Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers may be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embody a query usually tend to be printed. Questions obtained after 3pm ET every Monday shall be saved for the next week.
Q: IMS contacted my household about my father being the “Account Holder” on our tickets for the five hundred. Our father handed away in 2006 (his first 500 was 1946). Our mom remains to be alive at 97 years previous. IMS requested if our mom nonetheless attends the race; she stopped attending in 2017 (her first 500 was 1947).
IMS then said that somebody attending the race wanted to be the “Account Holder” and that the switch price for similar could be $100.
Per their coverage:
“The account shall be assessed a $100.00 administrative price for the switch that’s payable inside 10 enterprise days of the bill date. Failure to pay the price will void the ticket switch and the tickets will revert again to the present Account Holder.”
Thanks, IMS. As your Account Holders die off, $100 is now charged to their survivors in the event that they’d wish to retain their tickets.
Two questions:
1) Why did it take 19 years so that you can name us?
2) Why does it price us $100 to retain our tickets inside our household?
Jesse (first 500 was 1969), Franklin, IN
MARSHALL PRUETT: Oof. Penske Leisure was taken to activity final yr by its groups after huge year-to-year worth hikes had been handed down – like annual credentials for additional crew members, which went from $500 to $1000 for no obvious cause. I heard from a number of groups who reported their Indy 500 hospitality suites had been topic to an additional $50,000 price, with no additional facilities: only a big cash seize, from inside its cash-strapped paddock.
I share this in response to the obvious money seize right here which, as I’ve examine in different sports activities, has turn out to be a typical solution to squeeze extra money from followers by means of private seat licenses and switch charges. Most likely not as huge of an outrage for youthful sports activities followers who’re accustomed to such issues — not as in the event that they prefer it, however some newer followers have by no means lived in a time the place PSLs didn’t exist — however for older followers who’ve been loyal to IMS, or your favourite native stick-and-ball group you’ve supported perpetually, it probably lands in a special, greed-based method.
Right here’s what Penske Leisure/IMS shared in response after I forwarded your letter, and so they’ve additionally requested in your contact information to make a direct outreach:
Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s predominant objective is to make sure tickets are going to our account holders and to stop fraudulent exercise.
In lots of circumstances, a member of the family reaches out to tell us when a beloved member of the family has handed, and we help with an account switch, so the tickets stay within the household.
Understandably this isn’t all the time the case, so the IMS Ticket Workplace has began to assessment buyer accounts and attain out to prospects the place the identify on the account and the cost particulars and/or deal with don’t match. We wish to make sure the tickets are paid for by members of the family and others don’t attempt to fraudulently purchase an account/tickets when the account holder passes. We additionally wish to make sure the mailing deal with is right so tickets arrive the place they need to the primary time and the e-mail deal with is present so occasion operational emails with vital info are obtained.
We consider we must always all the time permit household transfers (as a result of the seats transferred have the household ties and recollections that make them particular to that household) and our coverage permits members of the family to switch tickets from one other member of the family’s account for conditions akin to these. The account holder doesn’t all the time must attend the race, so we’ll attain out to the fan and deal with.
As half an account switch amongst household, we did implement a switch price for quite a lot of causes. Our price is in keeping with the market and decrease than some opponents.
I hope this helps you perceive our course of and why we consider it’s the fairest solution to deal with all our prospects whereas, on the similar time, permitting households to maintain the seats which have historically been within the household.
For some followers, reserved Indy 500 seats are a household custom that stretches over generations. Chris Owens/IMS Photograph
Q: FOX is promoting it would present streaming for the Tremendous Bowl by means of Tubi TV on its new industrial it rolled out with Erin Andrews. That is all hypothesis, but when it goes properly with Tubi TV, there might but be an IndyCar cord-cutter choice for streaming. Tubi TV is free – whether or not or not the Tremendous Bowl stream shall be free, I do not know.
Rob, Rochester, NY
MP: I didn’t know Tubi existed till this time final yr when Katt Williams talked about it on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast, and since then, I’ve averted it each time attainable as a result of it tends to have actually crappy motion pictures with plenty of advertisements. All that being mentioned, I simply regarded and it’s owned by FOX, so sure, in concept, it will be a straightforward instrument to make use of for extra stay sports activities programming if that’s what FOX Sports activities desires for IndyCar.
Q: Now that IndyCar has taken over selling Nashville, why doesn’t it take over selling all 17 occasions on the calendar? Then it will be capable of be certain that there was a excessive stage of promoting and high quality of on- and off-track actions.
If it introduced on the identical assist sequence for every occasion, it will make issues higher. Simply take a look at what Feld Leisure does with Monster Vitality Supercross. Penske Leisure has billions of {dollars} and possession of main manufacturers. It’s not a scarcity of cash that’s the situation.
I discover that some IndyCar promoters placed on a greater occasion than others. Relying on the occasion, you possibly can have a shoestring finances to a excessive one the place you possibly can stage concert events with high stage acts.
I’ve discovered with Toronto, for instance, there’s not a lot to do there within the infield, with little or no actions in Thunder Alley which was once sturdy. They don’t have actions for households or children indoors out within the infield. It’s wall-to-wall racing. Sure, they do have the Rookie Racers membership for youths, but it surely’s actually not sufficient. Having children entertainers is sorely wanted. They don’t need to be well-known, both. If there was a children zone indoors, it will go a great distance. Proper now the paddock is the one choice for off-track actions.
If Penske Leisure eradicated the middle-man and promoted all the occasions itself, it might be sure that the circus is precisely the identical regardless of the place it goes. Is that this the way in which IndyCar would possibly go, or is the selection to take over promotion of Nashville an anomaly?
David Colquitt
MP: All nice factors you elevate, David. At this stage, Inexperienced Savoree Race Promotions is the final important race promoter in IndyCar with Toronto, St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio — which it owns — and Portland.
From there, it’s monitor homeowners/managers placing on occasions at Barber, Laguna Seca, Street America, and so on. The one factor that wouldn’t work, until Penske desires to make main investments, is all of these tracks, and some others, pay Penske $1,000,000 or extra to point out up and race. And never all of these are worthwhile for the promoters, so I don’t know if Penske desires to take them on when others are prepared to pay.
