Origially posted here last February;
I hate to belabor the business aspect of racing but there is so little written about it. I feel it is good to get some of the little known business points out so that the fans can understand how racing, especially open wheel racing, can be made to work in this country.
I know it probably doesn’t make the most exciting reading but I feel strongly about what I write. So here goes my first attempt to communicate to CCWS some of the things I can see from the outside that are lacking in the CCWS racing business.
CCWS has an opportunity to get this organization grounded and take it to greater heights than ever before and it all starts with sound business practices. As we wrap up the season it is time to review some of these areas.
In Don Sklenka’s September 9th Champweb.net article “Now I Rant” he makes an excellent point about Champ Car’s lack of a mission statement. Mission statements are very easily made and as Don said, they describe a business in terms that anyone can understand. They also can be used to advertise and promote a product or business. Mission statements are not long complex paragraphs about the business but are brief one line statements. A good mission statement should be something the business can be passionate about and should be of such a length that can be hand written on the back of the average size business card.
One of my favorites is “The Best Care in the Air”, the mission statement of a popular airline. Doesn’t that conjure up all kinds of good thoughts when you hear it? If you are familiar with that airline you would agree that they drive their business to that statement. This is what Champ Car must do.
They could have a mission statement contest among the employees or online, to draw in all of the good ideas that would come from all over. One I might suggest would be “The Best Racing on Earth” or some variation of that.
Ok, when the statement is set and approved what do they do with it? Put it on every business card, display it proudly in the office, make flags and banners to be displayed at every event, make sure it is seen and heard in each and every media touch to name a few. I know this has been an extraordinarily busy year for the owners and I applaud them for salvaging the series but now it’s time to review fundamentals of the business to assure it is well grounded going forward.
Anyone had an opportunity to communicate directly with CCWS to voice an opinion about the series or maybe a particular event or incident lately? I would guess very few, if any, have. Wouldn’t you think it would be important to the company to know how they are doing with customer satisfaction?
Customer satisfaction is not limited to the fans that empty their wallets at the events but also all of the sponsors. The average fan simply doesn’t have much chance of getting an opinion heard short of expressing dissatisfaction by not attending the events and there’s been of a lot more of that happening the last few years than should have. So how do you find out if you are satisfying the customer? It’s simple….. ask! One good way is to take a survey. We get them all of the time and we mostly ignore them but occasionally we do fill one out, especially if we have an annoying issue with the company that sent it.
Carefully planned and executed surveys can be very revealing and when properly interpreted can greatly enhance a product or service. The information can also be misinterpreted as in the case of a large automaker where a survey revealed customer dissatisfaction with the “fit of the door” in a particular model. The engineers spent hundreds of hours trying to improve the fit of the door when in the end it was actually the sound the door made when closing that was being misinterpreted by the owners as poor fit.
Surveys alone won’t solve all evils but they sure can help. It’s doubtful that CCWS has anyone expert in surveys so I suggest they explore the opportunity to have one professionally done. If we get a 1.5 million at the gate next season, each one getting a survey and have the survey on the web site there could be 150 to 200 thousand respondents.
So what do you do with the information gathered? Sort it into categories that can be easily managed. There will be things that are actionable and things that are not. There will likely be some excellent suggestions that haven’t been thought of before as well as many that have.
Now it’s time for another plan, not the business plan I have heard Paul Gentilozzi refer to, and thank god that fundamental is in place, but an improvement plan driven by the new mission statement. Survey results are not worth the paper written on if they are left on someone’s desk or filed away in a drawer. They must be a part of the improvement plan. An improvement plan should include all action items for improving the series. The improvement plan should include a mechanism for grading each item in the plan going forward. This will allow for easy recognition of what is working and what is not rather than relying on anecdotal information which is mostly useless. As time passes the plan should be reviewed and modified to fit new situations as they arise and follow up surveys or other means of getting customer satisfaction input is included.
The voice of the fan just might be the best tool CCWS can employ. Please CCWS be proactive and consider these fundamental business practices for the betterment of our beloved series.
Bill Sheets © Copyright 2004
WickerBill Sez;
Well CCWS did a masterfull job of bringing the series back to life in 05 and I admit my suggestions for the businesss may have been a bit premature. However I still believe that if implemeted the pratices would yeild very positive results. So for 06 I let's implement the one that I think would have the greatest impact and probably cost the least.........the mission statement. Please CCWS get this done!
CCWS to Try Road America Again
Well right in the middle of making out my Christmas list of things I want from CCWS this year came the Road America announcement, an item on my list. Guess I'll scratch that one off.
But wait, not so fast, my wish for a return to Road America was more than simply lets go back to Road America eh!
My wish includes things like waiting for the series to become better established so that there is a fighting chance for success. Getting a prime date to have a fighting chance for success. Finding a good sponsor to have a fighting chance for success. Am I making sense here?
Not matter how flat you make a pancake there is always two sides..........OK here's how I see the other side of the pancake!
Since Las Vegas was a looser and the fans, teams and drivers were clamoring for RA why not loose at a venue where everyone wants to be. Eh?
I just hope that the future of Road America / CCWS events isn't going to be affected by the likely failure of 2006 event.
But wait, not so fast, my wish for a return to Road America was more than simply lets go back to Road America eh!
My wish includes things like waiting for the series to become better established so that there is a fighting chance for success. Getting a prime date to have a fighting chance for success. Finding a good sponsor to have a fighting chance for success. Am I making sense here?
Not matter how flat you make a pancake there is always two sides..........OK here's how I see the other side of the pancake!
Since Las Vegas was a looser and the fans, teams and drivers were clamoring for RA why not loose at a venue where everyone wants to be. Eh?
I just hope that the future of Road America / CCWS events isn't going to be affected by the likely failure of 2006 event.
Is Two Series Actually Healthy for OWR
Interesting thought isn’t it? Something I have pondered for some time.
When you think of any business not having competition it conjures up all sorts of negatives. Immediately you think of monopolies and all that they entail. Things like price fixing and rotten service come to mind.
When business has competition it has to adjust its prices to be in line with other like business. It has to innovate or it will loose out when others come out with new products and services. It has to provide services at least at the level of the competition or risk loosing out.
Can you think of any business today that does not have competition, I can’t! Why is that?
Perhaps it’s because there are enough customers to go around…..or are there?
Are the NFL, NBA or NHL monopolies? If we wanted to watch American football there is no other league is there? There used to be until they merged. Same thing happened in Basketball.
These are sports and we tend not to think of sports as businesses, but they are so why don’t they have competition. Perhaps if we looked at all sports as businesses then we would see that sports share customers among them just as similar brick and mortar business do.
Ok now that we have shown that sports are businesses let’s include racing. The sport of racing is a business. The sport shares customers among them…..sound familiar?
Why do the pundits of Open Wheel Racing continue to say that the split in OWR is bad for OWR? There have been two series for 10 years now. How is that bad? Didn’t we decide that competition is good for business and the customers? And isn’t the sport of racing a business?
You have to do what, to survive in business…..innovate, price and serve. Hmmm does anyone but me see this?
I think so and if there hadn’t been a split I would venture that OWR would not have been forced to examine itself and the result may have been….well disastrous for the sport.
As for having enough customers to go around I think racing will always have that. Granted NASCAR has the majority now but as long as there are good businessmen in OWR NASCAR will need to……innovate, price and serve to compete!
Think about it! Pundits can be wrong you know!
When you think of any business not having competition it conjures up all sorts of negatives. Immediately you think of monopolies and all that they entail. Things like price fixing and rotten service come to mind.
When business has competition it has to adjust its prices to be in line with other like business. It has to innovate or it will loose out when others come out with new products and services. It has to provide services at least at the level of the competition or risk loosing out.
Can you think of any business today that does not have competition, I can’t! Why is that?
Perhaps it’s because there are enough customers to go around…..or are there?
Are the NFL, NBA or NHL monopolies? If we wanted to watch American football there is no other league is there? There used to be until they merged. Same thing happened in Basketball.
These are sports and we tend not to think of sports as businesses, but they are so why don’t they have competition. Perhaps if we looked at all sports as businesses then we would see that sports share customers among them just as similar brick and mortar business do.
Ok now that we have shown that sports are businesses let’s include racing. The sport of racing is a business. The sport shares customers among them…..sound familiar?
Why do the pundits of Open Wheel Racing continue to say that the split in OWR is bad for OWR? There have been two series for 10 years now. How is that bad? Didn’t we decide that competition is good for business and the customers? And isn’t the sport of racing a business?
You have to do what, to survive in business…..innovate, price and serve. Hmmm does anyone but me see this?
I think so and if there hadn’t been a split I would venture that OWR would not have been forced to examine itself and the result may have been….well disastrous for the sport.
As for having enough customers to go around I think racing will always have that. Granted NASCAR has the majority now but as long as there are good businessmen in OWR NASCAR will need to……innovate, price and serve to compete!
Think about it! Pundits can be wrong you know!
Robin Millers Champ Car Two Years In
Written by: Robin Miller Mexico City, Mexico – 11/8/2005
When a venture capitalist from Australia and a Chicago business maven out-bid Tony George for the assets to CART in January of 2004, three questions were immediately recycled throughout the racing fraternity.
1) Why didn't Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe simply let George have it so open wheel racing could be back under one roof?
2) Why would two very successful multi-millionaires buy a decomposing corpse?
3) Would this folly last one or two years before last rites were administered?
Well, Sunday afternoon the checkered flag fell on Champ Car's second season and now we pretty much know the answers to all three of those questions.
Sure, Champ Car is nowhere close to its heydays of the '90s but it's a dang sight healthier than anyone could have imagined two years ago.
Kalkhoven and Forsythe have not only kept the pilot light burning, they've stoked the series with new venues, invested in some traditional tracks, resuscitated Formula Atlantics and laid out a sensible economic plan for the future.
In the past 12 months:
a) They staged new races at San Jose and Edmonton, added Houston for 2006 and are working on Philadelphia.
b) Purchased the Long Beach Grand Prix and Molson at Toronto.
c) Rebooted the Atlantics with a much cheaper chassis/engine ($175,000), added more horsepower and $2 million to the '06 titlist towards a Champ Car ride in '07.
d) Reduced the car costs 35 percent for the new '07 Panoz car ($205,000 less electronics and $300,000 for a roller).
e) Left little doubt they're better equipped to deal with the real world than George. "If you'd have told me we'd have all this two years ago, I would have looked to the heavens and said: "Please God, make this dream come true,'" said Kalkhoven, who started out as a car owner in 2003 before jumping into the deep end. "I think we're a year ahead of where Gerry and I expected to be last January.
"But I think the key is that our owners have bonded together very well."
As mentioned, the car count needs to be increased by at least four, the television ratings still suck, there's no money flowing directly to the teams, American attendance is far from healthy across the board, a title sponsor is desperately needed and so are young American drivers.
"I don't think we'll have any new teams next year because there are so few Lolas around but I think 2007 will be a different story," continued Kalkhoven. "We will have new teams in 2007, I'm sure of it.
"We'll have more national TV races next year and do some special shows to promote our drivers. Our Atlantic package should help our American driver situation and we've had people working diligently on a title sponsor for the past six months.
"Are we satisfied with everything? Of course not. But we've got a plan and its working."
Despite the highly successful and competitive debut at Edmonton, Champ Car's real coup in '05 was keeping Long Beach, Toronto and Montreal on its schedule and off the Indy Racing League's. Kalkhoven claims he doesn't pay any attention to the rival circuit but he and his partner have been forced to defend their castle at least three or four times.
Even though the IRL/IMS spin doctors deny any attempts at making a pitch for Long Beach, Toronto and Montreal, George told potential and current sponsors that the IRL would be at Long Beach in 2006. Michael Andretti guaranteed his new favorite series would be running Toronto in '06 and the IRL that it was going to slide into Montreal next year.
And Kalkhoven and Forsythe can say Long Beach and Toronto were good investments, but they were also must-saves. "Some are good business decisions and some are strategic business decisions," said Kalkhoven, who sounds like he's still contemplating litigation against the Montreal promoter and possibly the IRL for tortious interference with a contract.
"Yes, we definitely needed to keep Long Beach and Toronto and having the ability to control our assets is part of our strategy."
Keeping ovals (Milwaukee and Las Vegas) sounds more like a habit than a need.
"We'll evaluate them after next year but we're not going to do them if they're not successful," said Kalkhoven. "But why bother racing in front of 10 people? There's already a series that does that."
With no chance of unification, it appears that Champ Car and IRL will continue fighting each other for American and international recognition, as well as survival. Two years ago, the IRL had most of CART's big teams, both of its Japanese engine manufacturers and that big hammer Tony George says he brings to work every day.
But today the landscape has changed dramatically. Champ Car has the affordable series, the better American venues (except Indianapolis), a pretty slick business plan for the future and two guys who ain't broke or afraid.
"When Gerry and I took over we wanted to eliminate this concept that open wheel racing is over or dead, because it's not. Our strategy of a three-day festival is working and we've got some exciting things in the pipeline. Gerry and I also plan to be around for quite a while."
Then Kalkhoven grinned and said: "I've got a hammer too."
WickerBill sez;
Robin; Although I don't agree with all of your conclusions most are right on!
When a venture capitalist from Australia and a Chicago business maven out-bid Tony George for the assets to CART in January of 2004, three questions were immediately recycled throughout the racing fraternity.
1) Why didn't Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe simply let George have it so open wheel racing could be back under one roof?
2) Why would two very successful multi-millionaires buy a decomposing corpse?
3) Would this folly last one or two years before last rites were administered?
Well, Sunday afternoon the checkered flag fell on Champ Car's second season and now we pretty much know the answers to all three of those questions.
Sure, Champ Car is nowhere close to its heydays of the '90s but it's a dang sight healthier than anyone could have imagined two years ago.
Kalkhoven and Forsythe have not only kept the pilot light burning, they've stoked the series with new venues, invested in some traditional tracks, resuscitated Formula Atlantics and laid out a sensible economic plan for the future.
In the past 12 months:
a) They staged new races at San Jose and Edmonton, added Houston for 2006 and are working on Philadelphia.
b) Purchased the Long Beach Grand Prix and Molson at Toronto.
c) Rebooted the Atlantics with a much cheaper chassis/engine ($175,000), added more horsepower and $2 million to the '06 titlist towards a Champ Car ride in '07.
d) Reduced the car costs 35 percent for the new '07 Panoz car ($205,000 less electronics and $300,000 for a roller).
e) Left little doubt they're better equipped to deal with the real world than George. "If you'd have told me we'd have all this two years ago, I would have looked to the heavens and said: "Please God, make this dream come true,'" said Kalkhoven, who started out as a car owner in 2003 before jumping into the deep end. "I think we're a year ahead of where Gerry and I expected to be last January.
"But I think the key is that our owners have bonded together very well."
As mentioned, the car count needs to be increased by at least four, the television ratings still suck, there's no money flowing directly to the teams, American attendance is far from healthy across the board, a title sponsor is desperately needed and so are young American drivers.
"I don't think we'll have any new teams next year because there are so few Lolas around but I think 2007 will be a different story," continued Kalkhoven. "We will have new teams in 2007, I'm sure of it.
"We'll have more national TV races next year and do some special shows to promote our drivers. Our Atlantic package should help our American driver situation and we've had people working diligently on a title sponsor for the past six months.
"Are we satisfied with everything? Of course not. But we've got a plan and its working."
Despite the highly successful and competitive debut at Edmonton, Champ Car's real coup in '05 was keeping Long Beach, Toronto and Montreal on its schedule and off the Indy Racing League's. Kalkhoven claims he doesn't pay any attention to the rival circuit but he and his partner have been forced to defend their castle at least three or four times.
Even though the IRL/IMS spin doctors deny any attempts at making a pitch for Long Beach, Toronto and Montreal, George told potential and current sponsors that the IRL would be at Long Beach in 2006. Michael Andretti guaranteed his new favorite series would be running Toronto in '06 and the IRL that it was going to slide into Montreal next year.
And Kalkhoven and Forsythe can say Long Beach and Toronto were good investments, but they were also must-saves. "Some are good business decisions and some are strategic business decisions," said Kalkhoven, who sounds like he's still contemplating litigation against the Montreal promoter and possibly the IRL for tortious interference with a contract.
"Yes, we definitely needed to keep Long Beach and Toronto and having the ability to control our assets is part of our strategy."
Keeping ovals (Milwaukee and Las Vegas) sounds more like a habit than a need.
"We'll evaluate them after next year but we're not going to do them if they're not successful," said Kalkhoven. "But why bother racing in front of 10 people? There's already a series that does that."
With no chance of unification, it appears that Champ Car and IRL will continue fighting each other for American and international recognition, as well as survival. Two years ago, the IRL had most of CART's big teams, both of its Japanese engine manufacturers and that big hammer Tony George says he brings to work every day.
But today the landscape has changed dramatically. Champ Car has the affordable series, the better American venues (except Indianapolis), a pretty slick business plan for the future and two guys who ain't broke or afraid.
"When Gerry and I took over we wanted to eliminate this concept that open wheel racing is over or dead, because it's not. Our strategy of a three-day festival is working and we've got some exciting things in the pipeline. Gerry and I also plan to be around for quite a while."
Then Kalkhoven grinned and said: "I've got a hammer too."
WickerBill sez;
Robin; Although I don't agree with all of your conclusions most are right on!
Rusport 1-2 at Mexico City
Justin Wilson dominated the weeked winning the Grand Premio de Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico city Sunday.
Wilson was never really headed after leading from the pole except for a brief period after the firstpit stop. A. J Allmendinger finished second even though Tracy nearly blocked him off the track earlier in the race. Tracy fininshed third after another self made day of frustration in typical Tracy style.
The season ending event was attended by 271,569 pushing the attendance per-event to a Champ Car record 150,679. The total attendance for the season was just shy of two million paying fans at 1,958,827.
WickerBill Sez;
Kudos to the new owners for turning this series around and giving us back our racing! There still are many issues to be resolved and deals to be cut but they are well on their way to the success they deserve. With the season now completed we can all look forward to the silly season to follow. Hopefully with the successes of this past year all of the participants will find the going a little smoother next year and perhaps the upcoming silly season won't be quite so silly!
Wilson was never really headed after leading from the pole except for a brief period after the firstpit stop. A. J Allmendinger finished second even though Tracy nearly blocked him off the track earlier in the race. Tracy fininshed third after another self made day of frustration in typical Tracy style.
The season ending event was attended by 271,569 pushing the attendance per-event to a Champ Car record 150,679. The total attendance for the season was just shy of two million paying fans at 1,958,827.
WickerBill Sez;
Kudos to the new owners for turning this series around and giving us back our racing! There still are many issues to be resolved and deals to be cut but they are well on their way to the success they deserve. With the season now completed we can all look forward to the silly season to follow. Hopefully with the successes of this past year all of the participants will find the going a little smoother next year and perhaps the upcoming silly season won't be quite so silly!
New Attendance Record at Surfers Paradise
Attendance for the Champ Car event at Surfers has been put at approximately 315,000, setting a record for Champ Car.
Attendance is calculated by adding up the number of attendees at each day of the event, meaning those that attend each day are counted multiple times and this in my opinion skews the actual total number higher than it really is. As long as the same technique is used for attendance at each event you can get a fair comparison event to event.
The attendance used to be estimated by Goodyear when they were still in the business and when they left an independent agency was contracted to do it. I don't know the technique used but some such agencies use crowd density to make their estimates.
WickerBill Sez;
I would like to see the attendance be a measure of how many different sets of eyeballs actually were there. Surely this information is available from the ticket sales information. Seems like you could count the ticket sales and arrive at total attendance, minus no shows. The attendance could be given for each day as before and would be more representative of the actual sets of eyeballs. Other numbers could be included in the total such as any freebees that might have been there.
No matter how it would be done I would prefer a more accurate accounting of the attendance
Attendance is calculated by adding up the number of attendees at each day of the event, meaning those that attend each day are counted multiple times and this in my opinion skews the actual total number higher than it really is. As long as the same technique is used for attendance at each event you can get a fair comparison event to event.
The attendance used to be estimated by Goodyear when they were still in the business and when they left an independent agency was contracted to do it. I don't know the technique used but some such agencies use crowd density to make their estimates.
WickerBill Sez;
I would like to see the attendance be a measure of how many different sets of eyeballs actually were there. Surely this information is available from the ticket sales information. Seems like you could count the ticket sales and arrive at total attendance, minus no shows. The attendance could be given for each day as before and would be more representative of the actual sets of eyeballs. Other numbers could be included in the total such as any freebees that might have been there.
No matter how it would be done I would prefer a more accurate accounting of the attendance
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