The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of the most famous altars to speed in the world. It is also one of the largest and most expensive to operate. The track really runs just a handful of events each year and with the very shoddy attendance of the NASCAR race last weekend, IMS management has been moved to start thinking of new ways to fill seats. It’s crazy to think of the claimed 140,000 people being a “light” crowd, but it was the worst one in the 17-year history of the race.
IMS CEO Jeff Belskus, who replaced Tony George has publicly said that the track will lower ticket prices for next year’s event and introduce tiered ticked pricing which would place a higher price on the “better” seats at the track. While this may seem like a logical move, it seems to be a bit groundbreaking in the racing world where ticket prices have seemingly been viewed as a sacred cow, not to be messed with.
Belskus sees this year as the bottom of the decline trend and is looking to build more revenue and fill more seats for 2010. In an amazing stat included in the CP story we found on the race, the 2008 Brickyard event drew 270,000 people who were greeted with a tire disaster. In 2008 it dived to 180,000 and this year it went to 140,000.
IMS is also looking to add events to the schedule. We’re not surprised by that because as one race track operator once told us, tracks eat money. The second that the doors are opened up, the place is consuming money at an amazing rate. At the size of IMS, we can only imagine the volume of cash the track is bleeding.
Source — The Canadian Press — Indy’s CEO Looks to Change Directions
