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One thing ELMS Does have going for it, is race fans can still see a top-tier series running real P1 cars in Europe, if only at a few races, while in the U.S. there is only one WEC race.
From the start of iLMC, ELMS was no longer top dog, and fans adjusted to that. In the U.S. Tudor is the top of the heap, and since it is essentially a mirror of a second-tier series ... North American fans feel very cheated.
ALMS fans are used to being pretty much top of the world—for a dozen years ALMS had arguably the best sports car racing around, with LMS/ELMS second. Now those fans are being Told they are still getting world-class, top-tier sports car racing, but they know better.
ELMS fans know what the series is, too, but they also know that with all the other series on the continent, they don't need ELMS to be the biggest and baddest.
In North America, what else is there? Pirelli World Challenge and some amateur SCCA stuff?
Unless the 2017 LMP2 is an amazing piece of machinery, Ii don't see TUSC ever being fully accepted by North Americvan sports car fans, no matter how much it tries to imitate ELMS.
Also—ELMS has a five-race schedule. They can't afford to run more than that I guess. So while the series has made a Huge turnaround, and offers excellent racing, it isn't necessarily the best model for a top-tier racing series.
Though probably if TUSC cut back to half-a-dozen races strategically placed to cover all major markets, they could boost attendance.
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