IndyCar's growth in TV ratings, ticket sales and merchandise have it primed for a surgegetty images
Penske Entertainment President & CEO Mark Miles envisions IndyCar’s 2024 season-opener on Sunday as a “magical moment set to cure IndyCar’s impassioned fanbase of its angst from a messy offseason,” according to Nathan Brown of the INDIANAPOLIS STAR. Concerns were raised in September at the loss of Texas Motor Speedway from the 2024 slate. Then production of the sport’s first video game in nearly 20 years was canceled. Plans for IndyCar’s new “much-ballyhooed finale running feet from Nashville’s honky-tonks on Broadway crumbled under a combination of overly ambitious plans, a lack of due diligence and a vision disconnected from reality.” Disgruntled fans -- and some team owners -- “see a trend of over-promising and under-delivering after years of delays around a new car and engine manufacturer.” While some answers and remedies "have been found," the “disappointment lingers.” However, the message of Penske Entertainment leadership and IndyCar’s measurables from a year ago “paint a different picture; one of a sport picking up steam, driving double-digit growth in areas key to its present and future success.” IndyCar’s growth in TV ratings, ticket sales, merchandise revenue and sponsors have the sport “positioned to take a sizable leap in, among other things, its broadcast rights that are under negotiation.” As IndyCar locks in on its four or five finalists in its media rights negotiations, Miles said that interest is “driven because of its growth overall as a sport, as well as the inroads it's made with a younger audience, even if the latter hasn’t yet made a sizable impact on IndyCar’s TV demographics” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 3/8).
