Baltimore Grand Prix still in search of a title sponsor, promoters hopeful for 2014

For the third year in a row, the Baltimore Grand Prix will seemingly go off without a title sponsor and organizers are already looking to acquire one for next season.

Event general manager Tim Mayer told the Baltimore Business Journal on Tuesday that his group is looking for a title sponsor in the low seven figures ($1 million and up) and that multiple companies have expressed an interest in the 2014 event.

“I said last year it is a multiyear process and that’s still the case,” Mayer told the BBJ on Monday. “It’s unlikely we’ll have a title sponsor [for 2013] but the work we have done over the past 12 months will bear fruit.”

Mayer declined to name what companies are interested but added that they are all entities interested in reaching people living in the mid-Atlantic as most fans attended the race from their Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware and Washington D.C. homes.

The event has struggled to maintain promotional continuity since debuting in 2011. The event’s original organizers, Baltimore Racing Development, had its contract with the city terminated in 2011 due to unpaid debts. A few months later, Downforce Racing entered into a five-year agreement but had their contract terminated three months later after failing to meet their contractual requirements.

Andretti Sports Marketing took over soon afterwards and appears set to become the first group to promote the race two seasons in a row with the 2013 event set for Sept. 1. And with roughly a month to go until race weekend, both ticket sales and corporate suite sales are up, according to Mayer.

Andretti Sports Marketing also promotes the race at the Milwaukee Mile.

The story added that race officials expect to exceed both the 131,000 tickets sold in 2012 and could possibly match the 150,000 sold in the first year. That’s good news for one of the more beloved and widely-anticipated street course events currently on the schedule.