Your Thoughts: Indy off the track

The Edmonton Indy is officially off.

The city and the event promoter were unable to come to an agreement on a location for the 2011 event. The current track would have required a $3-million track retrofit, and the city and the event sponsor couldn't agree on who should pay.

Montreal-based Octane took over the race from Northlands in July. The Edmonton Indy lost $9 million over its first two races in 2008 and 2009.

Octane said in a release it will look at relocating the 2011 event to another city.

IndyCar is trying to rebound from years of low TV ratings and diminished fan interest due to a split in open wheel racing that led to two competing leagues - Champ Car and IndyCar series. The two series merged three years ago under the IndyCar standard but the circuit still lags far behind NASCAR racing in popularity, TV exposure and revenue.

Edmonton was considered one of the better attended IndyCar events, though the IRL forbids event sponsors from releasing attendance figures.

But Edmonton city councillor Kim Krushell said that even without the hard data, it was clear there were smaller crowds every year.

"Our citizens weren't buying tickets and I gather tourists weren't buying tickets to go to the event," said Krushell.

"That's a real concern for me having to make decisions on how much we want to backstop a race.

"If our own citizens don't want to go, how are we going to be successful going forward?"

Toronto is the only other Canadian stop on the Indy Racing League's schedule.

Do you think the City should have done more to ensure the Indy Race stayed in Edmonton? Have your say in our online poll.