notice the race going on.

But as racetracks popped up in the mid-90's around the country, it became easier to not notice racing in local communities.  This year, I went to Kentucky Speedway for the Meijer Indy 300.  The track is fantastic, but it is in the middle of nowhere; because of this, I doubt that the local towns really feel much of an effect of the IndyCar Series rolling into town.  This is the case at many tracks that aren't located in communities like IMS is, but rather are on the outskirts of a town.  With that in mind, how does the IndyCar Series make their races relevant and bring people to the track who would otherwise miss the race?

Carnaval!

So the IndyCar Series may or may not be going to Rio de Janeiro in March.

Both The Silent Pagoda and 16th and Georgetown reported on a story posted to Indycar.com, dated Oct. 31, that was later pulled from the site.  It seems as if someone prepared a story that was supposed to run on Oct. 31, hit "post," only to realize that Halloween is still nine days away. 

(As an aside, why would the IndyCar Series announce  this on Halloween to begin with?  October 29 - a Thursday - seems like a much more logical date to announce this and get it into the news cycle, as opposed to a day in which half the sports editors will be out taking their children trick-or-treating.)

Rio de Janeiro is the home of adult trick-or-treating, otherwise known as Carnaval.  It's like New Orleans' Mardi Gras, just taken to an entirely different level. And as someone who experience Bourbon Street and lived to tell the tale (even with Jean Lafitte's Old Absinthe House being prominently involved), I can only imagine the atmosphere that will engulf the IndyCar Series in mid-March, 2010.  With that, I'm off to find some beads for the party.