IndyCar: St. Petersburg confirmed through 2024 season
By Asher Fair
The IndyCar race in St. Petersburg is slated to remain on the schedule through the 2024 season following an additional four-year contract extension.
Entering the 2019 IndyCar season, the race at St. Petersburg, currently the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, was slated to remain on the schedule through the 2020 season.
Now this race is slated to remain on the schedule through at least the 2024 season, as the city of St. Petersburg and Green Savoree of St. Petersburg, LLC have reached an additional four-year contract extension.
The dates for the next five races at the venue were also set as a result of this contract extension. They are scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 15, 2020, Sunday, March 14, 2021, Sunday, March 13, 2022, Sunday, March 12, 2023 and Sunday, March 10, 2024.
Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern confirmed this news on Twitter.
St. Petersburg's city council this afternoon unanimously voted to extend Green Savoree Promotions' request to extend the deal allowing the IndyCar @GPStPete for another four years through '24.
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) July 18, 2019
➖ The deal was already set to go through '20. pic.twitter.com/VoHHzOYR35
The extension agreement provides fixed dates for the @GPStPete through '24, and it says the event brings in about 150,000 people per year.
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) July 18, 2019
➖ The city didn't say how much money it gets from hosting the race, but that it "receives revenue sharing tied to event attendance levels." pic.twitter.com/qM1G4SwmUq
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The 14-turn, 1.8-mile (2.897-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida has hosted one IndyCar race each year going all the way back to the 2005 season, and it has hosted the season opener in each of the last nine seasons going back to 2011.
The track also hosted the season opener in the 2009 season, and only once has it been outside of the first two races on the schedule. In its first season on the schedule 14 years ago, it was the third race.
While this new contract does not guarantee that this race will remain as the season opener, it is slated to continue to serve as such moving forward barring the addition of a new race, likely an overseas race if anything.
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The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is scheduled to open up the 2020 IndyCar season on Sunday, March 15. A total of 11 races have been confirmed on the 2020 schedule, and five of these 11 races have confirmed dates for next year. The schedule is expected to feature 17 or 18 races. The last three IndyCar schedules have featured 17 races.