Planning and managing an international motorsports event can be exciting – and also a continuous challenge. People often ask me what it’s like, how we work and what we do exactly to ensure the successful execution of the Honda Indy Toronto. So, to try and help answer some of these questions – and to open up my world of racing and event management to you, I thought a monthly blog might be of interest. So here goes…
A good place to start is the beginning: what do we do with our time year-round...outside of race week?
I’m frequently asked this questions, or variants of it, and I always take it as a compliment. We often discuss internally that it’s our job to make it all look easy. Only when it looks easy does it mean that we’ve taken care of the majority of potential issues in advance and are able to easily manage the unexpected and unforeseen issues that are all but certain to develop with an event of this scale and scope.
We have certainly not been spared our fair share of trials and tribulations over the past several years during the “off season” including several ownership changes: Molson Sports & Entertainment selling to the newly created Grand Prix Association of Toronto who in turn sold to Andretti Green Savoree Toronto, ULC who in turn split off to create Green Savoree Toronto, ULC - the current owners and promoters of the race. Changing ownership created the perception of instability and different policies and priorities. Now that we’re part of Green Savoree Racing Promotions, who also own the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the Mid Ohio Sports Car Complex, I firmly believe this event has more long-term stability and future growth potential than it has in the past decade. We are committed to being race promoters. It’s our core business, our passion and our strategic advantage. It’s what we do and what we understand. It’s how we are going to grow our business and contribute to the growth of the sport.
Here’s a glimpse of our world outside of race week.
Our Operations team, headed by the incomparable Jim Tario, is tasked with the responsibility of dismantling the track, grandstands, fencing, etc. no later than the last Friday of July. No matter what our race date, we have to return a clean site back to Exhibition Place by the end of July to provide enough time for the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) to set up. What takes six weeks for us to set up, has to be torn down in less than three. It certainly is a different business model when we need to build our “stadium” every year only to tear it down once again immediately thereafter. In fact, the minute the checkered flag drops on the final race on Sunday our crews are working to open up Lake Shore Blvd in time for the next day’s early morning rush hour.
In the meantime, our other departments are tasked with completing post event reports and analysis for both internal review and external distribution to our sponsors and business partners. These reports are evaluated against budget plans and help form the basis of budgets moving forward. With a couple weeks of well-deserved vacation, all wrap up is completed by Labour Day.
Right after Labour Day, our entire focus shifted to the upcoming race - the 2012 Honda Indy Toronto. First up was the development of the ticket strategy. We were very pleased to hire Matt Sherman to head up our ticketing and customer service this year. Matt and his sales team made about 100 phone calls a day to ticket holders and achieved our highest renewal rate in the past six years! After, they activated a “Sorry we missed you” initiative to previous ticket holders who didn’t attend the race last year and executed a targeted Christmas campaign. We are pleased that ticket sales for the 2012 race are trending very well.
Michael Gaid has been handling operations and logistics, along with the sourcing and negotiating with suppliers. In total, more than 65 suppliers or subcontractors are required for the safe and secure execution of our event.
We’ve been fortunate to be approached by several support races interested in racing in Toronto. This is a testament to the overall event when we can attract the best series and have encouraging discussions with them based on the overall quality of their “show” (car count), additional sponsorship revenue, and activation and promotional support. Announcement regarding our final track schedule should be forthcoming in the next several weeks.
I often compare our work to building a fairly large-sized town or community. We need a lot of the same things: an infrastructure – grandstands, track barriers, fencing, Police, EMS, Fire, transportation, security, and even port-a-potties. We need entertainment or “culture” – IndyCar, support series, interactive exhibits, Thunder Alley, PA system, and video boards. We need residents or “customers” – ticket holders, sponsors, hospitality guests. We need to feed our community members (an area that we’re focused on improving and expanding) and we need to pull it all off seamlessly.
I hope this helps shed a little light into what we do in the “off season”. Stay tuned for more insights coming up soon – and let me know what you are curious about.
See you at the races,
Charlie Johnstone
Vice President & General Manager
Honda Indy Toronto
