The future of the United States Grand Prix
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by user Worstsportsblogever
Posted Thursday, June 14 at The Worst Sports Blog Ever
Formula One always brings a fair amount of storylines with it when the series visits the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The now on-going debate on the future of F1 at IMS and the US as a whole, like the Thursday Pit Walkabout, has become a new time-honored tradition.
Bernie Eccelstone has already fired off his traditional “we don’t need the US” proclamation and IMS has already fired off its “we want to try to work something out long term” statement. This type of negotiation has become very common in the dance that thus far has always ended with both sides agreeing that they do, in fact, need each other.
Bernie is right. Formula One doesn’t need the United States. Formula One will continue to be wildly successful in Europe, Asia and Latin America without a race in the US.
But what F1 needs doesn’t matter. What matters is what Bernie wants, and frankly, Bernie wants the US. No, Bernie needs the US. His ego cannot be fully satiated until he has conquered every continent and every major market in the world. Need proof? Look to today’s announcement that F1 will stage a race in New Delhi in 2009. Now Bernie has Europe, South America, Canada, Australia, the Middle East, China, Japan and India. Talks have been on-going about a night race in Africa. He’s on a path towards world domination, and his world domination cannot be complete with out a United States Grand Prix.
The more relevant question here is where the United States Grand Prix is staged, not if it is staged. From a pure racing perspective, the USGP is right where it needs to be: Indianapolis. It is only fitting that the Mecca of all of Motorsport hosts the three biggest forms of auto racing in the world (stock car, American open-wheel, F1). From a logistics perspective, F1 is also where it needs to be, because Indianapolis brings big event know-how that few other cities can bring. And of those cities which can rival Indianapolis in big event know-how, no other city wants it more. Except maybe one … Las Vegas.
Las Vegas is the wild card in the USGP future debate. The reason Vegas appeals to Bernie and F1, though, isn’t because it’s some kind of racing paradise that gets American racing enthusiasts all giddy. It’s because F1 is absolutely horrible at sports marketing, and has no idea how to relate its sport to the American population. Frankly, I’m not sure that Bernie cares about putting forth more effort that is required to make the USGP successful, which is why Vegas looks so good to him. And why not? The lure of Sin City will market the USGP on its own and provide F1 with a short-term victory. This fits with Bernie’s plan, because if you look at other parts of the world, especially in areas where F1 has a large following, all Bernie has to do is show up. If fans don’t come, he can move a grand prix to a location which will provide fans. Bernie always looks for the path of least resistance to his world domination, and Vegas provides him that opportunity. Most casual F1 fans will go to a Vegas-based Grand Prix just because it’s Vegas and the idea of watching the cars race down Las Vegas Boulevard seems like a neat idea.
I’d go … it sounds like fun.
But that’s the easy way out for Bernie and F1, and I don’t think it will bring F1 long term success. The most viable solution is for F1 to work at making the USGP work in Indianapolis. It needs to understand the US market – understand why the US market just hasn’t come to it – and make the changes required in its marketing approach to make the sport appeal to the masses. For instance, F1 needs to consider better and more relevant advertising, even more fan access than it has instituted (which, for the record, F1 is already going way out of its traditional way by having driver panels and Pit Walkabouts) and, most importantly, figure out a way to either get an American car manufacturer in F1 and / or an American driver who can and does win races.
Bernie Eccelstone is a hard-headed, arrogant manager who expects that consumers all around the world to fall in line with his desires. But that’s not how we roll in America. When it comes to sports, you’ve got to come to us. We like our sports our way, not Bernie’s way. F1 needs to cater to us. And, most importantly, we need Americans to win. Not just participate, because that’s not good enough for us. We want winners …we need winners ... that’s what Bernie needs to give us.
If he builds it, we will come.
Let's take beer as an example. Budweiser is average tasting enough to appeal to the majority of people. Even the fringe beer drinkers on either side of the continuum will have a Budweiser every once in a while, but not often, because Budweiser isn't meant for them ... it's meant for the masses.
Now take Stella Artois. Some people find it to be a great tasting beer; most do not. Stella is a premium brand (aka high margin) brand aimed at people who enjoy expensive, strong tasting European beer. InBev, the brewer of Stella, could care less if Average Joe Six Pack buys Stella because it's priced at a level to give InBev its margin. Simply put: it's not for everyone, but it's still successful.
F1 and NASCAR fit that mold. NASCAR is very generic racing. Sometimes it's pretty exciting, most of the time it's not. But, it is exciting enough for most casual fans to consume it. And what's more is that the average fan can relate to it because the cars almost look like what's parked out of the driveway. NASCAR is packaged for mass consumption.
F1 is not. F1 is for premium racing fans. It's packaged and marketed that way. F1 can be successful without appealing to the masses because it doesn't need to ... 125K fans per race is at the very high end for F1. Now, IMS does us a favor by keeping the costs competitive with the Indy 500, but it in no way competes with the 500. It's aimed at a different set of fans.
Long story short: F1 can be successful without having to beat IndyCar and NASCAR.