Same date for Portland likely

[nrc]

Although they've explored the idea of a Portland double header, this story says that Portland will likely remain on it's current date next year.

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/sports/1121853439105650.xml&coll=7

Good to see that attendance was up this year, but the promoter sees what's happening in places like Edmonton, San Jose and Denver and recognizes that Portland should use that to push for more local support.

There's even a tidbit for the attendance debater's. "Chrnelich said the numbers in Edmonton -- 78,000 on race day and 200,052 for three days -- were not exaggerated. "That is verifiable, paid attendance," he said. "The whole town was just on fire. It was amazing. And we feel like the same kind of thing is possible in Portland."

[trauma1]

and yet depenster, indyfool and wilkie will still make up BS about the numbers as usual

[KLang]

There's even a tidbit for the attendance debater's. "Chrnelich said the numbers in Edmonton -- 78,000 on race day and 200,052 for three days -- were not exaggerated. "That is verifiable, paid attendance," he said. "The whole town was just on fire. It was amazing. And we feel like the same kind of thing is possible in Portland."

They could provide an audited box of all the ticket stubs and it wouldn't matter to some of the lunatics at gomerville. :shakehead

I would like to see a couple of the double headers happen to see how it works out. Maybe one from each series schedule. Long Beach and Sebring perhaps?

[Don Quixote]

One significant recent development, is that these guys have figured out how to put on a successful street race. The champcars roll into town, we get some good press, develop relationships with sponsors, sell lots of tickets, put on a good race and a good show, the fans and the mucky-mucks have a good time, then they leave town, followed by a positive buzz and some more good press. We saw it in Denver last year, Toronto and Edmonton this year, as well as the other venues. One thing they do that was not done in the past is that they tinker with the product to make the racing better. In Denver alone they smoothed the racing surface, and changed two turns. Add to this the push to pass and the alternate tires and notice how much better the racing has been. Where street races were unwatchable on TV in the past (with the exception of Long Beach), now they are real races with real interest. Give it time, this thing is turning around. :cool:

[Insomniac]

When I saw the rumored schedule, the move of the Portland date seemed very odd. They've been running it on father's day weekend for what, 20+ years? ALMS is going to have to bend their schedule a little bit too if it's really going to be a partnership. Unless they are moving the date to coincide with another event, they shouldn't change it. I hope they don't.

[extramundane]

When I saw the rumored schedule, the move of the Portland date seemed very odd. They've been running it on father's day weekend for what, 20+ years? ALMS is going to have to bend their schedule a little bit too if it's really going to be a partnership. Unless they are moving the date to coincide with another event, they shouldn't change it. I hope they don't.

ALMS won't be racing anywhere in North America during the month of June. There's not much "bending" they can do.

[oddlycalm]

Mike Nealy's feeling that the Father's Day/Rose Festival timing is a good thing is at odds with the observations of myself and others. Portland experiences event saturation during Rose Festival, but more importantly it experiences sponsor saturation. You can only go to the same well so many times in one month before it dries up, and it's long past time for the race commitee and promoter to wise up. Edmonton was a huge success because there is zero competition from other events. Tyr scheduling a dozen other big events during the weekends directly before and after it and then see how it does... ;) Portland drew a similarly large crowd in it's first year as well.

From a television standpoint it's even worse with the USGP and Le Mans competing for the same audience with the USGP obviously siphoning off some race attendance as well. I've given up talking to the promoter about it because we simply disagree. I think CCWS is probably thinking along same lines I am but is too professional to say so in public. I'm guessing they are saying so in private, and the ALMS double header may be what they feel it will take to draw the kind of crowd needed to make both events profitable.

oc