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Well, it's good for IndyCar that it has got a consistent schedule now. That's how it should be. Adding more events is a good thing, too. It's an even better schedule than this year.
Milwaukee is about the only true classic that is still missing. Here's hoping the Mile will be back sooner or later. Given the TV ratings of the Milwaukee area during the Indy 500 coverage, there are certainly some fans there. But they deserve an early afternoon start, unlike what they had in recent years.
Regarding the street circuit events you mentioned, Edmonton didn't continue when the airport was renovated, Sao Paulo didn't continue when the title sponsorship deal ended, and Houston suffered from bad scheduling and a rush-job of building the course in its final year.
I feel Baltimore was an instant classic but the paddock seemingly didn't like the special challenge of the chicane on Pratt St. and the city didn't like the cost of setting up the racetrack and its part in paying the sanctioning fee.
As fantasies of an international winter series and the fear of ending the season when NFL football has already started still roam the upper ranks of IndyCar, this is schedule is actually pretty good.
The failure of the New Orleans Motorsports Park race was due to mismanagement on behalf of the track and due to seriously bad weather which came from bad scheduling. I've seen this race live on a stream somewhere and it was just caution to caution until the chequered flag fell. That's why I don't miss it. Still, it would be interesting to see a decent race on this track one day. Maybe somebody has recorded something in iRacing at NOLA?
Fontana would be back if it could get an October date. Milwaukee would be back if a promoter could be found and a 12:00 to 13:00 starting time were guaranteed, ideally on its traditional date.
I have no idea how long it will take until the next time an international race will be added to the IndyCar schedule, but I feel the most likely event for this will be a 2nd round in Canada, once Montreal's F1 contract runs out.
I feel it is quite remarkable that now, IndyCar has got 3 former F1 events on its schedule: Long Beach, Watkins Glen and the GP of Indy.
However, given the hard hits that occured during crashes at the Watkins Glen round, I feel this circuit needs another safety upgrade: more runoff please. But we've discussed that topic already here on this board.
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