IndyCar: After social-media outcry, last-minute deal gets fans race coverage

One way or another, since the mid-1980s, Canadian fans of Indy car racing have been able to watch TV coverage of their favourite sport.

CBC-TV was first, with Brian Williams and Bobby Unser in the announcers’ booth.

Then it was TSN and, later, Sportsnet, the latter featuring legendary retired Canadian racer Paul Tracy doing analysis.

All the races all the time for more than 30 years.

Today, in St. Petersburg, Fla., the first race of the 2019 season will get the green flag at 2 p.m.

James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, driving for a team co-owned by Canadian Rick Peterson of Calgary, will start ninth.

The injured Robbie Wickens of Guelph, featured on ABC’s Good

Morning America on Friday, is expected to be an integral part of the St. Pete race coverage.

Inexplicably, until Saturday afternoon, there was no Canadian coverage of this race.

It was only after intense pressure from IndyCar fans on social media that Canadian IndyCar rights holder Rogers Sportsnet announced it would make the race available on the Sportsnet.ca website.

The rest of the schedule, though, with the exception of the iconic Indianapolis 500 and the Honda Indy Toronto, remains up in the air so far as television is concerned.

Streaming, which costs money, is another story.

Sportsnet is making the other races available on digital channel Sportsnet NOW-plus, which costs either $20 a month or $200 a year if you want to pay up front.

And that’s on top of your regular monthly cable bill.

Like fans of the Maple Leafs, Blue Jays and Raptors, IndyCar fans are used to seeing every race live on television.

In the United States, NBC has the rights to IndyCar and will televise eight of the races on the main network, which Canadians with cable will be able to see, leaving nine on specialty channel NBC Sports Network, which Canadians are unable to get.

Now that St. Petersburg will be available on Sportsnet.ca and the Honda Indy Toronto will be on TV in Canada as part of the deal with Sportsnet, only six races are in digital-only play. But one of the them is another icon, the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

An IndyCar source told the Star Saturday it was clear nearly a year ago that as cost-cutting took place in Canadian television generally, IndyCar racing was under threat, as were other niche sports. “It wasn’t a matter of price. We thought of just asking for the time and then we’d go out and try to sell some advertising. But there just wasn’t the interest.”

“Our highest priority then became to make sure the Honda Indy Toronto got on television, with our second priority being the Indianapolis 500,” said Mark Miles, president and CEO of Hulman and Co., owners of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series. “We achieved both.”

And the Honda Indy will be carried on Sportsnet 1 and the 500 on Sportsnet 360. Fans are far from satisfied. “It seems strange that IndyCar would sign a contract with a major TV network that has six channels available but instead puts the races on an expensive streaming service,” said Mike Sullivan of Scarborough.

John Strothard of Pickering added: “Following great momentum for IndyCar, we have this sudden misstep. Cable TV rates are already at the breaking point in Canada.

“Most folks, including me, will simply refuse to pay more.”