For three years, Champ Cars splattered the City Centre Airport race track with rubber and red ink and Edmonton's taxpayers were free to enjoy the cacophonous spectacle, knowing they wouldn't have to clean it up after the checkered flag flew.

Enter the Indy Racing League, which in Year 1 saw new event owner Northlands host an entertaining July 2008 race that left an unruly and unexpected $5.3-million mess in its wake, with another $1.5-million deficit projected for an ethanol-fuelled weekend this summer to be marketed amid the globe's worst economic downturn in half a century.

After signing a three-year deal with the IRL on May 25 last year, Northlands had but eight weeks to flog the race and fell $3 million short of revenue projections due to a dearth of sponsorship and ticket sales. Any bets on how hard it's going to be to find willing fans and able sponsors now?

For more context, the local organizing group lost about $6 million over the three-year Champ Car run here, despite attracting an average of almost 180,000 fans to each one. Though IRL and Northlands refuse to divulge attendance figures, it is believed the three-day total fell well short of even the lowest Champ Car attendance, which was 167,243 in 2007.

All that said, it shouldn't come as a surprise how the IRL brain trust feels about the Rexall Edmonton Indy today.

"We're thrilled," said IRL commercial division president Terry Angstadt. "If you really look at that investment against the overall economic impact for the city, I was thrilled."

OK, that was a surprise. Most IndyCar driveshafts won't create that kind of spin.

As you might expect, Angstadt is not an Edmonton taxpayer. He represents the sanctioning body in this business relationship and a racing source said the confidential sanctioning fee is likely in the $2.5-million US range, per year.

In Edmonton, the thrill was gone the moment Northlands made its event summary public Wednesday afternoon.

Northlands president Ken Knowles called it a $5.3-million "investment" for the city.

I'm sorry, it's a deficit, and it's way, way bigger than Northlands said it would be.

In the heady days following the signing of that IRL contract, city councillors were told the race might lose $1 million in 2008 and they unanimously agreed to cover the loss (or share in the profits) as it was so optimistically stated in the event summary. Council jumped into the passenger seat without bothering to place a cap on their financial support.

That's either blind faith, stupidity, or--what did Knowles call it--oh yes, an investment. Fast forward to Wednesday and we find out the Northlands budget estimate was off by a mere 400 per cent.

"We certainly like the market," said Angstadt. "We think with Rexall's involvement, and you know the name of Rexall's owner, all of the elements are there. From a sanctioning body's perspective, that's everything you look for.

"I can completely understand your point on the taxpayers' reaction to that, but from a sanctioning body's perspective, love the event, love to be there a long time."

Source - Edmonton Journal