The new IMS: A balancing act
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFor many decades, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a one-event venue–the Indianapolis 500 during the month of May, and that was it.
Today, that outlook has changed dramatically as the Speedway is in use for events proximately 200 days a year, creating a big economic impact on the city and state.
A report released just last year pegs the impact of activity at IMS at more than $1 billion, with more than half of that coming during the month of May.
Speaking during our Business at the Brickyard series on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, Penske Entertainment Senior Vice President Allison Melangton called the effort a balancing act, especially in May.
“As we balanced tradition versus innovation, we try to do some of the same things every year but give [fans] a little extra spice, a little extra innovation to make them interesting this year,” Melangton said. “We added the fan fests at four different locations around the state, which have been hugely popular, trying to connect fans directly to the Indy 500.”
But IMS officials continue to have discussions on how the Speedway can be utilized throughout the year, even beyond additional IndyCar and NASCAR races.
A benchmark of that effort was a 2015 concert featuring The Rolling Stones. Melangton said internal discussions are always happening.
“Since Roger Penske purchased us in in 2020, of course, he’s a big part of that. So between Doug Boles, Mark Miles and Roger, [there are] a lot of conversation about what works best here at our at our race track,” she said. “And we continue to add things; they are motorsports related, so I don’t know that if we’re going to add another Rolling Stones concert, but certainly everything is on the table.”
Melangton noted the corporate interest in IMS and the Indy 500 has been “off the charts.”
“We wish we had more hospitality space to put them in, more suites, more ability to host more events, but we’re basically sold out of every space every day,” she said. “We have a few pockets here and there of some of our smaller hospitality rooms if anyone’s interested. But overall, we’re sold out.”
You can watch more from our Business at the Brickyard series by clicking here.