One of CART President & CEO Andrew Craig's "goals was
to run CART more like a corporation instead of an exclusive
boys club for rich team owners," according to Bill Koenig of
the INDIANAPOLIS STAR-NEWS. But while "marketing and
promotion is receiving more attention than ever before,"
CART "has had some misfires on major hires." Over the past
two years, two Exec VP's "were forced out," the "most
recent" being Carl Cohen, who left this week after 18 months
in the marketing department. Craig said that the company is
"still moving forward, but acknowledges the pace --
especially marketing progress -- isn't what he'd like."
Craig: "The company really didn't have any significant
promotional activity until 1997. We have a very short
history of marketing the sport." CART now spends "about"
$7.5M a year on marketing and promotional programs for its
"primary" Champ Car series, but Koenig writes that $7.5M
"isn't a lot for" an int'l series. One sponsorship "that
gets debated" at CART is the company's title sponsorship
with FedEx, whose "promotional activity" of CART "has been
modest compared to Target and Honda." But Craig said that
he's "satisfied" with FedEx's sponsorship (STAR-NEWS, 7/30).
STRONG QUARTER: For its second quarter, CART reported
earnings of $7.5M, or $.47 per share, on revenue of $25.5M.
That's up from '98's second-quarter earnings of $5M, or $.32
per share, on $20M in revenue (SPEEDNET, 7/28).
