Cleveland

[indycool]

Here's another view on Cleveland....cosmetic success....

http://www.medina-gazette.com/Articles.asp?num=57308667

[brightline]

Although a lot of what he says may be true, this is a guy that writes articles about local high school football games in the suburbs. Sure CART has seen better days, but it sounds like this guy went to the first couple races in the early 80's, went into a coma, came out 2 years ago and wrote an article. (Medina, OH...The pinnacle of journalism)

[macdaddy]

What a piece of redneck garbage.
"The race has been dominated by foreigners for over a decade."
So has New York and Toronto.

"A little danger might heighten the drama."
Yeah, good point. Serious injuries and fatalaties make for good press.

"In the meantime, they're bouncing off walls in NASCAR and the only accent you hear in the pits is a southern twang."
America... The Great Melting Pot.

Unadulterated prejudice.

[evo]

You have to love reporting that has blatant falsehoods in it. The race had no title sponser this year? I think he needs to do a little bit of research (and I mean a VERY LITTLE bit). This years race was "The US Bank Grand Prix of Cleveland"

As for his "estimate" of the crowd (which he based on high school games), he's just guessing. And they pay people like this to report on stuff. Geesh!

[tanalised]

probably graduated from "the indy star" or some other sh1trag

[macdaddy]

Well, at least he got to interview somebody.
"A head counter at one entrance to the Chalet Village said..."

He's also got some sort of a porta-johnny phobia. Probably never been to an outdoor concert or anything of the like because he can't stand the heat. "Geewhizz honey, I don't think I want to go to the airshow this afternoon because the toilets will be just too darned hot. I vote we sit home and watch this stock car race on TV and hope for alot of big crashes!" But then again, he does go to a few highschool football games. (Aside, I doubt if any crapper in Cleveland has ever reached 120 degrees at 9:00pm. You're not supposed to sit and read the newspaper in there anyway!)

"Figures are not readily available, but the light bill had to be approaching a million dollars."
This reminds me of the Dustin Hoffman character in Rainman. The highest "estimate" I've heard up until this was half that.

Evo's post proved just how inept this reporter is. Just about every paragraph can be countered.

[Liz]

My question is, why am I doing data entry in a basement in Toronto when gits like him have jobs as reporters????

Where do they find people like this? Do they just go down to the day labour pool and say "Anybody want free passes to a car race today? All you have to do is try to tell us what you think might be going on."

Wait til this weiner learns that the entire world is full of foreigners. He'll never come out of his air conditioned bathroom with the plasma TV in the wall again.

[gttouring]

Liz we have had discussion like this one about Job seeking and Careers.
I have my degree(s) and I do nothing!
I was an intern at Toyota for peaches sake and was paid under 20 grand for 2 years that's over and I didn't get Hired! apparently someone else who knows someone did in my place. i have been a mechanic for a race team a dealership and did data entry for some temp **** job- I have not done a thing that requires a degree. i have applied to 347 employment positions thorugh various job sites and in person in the last 3 months and had 2 replies!(fair dinkum)
Something is seriously wrong in this society and Nepotism is most likely to blame, as it is WHO not what you know, It is a good thing I have my diplomas I ran out of money to buy Toilet paper and I can tear it up to wipe my arse with it.

[Lee Janotta]

Y'know, if you'd all take a moment to pause from building the hangman's scaffold for this guy, you might realize that whether he's right or not, this represents what a hell of a lot of average fans thought about the race.

You can have the absolute best race series in the world, but it won't survive if Joe Six-Pack can't buy a ticket and enjoy the race. There is no clearer example of this than CART over the last ten years.

[gttouring]

lee you are right CART doe not promote the races all that well, and they don't educate anyone about the races either- as poor as many drivers felt about the Chicago race oval the first 2 years they were there, I went to both and I have to say the first year was so heavily promoted with champcars on busses and on billboards and every where that the place was jam packed, it was what 70,000 people
the race was pretty good too,- but they had charity races after the real one . why not charuty races before hand? and other spectacle before this? why not promote and tell people what the race is and tell them what is racing- they don't do that much do they?
It would be nice if Pook had a thread and asked us how to promote and market, at least he would get a few good ideas.

[Snrub]

I don't like the article, but we can all take something from it.

As for the sponsors, the US Bank seemed to be pretty present on TV. They also gave some sponsorship to american spirit. I still can't figure out why those guys can't get some perminant and meaningfull sponsorship.

[Kicking-back]

I was watching the race live on TV in the UK.

I also watch every IRL race live on TV in the UK.

I'm astonished you don't get live coverage of every race from both in the USA.

[Bizzo5000]

I had to share this little e-mail I just shot of to our esteemed reporter:

Dear Mr. Jayson Blair ....errr Coughlin,


It was nice to see that you had such a great time at the Champcar race in Cleveland. You must have been reading your KKK Manifesto in the porta-potty the entire time to miss the giant signs and banners regarding the The US BANK Grand Prix of Cleveland. I’m also glad to see you used the Enron method of estimating the cost of lighting and size of crowds. How much research went into that educated guess? Was the research based on high school football games as well? I’m also glad to see you used such in-depth research as a “head counter”. And they say journalistic integrity is lost. It might also be of use to research a subject before you report on it. Just because you don’t know all them damn foreigners does not mean most of the people don’t. You must have missed the large contingent of supporters for the Mexican drivers. Using your own estimating procedures there must have been hundreds.

I’m also glad to see your depth of knowledge in the field of auto racing. Everyone knows a good race consists of dozens upon dozens of crashes and subsequent yellow flags. Judging by your love of southern culture, I would like to introduce you to another form of racing that does not include demolition derbies and monster truck rallies. Were you also confused by them making right hand turns?

I hope your cute little article does not reflect the whole of your wonderful paper…….The National Enquirer.