Pook = "Going Public a Mistake"

[racer2c]

Foreshadowing? I think yes.

link (http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/6688/)

[RaceChic]

Deal with Ecclestone??? Is that what you mean? :)

[RaceGrrl]

I don't think Pook said anything that we haven't all said at one time or another. The question now is what, if anything, can be done about it? I'm not liking some of the stuff I'm hearing about CART's financial status.

[sundaydriver]

Originally posted by RaceChic
Deal with Ecclestone??? Is that what you mean? :)

I think he means that CART might be going back to private ownership.

[Jag_Warrior]

Public or private, it's hard to make any business successful when the major stakeholders are a bunch of self-serving, back-stabbing, "what's-in-it-for-me?" a-holes. :flame:

Sorry 'bout that. I'm trying to learn to stop saying or typing what I'm thinking...

[nrc]

Going public didn't create the problem that killed CART as we knew it. The same owners who misled CART and eventually turned on it were in charge before and after the IPO.

Back in the olden days when we used to argue CART's management structure on RASI, I often said that what CART really needed was a CEO with real authority. But I always thought the owners' "enlightened self-interest" would allow the good of the sport to prevail. Unfortunately the amount of money Honda and Toyota started throwing around flushed "enlightenment" down the toilet and left only self-interest.

Yes, private ownership is better for a sanctioning body with the right management. It doesn't do them any good to have their dirty laundry on display for all to see and the fat cats of racing like to do their deals in private. But going public didn't create CART's problems and the money that it generated has kept them around long enough to give them a chance to solve them.