Where is the ALMS going and how will it get there?

http://lastturnclub.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=603&Itemid=51

Is the LMES and its teams in relatively good health financially? If so, then maybe its time for America to develop rules that work for America rather than whats best for France. How to get there? I haven't a clue.

Isn't that what Grand Am tried to do? (Although, you could argue that its rules are what's best for France - the France family.)

No, its not. The point is that racing needs to be run more like other top sports leagues (MLB, NFL, etc as examples) business models.

But that's sort of a critical mass thing - you can't do that if you can't get to that critical mass. Ask Major League Soccer. I'm not sure how you break that loop, without throwing even more money at it than Panoz is willing to.

hugewally - 23 June 2009 01:55 PM

No, its not. The point is that racing needs to be run more like other top sports leagues (MLB, NFL, etc as examples) business models.

I'm not sure I'd equate correlation with causation here. Tennis and golf both seem to be doing well, and I don't believe they have something similar to a franchise team model. However, they may have more participant representation than does auto racing. It could also be a case of success curing all ills for them (and the franchise model sports as well). Possibly one should be looking at a sport in which the participants are happy even if the sport isn't rolling in the dough. The franchise model doesn't appear to be immune to all ills as witnessed by the NHL.

It costs almost nothing to run a golf or tennis "team". Fly to the event with your rackets or clubs, get a hotel room.... Bang, you're all set.

Management, swing coach, short game guru, sports psychologist, sycophants ...

while it could be argued the ALMS isn't really economically viable in this climate, i think that it's also clear that it's format did strike a chord with fans and was much more successful than any other sports car series has been in a very long time (possibly ever), in terms of attendance.

grand-am, speed world challenge and other sports car series have been nowhere near as successful. while the dependence on big factory spending is pretty clearly not sustainable, and more needs to be done in the way of bringing revenue to teams, other series have pretty clearly not got much of a solution.

the international flavour and technology are selling points, and should not be neglected. the le mans connection has importance to knowledgable fans, and provides additional motivation for manufacturers to participate (audi, corvette and others would definitely not have been involved without the common rules). so, i think what would be more viable is an ALMS+ (with the + being additional fomrats which are more economically viable), rather than an abandonment of the ALMS as a failure.

as far as the content of the article, a restructuring is necessary, but how you'd get that to occur, i'm not sure, i don' tthink the team owners in sports car racing have the same voice, and i'm not sure that don panoz/braselton is smart enough to listen. the france family clearly isn't...

Was just checking the LMES results at the series home site, and they don't have many more cars than we do here. I think if they put the whole GT1 class on hiatus until the global recession magically disappears would be a good start. Maybe bring in a touring car based class, closer to SPEED TC than WTCC in cost if there is a need for an economical alternative to GT2.

The article I linked above isn't directly about improving car counts, but making racing more affordable for teams and tracks, etc.