“I heard from the veterans like [Scott] Dixon and [Tony] Kanaan and others: ‘Hey, fix the TV. We’ve got a great sport and a great product—not enough people are seeing it,’” says IndyCar's CEO Mark Miles. And he did.
ark Miles isn’t an IndyCar champion. He hasn’t won the Indianapolis 500. In fact, he’s never even raced competitively. But following him around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of the 103rd running of the Indy 500 this Sunday, you would have thought he was one of the sport’s biggest stars. Even during a practice session, Miles was hailed by team members, approached for autographs and cheered from a sparsely populated grandstand.
Open-wheel racing had long ruled American motorsports. Drivers like Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt and Bobby Unser became household names in the 1960s and ’70s, and international influence and a second wave of big-name drivers—Michael Andretti, Rick Mears, Al Unser—took the sport to new heights in the 1980s and early 1990s, firmly establishing IndyCar predecessor CART as the nation’s top auto racing promotion. In 1992, the Indianapolis 500 drew a reported 14.
Against that gloomy backdrop, Mark Miles, then a Hulman & Company board member, was tapped to take over as the next CEO. Miles had no motorsports background, but he was an Indianapolis native who had just finished a four-year stint leading the organizing committee for Super Bowl XLVI, which was held in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium and widely regarded as a success.
In 2014, the series introduced the Indianapolis Grand Prix, a road course in the Brickyard’s infield that serves as a lead-in to the Indy 500, and the following year the Indiana Finance Authority issued $93 million in bonds to improve the speedway facility. A year after that, IndyCar returned to Wisconsin’s Road America for the first time since Champ Car raced there in 2007; that race reportedly drew the track’s, some 50,000 people.
The NTT deal was spearheaded by Jay Frye, whom Miles hired as chief revenue officer in 2013; he later took over competition and operation duties and in December was promoted to IndyCar series president. Frye’s team operations background—he came from Nascar, where he was a team owner and principal, most recently running Red Bull’sto the sport—quickly made him popular among IndyCar’s team owners, and up and down pit lane they voice an admiration of Frye’s planning and long-term vision.
When Miles took over in 2012, he was saddled with a TV deal that split races between ABC and NBC; ABC had five races on broadcast spread throughout the season while NBC aired the rest of the season on its cable sports network. That arrangement meant viewers didn’t know where to find races and the series lacked TV promotion on a race-to-race basis. There were also frustrations with ABC.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Mark Zuckerberg should hire a new Facebook CEO, former Facebook exec saysMark Zuckerberg needs to give up some of his control of Facebook and hire a new CEO, a former Facebook executive said Tuesday.
Read more »
Mark Zuckerberg should hire Microsoft's Brad Smith as CEO, says former Facebook security chiefFormer Facebook executive Alex Stamos said Mark Zuckerberg should hire a new CEO and turn his focus to building products.
Read more »
Overstock CEO justifies stock sale, vows never to give 'an explanation again'Overstock.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Patrick Byrne, lashing out at sharehol...
Read more »
Overstock CEO says he had to sell shares to supplement his payOverstock.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Patrick Byrne lashed out on Friday at ...
Read more »
Pinterest CEO after earnings report tumble: We're in the growth phase of our business'We're trying to be transparent and ... we want to focus on the long term,' CEO Ben Silbermann says.
Read more »
Nvidia CEO doesn't expect China to block $7 billion takeover of Mellanox, despite trade tensionsNvidia CEO Jensen Huang tells Jim Cramer why the chipmaker won't be impacted by tariffs on Chinese imports.
Read more »
How WeWork's CEO grew a $10 billion relationship with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, whom he calls 'Yoda'WeWork CEO Adam Neumann considers SoftBank's Masayoshi Son a close ally and adviser in its plan for successful growth.
Read more »
Apple CEO Tim Cook to the class of 2019: 'My generation has failed you'Apple CEO Tim Cook was the commencement speaker at Tulane University Saturday. In his speech, the tech executive focused on the importance of addressing climate change and more broadly, in taking action, rather than debating endlessly.
Read more »
Novartis CEO plans gene therapy price 'far lower' than $4 million to $5 million rangeNovartis AG's top executive said on Wednesday it expects to price its gene ...
Read more »
Federal criminal probe launched in connection with 'microcap fraud' case may include former Riot Blockchain CEOFederal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into a group of 'microcap fraudsters' that may include the former chief executive of Riot Blockchain, the cryptocurrency company that was the subject of a CNBC investigation last year, according to court documents. The investigation is parallel to an SEC civil case against the alleged 'fraudsters,' and more details of the criminal investigation are currently unknown.
Read more »
CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay package narrowly approved by JPMorgan shareholdersJPMorgan Chase & Co. investors voted to approve Chief Executive James Dimon’s pay at the bank’s annual meeting over the objections of a...
Read more »