The good news is that the Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing League are back together.�

The bad news is that because this deal came together in such a rush at the absolutely last minute, the Toronto Grand Prix (née the Molson Indy) is not on the schedule. Toronto is out and Edmonton is in – which is a disgrace and a mistake, all at the same time.

It's a disgrace because the media and corporate capital of this country is being ignored. Edmonton is a wonderful place and they put on a wonderful race but Toronto is where the action is and where the growth – financial and otherwise – would come.

Oh, they say, don't worry, Toronto will be back in 2009. But the people saying that don't know Toronto. If Danica (Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue model) Patrick, Helio (Dancing with the Stars) Castroneves and Paul (Hometown Hero) Tracy aren't racing through the streets of the CNE this summer, they're going to be a tough sell a year from now.

I'll tell you why. Except for the Maple Leafs, nothing is certain in Toronto. The Blue Jays won two world championships and played in front of 50,000 people every time they stepped on the field. Then, in 1994, there was the players' strike and the Rogers Centre has been more than half empty ever since.

So the powers-that-be shouldn't assume that the people of Toronto will automatically go flocking back to the Ex just because the IRL deigns to come here when it feels like it.

This year? Now, that would have been a different story.

Yes, the Toronto Grand Prix started to fall on hard times after 2002 when just about the last of the big teams and name drivers left for the IRL.

The coup de grace came after the 2005 race when Molson dropped ownership and sponsorship. In 2006 and last year, there was lots of room to walk around and ad signage was sparse.

But I can say with confidence that the crowds that jammed the Ex every July for all those years, from 1986 all the way up to '02, were just waiting for something like unification to happen. Sponsors, too.

For instance, and with respect, who the hell was Katherine Legge? She'd been in barely 30 races in her entire life and they put her in a Champ Car and said she was a big league driver.

People are not stupid.

Ditto Neil Jani, Alex Figge, Simon Pagenaud and Dan Clarke. Who were those guys?

But bring back the stars and the up-and-comers – the Tony Kanaans, the Scott Dixons, the Dan Wheldons and the Marco Andrettis – and put `em up against the Champ Car drivers who really are among the best – the Tracys, the Justin Wilsons and the Graham Rahals – and you would have had a stampede to buy tickets and corporate space.

This year.

People will point out that the IRL would have had problems inserting Toronto into its schedule. It has races scheduled just about every weekend in July and its July 6 event in Watkins Glen, N.Y., conflicts directly with the Toronto Grand Prix.

But there was wiggle room. The IRL had a date open at the end of the month, the weekend of July 27. It could have inserted the Toronto race there but opted for Edmonton instead.

There are undoubtedly legitimate reasons why they did this. To repeat: Edmonton is a terrific event.

But Toronto is being snubbed in the process, and that will come back to haunt.

nmcdonald@thestar.ca

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