Rewind to 2004... CART bankrupt

[jonovision_man]

SportscarBruce posted these, they're great:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7F1C8ABD722A633C

[jonovision_man]

PG: "We're not in this to just spend money. The easy thing to do would be just to not do this".

Bet he regrets taking the hard thing. :)

PG: "The really important thing is, how do we get fans to watch television, and watch ChampCar races? First of all we've got to put them on a channel that people watch! That a lot of people watch! And they have to be able to watch it every week at the same time. They've got to know its coming, it has to be a regular deal."

Good thinking! Didn't work out so hot. ESPN Classic at 7am doesn't exactly fit that bill.

jono

[Methanolandbrats]

:shakehead Let's just say SCB has an agenda.

[jonovision_man]

I'm sure he has his reasons for posting them.

Still, it's interesting to see PG laying out what their plans were given our ability now to look back at the situation. I posted one a while back of TG laying out his "vision" for the IRL, same kind of thing, lots of promise and hope but depressing when you see how things really went.

jono

[greenie]

:shakehead Let's just say SCB has an agenda.

I think basically everyone on a OW racing board has an agenda. And/or a mental illness.

There's too few of us to do a case study though, so bully for us!

:thumbup:

[Chief]

Motorock, hows that working out? That crap didn't even get out of Miami, did it?

[Andrew Longman]

Good thinking! Didn't work out so hot. ESPN Classic at 7am doesn't exactly fit that bill.

Well, in 2004 remember every race was on Spike at 4pm ET, often on tape.

IIRC the contract with Disney calls for all the races next year and beyond to be on ESPN, Duece or ABC. Scheduling made that impossible for this year.

But PG wasn't wrong that they need to be on TV that a lot of people see. It just took too long to pull it off. Why they went back to Speed for 05-06 instead of working a deal with ESPN, I don't know.

I don't agree that they need to be on the same time every week, especially if it means tape delay.

[jonovision_man]

Well, in 2004 remember every race was on Spike at 4pm ET, often on tape.

IIRC the contract with Disney calls for all the races next year and beyond to be on ESPN, Duece or ABC. Scheduling made that impossible for this year.

But PG wasn't wrong that they need to be on TV that a lot of people see. It just took too long to pull it off. Why they went back to Speed for 05-06 instead of working a deal with ESPN, I don't know.

I don't agree that they need to be on the same time every week, especially if it means tape delay.

Well 'every week' ain't gonna happen so I don't know where he was going with that.

But same time is important, even if that means tape delayed. The handful of people who seek out a 7am CCWS race are simply not enough to sustain the series. As a race fan, personally, it would suck for me, but it would do a lot more to get that bigger 99.9% that doesn't seek out ChampCar.

jono

[tllips]

Well 'every week' ain't gonna happen so I don't know where he was going with that.

But same time is important, even if that means tape delayed. The handful of people who seek out a 7am CCWS race are simply not enough to sustain the series. As a race fan, personally, it would suck for me, but it would do a lot more to get that bigger 99.9% that doesn't seek out ChampCar.

jono

I'm not sure that "same time" is the most important. But I do think they should adhere to Sunday afternoon. i.e. Tape delay if in Europe or Asia, but allow the times to adjust when racing in the North American time zones. If the race is in Toronto, it can be on at 1pm EDT and if the race is in San Jose it can be shown live at 4pm EDT.

It is most important to show the race at hours that people are actually watching TV.

[eiregosod]

:shakehead Let's just say SCB has an agenda.

tell the story to his new forund friends at crackforum :tony:

[jonovision_man]

I'm not sure that "same time" is the most important. But I do think they should adhere to Sunday afternoon. i.e. Tape delay if in Europe or Asia, but allow the times to adjust when racing in the North American time zones. If the race is in Toronto, it can be on at 1pm EDT and if the race is in San Jose it can be shown live at 4pm EDT.

It is most important to show the race at hours that people are actually watching TV.

I'm OK with that. With more international races this becomes more of a problem, just like it is with F1.

jono

[Insomniac]

I'm OK with that. With more international races this becomes more of a problem, just like it is with F1.

jono

If it is tape delayed and you don't know the result, it's live to you. :)