SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- Organizers with a party for Maxim, a magazine that caters to men, were expecting to make at least $1 million from a party it was hosting during the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. Instead, they only made a fraction of that, and now are suing because of it.
California-based Karma International, a company that organizes events, filed a breach of contract lawsuit in federal court in Indianapolis on Tuesday.
Karma International is demanding the Indianapolis Motor Speedway pay $817,500 in damages.
In the court filing, the company says it planned on 1,500 people to attend its Maxim party on May 27. Each ticket was to be sold for $500. Organizers planned on making $1,000,000 from the sale of tickets and tables. The event sold 418 tickets, some at discounted prices, which only generated $182,500.
The lawsuit says the Indianapolis Motor Speedway "failed to perform the advertising for the Indy 500 Maxim party."
Karma International claims the Speedway was supposed to notify 425,000 people about the event, but only sent out an email to 15,000 people.
Karma claims that a similar party at the Super Bowl it raked in $1,056,850.
A representative from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway released this statement in response to the lawsuit:
The claims made by Karma International in this complaint are false and IMS will vigorously defend against them. As this is pending litigation, we will have no further comment on the matter at this time
