Start Indy later on Friday to guarantee big crowd

I think the announcement by the Honda Dealers of Ontario – that admission to the Honda Indy Toronto on Friday, July 16, will be free – is great news for race fans and even better news for Make-A-Wish Canada, the children’s charity that helps make wishes come true for Canadian children faced with life-threatening medical conditions.

The dealers hope that people heading to the CNE to watch the Indy cars without having to pay will donate their spare change to Make-A-Wish. I hope some paper money makes its way into the collection baskets, too.

So, good for them and good luck. I hope the place is packed.

But how to guarantee that?

I have a suggestion: instead of starting the day’s activities at 8 or 9 in the morning, start the program later in the day so that it goes into the early evening. Kids and people on vacation wouldn’t mind and this would make it possible for everybody working downtown to take in some of the action (and perhaps donate more money to the charity).

For years and years, going all the way back to 1986, the promoters and sponsors of the Toronto Indy would say, with straight faces, that Friday attendance was 45,000 (or 52,000 or 41,500 or something huge like that) when, in fact, the place was mostly empty.

Why? Because Friday is a work day and Toronto being Toronto, people just won’t take a day off to watch the Indy cars (or the Blue Jays play an afternoon game, for that matter).

An 8 a.m. start on Saturday and Sunday is fine, because it’s the weekend. But Friday is problematic when it comes to attracting a crowd. That could be solved by throwing the green flag at noon and going through till 8:30 Friday night. It’s Daylight Savings Time and the sun doesn’t start going down till then.

The key thing would be to get the support classes out of the way early and then have the Indy cars practice from – say – 4:30 till 5:30. You could then have the big NASCAR stock cars out there from 5:45 till 6:45 and then have the Indy cars back from 7 till 8 or 8:30.

People would be able to leave their offices downtown at 4:30 and head for the Ex in time to watch Dario and Danica and Tracy and Tags go at it.

Everybody would have a fine time and they might even dig deeper.

Comments

[Hal Raimey]

Great idea. I see the teams maybe balking. I know they like to practice at similar time of day as race so they can prepare the cars for those conditions (vs later in the day, when the track is different)

[Peter McMurtrie]

A late Friday start is brilliant for sure. And I would also like to see a slightly later Saturday start as well. After all, you can't camp or motorhome in Toronto (because that would be too Liberal ie; anti-anal)so your you really have to wake up early if your coming from outside the GTA and Saturday transport links are not re-aligned with Indy. (unlike the 10 AM drinking change for soccer fans...nicely done boys in the back room!)

For almost 10 years my Corner 2 racing group used to camp and motorhome at the Ontario Place parking lot (The Corner 2 Yacht Club) but they eventually shut us down when they learned that we were having more fun than was allowed outside of Quebec and the USA ie; Ontario.

I love the idea of FREE FRIDAYS, ......but Dear God, what if that accidentally leads to too much fun????

What's next, (dare I say it?) bring your own beer?

Certainly support our Indy, but for a world class racing experience, go to Mosport and help celebrate our 50th this season. They don't shake you down. It's like your not even in Ontario, no kidding.

[dj]

Maybe they should move the race back to Mosport, i mean the whole Toronto street race thing is so boring,an the cost is off the map...even with the free Friday ,crown is going to be lower then what mospit could pull.