American Media Post Mortem

[EERO]

On Sunday Morning, the New York Times printed a huge article about the style, glamour and high costs of Formula One on the front page of the Style Section. It included a large color photo of Eddie driving his Jaguar through Times Square. It was an intelligently written article talking about the commercial interests in the sport and describing various celebreties who are interested in the sport. It was a fluff piece, but a fairly clever one. Surprisingly, there was no mention of qualifying within the Sports Section.

This morning, NPR, (National Public Radio), a listener supported Network ran a 5 minute report on the race including interviews with TGF and Jackie Stewart-the thrust of this piece was that this sport which is an enourmous draw around the world will eventually only succede in the States when there is more active American involvement. It was agood general interest report.

I have seen no mention in any of the three major TV networks or the general press.

[Liz]

Our media are covering it the same way they cover any other GP - quite well on the hour newscasts, but only just mentioned that 200,000 people attended to see Michael Schumacher win, and a pic of his car crossing the finish line, on the half hour shows.

[Regs]

To my suprise my local paper actually had a small box article tucked away in the back of the sports section. Believe me, for Newsday, thats a lot. F1 has a strong "underground" type of following here in the US. But to sell it to them is like preaching to the chior. Certinly, cough, having the "celeb" interest helps but ultimately that only brings out celeb watchers and does nothing to create real fans. That it got into the Times is a good thing too. It's true though, some form of higher profile US involvement will be needed to put the sport more forward here. No, Ameriphobes, that doesn't mean they have to take it over or dominate it! But a presence would help. Thats why Stewart should have stayed as Ford. But thats a whole other debate. I guess all we can do now is see what they do next. I'll mention this, hyping up the engieering aspects of F1 from manufacturers like Ford(Jaguar) BMW and Mercedes in thier US advertising will go a long way.

[Nuvolari]

Check my post in Peter's Well, did . . . thread.

[Liz]

Not that Mario

"I haven’t had time to read about the track at Indy," Mario said in his Max Papis-like accent… "I think I heard something on Speedvision where they spent $50 million to convert it. Who’s got that kind of cash beside Ecclestone and the Mafia?"

[Neil C]

Detroit papers had fairly well written sports articles about the USGP; that is an advantage of living in the Motor City. Electronic media gave little notice.

[pit rat]

Maybe the US GP and general interest in the US will change when Cadilac decides to forget about Le Mans and get an engine into F1 instead.

[Valve Bounce]

The three major sports in the U.S are Football( gridiron), baseball and basketball. There is no way any amount of cash would inject more interest in F1 than a good old College Football Game. These are the facts of life, and the U.S. Olympians had to live with this. So if American athletes cannot get that kind of attention in the press when they are winning heaps of gold medals, how can we expect press interest for a sport which they havn't seen for yonks, and only comes by once a year?