Western New York
Angstadt keeping IndyCar on fast track
When fans think of the leadership of the IndyCar Series, the high profile of founder Tony George comes to mind. To them he is the face of the series’ management.
Yet those working for the series behind the scenes such as Terry Angstadt, the IndyCar Series president of its commercial division, play a vital role in helping shape what the IndyCar Series is and what it hopes to become in regard to growth and survival for this major open-wheel series.
As the series rolls into Watkins Glen International for this weekend’s Camping World Grand Prix, as well as the Honda Indy Toronto event July 12, Angstadt took the time to assess how the IndyCar Series is progressing on several fronts, including sponsorship and television.
Angstadt has a wealth of business and sports marketing experience. Many years ago he was president and CEO of Fila, which features sporting apparel. That company had a strong tie to tennis.
His resume also includes working for the Easton Company. While he was there the company introduced the Mizuno glove to Major League Baseball. He later ran his own hybrid marketing group, CYRK, and in recent years worked for Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He now is in his third year with the IndyCar Series.
“Well we do feel generally that we have been very fortunate to be doing good this year and feel due to last year’s unification that it gave us the kind of advantage that we feel that we are now ahead of schedule in most of the areas we need to be doing well at,” Angstadt said.
One year ago at the Glen, Angstadt spoke about the fact that the IndyCar Series needed a major title sponsor in order to get to the next level and a year later, no such sponsor has surfaced.
“When I spoke about it last year, I felt a whole lot better about the possibility of securing a title sponsor than I do right now as the economy has troubles. Last year we had strong prospects we were engaged in negotiations with but things changed.
“We were able to develop a strong partnership this season with APEX-Brazil, who has supported us with brand awareness, exposure and sponsorship to a very high level. They are almost like a title sponsor but they are not a title sponsor.”
The IndyCar Series also has a new major marketing contract with Izod, an upscale apparel company that is marketing series clothing that is available in stores such as Macy’s.
For 45 years, the series has had a TV contract with ABC but this season began a 10-year agreement with Versus to broadcast most of the races. ABC will still broadcast five events annually, including May’s Indianapolis 500 and this weekend’s event at the Glen.
The IndyCar Series has long desired to have expanded pre-race and postrace shows and to have its qualifying televised, as is the case with NASCAR and its television partners. Over the last few years, however, the IndyCar Series has not had the ratings to entice a major network television partner like ABC into committing to those requests.
With the exception of the Indy 500, the events on ABC usually are given a three-hour block, which is just enough time for a brief pre-race show and the race.
Versus, on the other hand, offers expanded pre-race, postrace and qualifying coverage along with reairing races. There is a trade-off, however. Versus is available in fewer households than ABC.
The gamble is that Versus can give the fans more of the IndyCar Series programming they desire and Versus will expand into more households during the life of the contract to help both parties grow.
“We are placing a bet that this arrangement will work and Versus has placed their bet as well,” said Angstadt. “We knew that in this first year the ratings would be lower. Versus has about 75 to 80 million homes presently and the major networks have 100 million or better.
“It’s our job to do the things to make people want to watch our series and Versus has to hold up their end of the bargain by getting themselves into more homes and convincing cable companies to make Versus part of their basic subscription packages and off of the premium cable packages.”
The series was pleased that it was able to schedule the race at the Glen and Toronto on successive weekends, which is a boost for the Western New York fans who have the opportunity to see two races with minimal driving time involved.
“Whenever possible if we have two markets that are closer together we try to schedule those events together,” said Angstadt. “This is better for our teams, too. Toronto was a heavily sponsored and attended race when it last ran two years ago in the former Champ Car World Series. We’re happy that it’s back on our schedule this season.”
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