Champ Car 3 Year Plan?!

[Dov]

From AR1

Television

Multi-year network deals

Increased international presence - 500,000,000 household reach, 2 billion potential viewers

New production team

Consistent graphic look across networks

Consistent announce team

Focus on increasing ratings

Schedule

14 races

3 new venues, multi year deals

50% domestic and 50% international

Continuing NAFTA focus

Focus on building successful 3-day events

Marketing

Focus on building young audience, stabilizing existing audience - introduce drifting exhibitions, grassroots marketing, Fan Club

Activation by partners (Bridgestone, McDonalds, Ford, AOL, etc.)

Increase recognition of drivers

Continue 3-day festivals

Teams

Focus on attracting top drivers and sponsors

Stabilization of teams and drivers

Attract new teams to the series

Equipment

Purchase Cosworth to assure availability of engines

Purchase of Pi to ensure advanced electronics

Continuation of new technologies like push-to-pass and alternate Bridgestone tires

2006

Television

Continuation of multi-year network deals

Increase in number of network broadcasts

Increase international distribution

Continue to focus on ratings growth

Develop and execute new technologies

Schedule

Expand by 2-3 races

50% domestic, 50% international

Build on Far East strategy with planned event in Beijing, China

Expand to South America - Argentina and/or Brazil

Continue multi-year deals

Continue NAFTA focus

Focus on building successful events

Marketing

Increase national and international marketing

Continue 3-day festivals

Continue building recognition of drivers

Focus on building young audience

Teams

Focus on attracting and retaining top drivers and sponsors

Focus on retention of existing drivers

Equipment

Development of new chassis

Development of new technologies like push-to-pass and alternate Bridgestone tires.

2007

Television

Continuation of multi-year network deals

Increase in number of network broadcasts

Increase international distribution

Continue to focus on ratings growth

Develop and execute new technologies

Schedule

Expand by 2-3 races

50% domestic, 50% international

Build on Far East strategy with planned event in Japan

Expand to South America - Argentina and/or Brazil

Continue multi-year deals

Continue NAFTA focus

Focus on building successful events

Marketing

Increase national and international marketing

Continue 3-day festivals

Continue building recognition of drivers

Focus on building young audience

Teams

Focus on attracting and retaining top drivers and sponsors

Focus on retention of existing drivers

Equipment

Introduce new chassis

[Kicking-back]

Is this ChampCar's plan or ar1's plan?

[stmookeyj033]

I think it's time to have a look at what's happened according to the plan.

Originally Posted by Dov

From AR1

Television

Multi-year network deals

Increased international presence - 500,000,000 household reach, 2 billion potential viewers

New production team

Consistent graphic look across networks

Consistent announce team

Focus on increasing ratings

Looks as though they have already succeeded in Consistent Announce team, and they are on Network TV although I don't know if it is a multi-year deal. The rest is possible if they are prepared to put in a little hard work.

Originally Posted by Dov

Schedule

14 races

3 new venues, multi year deals

50% domestic and 50% international

Continuing NAFTA focus

Focus on building successful 3-day events

They have 14 races, but there is a silly rumour on other boards run by former members that Argentina may be back as early as this year-but I'll believe it when I see it. They have their 3 new venues to multi-year deals AFAIK (Edmonton, San Jose, Korea). Don't know what is meant by DOMESTIC, whether Canada or Mexico is considered as Domestic or International. The rest will remain to be seen.

Originally Posted by Dov

Marketing

Focus on building young audience, stabilizing existing audience - introduce drifting exhibitions, grassroots marketing, Fan Club

Activation by partners (Bridgestone, McDonalds, Ford, AOL, etc.)

Increase recognition of drivers

Continue 3-day festivals

Increasing the recognition of drivers is the KEY to success. Many V8 oriented writers (misinformed as they are) don't seem to recognise many drivers when the cars were here last year.

[QUOTE=Dov]Teams

Focus on attracting top drivers and sponsors

Stabilization of teams and drivers

Attract new teams to the series[/QUOTE}

Jensen joining for the full year is a step in the right direction. Drivers look to be well and truly covered, and we eagerly await the sponsors that these drivers would bring. And it seems that despite N/H is looking to run the 500, all teams look to be committed to the series which can only be a positive.

Originally Posted by Dov

Equipment

Purchase Cosworth to assure availability of engines

Purchase of Pi to ensure advanced electronics

Continuation of new technologies like push-to-pass and alternate Bridgestone tires

This will be one that will be interesting to see what happens this year. I am aware that Cosworth has been purchased, but I wonder what will be done to ensure the performance of Cosworth is maintained.

I won't comment on next year or 2007 because I feel that we should focus on this year before looking a little too far ahead.

[Snrub]

You know I was thinking, we often poo-poo the whole 3-day attendance focus, but I think is important. The concept of a festival is also poo-pooed, "those aren't race fans!" I think part of the reason is because we've seen things not work out the way they've been promised, but I don't think that means it's too late. If you think about it, this sort of thing gives much better value to sponsors. Simply seeing a name on a sign has little effect, but marketing involved in a whole fesival experience and prevasive influence of company marketing scheme over the weekend are going to have a much greater impact. Of course greater pre-race ticket sales means more money for promoters/track and if the pre-race experience is better, people will be more willing to pay accordingly, instead of $10 for Q1.

In a thread that daredevil recently posted, there was an article where pre-race IRL attendance was discussed. http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67053 I always assumed that the two series would have pretty similar pre-race attendance, but now I am thinking that this isn't necessarly the case.

[Roninho]

Hmmm. Is this a business plan? It just says what they are trying to accomplish, not how they are going to do this.

"Focus on building young audience"
"Increase driver recognition"
"Focus on increasing ratings"
"Focus on succesfull events"

Ok. But how?

[Dov]

^^ Do you really expect OWRS to tell us all the details!?

[Ac.]

AR1 missed the following item...

2005-2007 No more skiing for Kevin Kalkhoven!

[Electrocuted]

Originally Posted by Snrub

"those aren't race fans!"

Back when attendance really was great,,,, and drivers were well known local hereo's and legends and the series was well respected,,,, tv ratings and "forum posters talking to people next to them at the track" showed not many of the people who attended the events followed the series. And as additional "proof/concur" I think Snrub's was saying the same thing in his post above.

So,, does the series follow the same path? A weekend event that has good crowds at less-then-exciting tv viewing circuits,,, or,,, is it better to have REAL RACING (what ever that is?) that will have people glued to the tv every couple Sundays??? How does a series get both to work well?? After trying for 20 years without sucess??

After all these years I still havnt understood why the people that attend the circus doesnt follow it once it leaves town??

[macdaddy]

Because it's very difficult to find a marketing-machine larger than the one NASCAR has.

[Mosport67]

Originally Posted by Electrocuted

After all these years I still havnt understood why the people that attend the circus doesnt follow it once it leaves town??

Simply by making the event the place to be you attract near-fans and event goers.

The series could create some interest in the near-fans with a decent TV package.

Even in the CanAm days at Mosport many of those who attend were not race fans and were there only for the event.

[Roninho]

Originally Posted by Dov

^^ Do you really expect OWRS to tell us all the details!?

These arn't "details", what i ask are fundamentals of any business plan.

Oh, they don't have to do it for the fans. They have to do it for the business.
Champcar promised a lot the last 5 years, but at this moment CC has the goodwill of a bankrupt firm. Yes there are people investing in it, but i is absolutely unclear for the outside world how they are going to make the series break-even (at least).

This "business plan" as mentioned by AR1 simply says: "were going to make money", not how. A company that wants to use sponsoring as marketing tool will after a quick look at CC more than likely look at other options (in motorsport and other sports) simply because there is nothing to build on apart from promises. The same applies for manufacturers, promotors, teams/drivers, etc.