Can NHRA survive without John Force ?

[Mike Pearson]

Its just a matter of time before John Force, Don Schumacher and Connie Kallita decide to retire. Sponsor issues will make this happen. It takes a lot of money to run any of these big teams. None of these owners are going to run the teams on their own money. Schumacher had his son sitting on the sideline with no sponsor to pay the bill on his car. When this finally happens and it will the pro show will be much different than we have seen for the past couple of decades. No one person or team is going to cause NHRA to fold up and disappear. Poor management, bad business practices and a failing economy will be the cause of that. There have already been some really big name Pro stars that have retired over the years and NHRA did not shut down.
Sportsman seem to be alive and well right now. Plenty of cars have been showing up at the divisional races that have been run since the shut down.

[AC]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

Its just a matter of time before John Force, Don Schumacher and Connie Kallita decide to retire. Sponsor issues will make this happen. It takes a lot of money to run any of these big teams. None of these owners are going to run the teams on their own money. Schumacher had his son sitting on the sideline with no sponsor to pay the bill on his car. When this finally happens and it will the pro show will be much different than we have seen for the past couple of decades. No one person or team is going to cause NHRA to fold up and disappear. Poor management, bad business practices and a failing economy will be the cause of that. There have already been some really big name Pro stars that have retired over the years and NHRA did not shut down.
Sportsman seem to be alive and well right now. Plenty of cars have been showing up at the divisional races that have been run since the shut down.

Unless NHRA follows F1 and starts to restrict some spending i cant see how teams will be able to survive. If Chevy leaves Force that will be a huge blow, DS doesnt want to spend his own money and Capco could be out soon also as the pipeline business is going through some major hurdles. Throw in the virus and election this year, companies are worried about their financial situations and usually first on the chopping block is racing. May be NASCAR will buy the NHRA and its assets for a major discount.

[MR DERBY CITY]

After various replies, perhaps the title should be....Can NHRA survive EVEN with John Force ?

[GUMP]

Originally Posted by AC

.....May be NASCAR will buy the NHRA and its assets for a major discount.

It will be interesting to see how NASCAR does over the next few years. They have lost a lot of their fan base lately.

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by GUMP

It will be interesting to see how NASCAR does over the next few years. They have lost a lot of their fan base lately.

NASCAR seems to be doing OK right now. They are racing and the TV viewer numbers are up about 8-10 percent above the pre virus numbers. They are loosing on the amount of spectators that are not at the racetrack each week. They seem to be keeping the sponsors happy with the good TV coverage.

That is one of the things that is hurting the NHRA. They have no TV revenue and virtually no good TV coverage. Right now the only have some sportsman racing going on and that is not going to keep their sponsors happy. Between what the sportsman and spectators bring in that's what pays the pros along with their sponsor money. No Race No Sponsor money.

[drag pack]

I think I am going to get in on this discussion. Maybe they will have to go down to 8 car fields and can hopefully up the sportsman entries. They (NHRA) haven't figured out yet that Pro teams cost them money and sportsman racers bring them money just on entry fee alone. I am not sure on this but the Blue Def pulled a lot of sponsorship from teams like Dan Fletcher and I had thought it was just to cover Force but maybe not. Corporate dollars might not be as easily accessible as the big teams are used to.They can easily run most events in a 3 day format which would make life easier for the sportsman racer with taking time off from work. but until the stands are full they are missing out on cubic dollars from concessions, merchandising, not to mention local hotels and stuff like that. There are bigger issues for sure,more so than Force, Torrance, or Salinas.

Just my 2 cents

C.P.
6664 Drag Pack

[Kevin Panzino]

Originally Posted by drag pack

They (NHRA) haven't figured out yet that Pro teams cost them money and sportsman racers bring them money just on entry fee alone....
Just my 2 cents

C.P.
6664 Drag Pack

Sorry, but this is not even close to being accurate .
Not sure how many times we all have to go over this....

Typical National Event:
say 1,000 sportsman entries, car and crew x $350 each $350,000
100,000 Spectators over the three days, at an average of say $40 each: $4,000,000

And this is not counting all the promotional items sold to the spectators.

The fuel cars bring the spectators, and the spectators pay for it. Which allows us to play with our expensive toys at the big show.

[drag pack]

Hi Kevin,

I think you misunderstood what I meant. I was talking strictly entry fees. For right now there aren't going to be any fans or very few. I am well aware that most people go to the National events to see the nitro cars. The NHRA will need to get some dollars from entry fees as there will not be the big crowds that they are used to. So maybe try and get more sportsman entries at the national events. Just how I see it

C.P.
6664 Drag Pack

[Mike Jones]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

... and virtually no good TV coverage.

I watched the D1 LODRS coverage from Lebanon Valley, most of the weekend. At the end of the day on Sunday, coverage video was from behind the starting line and panned to both cars in the water. I think the view from there has potential.

check it at 7:07:29
MJ