The Hulman Terrace Club -- a "new, elite club" at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- opens today to its 1,150 members who, "for $1,750 each, get full access to the club during May (16 days, to be exact)," according to a front-page piece by Dana Hunsinger Benbow of the INDIANAPOLIS STAR. The ticket "comes with a reserved 22-inch stadium seat outside and access to the bars and club, where 12 food stations are set up." IMS President Doug Boles said that the club, which is located on the outside of the front straightaway past the exit of Turn 4, is a compromise "between a regular seat and a $115,000 suite." The club "sold out in 90 days" and is just one part of the $92M Project 100, a "massive refurbishing of the track and its surroundings" that started in '14. As the 100th Indy 500 nears, the project is "mostly finished, minus some Wi-Fi that will be installed later this year, along with a couple of other smaller projects." The Gate 1 Plaza is the "new front door to IMS, a walk-in gate for race fans." Its steel canopy "mimics the new steel roof of the upper deck grandstands." A new upper deck "sits along the main straightaway into Turn 1, offering a new view." Stadium-style seats "are in the upper deck in a shade of green similar to the folding chairs that were once part of the grandstands" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 5/12).
: ESPN.com's John Oreovicz wrote for the first time in roughly 25 years, "every grandstand seat for the '500' has been sold in advance," with a "modern-era record infield general admission crowd also expected." Cynics "scoff at the way the so-called 'Centennial Era' at IMS has been stretched out" since '09, "celebrating the 100-year anniversaries of the opening of IMS (1909) and the first Indianapolis 500 (1911) along the way." But this is one campaign "combining history and hype that has really worked." Indianapolis 500 attendance has "crept slowly but steadily upward" since' 09. Boles: "We were hopeful that we could sell out every seat for the 100th running, but we were reluctant to say that was one of our goals because we didn't know if we could continue the momentum we've had at such a huge level" (
ESPN.com, 5/11).
