Sunday, October 12, 2008

champcar fanatics

(posted on 10-10-08)

-Corner5
Here are the tv ratings results since TG's buyout of Champ Car for $10 million-

2007 ******* 2008
.7 Homestead .8
.6 St Pete .4
.4 Motegi .33
.3 Kansas .74
4.3 Indy 4.5
1.0 Milwaukee .8
.7 Texas 1.0
1.0 Watkins Glen 1.1
1.1 Iowa 1.1
.6 Richmond .9
1.7 Mid Ohio 1.3
Edmonton ( so bad, not listed)
.4 Nashville .5
.6 Kentucky .43
.6 Sonoma .41
1.0 Belle Isle .9
.9 Chicago .8

As a result, ABC has dropped coverage of 7 events to 5 events for 2009. They also allowed the Irl find another network for their remainder events and they wound up on an obscure cable channel next year.

Indycar has just released a report stating that ratings are up 21.4% over 2007.

Who's lying now?

-Laguna Tuna
But you are not a gomer math whiz. Of course you can't make that a 21.4% increase.

Maybe that was a 21.4% increase in weight of the average gomer viewer after gorging then sleeping through another earl season. Maybe it was a 21.4% increase in viewers killed brain cells while watching that crap. Maybe it's a 21.4% increase of fecal matter that the earl statisticians are are full of when they release this crap. Maybe we are 21.4% more skeptical of anything the earl releases.


-joetanto
Math? You give them too much by thinking they can even identify numbers and letters. I don't think they know much besides grunts.

-StarScream
the gomer logic and gomer math is weird, let me explain how they calculate the increase:

1. there's nothing wrong with adding percentages

2. gomers can't handle negative numbers. so when they see a "-" they think it's just a variation of the "+"

3. go back the last 10 years and you see a permanently decrease of the tv-ratings. an average hurl-event drops at least 20%/year. but when it drops only 10%, for the gomers it's an increase of 10%

4. now add all the percentages of the "less than 20% decrease" in 2008 compared to 2007 and you'll arrive at 21.4%, very simple, huh?


-Corner5
There will always be one thing the Irl will never be able to overcome.

It's the TG factor, its real and its matters.

TG killed OW when he created the Irl, that will be his legacy.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

champcar fanatics

(posted 10-9-08 further reaction on F1 cancelling the Canadian Grand Prix)

-joetanto
Great read. As an American even I am depressed by the thought of Canada losing it's GP. Obviously Bernie has never been one to shed a tear for a lost venue, but with no North American rounds at all there is some major loss of credibility there. As much as I never believed NASCRAP would be able to get a foothold outside the US, this could be Bernie's biggest mistake.

Also, the idea of Pook bringing back the USGP sounds a bit optimistic at best. Either he will get a freebie from Bernie to get it off the ground or there is major corporate support. The only scenario I could see Bernie cutting him any slack would be a street race in Las Vegas which won't happen I would think.

-anthonyvop
F-1 is racing and Racing is a Business.

With TV ratings in the USA that barely register and sponsors who have no problems bypassing North America it is hard to question Bernie's decision.

If Mercedes Benz, Toyota, Honda and BMW wanted a race in North America there would be one.
Ferrari and Renault could care less. Ferrari already sells every car than can make and Renault doesn't sell here.
Toyota has jumped into NASCAR.
Honda has the IRl and ALMS(with Acura)
BMW is going to ALMS as well.
That leaves M/B and they seem happy without F-1 marketing in the US.

Look at some of the Major Sponsors in F-1.
Vodaphone, Santander, Alice, Petrobras, Mubadala, Kingfisher, Aigo. None major players in North America.
Marlboro can't advertise here. Red bull has NASCAR.

If the Manufacturers and Sponsors wanted a race in North Ameria it would happen.

-Violent Navy
I've always found the North American GP concept to be fascinating, really...considering what a Eurocentric sport F1 really is. I really do hope that F1 does return to your shores (particularly Montreal which I believe to be steeped in F1's heritage) but, correct me if I'm wrong here, but wasn't the Canadian GP really the only North American F1 race that worked? I think it'll be a long time realistically if F1 ever does come back to the US given the amount of disasters F1 has over there (ostrich races being more popular, tarmac melting etc).

Perhaps it was the constant changing of venues that did it. How many circuits has F1 raced over there? The Glen, Long Beach, Dallas Street, Phoenix Street, Indianapolis, Riverside, Sebring, Detroit and Vegas. That's a lot of different circuits and many of them are highlights of US open wheel racing and tin tops alike. I think the Glen had the best run of them all (20 years) and it was only ground effect that basically stopped them from going there, along with the track's lack of funding etc. But funding isn't everything- FTG paid for the honor of having the USGP held at Indianapolis, probably the best known (internationally, sadly) American circuit there is. Look what happened there.

I don't think there are any easy answers to this. F1's not a loved sport in the US for whatever reason (no decent US drivers or cars, NASCAR etc) so maybe the guys in Paris have finally given up on North America and are now focusing solely on "emerging markets".

I find it really sad.

champcar fanatics

(posted on 10-7-08 regarding F1 cancelling the Canadian Grand Prix and leaving North America with no F1 race)

-Limitedslip
How can a credible world championship not compete in North America and have only one race in the Western Hemisphere?

-TRPG
This on the day of the 30th anniversary of Gilles' first f1 win on the very same track. Focking as*holes...

-joetanto
No kidding. Then again who said F1 was credible.

-I luv chicken
Looks like I'm gong to have to buy more lottery tickets, to win and have enough money to get standing room at the Yaba - Daba, Grand Prix.

-Star Scream
this hurts further more when we see there are frakking boring races like hungaroring, imola or barcelona out of the discussion for switching/leaving

silverstone and montreal are some of the all time hi-lights and they can't be replaced

nice to have a night-street race in singapore, but what the hell has f-mullah countries to do with racing? they don't know a sheit about racing and they see us as infidels (means enemies)

f-abu dabi, f-bahrain, effing mullahs!!

and the most saddest part is that we no longer can say: "f-f1, we have a better international series with real racing and cooler/faster cars."

oh man, is there no "god of racing" there to help us (anymore)?