Colts nearing season sellout, DeltaWing wants in IndyCar

August 14, 2012
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There are only about 1,300 tickets remaining for the Indianapolis Colts' regular season home opener Sept. 16 against Minnesota—down from about 2,000 when training camp started and 4,000 earlier this summer when the team began its off-season sales push.

The stellar debut of the Colts under rookie quarterback Andrew Luck and new head coach Chuck Pagano on Sunday—a 38-3 triumph over St. Louis—certainly didn’t hurt.

But there’s more going on in Indy besides NFL football. There are big rumblings in the IndyCar paddock about the potential emergence of a radical new chassis design. Officials for DeltaWing are lobbying series officials to let them make a new chassis for the open-wheel circuit’s top feeder series, Indy Lights, in 2014.

DeltaWing’s maneuvering into the IndyCar series is bound to raise the ire of current chassis maker, Italy-based Dallara, which just opened a manufacturing plant in downtown Speedway.

In the video below, sports business reporter Anthony Schoettle discusses what all this means and what to expect going forward.


 

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  • Um...
    MarshallAugust 14, 2012 9:46 AM
    ...is there a difference between a season sell out and a single game sell out? Go COLTS!
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  • Are you kidding me?
    ChiefAugust 14, 2012 5:09 PM
    The series is desperate. They should go with DeltaWing....how could it be any worse than the crap they have on track now? There are big problems at indy Car, will they even be around in 2014?
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  • answer the questions posed please
    blahAugust 14, 2012 6:24 PM
    The question asked was: "What is Randy Bernard gonna be able to do to generate more interest in this, next year?" Does your lack of an answer for said question imply that nothing can be done to increase interest NEXT YEAR? Tons of bare aluminum, 0.2 ratings on NBC Sports and 0.6 on ABC are the norm to be expected, apart from that 3.6 for the 500?
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  • blah
    ChiefAugust 15, 2012 11:02 AM
    Mid-ohio got a 0.5 final TV rating on ABC, which ran during a NASCAR Pocono rain delay. Ho-hum...on ABC no less. VIBRANT!
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  • End days
    Burl HatterleyAugust 15, 2012 3:19 PM
    Best to call it done. If a person does not use the internet to look up Indy Car racing, it is as if the sport does not exist. At all. It appears to for those who follow it, because they seek out coverage and information. That small number of people is abotu 300,000 according to sponsor sources. That constitutes epic failure. Thsi sport is done, folks. Done. Dead.
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    • Did Not Take Long for the Obsessed Handful to Jump In
      Disciple of INDYCARAugust 15, 2012 6:26 PM
      ...and when they do use the internet to find out about it they are assaulted by a handful of delinquents who spout a perception based mostly on their own prejudice and ignorance. My advice: Grow up.
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    • HaY bud
      ChiefAugust 15, 2012 10:24 PM
      While Anthony's appearance in this video shocked all of us, NONE of us can change the message contained within it. The Indy Car series stinks, the fans hate it and no one is watching on TV. One need not be hater to understand the negativity wafting from the series on it's own. Heck, even some Hulman propagandist named Disciple over at TF has sympathy of the OWNERS! Well, some sympathy. Haters didn't cause the internal ripoffs that IMS is putting on the owners. That's what makes this all so funny! The Hulmans had it all...and it has been squandered. ALL on their watch. I LOVE IT. All $750MILLION of it....just to lose in the long run. Bwahahhahaha!
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    • Like Moths To A Flame
      Disciple of INDYCARAugust 16, 2012 6:26 AM
      "...The Indy Car series stinks..." Coming from the likes of you and your three friends, that subjective bleat is hardly surprising. "...the fans hate it..." If there are those who 'hate' it, can they really be considered fans? "....and no one is watching on TV..." Actually, the television audience ranges in the hundreds of thousands to over a million for many ABC events. The numbers are very normal for similarly sized programming. The numbers could be better, but are not worthy of the shriek-infested panic the kids trot out. "...One need not be hater to understand the negativity wafting from the series on it's own. Heck, even some Hulman propagandist named Disciple over at TF has sympathy of the OWNERS! Well, some sympathy. Haters didn't cause the internal ripoffs that IMS is putting on the owners. That's what makes this all so funny! The Hulmans had it all...and it has been squandered. ALL on their watch. I LOVE IT. All $750MILLION of it....just to lose in the long run. Bwahahhahaha!..." Will one of you junior Einsteins ever, in any of our lifetimes, be able to quantify this mystical loss figure that now has been bumped up to $750 million? Use your brains for once. If that family had actually lost that much money they would be out of business. Get real. While I do have a problem with owners being quoted a price, then being forced to pay 50 to 70% more, many of the legacy owners should grab a mirror before condemning. The most important role IMS has layed over the years is preventing owners from killing the sport, something at which they are skilled and have experience. So again, is it not time for the handful of you little obsessed squatters to either grow up or find another interest? You are embarrassing yourselves again.
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    • Non-Existent is right
      Dave KrabelAugust 16, 2012 11:23 AM
      It is hard to argue with Burl. He makes a valid point. I have been a casual fan of Indy Car racing for many years, mostly the Indy 500 and a handful of the high-speed oval races. Texas and Michigan were/are favorites of mine beside the great Indianapolis 500. To me, those races epitomize what Indy Cars and the racing is in the mind's eye. Extremely fast, sleek, highly competitive, daring, and yes, dangerous. Beyond that, I am not a car guy or racing fan at all. I pay zero attention to NASCAR. Once in a blue moon I will watch an F1 race. Mostly I am a baseball and football fan. Without even trying I can be exposed to those two sports any day of the week in numerous ways. And that goes for most other sports as well. Basketball and golf come to mind immediately. Certainly, NASCAR, which is in our faces all the time. But with the sport of Indy Car racing, I cannot think of any time outside the month of May where casual contact with the sport can be had. In May I can stumble upon a pre-500 article, or see a quick TV interview with a driver on the evening sports broadcast, etcetera...but even that sort of thing has diminished. The rest of the year there is precious little exposure or, as I call it, casual contact. Maybe, and I submit maybe, there is a Sunday evening race highlight in the sports report. But seldom. ESPN hardly features it at all, Local sports broadcasts do so if there is a crash to be shown. The newspapers usually have a small, one or two paragraph report on the race. Turn the pages to look at the boxscore, and it is not there most of the time. NASCAR is. Even local short tracks. I mentioned the Charlie what's his name diabetes commerical to a colleague at work with the disease and he had never seen it. Didn't know who the diabetic driver was either. The only person I know in my circle of work colleagues, friends, and family, who even mentions the sport is a guy at work who watched the Indy 500 every year. However, he is such a casual observer he calls Graham Rahal, "Bobby Rahal", and thinks it is the same guy, still racing. Oh, and my wife watches the "500" and one or two oval races if we are at home on a Sunday or a Saturday night. So that is two people out of a total exposure of maybe 40 to 50 people I regularly converse with over the course of a month. Two beside myself. There is no mention of the sport in our local paper with the exception of the "500" or a tragedy such as when the Weldon driver was killed in the race they had out in Las Vegas. And our local sports reporter on TV never features the results of the ordinary races. Burl is correct. If one were to really want to watch this sport and keep up on it, they would have to hover over the internet. I visited the website of the sport today and learned some things. But how many do that? It is sad that a fairly compelling and entertaining sport with an amazing traditional event every May would become so miniscule in the public and mind's eye. Burl is right. It seems hardly to exist unless you directly look for it. Apparently, few are.
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    • Why is there no IRL race this weekend?
      ChiefAugust 16, 2012 1:03 PM
      Qingdao race was cancelled...in the middle of SUMMER creating an August gap. Vibrant. Disciple, $750MILLION is the Hulman family spend to keep this fake spec IRL racing going. Of which, the most recent race Mid-Ohio was broadcast to a stunning TV rating of 0.5. Lotus is out after the season, several races have been cancelled and/or are receiving discounted sanction fees (if any). Attendance is way down everywhere. Few like the ugly slow cars, and the aerokits aren't possible till at least 2014. Yes, that is some momentum. Iowa race got a 0.18 TV rating. Any surge in interest was from Dan Wheldon tributes early on and recently the cars are so safe and boring now, no one cares at all. Not even us "haters" and advocates of the OW sport. I believe collectively we feel the sport could go away and none of us would care. And, that is from folks who would have traded a few of their select limbs in exchange to even sniff the burnt methanol in the morning practice. I too agree with Burl. Spare us watching the slow decay and just end it already.
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    • Over $100 Million
      The TruthAugust 19, 2012 8:57 PM
      in Team Support over the past 5 seasons. Takes alot of cash to keep them owners under control.
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    • answer the bell
      open wheelAugust 21, 2012 10:56 PM
      the fans kill the sport and timing its too dangerous in wwf time of racing irl is not helping with the ugly car and the racing with all those road racing but that understandble with retructure when the league become one but the ugly car is not understanble yeah racing allways be dangerous like nascar martin crash a mexican diver died the same way in a stock car few years ago but indycar is on another level the league mite had shot if it was on espn as a niche sport the league need a media star fast sponsership is soon to become huge problem even in a cheap league
      Reply to CommentFlag Comment

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