Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Legal Complications Saving Cheating Bastard A-Rod From Suspension or Ban

by Kent Sterling

UnknownBaseball Commissioner Bud Selig is storming around the offices of Major League baseball shrieking like Robert DeNiro when he portrayed Al Capone in “The Untouchables.”

“I want you to find this nancy-boy A-Rod, I want him DEAD!” Selig is bellowing this morning. “I want his family DEAD! I want his house burned to the GROUND! I wanna go there in the middle of the night and I wanna PISS ON HIS ASHES!”

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Disgraced Yankees third baseman is doing his best Al Pacino as Tony Montana in “Scarface,” “I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.”

Aides are waving towels in Selig’s face trying to calm the 79 year-old boss, “Let the lawyers handle this, Bud.  It took the IRS to nail Capone.  A-Rod isn’t going anywhere.”

As Selig’s blood pressure threatens to breach his tissue paper thin network of veins and arteries, the HR professionals try to find a way to employ a rock solid suspension or ban that will withstand appeal from the exceptionally well-funded A-Rod defense team without using Article XI, Section A1b that invokes the commissioner’s right to protect the integrity of the game.

An appeal of an Article XI use would be heard by Selig.  Let’s go out on a limb and venture a guess that Selig will quickly deny.  The next step is a trip to federal court or a reopening of the collective bargaining agreement.

As often happens in business today, baseball would love for A-Rod to accept a negotiated settlement that would prevent him from appealing the finding in anyway.  Unfortunately, A-Rod’s situation is very different from most.  He just turned 38, so the clock is ticking like a massive church bell in his ear on his ability to be productive.  Worse, A-Rod is owed $86 million over the next four years.

What can baseball offer that is going to mitigate the potential loss of $86 million, plus whatever portion of his $28 million in salary from 2013?

The union isn’t going to go to the wall for A-Rod because its members are tired of this doping crap.  The questions are relentless, and the players want everyone to be clean.  An aggressive defense would run counter to the prevailing wishes of the vast majority of ballplayers.

So Selig has nothing more to do than seethe while the lawyers slowly build their case against Rodriguez in the same way cops gathered evidence against accused murderer Aaron Hernandez. It needs to be air tight – not just because of the legal hurdles that might be placed by A-Rod’s legal team, but to make sure public opinion does not swing toward A-Rod because of less-than-convincing evidence.

A suspension for this year and next would be a career death sentence, and baseball doesn’t want to let it go at a Ryan Braun-esque remainder of the season rip, so Rodriguez has nothing to lose. He is reviled by fans, opponents, and teammates because he only copped to using steroids from 2001-2003 while he continued with a supposedly aggressive PED regimen from 2010-2012.

There is another element to this drama, and that is the health Rodriguez is enjoying.  There are reports that A-Rod could be activated as soon as Friday, and that would mean that MLB would either be forced to show their hand and suspend A-Rod immediately, or allow him to take the field in Yankee pinstripes.

Both would likely make Selig angrier than he is right now.

This confluence of cheating, lawyering, and anger makes the A-Rod drama one of the best piece of reality TV this side of of “Mob Wives.”

Rich and delusional vs. rich and outraged makes for high drama, and while A-Rod continues to work out at Yankees headquarters in Tampa, Selig’s team of law chewing sharks searches for a way to keep him off the field in 54 hours.

My money is on A-Rod being the Shoeless Joe of the PED era, and that he will never play another game on a Major League diamond or ever enjoy enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

What do you think?

[polldaddy poll=7289160]

Indianapolis Colts – Offensive Lineman Ben Ijalana Looks Good in Comeback Attempt

by Kent Sterling

Ben Ijalana had reason to smile yesterday, as he looked strong and heathy in pads for the first time in a long time.

Ben Ijalana had reason to smile yesterday, as he looked strong and heathy in pads for the first time in a long time.

Coming out of Villanova University as a 2011 second round pick, it appeared Ben Ijalana and his first round mate Anthony Castonzo would be the bookend tackles the Colts so desperately needed to protect Peyton Manning.

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Manning’s series of neck surgeries took him out of the equation, and all of a sudden Ben and Anthony were trying to keep Curtis Painter upright.

Then it got worse as Ijalana tore his ACL in game four of his rookie season.  And he tore it again last preseason.

Yesterday, the long road back continued at Colts Camp at Anderson University as Ijalana joined his teammates in pads.  During drills with the third unit as a left tackle, Ijalana looked quick and strong in keeping lineman from breaking containment.

Granted the linemen testing Ijalana weren’t world beaters, but I didn’t see any of those who tested him get the corner or move him back an inch.

There is so much to watch during workouts that sometimes it’s hard to keep an eye on anything specific, but yesterday I watched Ijalana and Andrew Luck.  I wanted to see if Ijalana looked like a guy with two ACL surgeries, and whether Luck ever dropped focus and gave the vibe that he would rather be somewhere else.

It’s hard to believe that Luck could possibly be as relentlessly enthusiastic as he appears.  I waited and waited for him to shuffle, moan, or become fatigued with the routine.  Nope, nope, and nope.  As physically gifted as Luck is, it’s his attitude and leadership that the Colts most prize.

My attention turned to Ijalana because with the offensive line’s issues in 2012, and the partial upgrades this season, the Colts sure could use a little help up front from an unexpected source.

The first unit line the first two days of camp have been Gosder Cherilus, Mike McGlynn, Samson Satele, Donald Thomas, and Anthony Castonzo.  The depth behind those starters doesn’t appear to be full of road graters.  If the offense has a weakness, it’s in that group up front who allowed Luck to absorb way too much punishment and cleared the way for running backs who averaged an NFL 26th best 3.8 yards per carry.

Ijalana would bring length, big hands, bulk, and quick feet to a group that can use more of those three traits, and yesterday he looked great.

If that line can open holes for Ahmad Bradshaw and Vick Ballard, as well as give Luck four seconds to use his battery of weapons, they will score a lot of points.  The receiving corps of future hall of famer Reggie Wayne, T.Y. Hilton, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Dwayne Allen, and Coby Fleenner is among the best in the NFL, but if Luck is on the ground, or worse, on the bench nursing an injury, they won’t matter much.

Yesterday, Ijalana protected the staffer paid to stand in the pocket as though the future of the franchise depended upon it – because eventually it will.

The key to putting Luck in a position to succeed might be Ijalana who can play right tackle or either guard spot.  Yesterday he looked like a guy who can help.

Indianapolis Media Twitter Rankings – Pointer, Keefer, Ambrogi, and Sterling Post Biggest Gains

by Kent Sterling

imagesIt’s been six weeks since the Twitter standings for Indiana media were recalibrated, and the big gainers were Indy Star new beat reporters were the big gainers.

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Zak Keefer was handed the key to the Butler beat, and Butler fans paid attention.  His following exploded for a 60% gain from 2,401 to 3,841.  The gain for Michael Pointer was even more stark as he was named the interim Pacers beat reporter as he improved from an even 2,000 to 3,677 or an 83.7% bump.

Conversely, David Woods, who came off Butler lost 20 followers to slip from 5,518 to 5,497.

Mark Ambrogi moved from 1,378 to 1,544 for the third largest twitter gain of 12.1%

Coming in fourth for gain percentage was the redoubtable and improbable Kent Sterling, who parlayed social and traditional media exposure along with kentsterling.com into an 11.5% gain from 2,258 to 2,517.

Twitter is an important marker in determining two things – value of a brand and willingness to access all avenues to engage media users.  If you are not a Twitter user, you are not reaching 12-24 year-olds.  That won’t make a big difference today, but in six years, it’s going to be a debilitating void for an information conveyor.

Here are the updated standings divided by media (percent increase followed by total followers):

Sports Radio in Indy

  1. Dan Dakich – 1070 the Fan,  +1.8% – 59,229
  2. JMV – 1070 the Fan, +3.3% – 17,789
  3. Michael Grady – 1070 the Fan, +6.4% – 8,869
  4. Mark Boyle – Pacers play-by-play, +6.1% – 7,432
  5. Jake Query 1260 WNDE, +3.2% – 7,309
  6. Kevin Lee – 1070 the Fan/NBC, +2.2% – 6,257
  7. Greg Rakestraw – 1070 the Fan, +8.1% – 4,650
  8. Eddie White – Pacers Postgame, +4.2% – 4,382
  9. Derek Schultz – 1260 WNDE +3.6% – 3,513

TV Sports Anchors/Reporters in Indy

  1. Dave Calabro – WTHR,  +4.6% – 7,200
  2. Anthony Calhoun – WISH, +3.5% – 5,337
  3. Chris Hagan – Fox 59,  +5.0 – 4,494
  4. Dave Furst – RTV6,  +4.5% – 4,177
  5. Rich Nye – WTHR,  +3.3% – 4,009
  6. Jeremiah Johnson – Fox 59,  +4.0% – 3,850
  7. Eric Yutzy – WTHR,  +4.3% – 2,130
  8. Jason Spells – RTV6,  +2.9% – 1,779
  9. Brittany Diehl – Fox 59,  +7.8% – 1,745
  10. Chris Widlic – WISH,  +4.6% – 1,467
  11. Larry Hawley – FOX 59,  +5.7% – 1,123
  12. Amanda Maynard – WISH,  +4.6% – 867
  13. Brad Brown – RTV6,  +3.8% – 515

Print – all with Indianapolis Star (beat in parenthesis)

  1. Bob Kravitz (columnist), +2.9% – 34,737
  2. Mike Wells (Pacers), +2.0% – 24,616
  3. Phillip B. Wilson, +2.5% – 13,778
  4. Mike Chappell (Colts), +5.9% – 13,048
  5. Terry Hutchens (moved to Fox), +4.5% – 12,562
  6. Curt Cavin (Racing), +1.0% – 12,046
  7. Kyle Neddenriep (Preps, recruiting), +4.4% – 10,452
  8. David Woods, -0.4% – 5,497
  9. Zak Keefer (Butler), +60.0% – 3,841
  10. Michael Pointer, +83.9% – 3,677
  11. Phil Richards, +4.5% – 2,725
  12. Mark Ambrogi, +12.1% – 1,544

One of the extrapolations that can be gleaned from these standings is that TV is not a significant portal for sports information and insight.  There is less connectivity among users and talent in TV, and so the Twitter followers for TV are significantly lower than for radio and newspaper.  What that means is not good for TV sports.

Connectivity is the name of the game, and a talent’s value is in that connection with users.  Without it, the talent’s brand value is negligible.

There are some interesting races in the standings.  Mark Boyle passed Jake Query for fourth in radio, and among the TV talent, Jeremiah Johnson from Fox59 is a likely bet to pass Rich Nye in September.  Chris Hagan of Fox59 is closing the gap on Anthony Calhoun, but will need the better part of a year to catch him if percentages hold.  Chris is a good follow @chrishaganfox59.  I like AC, but I spend every Saturday morning with Hagan, and my promotional weight goes to my partner.

Brittany Diehl from Fox59 is reeling in Jason Spells and Eric Yutzy.

Whatever Fox 59 is doing is working as they have the three top percentage gainers in the TV category with Hagan, Diehl, and Larry Hawley.

Indiana Pacers – Bird Gets Another Winner in Luis Scola

by Kent Sterling

Luis Scola is a man who is eager to earn his keep and do his job.

Luis Scola is a man who is eager to earn his keep and do his job.

Larry Bird has been very busy turning over the back end of the roster this month.  He said rebuilding the second unit would be his second priority after re-signing starting power forward David West, and he can now take a deep breath as those two items on his to-do-list have been checked off.

If Bird hung a help wanted sign in front of Conseco Fieldhouse, right above “Help Wanted”, “Only Men Need Apply”.  It would be written in ink.

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Gone are Tyler Hansbrough, D.J. Augustin, Gerald “Chuck ‘Em” Green, Miles Plumlee, and Jeff Pendergraph.  They have been replaced by Luis Scola, C.J. Watson, Chris Copeland, and Solomon Hill.  All have a clarity in their eyes, and steel in their games.

The NBA is filled with physical beasts who are proudly clinging to adolescent ideals.  That may work elsewhere, but not at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and not for Bird.

Scola was introduced today to the media, and he is another guy who is a professional basketball player and man.  There is an honesty to Scola that is palpable as he talks about his experiences in basketball and hope for the future as his career begins its third act.

He talks about winning as the holiest of grails, and craves the opportunity to contribute to a champion.  His eyes lit up when discussing the silver medal his Argentina team won at the World Championships here in 2002, and the Olympic Gold he won in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Bird pulled the coup of the year in acquiring Scola for Green and Plumlee, and may have set the Pacers up for a championship season.  The 2013-2014 season will have to play out for fans to find out.

What we do know is that Scola is a healthy and focused man willing to do what it takes to contribute, and that puts him in good company.

Listen to the way Scola becomes animated when he mentions winning in the sound below from Scola today:

Student-Athletes Go Unpaid, While Ohio State Pres Gordon Gee Gets $5.8M to Retire

by Kent Sterling

Gee's $5.8M to leave office quietly will allow him to buy a new bow tie everyday (at $49.95) until June 15, 2331.

Gee’s $5.8M to leave office quietly will allow him to buy a new bow tie everyday (at $49.95) until June 15, 2331.

There is something horribly immoral about taking an enormous wad of cash to walk away after failing.

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Former Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee will receive $5.8 million to leave that office.  The cash comes in different forms and at different times, but the total over the course of five years is $5.8 million, and that’s a lot of cake for a guy who couldn’t keep his bizarre sense of humor from disrupting university business several times.

Forcing him into retirement seemed like a massive overreaction to odd but harmless comments about Notre Dame, Catholics, the SEC, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Louisville.

During tattoogate, Gee famously remarked when asked if he was going to fire football coach Jim Tressel that he would be lucky if Tressel didn’t fire him.  Not funny, but not worthy of sending a good administrator to the glue factory.

Handing him a skid of moving crates doesn’t require another delivery of millions and millions of dollars, but the absolute worst thing that can happen to an organization is to be sued, so almost anyone walking out the door is handed a check along with a confidentiality agreement that guarantees tight lipped acquiescence to how screwed up things are.

No one wants to look like an idiot when the curtain is pulled back, so the curtain is legally anchored to the floor, ceiling, and walls.

What do the athletes get?  The young adults who work hard enough to generate the excitement which drives the interest to allows schools and conferences to generate the wealth that pays coaches millions, builds ornate temples celebrating sports, and causes 100,000 plus to the stadia get the pass through expense of the scholarship, room and board, and their athletic equipment.

Gee was the president of the whole university, but his most visible role was as the spokesperson for Ohio State when the athletic poop hit the fan, and his separation from Ohio State was caused in large part by his treatment of athletics as worthy of his best efforts at humor.

The debate over stipends to cover the costs of attending college was brought to center stage during the major conference media days circuses.  Tuition, room, and board don’t get kids food when the cafeteria is closed, doesn’t buy them clothes, pay for travel home, etc…, and many believe that’s a cost the schools should bear.

There are 1,100 student-athletes on scholarship at OSU.  The cost to make sure those kids can buy a sandwich, take a date to the movies, and buy a shirt once in a while in exchange for the full time job of playing big time college athletics?  $100 per week X 52 weeks X 1,100 = $5,720,000, or $80,000 shy of Gee’s walk away cash.

Indianapolis Colts – Unlike the Brickyard, Colts Camp Gives Fans More Than What They Pay for

by Kent Sterling

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Colts Camp shows fans how some of the best sausage in the world is made.  The Brickyard 400 is some very bland sausage.  One of them is worth the price.

Two years ago when the Rams worked out in Earth City, Missouri, the coaching staff felt good when camp broke.  They were coming off a 7-9 season, and they had bulked up the roster with several veterans, whom were mistakenly thought to be upgrades.  The Rams went 2-14.

Jerious Norwood looked like O.J. Simspon in that camp – or was it Cadillac Williams.  Former Colt Daniel Muir looked like a Pro Bowl tackle.  2-14.

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NFL preseason camp workouts allow teams, fans, and the media to see whatever they want to see.  For some teams, it’s fool’s gold.  For others, the gold is real.

Everything done on a football field without pads allows only comparative analysis, and that means, fast looks slow if everyone is equally fast.  Quick looks slow if everyone is quick.

The Colts ran series after series of basic plays, and the great thing about playing against yourself is that bad offensive plays can be explained through excellence on the defensive end.  Defensive lapses are ascribed to offensive genius.  And on and on.

Quarterbacks the defense cannot hit tend to be very accurate because they can stand tall in the pocket and throw on their schedule.  Receivers who get four or five seconds to get open should damn well be open, and they better make the catch.

Andrew Luck throws a great ball – whether in games or workouts, and while it’s a little easier to focus when you’re wearing a red jersey, his passes were beautiful.  Even the corner routes that were thrown away looked elegant.  The other thing about Luck is that he never does anything 90%.  The guy seems genuinely enthusiastic about every seemingly mundane moment of every routine practice.

That enthusiasm almost forces the rest of the Colts to step up and make the most of the drudgery, and the beautiful weather today didn’t hurt either.

Enthusiasm cannot be faked.  Players going through the motions from station to station stand out on this team because very few do it.  Some start loping across the field, but because the leaders don’t jog, the laggards move into a sprint.

Does what happened today mean the Colts are closer to going back to the playoffs in January?  No.  It means we are a day closer to seeing them tested against live bullets, and until that happens we don’t have a damn idea who or what this team is – other than Luck appearing to be good enough to win the Colts a lot of games with his arm, feet, and guile.

On the plus side, the admission is free to watch the Colts, who show their appreciation after the workout by signing autographs and talking to fans.  That put the Colts one up on NASCAR, who executed an equally pointless event yesterday, but charged fans a helluva tariff to walk through the gates.

And everyone wonders why the NFL is king.

Albert Pujols May Be Done for the Year; How Smart Does Cards GM John Mozeliak Look Now?

by Kent Sterling

UnknownIf you want a reason why the improvement of the Chicago Cubs through the Theo Epstein rebuild is an act of futility, it’s because St. Louis Cardinals General Manager John Mozeliak is a really smart guy – smart enough that he won’t allow it.

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After a wonderful run to the St. Louis Cardinals 11th World Championship in 2011, GM John Mozeliak and the DeWitt Family had a decision to make – should they pay the best hitter of the previous decade to stay home?  Was first baseman Albert Pujols worth the money he demanded to keep the birds on the bat logo on his chest?

Pujols had been an incredible player through his first 11 seasons in St. Louis, and appeared to be putting together a Musial-esque career at Busch Stadium.  Prevailing wisdom at the time was that you don’t left a statue player walk out the door, but when the California Angels offered a 10-year, $240 million contract, Mozeliak decided the price was too high for a middle market franchise to swallow.

The Angels play in the Los Angeles market, and have a TV deal that allows for occasional aggression/stupidity.  If the Cardinals make a $240 million error, that’s a massive problem that cannot be undone.  The Cards operate on a budget, and a deal that takes Pujols through age 41 – depending upon whether his listed date of birth is accurate – would commit a significant percentage of their cash to a player who during the last five years of the deal would almost certainly be in decline.

Mozeliak decided to let Pujols go to LA, and in doing so pissed off adults, and made children cry.  The smart people got it, and understood that allocating a giant wad of the budget to a guy with some elbow and foot issues would likely have been short-term smart and long-term dopey.

Who knew the decline would come this quickly?

Pujols has been diagnosed with a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot, and is likely to miss the rest of the 2013 season.  Prior to the diagnosis, Pujols was hitting .258 with 17 home runs, 64 RBIs, 49 runs scored, an OPS of .767, and grounding into a double play a league leading 18 times.

For the Cardinals, Allen Craig through an identical 99 games is hitting .325 (6th in MLB) with 10 homers, 79 RBIs (6th in MLB), 55 runs scored, an OPS of .851, and has grounded into only nine twin killings.  Craig, a first time all-star in 2013, is signed for a total of $43 million through 2018 when he’s 33.

There might have been some tears shed when Pujols packed his family as he loaded up his truck and he moved to Beverly… Hills that is, swimming pools, movie stars!  They have since dried.

That’s almost as smart a move as was made by the guy who won a World Championship, but still managed to accumulate five of the first 59 picks of the following MLB Draft.  Whoops, that was also Mozeliak after the same 2011 season when he passed on Pujols.

Then there was the guy who quietly traded minor league infielder Zach Cox at the 2012 deadline for reliever Edward Mujica, who is now second in the National League with 30 saves – one behind league leader Craig Kimbrel of the Atlanta Braves.  Yep.  That was Mozeliak too.

The Cubs are still selling off parts like their roster is part of an estate sale.  They are acquiring prospects who they hope will restock a pond fished dry by previous GM Jim Hendry, whose idiocy was detailed here for a long time.  We even shipped moving crates to his office in 2011 during a fit of anger as we tried to prompt him to vacate his office.

Now, it’s Epstein’s turn to prove he knows what he’s doing, but he’s going to have to go some to close the difference between the Cubs and Cardinals because while Mozeliak is the lesser known franchise architect, he might be the smarter.

Matt Ryan Earns New $103.75 Million Contract With The Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons announced this week that their team’s future will continue to center around Matt Ryan, as the quarterback signed a new five-year, $103.75 million contract with the team. After spending his first five seasons with team and starting right away, the team is ready to continue making playoff runs with the man out of Boston College.

Although the Falcons have not been able to reach the Super Bowl just yet with this current group, the team’s hope is that stability at the quarterback position will help with things. It is hard to argue with his production up to this point, which makes it an easy decision to extend him.

History shows that no quarterback has won more games in their first five seasons in the NFL than Ryan, and when considering fantasy football this season you can be assured that his success should continue.  His .718 winning percentage is third all-time, only behind a couple of guys named Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

Not only is he a proven winner, but he has put together game-winning drives as well. Since his rookie season, he has had 22 come-from-behind victories when trailing in the fourth quarter or overtime. That has not really transferred over to the playoffs just yet, but he should get more opportunities in the coming years.

Ryan is constantly compared to Joe Flacco, and this latest contract will continue that trend. Both started right away in 2008 when they entered the league, and both play on playoff contenders. Flacco has the hardware in the postseason, but Ryan has the better regular season numbers. If Ryan can add to his legacy during the playoffs, he will easily be worth every penny of his new contract. The Atlanta Falcons are still searching for their first ever Super Bowl, and they now believe they have their quarterback that will lead them to it locked up.

2013 Brickyard 400 – 10 Reasons Ryan Newman Won the Race in Front of a “Family and Friends” Crowd

by Kent Sterling

Even at the start/finish line, there are empty seats. In turn three, there were hundreds of empty rows.

Even at the start/finish line as the checkers flew for Hoosier Ryan Newman, there are empty seats. In turn three, there were hundreds of empty rows.

Getting a ticket to the Brickyard 400 wasn’t easy when the race first came to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but it is now.

Habits are hard to break, and traditions don’t die easy, but professional sports franchises and race tracks have to fight the feeling that opening the doors to what has always been popular is enough to get people to sacrifice the cash, time, and energy needed to attend a game or race.

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The Brickyard 400 is run on the grounds of a magnificent venue enjoyable to visit without a race to attend, but fans who invest their hard earned money and finite energy to share with friends or family want a return on that investment.

While we aren’t the sharpest tacks in the drawer, fans eventually get the point when those we pay to watch show they don’t give a damn about us, and money spent on tickets is sometimes better used for something else.

Here are the 10 reasons less and less fans show up for what used to be a very popular event:

  1. The cars weren’t designed to run in corners banked at only nine-degrees.  Passing is minimal because the turns accommodate only one groove.  That’s physics, meaning that the smart guys at the IMS can’t fix that – short of a total rebuild with higher corners.  That will never happen.
  2. Tiregate caused mandatory cautions every 10-12 laps in 2008.  Rubber shredded, and so did the waning loyalty of thousands of fans whose ticket renewals required greater thought each year because of the economy and the time demands on the lives of the middle class.
  3. Local people are used to watching IndyCars circle the two-and-a-half mile oval close to 40 miles per hour faster than Sprint Cup cars.  It’s not the drivers’ fault the cars don’t have the ground effects to zip around at 225 mph, but it sure is noticeable.
  4. IndyCar drivers are significantly less awed by their own images then their NASCAR brothers and sister.  If all the drivers were as professional as Jeff Gordon, it might be a little different, but because there is a palpable indifference by NASCAR drivers toward fans compared to the IndyCar guys and girls they appear callous and entitled.
  5. The Brickyard is won and lost on pit road, which makes for okay television, but 80% of the people sitting in the grandstands at Indy can’t see the pits.  Those who can have almost no way of knowing how long the pitstops last.  Today’s botched pit stop by Jimmie Johnson’s team cost him the race, but people who were there likely had no idea.
  6. The Speedway was unable to process fans through lines getting into the Indianapolis 500 in May quickly enough to avoid 90-minute waits as coolers were measured and searched.  Security became top of mind again with the disaster at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and the Speedway was unable to get people in efficiently.  The days of being able to learn on the job as fans are moved through the gates are over.  People are not going to pay to wait as incompetent and unfocused amateur security staffers chat among each other rather than getting fans through safely and expeditiously.
  7. The economy has caused enough upheaval over the past decade that people feel their financial lives are in constant peril.  The move toward efficiency didn’t just cost people their gigs, but continues to scare the hell out of everyone who kept their job.
  8. Those with jobs and the disposable income needed to buy tickets to sporting events are working harder and longer.  At some point, these people need to rest, and a Sunday afternoon in the summer is a good time for rest.
  9. The weather was wonderful this weekend, but over the 20 Brickyard weekends in Indy, the high has been in the high 80s or 90s more often than not, and there is no relief on those metal bleachers.  Really hot weather, a bunch of beer, and fried food will raise some hell with the heartiest constitution.
  10. Momentum – either positive or negative – is tough to stop.  Ask the Indiana Pacers, if you don’t believe me.  The tide is carrying fans out of the market for tickets, and reversing it is going to take a focused and aggressive effort to re-engage them.  Drivers will have to do more than sign a few autographs.  They are going to have to make bonafide contact with ticket buyers to build a connection.  The facility is going to have to be letter perfect in the execution of every detail.  That’s not how things have historically worked out there, so a cultural shift is needed.  Maybe new president of the IMS Doug Boles is just the guy to attack that challenge.

That’s a long list of gripes, but the bleeding has to stop.  Something cool or memorable needs to happen in the Brickyard 400, or the crowds will continue to decline until they finally reach the point of no return.  No one wants that, but the work needed to rev this event back up is not for the faint of heart.  Giant sections of unpopulated bleachers is unseemly for such a historic venue, and the weather was beautiful this year.

No more excuses, just a lot of hard work ahead.