WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin — Shari Black, the CEO and executive director of the Wisconsin State Fair, had reason to feel redeemed after Saturday’s return of IndyCar Series racing to the Milwaukee Mile.
Following a story that NBCSports.com wrote on Friday, citing uncertainty whether enough fans would attend Saturday’s first race of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s or engage in other Labor Day weekend activities, Saturday’s crowd fulfilled her positive hopes.
It wasn’t a sellout and there were plenty of seats that remained available, but the crowd that witnessed Pato O’Ward’s victory over Will Power was a great first start to make the Milwaukee Mile matter again to IndyCar fans.
Penske Corporation President Bud Denker and Wisconsin State Fair Park Chairman John Yingling are confident even more fans will attend Sunday’s second race of the doubleheader.
The Wisconsin State Fair was the official promoter of IndyCar’s return to the 1.015-mile short oval for the first time since 2015. It’s partner in the project was IndyCar, specifically Denker and his staff that includes Vice President IndyCar Promoter and Broadcast Partnerships Michael Montri, Communications Director of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s Merrill Cain and IndyCar’s Director, Event Promotions and Operations Anne Fischgrund. There were also many key members of Denker’s Detroit Grand Prix staff that helped stage an IndyCar race weekend just one week after the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series had a race at the Milwaukee Mile on August 24.
One of the more popular additions that Black and her Wisconsin State Fair Board added to the race weekend was a free Fan Zone outside of the grandstands. It utilized the popular restaurants, bars and exhibition halls at Wisconsin State Fair Park to be open to the public in a festival like setting for all three days of the IndyCar race weekend.
NBCSports.com’s Nate Ryan took a few moments to check out the Fan Zone before Saturday evening’s race and commented that it was packed with fans. He said it gave the event an Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach atmosphere.
Race promoters were hopeful that if a percentage of fans in the Fan Zone decided to attend the race, then the strategy would be a success.
Although the numbers of Saturday’s crowd aren’t in, NBCSports.com spoke to both Yingling and Denker before Saturday’s first race of the weekend doubleheader.
“We have 15 thousand (tickets sold) in the bank right now for today,” Denker told NBCSports.com regarding advance ticket sales for Saturday’s race. “Walkup is probably going to be another 1,000 to 2,000 on top of that.
“Put comps on top of that, our hopes are we will have 18,000 to 20,000 today and more for Sunday.
“That’s a good number. That’s a number like we had in Iowa the first year without the millions of dollars in entertainment.”
The expectation level for IndyCar’s return was set at a level race promoters believed was achievable, considering the nine-year absence without an IndyCar race.
“As I mentioned to someone, this is a startup,” Denker continued. “We are starting this thing back up again and you don’t start it up immediately by selling every seat you have in the place.
“Sunday’s weather is going to be 72 degrees as a high. The race is going to be seen today, and we’ll have a bigger crowd tomorrow.”
Yingling confirmed that last week’s race for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race was 12,800.
“Last week’s crowd was 12,800 people and the year before it was 15,000 people,” Yingling told NBCSports.com. “I’ll give you an example and that example is the first six days of the Wisconsin State Fair we had heat and humidity. We were still right on pace, but that heat and humidity did keep the crowds down.
“But as soon as we hit Wednesday, we had San Diego-like weather from Wednesday through the last Sunday, we had records each day. At the end of the fair, we had 1,136,000 spectators — a record for the State Fair.
“So, 12,800 for the truck race with the heat that we had, it was like an oven. It was hot. We had some people at the vendors stand watching the race on TV sitting in the shade.
“I thought the NASCAR truck race was pretty good. That’s a good attendance.”
Denker also explained the importance of the crowd in the Fan Zone.
“The other thing I want you to do is too, be sure you take a walk through the tunnel, and you look at the fan area,” he said. “Remember, that fan area is free.
“We’re not even counting the people out there, because we can’t. That’s free.”
But the question the remains is, if a promoter creates that experience for free, what entices them to spend money to buy a race ticket?
“Because they’re hearing the race, and they want to see what’s going on,” Denker explained. “We wanted that hook to get them here, and they see that race. So that was a very good idea to put that on as free because a concert’s out there free as well.
“They see what’s going on. They’re enticed to come in and then find a seat in the grandstands.
“You’ll witness the fans we have today and tomorrow, but also, you’re going to witness the fans out there buying services from those vendors out there. It looks fantastic. We’re going to leave as happy as can based on the crowd that we will have today and happier tomorrow when you see the fans in those grandstands.”
The promoters decided to concentrate the spectators in the main portion of the grandstands. They blocked off entire sections in Turns 1 and Turns 4 with large tarps featuring sponsorship logos – a practice widely used at some of the larger speedways in both NASCAR and IndyCar as ticket sales have leveled off since the days of the sold-out grandstands.
The Wisconsin State Fair has had a very busy summer promoting a variety of events before and after the fair and saw IndyCar as another way to enhance its brand.
“What I would like to say about the state fair is we worked hard at building a brand promoting State Fair,” Yingling said. “When I started, we were $8 million in the red.
“Now we have the largest capital reserve in the park’s history that started in 1851. We took over the Expo in 2011 that was in almost insolvent and now it’s used almost every weekend non-fair and non-holiday. We took over the midway and made that a success and now we’re self-promoting with IndyCar as the partner, this particular race, and that’s why I think we have a real good chance of success here.
“The last three years, we’ve had record profitability. The last three years, we’ve reached over a million people. So, could we promote an IndyCar race?
“I think my particular problem was turning it over to a promoter again. That is a little like, ‘OK, now I’ve turned the keys over, now I’ve lost control. And what you’ll find is I like control, and I think with control we’ve been able to work be able to work with key partners this one with IndyCar and be able to put together a really good product.
“I looked at it this way — was it a gamble for us to go undertake this?
“I think would have been a gamble not to do it.”
Once IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske committed to a return to the Milwaukee Mile, it was time to set the plan into motion.
“I feel it’s less of a gamble because we know the market we’ve been able to turn around events, and we’ve got IndyCar as a partner,” Yingling continued. “So doing this as ourselves, as a promoter, that really gives us an opportunity to really strip out a lot of the risk.”
How did the driver’s feel about IndyCar’s return to the Milwaukee Mile?
“Yeah, it was pretty good,” Will Power said after finishing second to Pato O’Ward in the race. “There was a lot of passing, back and forth. I thought the crowd was really good, too. Sounded awesome once you got out of the car, the cheer of the crowd.
“I think it was a very successful return. A lot of fun in the race.”
According to IndyCar, there were 667 on-track passes, a season high for 2024. Of those passes, 326 were for position, another season high and the most on record at the Milwaukee Mile.
Conor Daly alone had 51 on-track passes as he raced his way from the rear of the field to a third-place finish. That’s the most of any driver in 2024.
The fans that came to the first IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile since 2015 were also treated to a popular winner, as Pato O’Ward of Monterrey, Mexico drove to victory in his first ever race at flat 1.015-mile oval.
“It was fantastic,” O’Ward said of the fan support. “You could just hear the cheers of everybody. Super happy on the podium. Everybody was just super into it, brought a lot of energy today. That was fantastic to see.
“My first time here in Milwaukee, so I don’t know what to compare to, but this was fantastic. It’s really been amazing. It was a pretty good race. We could get through traffic and stuff like that, so that usually means it’s eventful pretty much everywhere but leaders.
“It was definitely a success and excited for tomorrow.”
The drivers were excited, the fans were excited and there was plenty of corporate support from companies such as Hy-Vee, Direct Supply and Bob Hillis, Gallagher, Odyssey, IU Health and Penske Automotive. Hy-Vee is the entitlement sponsor, and the others all purchased suites for the weekend of racing.
“If you look at Shari and what her team was able to do, and Bud’s exactly right, our team’s mesh so well together, our cultures mesh so well together, our team wants to be successful,” Yingling said. “I think from the perspective, was this a gamble?
“As I said, it was a gamble not to do it.”