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Yes....Los Angeles.
One of the few cities in America that, to be honest, doesn't really care about much in terms of motorsports. As for beating the Olympics...that isn't saying too much. Somehow, NBC managed to make them completely boring.
Besides, NASCAR's bread and butter isn't the big cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, NYC)...although the latter two are about to change (the Donald seems intent on building a racetrack about three miles away from me).
In America, Formula One will get absolutely JACK in the ratings until Uncle Bernie (may his bottled water always be pure) swings a TV deal that DOESN'T place F1 live on a two-bit cable outfit (it's a great channel, but it gets absolutely nil promotion, except for commercials on its own network!) and on tape delay against the 1:00 NFL game on a channel that you have to pay $5 a day for programming (Sportschannel/FOX Sports).
Until that happens, F1 won't be able to hit above a percentage point in the ratings. Personally, I'd wait until the NFL TV rights go up in arms (should be in a couple of years), and then put the games on the losing channel (even if that means putting it on a cable outfit like a Turner Channel, at least everyone with cable gets the channel) or an ESPN (who, BTW, seem to have a gaping hole in programming now that NASCAR jumped ship from ABC/CBS to FOX/NBC. CBS is possible...but their cable network wouldn't fit in too much (TNN is the only channel in the universe that would run the WWF and Roller Derby! back to back).
Bottom Line: Speedvision just doesn't cut it. Although they do a FANTASTIC job (they're the best carrier of F1, next to ITV with the Murray/Martin show), it's simply that not everyone gets the station. And paying for programming? Formula One is NOT going to sell hits on cable foxes for FOX Sports/Sportschannel. People around here just seem to buy the station per game (in my case, it would be Mets (baseball) and Devils/Islanders (hockey).
C'mon Bernie...peddle your product on TV the whole country can see.
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