I’ve just finished watching a few minutes of the Indianapolis 500. When I say a few minutes, that’s pretty much what I mean. Despite watching since the telecast began, I reckon that I saw less than half of the race. Seriously. I cannot believe that ESPN could “cover” the race and yet spend most of the air time on advertisements. I counted at least 3 times during the race where there was 2 minutes of racing and 5 minutes of advertisements, and this sort of proportion was evident right throughout the telecast. I am so ticked off you just wouldn’t believe it.
An email to ESPN has been sent, not that I think they’ll take any notice. But I will never watch the race again if ESPN are doing the telecast.
gearsau says
INDY 500. ? Didnt even know it was on. Just shows how low it has sunk in world popularity over the past few years.
Go back a number of years and we had F1 World Champions racing it in.
Now, a lot of drivers whose names I never have heard of.
Phil Hall says
Absolutely agree. However, in its defence, it’s still a great spectacle (although this year’s race was more like a procession). But, yeah, it has sunk a long way since the IRL (or, more specifically, Tony George) took over. When you think back to the Rick Mears and the Gordon Johncock’s and others, it IS a shadow of its former glory.
sanoptic says
Also in the race report they said only nine of the 33 starters are U.S.-born.Thats not like most US based teams to import drivers for a US based race.
Watching it on TV is ok for highlights but being there would be fantastic as the Americans do put on a good show.
Motor racing in most forms has never been suitable for commercial Tv, there are no breaks in the action unlike Tv preferred Tennis,Cricket & the football codes.
Try watching the Bathurst 1000 or whatever it’s called these days the amount of add breaks is shocking & then they come back to a safety car incident & then another 4-5 minutes of adds.
At least we still have the WSB’s on FOX add free & its a pleasure to watch ,now if they could just get the GP’s back!!
Phil Hall says
The lack of top-class American drivers in the Indy Car field is an indication of how poorly open-wheel racing is regarded in the States. NASCAR gets the bulk of the sponsorship dollars and the TV coverage, followed by Supercross. There is precious little encouragement of younger drivers at the grass-roots level and many of the drivers at Indy today were, quite literally, imports. Drivers and teams that were drafted in so that they could HAVE a 33-car field. Young drivers coming up these days are aiming straight at NASCAR and you can’t blame them.
scotti says
Hey Phil
I had the same problem with ESPN last year. I watch all the F1 races and I was heading over to LA so I checked out there web site to see if they were putting it on the TV so I could watch it. Yep there it was at 4 am in there guide. Got to LA wokeup early to watch and guess what! No coverage of it at all on any channel. Bloody yanks!
Phil Hall says
+1
I guess it just proves what we all know and that is that it’s a business, not a sport.