May 31, 2009

Indy 500 -- What Indy 500?

By JR Nerad

Though it was more than 40 years ago, I remember it vividly. As our Memorial Day afternoon unfolded -- a warm late spring day that held the sweetness of midsummer -- the radio was our constant companion. Coming back from the Memorial Day parade, we’d just have to flip on the radio to listen to the start of the Indianapolis 500. There was no live television coverage of the event in those days, so radio broadcast was our lifeline to the most important race in the world. We just had to know who was winning, and then who won. Everybody had to know. In the era before the Super Bowl was even dreamed of, the Indianapolis 500 had that kind of population-galvanizing power.

Well, like my youth, all of that is a thing of the past. I read with more than a little wistfulness that the most recent Indianapolis 500 -- an interesting race won by a charismatic star Helio Castroneves -- captured viewers in just 3.9 percent of U.S. television households. That’s far from Super Bowl-style ratings. In fact, it wasn’t much better than the rating for the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, which was rained out on Sunday and moved to a noon start (eastern time) on Monday (Memorial Day).

One would think that with the economy in the dumpster, more people than ever would be sitting at home on Memorial Day weekend just itching to watch something interesting on their flat-screen HD TV that they probably can’t really afford now. Beer from the fridge, a big bag of peanuts from Costco, and you have one helluva low-buck staycation. But, no, instead the Indy 500 ratings were down 13 percent from last year. Even more telling, they were down 40 percent from just four years ago, when the IndyCar and CART series were still separate entities. This year’s Indy 500 ratings were the absolute lowest since ABC inaugurated live coverage in 1986. In light of Helio’s success on Dancing with the Stars, the sad fact is that more people apparently want to see him dance than drive. What does that say about the future of open-wheel racing?

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