LVMS will figure in expansion plan, but not until 2001

Tuesday, April 20, 1999 | 10:51 a.m.

Andrew Craig's five-year tenure as president of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) has not been unlike the careers of many of the drivers competing in the FedEx Championship Series.

Craig has experienced his share of victories, increasing his series from 16 to 20 races since 1994, negotiating expanded television coverage to more than 195 countries and overseeing CART's initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.

He also has experienced his share of setbacks, most notably seeing CART lose its premier race, the Indianapolis 500, after Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George formed the rival Indy Racing League, effectively shutting CART out of The Brickyard since 1996.

As a result of the rift between the two racing series, CART's TV ratings in the United States have continued to drop.

Undaunted by the setbacks, the 49-year-old British citizen is forging ahead with plans to further expand the series both in North America and overseas while increasing the visibility of the open-wheel racing series.

In an effort to reach into untapped markets, Craig has been talking with Las Vegas Motor Speedway general manager Chris Powell about the possibility of holding a race on the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

CART has not had a presence in Las Vegas since it raced here in 1983 and 1984 on a temporary road course in the Caesars Palace parking lot. With the addition of the $200 million LVMS, Craig said he believes the time is right for CART to return to Las Vegas.

Craig sat down with the Sun during last weekend's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach -- which attracted a record crowd of 102,000 on Sunday -- and discussed a wide range of topics, including his desire to see CART return to Las Vegas.

* QUESTION: What is the status of your talks with Las Vegas Motor Speedway officials about bring a CART race to Las Vegas?

CRAIG: I've been to the track and had very good meetings with Chris Powell, who is obviously extremely committed to see this facility grow and develop. He described to me their plans as to what they're trying to do to make some changes there to make what is already a good race track even better. It was a very good discussion and we're going to continue talking.

We like the Las Vegas marketplace, we like the track, we like the people that run the track. I met (Powell) just before I went to Japan and I haven't really followed up yet because we've been running ever since. Certainly, I would anticipate I'll be talking with Chris and (LVMS owner) Bruton Smith in the next couple of weeks.

* QUESTION: How close are you to coming to an agreement to bring a race to Las Vegas Motor Speedway?

CRAIG: I wouldn't want to give the impression here that an announcement is imminent because it isn't. There are many challenges we face. We are running 20 races, which is a lot for these kind of cars. We would like to expand our schedule but we have to find a way to do that, we have to find a way to work with our teams. It is very important that we expand the sport in cooperation with the teams. I can't just go out there and say, 'Let's do 25 races,' because the teams don't have the money to do 25 races.

We're going to grow this sport absolutely in lockstep with our teams. Plus, of course, there are some other very attractive options out there, many of whom we've been talking to for a long time. We're very interested in racing (at Road) Atlanta, for example, as a road course. We want to keep a good balance between road and ovals, so we have to juggle all those factors.

* QUESTION: How will talks with Las Vegas Motor Speedway progress now that you and Chris Powell have had your first face-to-face meeting? Will you now begin formal negotiations?

CRAIG: At some point, yes. Certainly, we will want to talk about the nature of an agreement -- even if, at this stage, I still don't have an approval to run more races. That's something that's going to happen in the not-too-distant future.

* QUESTION: Is holding a race in Las Vegas next year a possibility or is that too soon?

CRAIG: I think that's a stretch. Honestly, we want to work with any promoter we work with to deliver what they need, but I think 2000 would be a little difficult for us.

* QUESTION: Are you looking at running the oval at Las Vegas as opposed to the infield road course?

CRAIG: We are, yes, we're strictly looking at the oval. I think that would be a market where an oval would work better for us.

* QUESTION: Is there anything the Speedway needs to do to, in terms of facilities, before you would race there?

CRAIG: No. Actually, the track is in pretty good condition -- we could race there tomorrow from that perspective. It's just that they are making some changes which I think will be a real improvement. But there is nothing at that track which would prevent us from racing there.

* QUESTION: What do you look for in a market when you are considering a new venue?

CRAIG: The first thing is the market itself. (Las Vegas) is just a market in which a race would be successful. This is also a market that our sponsors would like us to go to -- and bear in mind that 95 percent of the revenue of a race team comes from the sponsors.

What sponsors are looking for, first of all, is a local marketplace where they can do business so they can sell promotions and so forth. Secondly, they're looking for a market with good hotels, obviously. And, thirdly, they're looking for a market where their corporate clients would like to go. Las Vegas meets all three of those criteria. So for us, it's a very good market.

As I get out and I talk with sponsors and get their feeling about, I have yet to meet anybody who doesn't think it's a good place to do business.

* QUESTION: Have you discussed racing at Las Vegas with the CART board of directors?

CRAIG: As a public company I report to the board, which consists of seven team owners, two independents and myself. I meet with them roughly quarterly and I'll be meeting with the board in about 10 days' time and (Las Vegas) is one of the issues on the agenda, to brief them on all of the discussions I have had and get some direction from them and we'll see where we go from there.

* QUESTION: If you do reach an agreement to come to Las Vegas, would you simply add the race to the schedule or would you take away an existing race to accommodate a new race?

CRAIG: I don't want to speculate about that because we have contracts with other promoters and I don't want to get ahead of myself, because that is something where I would need to consult the teams.

What I can tell you is that I am working with the teams right now on a proposal ... as to how we might try to expand the schedule.

* QUESTION: So you're looking at expansion rather than replacing existing races?

CRAIG: I would think so, yes.

* QUESTION: In discussions you have had with team owners and drivers, are they in favor of coming to Las Vegas to race?

CRAIG: I think so, yes, because the team owner's attitude is very much determined by what the sponsor community says and (sponsors) obviously do their research and they like the idea. I think the drivers would find it very good; it's such a melting pot, it's a very good place to reach all of America, in Las Vegas. It's a very good way to expand your fan base.

* QUESTION: How do you go about expanding the race schedule with the limited amount of sponsorship dollars the teams have to work with?

* CRAIG: What we have to do is grow those (sponsorship) dollars. We have $430 million worth of sponsor support, according to Business Week, and that has grown dramatically in the last five years.

How you grow the sponsor base is you provide value -- and value comes to a sponsor in many forms. Obviously it comes in the form of delivering a large live audience, it comes in the form of delivering significant television audiences -- where we're currently challenged right now; our TV ratings are not good enough.

But it goes beyond that, it's also about delivering an association with a sport or activity which people find attractive, which adds value to certain brands. We're very good at that, this is a high-tech environment and if you're a company that is looking for dynamic, high-tech, forward-looking, something that's about the future, this is where you should be.

* QUESTION: What are some of the options you have, other than raising more financial support from sponsors, that would allow you to expand the schedule?

CRAIG: There are many things you do. A lot of teams would like to reduce testing, but other teams would be very strongly opposed to it. Our tire manufacturers would also be very concerned if we radically restricted tire testing. Obviously, you need to do some testing.

There are lots of things to work with, there are many constituents involved here, and I have to try to check all those views out. The teams don't mind running more races if the money is there -- but the money has got to be there.

* QUESTION: You mentioned TV ratings. What is your theory on why CART's ratings aren't better than they are?

CRAIG: I think there are a number of challenges we face. By far the most significant is in the split with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, we have lost the casual fan -- we haven't lost the hard-core fans, they're still there. But the people who watch the sport casually and might watch three or four races a year, we've lost those people, they've kind of drifted away from us.

Couple that with the fact that (with) the split with Indianapolis, we've gone through a lot of changes, positive changes. We changed our name, we brought in a new title sponsor (Federal Express) and we've got to build people's awareness that the FedEx Championship Series is indeed the premier (open-wheel racing) championship they're used to seeing.

Quite frankly, with the notable exception of NASCAR, everybody is challenged right now, all racing is down. The final factor is, quite candidly, the sport was never really very well-promoted because there wasn't enough money to promote it. Now, for the first time, it is being promoted and it's going to take time to build it back up.

* QUESTION: How do you explain NASCAR's continual rise in TV ratings?

CRAIG: I think one of the things NASCAR benefits from a lot is continuous presence. I'm not saying we're ever going to race 34 races a year, but there is a real benefit of being present in the consumer's mind every weekend from basically February to November -- they're there every single week. In the weeks when we're not racing, (NASCAR) is still there and that presence is very, very good for them, indeed.

Now, we're never going to run 34 races, but presence is a very important factor.

* QUESTION: You mentioned the split with Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Do you have any reason to be optimistic that something will happen to resolve that conflict?

CRAIG: I wouldn't want to characterize it as optimism but, certainly from our perspective, we really would like to resolve those differences with the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway. The Indianapolis 500 is a great event and we would very much like it to be a part of our series.

We've always taken the view that we need to plan as if there is not going to be a resolution, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't, behind closed doors, try to seek a resolution. Those two things might seem incompatible but I can't build a sport on what might happen, I've got to build it on what the situation is today.

* QUESTION: Are CART and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway any closer to getting back together or is the rift getting worse?

CRAIG: We're apart, clearly we're apart, but I don't think we're any more apart or less apart today than we were, say, 12 months ago.

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