Indianapolis Motor Speedway...

[09_GXP]

Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: sprite1741
The empty seats seem to agree.


NASCAR had better smarten up here real quick. I can't believe attendance at the Brickyard 400, (One of it's premier races), has dropped from over 200,000 to under 75,000


75k is pretty high. Per the local news outlets they we "hoping" for 50k this year and the only estimate I've heard was ~35k. It made traffic in and out quite nice though.

 

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: 09_GXP
75k is pretty high.


It's only 125,000 lower than 200,000.

 

[Warstud]

I wonder what attendance will be like after Dale Jr retires?

 

[Indydriver]

Originally Posted By: Warstud
I wonder what attendance will be like after Dale Jr retires?

One of the Indianapolis Star's columnists noticed all these people leaving halfway through the race.

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/col...-400/495314001/

 

[SatinSilver]

My uncle retired recently and now works at the Speedway as a tour guide. He loves it. Meets people from all over the world.

 

[bbhero]

50k people.... Maybe only 35k people in a place that can have up to 300k??? That is hard to fathom. The first 10 yrs of the Brickyard a empty seat was very hard to find. Now you can find entire sections empty everywhere. Terribly sad for Indianapolis.

There have been some well attended races this year at Talladega, Charlotte, and Michigan. But it does appear that more tracks need to take out more seats.

 

[bdcardinal]

Watkins Glen was a sellout, so around 100K give or take.

 

[Indydriver]

As I said in another thread, a real road course will make any class of race care look good-witness the Glen, Mid-Ohio, Road America. The Speedway requires a specific type of car developed especially for that track. So, for the casual race fan who may attend a race at IMS, they can choose between a very exciting, fast, lots of passing race in May or the snoozer in July. Moving it to Sept won't change the product on the track. And, Indycar has already proven that the changes tested in the Xfinity race are in precisely the wrong direction.