You're listening to the back home network, presented by home field, apparel. Welcome back to Crimson gasp. Kalin clavius cot Caulfield here. I hope you're all doing well. It's a beautiful day outside here in Central Indiana. It's about 82 degrees exactly what you want. For the middle of may feel like we had a long dark period there, where the weather just wasn't great. But we're back Scott. It feels like it feels like late spring early summer, which is
what I like, you know. It's whether we both like, we have a lot of weather. Talk you hate, you hate the fall. But this is a spot we can all we can all join hands and be happy with this. Yes. If you don't like late May reach out so that we can blow down. Yeah, we will you know, we don't really want you associating with this anymore. But anyway, we're not doing anything about it.
You Athletics on this podcast. So if you tuned in this one, as they say, unlike the rewatchable, this one for us, one for us, one for you and me, it's one of our favorite hot first of all, even though they won't be iOS Leduc specifically on this podcast, we are still brought to you by home-field apparel as part of the back home network and they have been in this space actually that we're about to talk about because in addition to some of the finest Collegiate apparel, some great
professional apparel, they also have IndyCar stuff. I am the Our donor of a Dreyer & Reinbold t-shirt. That was said to be last year by the the crew, and I am always excited when there's anything any related or little five related that comes out of the home field. Laboratories they're super secret facility and in the Indianapolis area. So be sure to check out home field apparel, use the code home.
H ome get 15% off your first order again that's home-field apparel.com proud sponsor of that crime Network. Yes. He's listening which I'm sure he is. I'm sure he should just turn over all marketing apparel to home field because home feels good and as we will mention many times and get into his podcast like Indy car sucks and their marketing and their apparel has been awful for years but handed over to home field like let home field do everything. So here's a here's a question
for you. Roger Penske is 86 years old? Yes. What do you think the over-under on total number of podcast episodes? Roger Penske has ever listened to is Well, there's always the possibility, he's listened to one and not known. It was a podcast consciously. How many has he, how many has he consciously listened to in his lifetime?
What's the overrun? I mean, you know, I think the numbers said it like half fuck happened was, as Roger, Waters, Roger list and purposely to one podcast episode in his life. I don't think so. Probably not. And I don't blame him. That's fine. I mean he's 86 when podcasts became a thing. It was what 2017, I would say, 2016. So he would have been for you and me. It was 2009. Well, that's for the rest of us. Went out for you and me, it was 2007.
Remember? Yeah. So, but but point it like, even if he had been listening from them, he would have been in his late 60s. I think our early 70s and so, probably not. No. So, I'm guessing he won't listen to this one either, but if he does Scott's right hand all of the marketing and the materials over to home-field apparel, they
do a great job though. We wanted to talk about the 500 and about, you know, the fact that race is coming up and as something you and I both watches as natives of Indiana, we both go to the race every year. We both watch all the IndyCar races outside of it. It's been an interesting fandom
over the course of time. It's like a slightly more successful IU football fandom I would argue in that like yeah there's you know the Indy 500 happens every year and it's we enjoy it but it's also kind of like this.
There's this constant feeling that a lot has been missed in the process and we wanted to talk about that because after a couple of years of coming to their senses, kind of by accident, the Indy 500 announced that they would actually be leaving their senses and would be going back to the local blackout rule that they have had essentially since time and Memorial and they are doing it because they claim they haven't. Old enough tickets, I guess to the race, but we both think that
that presents the problems. We've got some other things we want to talk about with the 500 as well, so we're going to dive into all of that Scott, you know, first and foremost. Let's just, let's hit the big ticket item. Let's go ahead and say goodbye to all of our listeners, right,
right. For those of you looking for, like, if you want, if you want like it, you want some recruiting news, please wait till June, okay, give us, give us the next couple of, unless something major happens give us the next couple of weeks here but no If you want to stick around, we'd love to have you obviously. But by the way, Ryan sticky. Speaking of Yale College stuff. Ryan hunter-reay. Need some n IL money because this car is blank this year. 3 grunting a black, a black car
right now. This is yeah, this is an il-4 not good. This is it's it's like what was it like stand Fox? I think qualified in the car. That I like no sponsorships on it. It's like oh they're Wheeling this one in from the garage. This is like from four years ago. Somebody's chassis that though they found on an abandoned lot somewhere. No, so let's talk a little bit
about this. Blackout situation, so just to recap because I think it's important that we get the history out there first and foremost because a lot of people are not familiar with the history of the 500 and even the broadcast, and this was actually a shock.
Even I have a friend of mine who is very, very plugged into the sports scene, who was sending me texts, kind of like laughing at the announcement that the blackout would be returning in full force and then he did some research and came back and he's like, I can't believe that the Race wasn't broadcast live anywhere until 1986 and the and he's right. And this is one of those things that I don't think people are fully conscious of, is that the Indy 500 was not broadcast
nationally until 1986? It was always, let's not live. It was always recorded. And then essentially slightly edited or majorly edited as some of the cases, maybe, and then shown the evening of the race on ABC's Wide World of Sports and Scott. And I have been delighted at this era of media because a lot of those race recordings are on YouTube. So we go back and watch them and there's a whole other podcast. We may even touch on a little bit here of how just off the wall.
Some of those broadcasts are but can we please call it Thoughts with Chris economy Maki? Like who Caught that my God.
But you know what we end up with is a situation where, you know, the Indy 500 obviously starts in 1911 and it becomes, you know, it kind of almost dies off around World War Two and then Tony hulman buys the track and it goes through this Golden Age, the kind of lasts from the end of World War Two until the split in 1995. So you're talking about they're about to 40-year period, we're anticipating Ation and marketing
around the race. Gradually grows like there's a movie made about it. There's you know, becomes it gets mentioned in Apocalypse Now it's, you know, it's it becomes part of the cultural currency kind of like, you know, the Grand Prix of Monte Carlo, if you want to look at another auto race or their, the America's Cup, which was a big thing in the 80s. Like these athletic institutions that were events singularly under themselves now on the national stage. A lot of television sports got
treated that way. There were NBA finals games that were not shown live but we're instead tape delayed as late as like 1982 which people are. You know, imagine imagine an NBA Finals game today being delayed until 11:00 start because we want to get Dallas, not that not the team but the the drama into in and its entirety like that would never happen today but that was the attitude at the time. So it took a while for the Indy 500 to be broadcast live, it
starts to get brown. Cast live nationally in 1986 it ends up being I think another like seven or eight years before they say hey we're going to broadcast the race in its entirety locally in the evening on WRTV, the ABC station in Indianapolis and so they start doing that and that becomes kind of part of the thing, then the split happens and you know, whereas before you had regularly crowds 350, 375 400 thousand people because of how popular the race.
Had become because of how much of a singular cultural event. It was, when the split occurs, a lot of that, goes away, the Mystique around the circuit disappears.
The, you know, there's drivers that have nobody's heard of that are racing in the Indy 500 and you end up with this weird situation where the Indy 500 still blacked out locally and it is no longer that important of a cultural item and it takes literally 20 years for it to build back up to a point where it really regains some level of the problem. That it had before the split. Now, there were still crowds
coming in there, you know. There were still Grand stands, getting gradually more and more filled. They reconfigure, what goes on in the infield? They add the, you know, they reconfigure the snake pit as in his old form, where you were likely to get stabbed by a pool
cue. You know, it's now it's an EDM Festival. I mean, there's all these things that get changed the pandemic happens and they show the race live because there's nobody there, they have two and then the next Race after that or the two races after that, they
stream on peacock. Because peacock somehow has never heard of geofencing where they can you know, take certain zip codes and say you can't access this So now, they finally figure out the geofencing, and now they're putting the blackout back in Scott. I know why? I think this is a bad idea. I want you to elucidate from your perspective. Why putting the blackout back in is a bad idea. I'll also throw in, I think in 2016, they also showed the race live, that was the hundred
haunting correct. And it's because that was sold out. And so to IMS, his credit, they've always said if we sell the place out, you know, we will do the, it's funny that like, that's the bear. I'll get to your question a sec. That's the barrier to, which has to be done and as you and I love to go back and watch old races. It's talked about in this case, like, as I'm watching all these old race on watching like the 79 race and like I've been in the
70s this time. It's it's almost talked about this weird Mystique like God to 300,000. We don't know the number of people and it's like this isn't hard. Like you sell it. Like I'm not talking to even today, but it's just like, why the IMs is made this this weird Mystique of like, Even Kirk cabin with the Indy star at the time. Like he had an article in the 2001 where he, like literally walked around every grandstanding counted.
And then I think I AMS got pissed that he released it, but it was like there's no other venue worth like assembly Halls like seventeen thousand five hundred and seventy-four, whatever. Like I don't know why, it's just it's weird going back and hearing them talk about it. Like we don't know how many people are here, it's like well you do by like a. So anyway somebody call is 17,000 222. But that's a great, it's a great example. And this was always part of the
way. I would look a sconce at when I would hear that. Well, that we gotta block the race out because the attendance is always just kind of been a general idea. Even though there's clearly people taking tickets at the gate. You know, how many tickets were sold, but it's always been like this vague number. They never come out and say, we have this many people, as you said, it's always been an estimate and that what that that makes it looks sketchy a little
bit. You know, it says this IMS is A frat party where it's like, I don't know man. We saw for the doors and the grantor agency. I'm like you know, it's weird. I guess there's some people here we'll figure it out, right? It's but when everything on the TV is tied to the sellout like it's weird that like they're not telling the number anyway, it's bizarre. Because I don't know if you've heard Gala, I don't want to break news here. On this podcast streaming is
kind of a big deal. No, there's, there's big companies out there that are doing things. You Disney is in the streaming from what I've heard, like this is The last three years, everyone's been trying to do is trying to get subject trying to get subscribers. Now it's, you know, we're going to see some consolidation that business. I was listening to. I listen Trackside is a podcast with Kurt cabin.
Kevin Lee, which I'm assuming Roger Penske is also not listen to they were discussing this about a week ago and you know, they said that you know, about the last year when the race was on peacock, they saw a like a 600% increase in the number of use active users. Jean peacock that day, which is that's good. You know, it's like what's Wild was like every other Media company is trying to get this to
happen and in a weird way. Like you said they kind of backed into this, what it's like, all right, you can still blackout the TV race, which is also stupid. But it's like now you're driving people to go to Peacock, which is kind of what, like Netflix Disney Paramount, like, all these other large media companies are trying to find
this. And again, it's not like, you know, this is a huge number but like This is a way to get more people there and I also thought The dichotomy was interesting that I took my son last week to the Grand Prix and we can talk about the other problem. IndyCar has like, that was an absolute snooze Fest and it goes to how in a weird way were in the exact same spot we were before the split for a lot of
the same reasons. But, you know, going on the radio, they're talking about how this is a great event. The Grand Prix is because people can bring their kids that wouldn't normally bring to the 500, which I'm in the I'm in the boat. My son James is 10. He absolutely loves IndyCar racing. He likes the history and like reading the books and seeing the the memorizing, the names, and the ears and stuff.
I take him to the Grand Prix because if you haven't been to the 500, like that's a 9 10 hour day and I've joke, it's not like if he wants to leave, there are times where it's like, if the race is over, it's like we're not getting home for three hours, whether you have to poop or do like, there's just there like so, but it's like, he's like, why can't I watch the race on TV, like I watched on peacock.
I'm like no, and no, and no. And The Grand Prix is a great thing to get kids, excited for the race and then there's no way to then have them watch the race. Anyway, it's stupid on so many levels, but it's just odd that, you know, every other company is trying to get people on their app and this is a great way to get people using the app in the market, that's going to have the largest TV number.
It's stupid all across the board, all for what I've heard is like 11,000 unsold seats which I don't get me like At $125 a ticket. You're talking over a million dollars so it is real money. But I mean you look at like Netflix is burning hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter to just get an extra 200 subscribers like, Disney paid a trillion dollars for Cricket in India so they can get
subscribers. Like the idea of giving up a million dollars in ticket revenue for subscribers, is what I think most companies would do today. Well, that's to me the heart of the issue and And maybe, there's even a more fundamental issue. I mean, James is lucky, I just in general. Okay, agree. But but he's lucky to have you as a dad because you are actively trying to get him interested in IndyCar and making a bad day, maybe it does no car. No, no, this goes back to my IU,
football thing, actually. It's, this is the same boat. But, but no, I mean, the fact that you've taken him to a more CPS Might hear this and be like, we gotta pull this, get away, the fact that you've taken him to, to erase the fact that you watch races with him at home. The fact that you essentially are trying to culture him in IndyCar, specifically is great.
I think, because as someone whose dad did that with him at a time when the race was not on TV it and look we didn't go to the race now, my dad would we would listen to the race on the radio and you know in the 80s that made sense because there were a lot of things. Is that weren't on television. People forget there were like three stations. It'll eat for a large portion of the 80s. Really all the way up to about 1993 where you would regularly see sports for, I guess in Indiana.
Because we were lucky because we had T TV for and that would have IU basketball and Purdue basketball. But if it wasn't on ABC, CBS or NBC either, in prime time, when it was too late for kids to watch ordering a, an 8 Hour, span on the weekends, you probably had to listen to It on the radio so it made sense back then. So now Flash Forward 40 years thereabouts and I would ask IndyCar and the eye and IMS in particular like okay you've got people coming to the race, that's great.
You've got this thing in the infield. The snake pit that you've talked yourself into, that's how we're going to get young people excited about the Indy 500 yet. If you've been in the snake pit, during and our seats for the 500 or literally, Cross turn three from where it's located. Those people have no clue that there's a race going on around them. None, there's no queues.
There's no, I mean you can't see the TV screens, you are focused on whatever is going on on stage and probably may be focused on not passing out from the Heat or whatever other substances are out there at the time and that's not a great way to build a youth demographic. So you've had over the course of the last 35 years. Let's say it's go back to 1988 you've had Add all of the drivers that everybody knew
Exodus from the sport. You had like seven or eight years in the wilderness where most people like, we're actively making fun of your event weren't watching your, your circuit, in any great numbers. You've gotten the event back to the point where it's something that people want to come. See, but you've got a lot of people who have been acclimated through it to through generations.
How many new fans are you actually generating you're Not putting for the series, the most popular event of the season on television in the market where it is the most popular in the country. So you go through all the different markets that are watching IndyCar. Now, you know, and I was looking at the ratings from, like the first weekend this year, what was the the highest rate of there was? All three series had events that weekend that weekend in February?
What was the series that had the highest rating by far? NASCAR still NASCAR. Absolutely. They had they had three point. Nine million people. Watch the the Nascar Cup Race at the Las Vegas Motor. Speedway F1 was s F1 was s F1 a 10:00 a.m. start for the Bahrain Grand. Prix had 1.3 million viewers. What's third, IndyCar, 1.18 million, with the st. Petersburg race. And you know, that's to me,
that's a concern. Earn. Because if you're looking at that, it's like, gosh, we need to continue to build this number because that is the currency as you were making. The point earlier, the currency is not gate, receipt, gay, receipts nice. But you look at college football, you look at college basketball. You look at the NFL, where is all the growth is the growth in the numbers of the people that are walking through and buying tickets know the numbers on
television are what's driving? Not just knowledge of the sport but The sport and most importantly interest by advertisers in the sport because ultimately, they're looking for concrete numbers that they can get advertisements in front of those people on a regular basis. So you're both forsaking that for as you said apparently, like 11,000 unsold grandstand tickets but you're also forsaking the development of fans who don't have a dad, like Scott or don't have a family member.
Or a grandfather, or an uncle, or whoever who is saying, you need to come to the race. You know, and you've got people arguing right now, they were arguing with me on social media like, well, they can just listen to the radio and it's like it's 2023. What, what, like, what eight there was a. I just saw an article about how there's a whole bunch of car manufacturers.
Then this next line of cars that they're putting out, which I'm a big names, like, you know, the a lot of the European manufacturers Volkswagen what not, there's not going to have am on the dial at all. It's He just gone no more am well, what person under the age of 35 thinks I'm gonna go turn the radio on and listen to a sporting event unless it's also on television. I mean it's best and you can say baseball or you could say you know, NFL those things are on
every week. This is a once a year event and you're going to tell people sorry you got to listen to it on the radio. That's the only way that you're going to get media access, 12, other things that I want to go large scale on the series to with other Concerns.
But you know, the thing too is like the whole idea with these blackouts in the NFL, did it for years and he gets to drive people to the event which makes sense in an era where there's not, you know, VPN and stream and that's the thing. If somebody wants to watch it, you can still VPN and then get around the geofence. Like, there's always ways around this stuff, but but why make people do that?
Do not know. But the difference is like, let's just say next year, they lift the blackout, like I'm still taking James like, that's what doesn't Any sense here is like, for this specific event, it is about the event. Like, this is one of those few things where I personally think NFL games are probably better on TV. Like, you know, having gone to a lot of IU football games or kind of better on TV because you can partially flip around.
But like the Indy 500, if you haven't gone, you should go and everybody who goes says that because it's an event, and like, that's the thing, if they lifted the blackout, you're still going. I'm still going like, you know, 200 300 thousand, people get, we don't know the number, they're all. Still going because they go for
the event. I mean they decimated the sport and you go back to the split like it's what mind-boggling the series had one race in a calendar year, like it had the 500 and then it didn't race again till the next February. As you mentioned, the crowds were down but they weren't down. Like astronomically like it was still relatively full.
So like the idea that this is driving people, there just isn't true because the majority of people that are there and I've gone for 30 plus years, Years. They are race fans and their fans of being at the track on race day. Like they wouldn't care if it was broadcast on 30 channels and the last thing I'll say with the the broadcast that's also very frustrating is you take another event that is also kind of like
a one-off for. I think most of the country in the Kentucky Derby and you look at the way that that and it's it has been promoted on TV. I mean, the Derby's at like 6:00, I turned on NBC at like 10:00 a.m. and it's like dirt. We live for the next 12 hours, I mean, they do nothing, but promote that for the entire day understand this is partially the
TV and partially the event. But it's like, it does feel like living in Indy. All the stations are doing kind of pre-race stuff and then it just shuts off. It is like in commercial time. Hey, let's look at Starbucks sharks and it's like they've lost. That is kind of like the cool race. Event in Spring, I mean, that's as you're right, it's kind of a separate argument and and part of it is, I mean the Derby.
It's funny. People think the Derby is really fancy yet the the Derby infield been there is maybe worse than the 500 infield. I mean and that's saying a lot I do think it's funny though and kind of sad in that. Okay, you know, what is on television in Columbus Ohio every week of the Fall. I have state of Ohio State football, both the home games, okay? And the road games and somehow they 6080, they have 102,000 seat Stadium, Michigan home games approximately.
Michigan, home games are on television. In the Detroit marketplace where Ann Arbor is located name that Penn State. I mean there is there's ample evidence that if if the in-person experience is interesting to people that they will go and I agree with you the idea that this is one of the best in person. 100%. I, you know, I've sat in Row 3, with my wife's family for four
years. Now, the people surrounding me are not casuals who were like, well, gosh, I really was going to watch the game on the race on television, but but it wasn't. So I bought tickets here. No, these are in many cases tickets that have been in the old fencing. I'm here, these are tickets to the minute families for
Generations now. And, you know, are you could, you potentially lose a little bit of the infield crowd potentially, but most of those people are there To tailgate they're there to drink and they kind of have a vague understanding of what's going. I remember very clearly. I spent the 2011 race in the infield and you know remember when Hildebrand crashed I had no clue what was going on, none? What's like? I knew that he had gone by because I saw him go by and turn three.
And I'm like, okay, I guess he's winning and then I kept waiting for the screens to pop up, nothing's there. That's the experience in the infield, it's not. I mean, you're there for Reasons others specifically than watching the race and I guess that's what irritates me the most about this. And this comes from a place of love. It really does. Like you and me. We'd like the race to be more popular. We'd like IndyCar and the drivers to be more popular. We like the series to be more
popular. You have to acknowledge that Indiana is the Wellspring of interest in IndyCar. And the speedway this is this is this is home base, the idea That you just cut home base off from being able to watch the most interesting and popular race because you're worried about gate, receipts in 2023, when across all of sport gate, receipts are less important than cultivating. The Next Generation. I would submit to everybody on the same network that Indy car is on the Premier League, which
was a nonentity. I'm not entity 20 years ago in America. Like you, you, you had to Go into the dark recesses of like one bar that was open at 7 a.m. on Saturdays to see people watching Arsenal or watching Manchester United play and you maybe once in a blue moon, you'd see a game on ESPN, and he and NBC went and got the Premier League rights and put that on television. Every Saturday and Sunday morning.
We had more Premier League games available here than they had in England to watch and guess what popularity of the Premier League has Is shot through the roof. And this is for people who never get to go to games. There is no it. There's no in-person attendance there. If there was, I don't think that you'd suddenly have this huge fall off of Interest. This is how you grow Sports in
the 21st century. And it is just my biggest hope with Penske taking over both the track, and the circuit was that we have someone in place, who understood that, that's what
matters growing. The sport and putting it in front of people like F1 has done over the last Under 8 years is far more important than counting pennies walking through the great, the gates, you know, and in a larger sense that's where I'm again, this comes from a place of place of love, I'm worried for Indy car because they're in a really tough spot because if you want to watch, you know, exciting open-wheel racing, you're probably going to water.
Sorry exciting oval racing. You're probably going to watch Nascar. There's just there's way more oval racing. And for the most part it's better oval racing if you want to watch kind of bad street and Road. Or series you're going to watch F1 because they you that series. Really the series on Netflix, got a lot of people into it you and I are kind of like I'm still in the IndyCar but there's times like I don't I don't know who this is for like I'm not sure who's into this and what what's
I was thinking more about this? Knowing we're going to talk about this, like the premier event is the 500 and part of that Golden Age, I'll take a minute here to see how it's like from 85 to 90, 83 to 86, 295 you Had a lot of good personalities. We also a lot of great races, you know, a lot of good finishes and guys who but most importantly guys who wanted to
be there. I mean like Alastair jr. Wanted to win a Indy 500. You Emerson fittipaldi came over from Europe but he can, but he really wanted to do this. Like first year he's there he's into it and then you have the split which that's a different pod to but they do that to get more ovals and more American drivers but you know that you're there they kind of look into this.
Like they get a couple of guys Who are you know Vamp Tony Stewart they piss that away but then they have Elio, Castroneves, Tony kanaan, come in early. They're not America but they're super energetic. They want to be here to have this nice run of guys who like again you kind of built it back, you had a lot of ovals now
they're in the spot. Like I said, I'm not sure who they're for but they boxed themselves in this corner where their key event is the Indy 500. They've shaved all the days off in practice, I'm a guy who listens I'm watching practice right now. I love to watch it. It's three days like they should almost mine.
Is get rid of the Grand Prix, just open up another month of practice, but the other trouble is outside of like Ed Carpenter and, you know, Conor Daly, I don't know who really loves to ride the 500, like a lot of Dario Franchitti was like I hate it until I won it. Then I kind of got it, you know, in a lot of these guys kind of have that feeling willpower was
a similar case. Yeah. Well you're feeding that with guys like you Alex below and like that you so it's like well and I think fans feel that because it's like most of these guys are just like, well I can't get an f 1. And I'm not going to do NASCAR. And so I guess if I have to go 200 miles an hour around ND to get a to get a ride, the rest of the year, I'll do it.
But I'll be really pissed. Well, this and you and I have talked about this and it is a tough spot because ultimately the development of Open Wheel racing in the United States.
If you follow it through all its twists and turns from really post WWII up until really the split, it was it was a laboratory that was a Proving Ground, not just for drivers but So for cars and four engines, and you know this if you go back and watch old races or if you were around then you know that like it was always like, oh wow, someone did a 200-mile lap.
Then it was, someone did four laps at 200 miles, then it was someone won the race with, you know, a top speed of an average speed of 180, or something like that. It was always this itinerary session and I will always wonder on a real cul-de-sac aside. I will always wonder, like, what would the endpoint of been? Because the cars have gotten too fast. By the time. At the split happened and and we had to have some ratcheting back in. I mean, you had who was it?
That was it AA real? Ian, dyke doing like 240 miles an hour. Like it was like, it was like some really like dangerous stuff at that level but that's just the point where the race the 500 over, like, 10 minutes. But but it's but it's kind of beside the point because the larger point to me is Open Wheel racing.
What made it popular was this weird amalgamation of all these different types of tracks oval racing as The best determinant of how fast a car and driver could go in tandem with each other rather than relying on the you know the ability of a car to corner or the ability of a team to put the best mechanical package under a driver, which is essentially kind of what F1 is I mean and you see like Lewis Hamilton's on the wrong side of
that. Right now, the guy might retire potentially so in the car does have a tough spot where the Indy 500 looks legitimately dangerous and feels legitimately dangerous. If the fastest you've ever gone is 175 miles an hour, down a straight away somewhere. And now that said it is essentially still the reason it's the greatest spectacle in racing is that it puts the highest level of demand for the longest amount of time on Car
and Driver simultaneously. And there is value in that and you do see guys from Europe or from Australia and New Zealand, you know, from you know, from sports, car backgrounds.
Once they get it in their blood, it becomes a really hard thing to give up and it's been, it is fun watching a lot of those drivers go through it. But what it means is if the drivers themselves are acclimating themselves to the idea of doing it, the series has to do a better job of marketing, it themselves, and what it means and I appreciate.
And I want to make clear on this, I appreciate IndyCar, making some efforts, whether it's this hundred days, 2nd series or whether it's, you know, try the social. Teams been much better this year. I think, than in previous years like, they've made some incremental changes that are helping with the marketing. But when when as I mentioned, when the Premier League which did not exist in the United States and any meaningful form, 20 years ago is pulling down a higher, average, per game
ratings. Number then the average IndyCar race which has been around in some form for essentially, 70 years. That's a real problem. And that's something that when you know, you're basically I don't know. Why you would make the determination that in the place where you're likely to gain the
most fans. But because it's around all the time, the Indianapolis Marketplace, specifically Central Indiana, when you're willing to forsake that for an extra million dollars, in your pocket, that isn't a guarantee that you'll get that million dollars. The next year, that is incredibly short-sighted and that to me is it's a real shame because it's a huge missed opportunity. I completely agree. Yeah. And you know, they're doing that
hundred days, it's also weird. They're doing on the CW, not on Peacock, Throne streaming Network and it's, yeah, it's very odd. I don't know.
I mean, I constantly find myself with IndyCar, wanting the best for the series and for the drivers and wanting them to get more more popular, be more present in the culture and it's just, it always seems like they Alt to what they're comfortable with which is we don't want to be the ones that killed a golden egg laying goose and the golden egg laying Goose keeps giving us, you know, whatever the gate is that we get on a, you know,
an IndyCar race at home. But what we end up with as a result is down the road diminishing returns in terms of who's interested in the circuit to begin with and at some point you Have permanently banish yourself to, you know, diminishing returns where you either have to put the race on TV, at some point later or you're relying on trying to develop interest in places where that interest just doesn't exist. And I don't know if that's a sound long-term strategy. We've seen it.
I mean, you know, there's been good races and Texas on the herbal like in that, you know, people tried to get him back on Pocono and the races were an awesome. But it's like nobody shows up like this is where and I don't know what the answer is for Indy car, but people are clamoring or Always feels like people are pushing we want more ovals on the schedule, and then an oval will pop up and say, hey, we got Phoenix on there and then they're there for three years.
Nobody shows up, and they have to leave. And I understand why, because, like no one's there, and there's a sanctioning fee, and then it's like that's why they end up defaulting to these, you know, Road and Street courses. But especially Street courses, like in, you know, St, Pete and Fort Lauderdale which are kind of bad races. But it's like you can get 100,000 people. They're just people kind of looking at cars and having a
cocktail. And the last thing I'll say on this because we had to wrap up This is not a plea or a statement coming. From two guys who are like, well, you know, we just want to watch the race on television, like both of us, go into the right. Both of us are going to the race regardless like we're not, we're not like, well, you know, we're just going to not pay attention to the series. I just, I want it so that I'm going to go to the race. I'll see, you know, I'll watch
the race in person. I'll do that. Probably the rest of my life. You will too. There's people that will never be exposed to it in central. Indiana because they aren't given the opportunity to watch it and they're not interested in watching a race where they've already got the outcome. They already know who won by 8:00 when it's on, you know, Channel 6 or Channel 13, I guess it is. Now like that's that's not a reasonable thing to ask of somebody again in 2023.
Like would you say to somebody where you can't watch that football game at home? But you can watch a tape delay. Version of it eight hours later even though you already know who won and who scored. And the thing that I'll say to that you're missing here is like not you, but just like they're missing is a part of what makes the race. Great. At least for me is I love that our Before the Race. Like the pageantry is unreal in
person. Like just, you know, I'm getting Goosebumps thinking about like when they, when you have, you know, again we don't know the number three hundred thousand people talking milling, and then they come out and they play Taps and the place just gets silent. Like I get goosebumps every year. Amazing. Like last year they used to the balloon release back home again in Indiana. They now had the Firebirds coming did like a. It's like there's so many pieces
set that are awesome. And I have a few friends in my neighborhood of just are not from here and don't want, no, they just pick out who won the race. It's like, if it was on they might have it on. They might see that because it's cool. Kind of like I with the Derby, right? Not, you know, I would watch it back. That looks kind of cool to come out. Blow the horn is like, I want to go do that.
Like same thing with like Clemson football, like I see him run down, Howard's, rock it. Like I would like to go see that sometime this, because I've seen it on TV, but no, but you're perfectly, right? Like for an IndyCar race. If you're not a race fan, you're not going to make well, I'm gonna sit down and watch a for our race, very know the results of like I barely do that. And I'm a huge fan of.
I go to the race that no one seemed like I want to see if you know I want to see how Marcus Ericsson a guy who I'm not sure if he talks like he's Ivan Drago. Like I want to see how he won a race that no, it's, they're missing that even just put the pageantry on to know because anyway it's a bummer. I wish them. Well, Um, I wish them a lot of luck too. I just, yeah, I just, I don't know.
I, this is one of those where there this is a simple solution and in 2023 that you're still making the decision that the television audience is an adjunct to the in-person audience. Yeah. Just don't deal. Fence the app. Like, it's right. Yeah. You don't have to put it on broadcast, television, but stop making it hard for people to find your stuff because as you said that can turn them into To being attendees far more than rumors that they haven't seen would make them go to the race.
That's, that's essentially the end-all be-all of itself. Anyway, we'll probably gonna win. Who do? I don't know. I need to see qualifying first, so we'll it is what like side note this year. It is wild that these issues are still happening penske's the helmets. Like he the place looks great. He's power coated all. Yeah. Fences.
But it's like, but there isn't like the series seal We'll still seems to be on an even footing and his team Team Penske is like, fallen off the radar at the 5 I get it is like I wonder what's going on there because it does feel like Rogers lost his hand on the steering wheel. Well it kind of had to but look I mean the there's up and down Cycles.
I mean you know 10 12 years ago Penske had kind of fallen off a bit and it was it was either Andretti organ a c and and then you know there was kind of a Resurgence, I mean these things come and go in waves But how would, you know? Because you watch the race here locally, anyway. So that's that's going to wrap it up for us. Well, I might do another Indy 500 podcast. Some point here 8,500 recap for Roger Penske forever Penske. Absolutely any way for Scott. I'm Galen thanks for joining us
here in Crimson cast. Thanks to our sponsors at home field apparel. We'll be back, we'll catch you folks on the flip side. So everybody