LB program to be incomplete

Rumor has it that the race program for the Long Beach GP must go to print soon and it will do so with only the 9 or so drivers currently confirmed for 2005. The Champ Car series has a lot of unsponsored teams with deals that are close.

Why is everything so late? It's due in large part because the TV deal was delayed so long. Instead of being signed and announced in June/July when it could have been, it was delayed until December and January, long after companies lock in their advertising/marketing budgets for the following year (That is done in July/August). The excuse was that it was delayed in order to get Long Beach on network TV. A firm isn't going to pay huge sums of money to sponsor a car with no TV exposure. With a Champ Car program not a line item in their budget, the best a team can hope to do is land money out of a sponsor's contingency fund. So the scenario now is that teams are hoping to combine what little sponsorship they can find with money a driver can bring. Hence why teams are testing so many drivers, in hope that the driver's sponsor will step up and do a deal for the Champ Car series.

And so we wait…..as do the promoters, the teams, the drivers, and everyone else involved in the series…..wait for the very last minute and scramble to put 18 cars on the grid for Long Beach. We hear that even the media event in Indy (that we rumored) has had to be nixed because too many teams can't have their paint schemes and uniforms made in time, another golden opportunity to get some positive media coverage for the series lost. The current administration isn't the only one to blame, we have seen the same scenario played out for the past five years.

The good news? The new TV deal is for multiple years, so next year's schedule and TV details should be announced by June or July and hopefully we won't see a repeat of this year. There is other good news coming too, once the series can get 2005 out of the blocks.

Social Media Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com