Why no MO, RA, ect...

[Turn7]

Census bureau released these figures:

Ten largest U.S. cities
1. New York 8,084,316
2. Los Angeles 3,798,981
3. Chicago 2,886,251
4. Houston 2,009,834
5. Philadelphia 1,492,231
6. Phoenix 1,371,960
7. San Diego 1,259,532
8. Dallas 1,211,467
9. San Antonio 1,194,222
10. Detroit 925,051


CART has a presence in only ONE of these cities. You can't grow without being seen by the people. It doesn't do any good to show up in front of the same midwesterners time after time and wonder why the ratings are down.

JMO.

[Ankf00]

fontana and long beach serve the greater LA area right? and SD's not that far away from LA, seca serves the entire Bay Area and that's pretty populated, but your point's still right, need something or things up in the northeast "megalopolis," and hell, 3 of those towns are in Texas and contained in a radius of 1.5-2 hours driving.

[JoeBob]

What is interesting is that within the last decade, CART left 5 of those cities (although not all of them by choice.)

They've left Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Dallas, and Detroit. (Although there's those rumors about Chicago, and Houston was supposedly only during that construction - but I wouldn't bet a dollar that it will be on the 2004 schedule.)

[racer2c]

That has to be the within city limit figures. The DC metro area is one of the biggest in the country but doesn't make the list becuase few actually live in the city limits!

[Turn7]

Yes R2C that is population in the city. Of that list, NYC, San Antonio and Pheonix (actually maybe not PHX w/ scottsdale??) are the only towns I can think of that are mainly concentrated inside the city limits.

As far as others go, they are exactly like the DC area. Houston has at least twice as many in the greater area. The DFW Metro Area is probably just as large as Houston if not larger. Is there really any "rural" area between LA and San Diego? Nope.

[Lizzerd]

Originally posted by racer2c
That has to be the within city limit figures. The DC metro area is one of the biggest in the country but doesn't make the list becuase few actually live in the city limits!

Conversely, Indianapolis is likely slightly off that list. But, Indianapolis is virtually all there is. No six figure suburbs, etc., just corn and soybean fields beyond the city.

[Turn7]

I checked the census bureau site and Dallas Metro is much larger than Houston. Metro DFW has 5 million and Metro Houston only has 4.3 million. Indy Metro has 1.5 million and Metro DC has 3.8 million.

[Ankf00]

metro NY/NJ is a never ending expanse, not quite burbank pamona etc, but getting there ;) Houston however leads the "we want to be like LA, all sprawl and all polluted" charge.

[chop456]

How big is Boston?

[Turn7]

Boston--Worcester--Lawrence, MA--NH--ME--CT CMSA

5.6 million

You can check out all of the US metro areas over 1 million in population with this link.

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Profiles/Chg/2001/SS01/index.htm

[nrc]

More relevant would be the top Designated Marketing Areas:

http://www.nielsenmedia.com/DMAs.html

But there are problems with the "urban racing" theory. A big market is not gaurantee of a big turnout. See Detroit, Chicago and Houston for example. There is lots of competition in the largest markets for the entertainment dollar, and people in some markets just aren't inclined to give a crap about your pointy car party.

Even if you are able to draw a big crowd, there's no assurance that those people will become regular viewers. Nobody follows the circus after it leaves town. It becomes a vicious cycle. As you replace competitive racing with street parades there is less reason for anyone to tune in.

MidOhio, Road America and Laguna Seca are the backbone of CART. They are far more important in attracting and keeping fans than market size or attendance numbers can show.

All this talk about street racing along with disrespect for places like Road America and Mid Ohio are disenfranchising road racing fans in the same way CART disenfranchised oval racing fans at the end if the '80s.

[cart7]

Originally posted by nrc
More relevant would be the top Designated Marketing Areas:

http://www.nielsenmedia.com/DMAs.html

But there are problems with the "urban racing" theory. A big market is not gaurantee of a big turnout. See Detroit, Chicago and Houston for example. There is lots of competition in the largest markets for the entertainment dollar, and people in some markets just aren't inclined to give a crap about your pointy car party.

Even if you are able to draw a big crowd, there's no assurance that those people will become regular viewers. Nobody follows the circus after it leaves town. It becomes a vicious cycle. As you replace competitive racing with street parades there is less reason for anyone to tune in.

MidOhio, Road America and Laguna Seca are the backbone of CART. They are far more important in attracting and keeping fans than market size or attendance numbers can show.

All this talk about street racing along with disrespect for places like Road America and Mid Ohio are disenfranchising road racing fans in the same way CART disenfranchised oval racing fans at the end if the '80s.
The differance was, Cart really had no choice into going with more roads and streets vs. more ovals since there were really no suitable ovals in place or being built in the late '80's to early '90's. Cart needed to expand their show but there wasn't any choice other than street circuits to do it. Even suitable road courses were at a premium. There were circuits there, but many were falling into a state of disrepair. The differance now is, the circuits are available, it's Cart's choice to take this new urban approach moving away from traditional circuits that built the series. Whether or not Pook has a choice is irrevelant to me and many others, the fact is, the series is making noises like it's taking a completely new direction by building urban events and not creating a series that's interesting to watch all season long. Unless of course you get off on street races.

[nrc]

Sorry, I meant to say end of the '90s. CART's expansion into street and road courses during the '80s was necessary and made sense. At the end of the 90's they compounded the problems they already had with ovals by snubbing tracks and blaming their problems on everyone but themselves.