The NHL as a model

[ACCP]

With the NHL going back into labor negotiations this year, it came to mind how decimated the league's popularity was in the wake of the 2004-2005 lockout, and how they've been building it back up to have the highest ratings in decades over the last few seasons. A number of things helped the league to rebuild:

• Rules changes to increase scoring and make the game faster and more interesting.
• Several young, new stars (Crosby, Ovechkin, Kane, etc.) to promote and bring eyeballs.
• A greater amount of parity thanks to the salary cap.
• A good TV deal with a committed partner, even if they were ignored by ESPN.
• And by a stroke of luck, a run of success by teams considered core to the league in the US: Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Boston, etc.

In the same way, I see IndyCar moving in similar directions:

• Rules changes to increase passing, make the cars faster (on road courses) and closer (on ovals) to make the racing more interesting.
• Several young, new stars (Rahal, Andretti, RHR, Hinchcliffe, etc.) to promote and bring eyeballs.
• A greater amount of parity thanks to the new car.
• A good TV with a committed partner, even if they are ignored/neglected by ESPN.
• And by a stroke of luck, an American is 2nd in points and is proving to be a challenge to the big 2.

It's important to remember that it took the NHL at least 6 years, from the end of the lockout (2005-2006 season) to the 2010-2011 season, to see the record numbers come and show that hockey still means something in this country. IndyCar, and it's fans, need to be at least as patient. There are no silver bullets, no Usains or Tigers (or Danicas), and no overnight popularity jumps. But I would contend that the sport is definitely on the right track, and while it may take time, and it may never get back to the early-90's glory days, it can still become a meaningful part of the national sports conversation once again.

[mesquite]

I will say this, RHR in second place is looking reeeeeal nice for the series right now. RHR usually does really well the 2nd half of the season. These next 3 races especially, he should come out top 5 or better on all of them.

RHR now has 8 wins in top OW racing in about as many years. Considering he's moved from series to series, team to team, even did a bit of NASCAR racing, skipped half a season... it would have been very interesting to see what he coulda done with more stability around him.

He's a freekin' dick in the paddock, but while we keep waiting for Carpenter, Hildebrand and Newgarden to "break-out", RHR keeps doing his thing on track every year.

[Captain Spyro]

I'd also look at the MLS:

1. A league that had been ignored for the most part, but looks to be growing
2. Has a fairly nice TV deal with NBC & NBCSN, while also having one with ABC/ESPN for certain games
3. Nice level of parity
4. More SSSs, which means better control of revenue streams for teams (Seattle being a good exception, though)

Probably other things I am missing.

[Z28]

Very few things about team/league sports can transfer to INDYCAR. In the good times and down for the NHL, they always had a presence in every major market, while the league as a whole may have lost popularity almost every team kept their fan base. They may not have come out in numbers when the team had losing seasons but once they turned it around the bandwagon started filling up. And each individual team did it in different ways. Some got exciting young stars and won. The Blackhawks had the long time owner die and when his son took over changes and I mean monumental changes like televising home games which hadn't been done in the history of the original six franchise, that fans and media had long called for were made and they started selling out their building every night. The hawks brought back hall of Fame legends like Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito and Stan Mikita as ambassadors. INDYCAR already does that with Mario, and they have Michael, AJ, Arie and Rahal around.


What INDYCAR still hasn't done is market those young up and coming exciting drivers. Don't say Hinch because that's Go Daddy's doing. There are some sponsor promotions for Rahal, Marco etc but you cannot name anything that is initiated by INDYCAR. there was never anything from the IRL and it continues.

But what INDYCAR lacks right now are races in major media markets where not only the NHL but every other major sport is located. Yes team sports dominate the local media but like the IRL before INDYCAR did close to nothing to gett he attention of local media when they came to town and now, they're not in those towns. Chicago, Miami, Boston, Phoenix, New York, Philadelphia, Denver, most we're not even close to.

And it's not about when we go to Houston getting feature articles in the week leading up to the race. It's about getting the attention of the editors and producers so they put on a 15 second highlight about the Milwaukee race or there are more than two sentences about the Sonoma race in the paper. Somebody from the series has to invest the time to make the connection with the people who decide what gets in print and on the air in those race markets so they don't forget about INDYCAR for 11 months until the next time the series shows up. It's hard work but there's a payoff that would repeat with every race.

And what you're also trying to do is get the attention of people in a position to help the series. People who work for sponsors that teams approach don't have to get a lengthy explanation of racing because they see the coverage it gets. People who work at ad agencies and marketing companies give some consideration to steering their clients to INDYCAR because they hear about it every week.

[Fro]

That's a good example of how long it's really going to take. 2012 has been a big step forward with the quality of the product but it may be a couple more years until we can really start seeing some fruits.

As far as there being no silver bullets, I've got a million-dollar idea that would be one, but I've got to figure out how to pay for it before I share it.