How healthy is CART? Legitimate question, not a troll.

[don7031]

For MrIndy from the 5/11 Form 10-Q filed by CART (most recent quarterly report).

Total assets March 31, 2001 - $159,719,000

Total assets December 31, 2000 - $144,101,000

Additionally, the main difference in income this year as compared to last year is sponsor revenue which decreased by $2 million. However, last year CART ended up taking a one time hit of six million as bad debt for sponsor revenue never received.

Despite the negligible first quarter, CART should once again have a net income in excess of $15 million for the year.

CART is seasonal company and the first and last quarter reports are out of season and thus aren't adequate basis for financial assessment.

[Maslo]

CART is being smacked around this year but it has nothing to do with the current management or their long-term viability.

Rio was totally outside their control. Racing in Rio has been and is a great idea, but the politics there have taken a turn against business.

TMS was a disaster (despite the fact that CART got more national publicity for NOT running the race). It will probably drain off some of the coffers but certainly isn't fatal.

Then CART had to take a big hit from Andrew Craig's contract which required a payoff.

They also lost some revenue from his from his former employer for reneging on the guaranteed sponsorship deal (though we'll see if they can offset TMS with that lawsuit). But, that was a lazy sort of deal anyway (we'll let someone else sell sponsorship and not care because we get a guaranteed amount).

IMHO, the key is the TV deal and I think that they're well on the way to having paying contracts there - as well as multpile broadcast partners (or should I say 'stakeholders'? ).

[Benchracer]

Originally posted by Maslo:
CART is being smacked around this year but it has nothing to do with the current management or their long-term viability.

Rio was totally outside their control. Racing in Rio has been and is a great idea, but the politics there have taken a turn against business.

TMS was a disaster (despite the fact that CART got more national publicity for NOT running the race). It will probably drain off some of the coffers but certainly isn't fatal.

Then CART had to take a big hit from Andrew Craig's contract which required a payoff.

They also lost some revenue from his from his former employer for reneging on the guaranteed sponsorship deal (though we'll see if they can offset TMS with that lawsuit). But, that was a lazy sort of deal anyway (we'll let someone else sell sponsorship and not care because we get a guaranteed amount).

IMHO, the key is the TV deal and I think that they're well on the way to having paying contracts there - as well as multpile broadcast partners (or should I say 'stakeholders'? ).

TMS is managements fault be honest

[rev-ed]

For the most part, this is a very good thread. There are however, those of you who wish to defend your own series by attacking the other. It shows a lack of confidence in your own argument when you stoop to that level.

Although this was intended as a CART question for the IRL fan, it's had it's day here. I'm moving it to the CART board for further civil discussion.

------------------
- I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to argue unless you've paid.

[Maslo]

TMS is managements fault be honest

Not the *current* management as I stressed. Heitzler inherited this mess.

[Railbird]

"Although this was intended as a CART question for the IRL fan, it's had it's day here. I'm moving it to the CART board for further civil discussion"

Well thanks a whole h=ll of a lot rev.......


Okay racefans I made a statement back in Feburary about car counts and the strength of openwheel racing...My take was that we would see how things are when the Milwaukee and Texas weekends came up...

After Long Beach and Indy the pretenders start to fall by the wayside...

[Scarab16]

25 cars at Milwaukee and 23 at TMS yesterday. Hmmmmm...

[This message has been edited by Scarab16 (edited 06-08-2001).]

[racermike]

Originally posted by Grinder-Tank:
How long will money continue to come into CART? With it's formula far away from financial responsibility, the IRL formula may well zap the dough out of CART as sponsors see more bang for their buck on the other side.

But again CART sponsors still feel their best bang for the buck is in CART. They have had 5.5 years now and most of them are still in CART.

Its going on this long, if they wanted to switch they would have done so long ago.

[Old Clunker]

After seeing the results of their first runoff together at the event in Indianapolis this past May it would appear that CART is doing most of the race related things quite well including taking home most of the prize money (not including the IRL dole payments of course).

Oh, let's see, yep this is the CART board this time. Well, I think it is time for the CART fans to give them a vote of confidence by not second guessing every move they make. We can all sit at the computer and rattle off all kinds of what ever but the racin' goes on regardless. Some of it pretty darn good at that.

TMS had to happen sometime just as the Earnhart/neck brace, etc. thing had to be addressed in more positive terms. If the timeing is bad, so be it. Picking the right (or wrong) time to make a call is sometimes needed and I certainly applaud the drivers for taking a stand at TMS.

Hopefully track owners/designers will take a fresh look around also. I feel that in spite fo all the hype about the Mexico race it is a cobbled up afair with a rat trap track more suited to the Lights. It is certainly not a decent track to highlight the driver talent and equipment potential that CART possesses.

I for one still support the leading open wheel racing series in our country.

Lots more great racin just ahead.

Old Clunker

[This message has been edited by Old Clunker (edited 06-08-2001).]

[MrIndy]

Badger, what I said in the opening post was the truth. I opened this on the IRL side for two reasons:

1. I was sincerely interested in what the IRL fans sees as to the health of CART;

2. I did not know and was interested in knowing how healthy CART is as a public corporation.

Sorry it offended you because I asked. Some folks have open minds, others don't.

[Old Clunker]

>>"How healthy is CART? Legitimate question, not a troll."<<

Now, MrIndy, fess up. I waited and waited to see someone tell you that you were full of it but you already know that.

But it is a well phrased troll for a troll. ;}

Old Clunker

[oddlycalm]

Originally posted by IRLCREW:
[B]This pretty much says it all. They are losing money in every aspect of the opreation

Cute tactic, taking the quarterly from the off season. Why not discuss the six month or annual report? What, they don't support your premise? RPM closed barely 10% off it's 52 week high today, so I guess investors must not have read the 10Q? Forsythe continues to buy plenty according to the SEC filings. My guess is there are plenty of folks that owned Cisco, Microsoft, Ford or Chrysler that wish they were only down 10% in the last year...

Here's the thing "IRL Crew". There was open wheel racing in the early 60's when I started attending races, and there's still open wheel racing today, only around 10 times more of it. My guess is that there will be open wheel racing 25yrs from now as well, because there's an audience for it.

As to the question of who will be running it, the one thing we both know is that neither you or I will be the ones. So my question is this; since it's not going to be you running it, why do you care??? I don't. Is this "my wealthy guy is better than your wealthy guys" going anywhere? If it is, please enlighten me.

A lot of the folks on both sides of the CART vs IRL issue remind me of an engineer at a company that's a customer for our instruments. He's all the time talking about how great it is that the owner of the company has a couple large boats, and some jet airplanes and all. My question to him was this; "How often do you get to go out on the boats or fly in the airplanes?" The answer was "never" of course, so I asked him why he was so proud of those boats and airplanes. He got a funny look on his face at that point and couldn't seem to think of an answer.

You really think there's a right answer when choosing between TG and CART (soon to be Forsythe?), or is this just some recreational Hatfields vs McCoys deal that I'm missing out on? Or, do you really think that God really prefers TG and Carrie Agajanian over Forsyth, Hogan and Patrick?

Hey, no troll, I'm really interested in the answer... . If folks stuck to talking about racing, and racing issues, my opinion is that all the forums would be a lot more interesting. Of course I can't prove that, but the evidence sure is mounting...

oc

[Nashvilleman]

Talk racing? Probably 30% of the posters here never talk about racing at all. Just CART versus IRL. I haven't figured it out. The noise I have to wade through to talk racing is annoying, but some people just aren't race fans, period. They prefer politics.