Empty Seats at Indy Nothing Short of A True Shame

Empty Seats at Indy Nothing Short of A True Shame

Even though I’ve been going there for close to 25 years, I still get a chill up my spine every time I enter Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Yet, even with IMS’s awesome size and legendary history, Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard left me with a far different feeling: very, very cold.

In what was probably the smallest crowd IMS has played host to in decades – either in the 16-year tenure of the Brickyard or the 90-plus years of the fabled Indianapolis 500 (I’m not including the brief dance with Formula One here) – I looked around at all the empty seats once the green flag fell Sunday afternoon and felt very sad.

And when ESPN’s cameras panned through the crowd time after time, revealing all those empty seats, it was like a dagger to my heart over and over.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, just barely over half-full?

Yep, that’s right. A place that seats between 240,000 and over 300,000 depending upon who you ask or what reference book you use (the Speedway has never revealed its true seating capacity), allegedly drew 180,000 on Sunday, according to NASCAR.

My guess is it was closer to 150,000, if that.

How bad was it? Typically on race morning, you’re stuck in traffic for blocks, if not miles, as you make your way to the track. I’ve actually gone one mile in an hour and a half, that’s how thick the traffic can be.

Instead of staying in a hotel Friday and Saturday, I decided to risk the heavy traffic I expected and drove down from Chicago Sunday morning, arriving about two hours before the green flag.

Traffic? What traffic? I made what is usually a two hour, 45 minute trip with no traffic in even faster time: two hours, 40 minutes. And that was with three lengthy construction zones that decreased southbound traffic on Interstate 65 to just one lane for several miles.

Here’s another example of how bad it was: police officers are typically stationed en masse along Georgetown Road, one of the main arterial streets to the Speedway, from the main thoroughfare of 38th Street all the way to the track at 16th and Georgetown.

I did not see one – NOT ONE – police officer at all directing traffic along Georgetown, not because they were being lazy or making a run to the nearest doughnut shop (full disclosure: I’m a long-time part-time cop and hate all those doughnut jokes that come with the territory).

Rather, there was no traffic for the police to direct. I don’t blame them if they were cooling their heels in the air-conditioned comfort of their squad cars, as they’d look pretty dumb trying to direct traffic that wasn’t there.

And many of the closest surrounding parking lots that are typically full five or six hours before the race begins were maybe half- to two-thirds full Sunday. Parking was actually cheaper in the track-sanctioned lots than the homeowners who tried to peddle $20 and $30 spaces in their front yards for more than a mile in any direction of the track.

How heartbreaking it must have been for longtime tried-and-true race fans to watch Sunday’s race on TV, and to see all those rows of empty seats, one after another after another. The worst part was the backstretch, which was packed to capacity just a few years ago, but was a veritable ghost town Sunday.

Earlier this week, partly as an offshoot of last year’s tire-related debacle in the 400, several of my peers in the sport ludicrously suggested that now is the time for NASCAR to pull out of IMS, that IMS needs the sanctioning body more than it needs the most famous racetrack in the world.

Those writers anticipated as much of a sham Sunday as we had here last year. But in reality, we wound up with a pretty dared good race – well, for the most part (not counting the numerous boring single-file laps) – especially the thrilling chase over the final laps between eventual runner-up Mark Martin and winner Jimmie Johnson.

In a race that had only three cautions (as compared to what seemed like a million in last year’s stop-and-go event) and no multi-car crashes, it was a night-and-day improvement over 2008.

Sure, the racing could have been closer and more competitive, but after last year, I’ll take it. Let’s just hope the economy picks up quickly, as this is too good of a race, and IMS is too good and too historic of a venue, for so many people not to come here and appreciate the beauty of NASCAR racing at Indianapolis.

Even if I have to get stuck in traffic again next year, it’ll be a small price to pay to see this race return to the prominence and attendance it should have.