Changes?

[Alan Roehrich]

You cannot charge people what NHRA and NASCAR want to charge. It simply won't work. The tickets are high, the concessions are high and they are not good, and the memorabilia is outrageous. They are not even close to being competitive for the entertainment dollar.

I dearly love this sport, to the point of doing fiscally stupid things to stay in it. But I won't pay what they charge just to spectate.

There is nothing wrong with profit, profit is a good thing, and it inspires businesses, and keeps them viable. But NHRA and NASCAR are killing motorsports with greed. They drive off the live spectators with price gouging, and then NHRA drives off the TV audience with their ESPN deal. All of which drives off sponsors. Half the pro fields are hanging on by their fingernails and going broke doing it.

[MikeMoller]

Both NASCAR and NHRA have just plain forgotten the fans. Notice during TV coverage they hardly ever show the stands, which are hardly full for any event. The money comes from TV. Ten years ago there was a major increase in popularity, lot of 'newbie' fans, and of course ticket prices got raised. However, the economy went south, the fad passed, and attendance has dwindled. But ticket prices have not come down, and will not come down, a lot of the 'old' loyal fans can't afford the higher prices. The sanctioning bodies have no interest in having fans in the stands. Shame on them.

[Mike Pearson]

I was at Daytona this weekend for the Coke Zero 400. I was amazed at the amount of construction taking place at the speedway. They are spending millions of dollars on the place adding a huge amount of seating, concessions and restrooms. Escalators to get to the upper seating. Its hard to believe that they adding more seats when they cant fill the seats they have now. I guess they are planning for the future when the economy picks up and we have more disposable cash. Nascar is crazy expensive for what you get in entertainment value. You can go to NHRA national event for the whole weekend for what it costs for an afternoon at the Nascar track.
Cost dictates everything in racing. If you make it more difficult it will only hurt the already dwindling car counts. we as racers need to do everything we can to help the new blood get excited about our sport.

[cutta]

The people I've exposed to racing simply are not interested enough to ever get involved or interested enough to pay to attend an event. They have about a 2hr interest window and then there interest is gone. I've also done a good job of explaining classes and why the classes are run the way they are, and have exposed them to Pro, Sportsman, and Outlaw racing. They simply aren't hooked enough to attend any of those events. In addition, when I explain the costs involved to race at these events and then further discuss the costs of the trailers and rigs people haul with, they definitely can't validate that kind of expense. At the end of the day, racing really is not an average mans game anymore unless your bracket racing or racing 4-6 events a year like local outlaw racers.

[Mile High]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

I was at Daytona this weekend for the Coke Zero 400. I was amazed at the amount of construction taking place at the speedway. They are spending millions of dollars on the place adding a huge amount of seating, concessions and restrooms. Escalators to get to the upper seating. Its hard to believe that they adding more seats when they cant fill the seats they have now. I guess they are planning for the future when the economy picks up and we have more disposable cash. Nascar is crazy expensive for what you get in entertainment value. You can go to NHRA national event for the whole weekend for what it costs for an afternoon at the Nascar track.
Cost dictates everything in racing. If you make it more difficult it will only hurt the already dwindling car counts. we as racers need to do everything we can to help the new blood get excited about our sport.

I took a tour of Daytona Speedway last fall. They said they are going to close the back stretch seating and have seating only on the one side when completed.

It's all bang for your buck. They are pricing themselves out of peoples reach. From the local bracket race to a national event make the prices where a person can afford to go. Make it the most affordable entertainment there is.

Bracket racing isn't that hard to follow. Most of us aren't brain surgeons or rocket scientists and we understand how it works. Make it affordable and promote it through the media. Watching the NHRA on ESPN if it isn't nitro its no big deal.

Jeff

[Ed Wright]

[QUOTE] Bracket racing isn't that hard to follow. Most of us aren't brain surgeons or rocket scientists and we understand how it works. Make it affordable and promote it through the media. Watching the NHRA on ESPN if it isn't nitro its no big deal.[QUOTE]

Jeff, it is not hard to understand, just boring to watch. Pretty much nobody cares to watch us. That makes it harder for track operators to make any money running us when they can't sell tickets to anybody to sit in the stands.

[Rose Racing]

Originally Posted by Mile High

I took a tour of Daytona Speedway last fall. They said they are going to close the back stretch seating and have seating only on the one side when completed.

It's all bang for your buck. They are pricing themselves out of peoples reach. From the local bracket race to a national event make the prices where a person can afford to go. Make it the most affordable entertainment there is.

Bracket racing isn't that hard to follow. Most of us aren't brain surgeons or rocket scientists and we understand how it works. Make it affordable and promote it through the media. Watching the NHRA on ESPN if it isn't nitro its no big deal.

Jeff

I agree and running S and S/S before anyone gets there isnt helping the cause either...........

[Tom P]

I think the fans are not fleeced any worse than at other sporting events, hockey and football games and music concerts all gouge fans worse. But as car enthusiasts we may not be used to that. Most of the people responding to my parts ads on Craigslist seem to think all prices are still at 1960's levels and i'm sure would balk at $20 to get in to a race never mind $60.

Besides the ticket prices there is still everything else costing more to leave less spending money.

[Nick Heath]

Originally Posted by Rose Racing

I agree and running S and S/S before anyone gets there isnt helping the cause either...........

A couple years at Indy, my dad and I showed up at 8:00 AM on Wednesday, just before the 1st round of Stock qualifying. We were told that we had to wait until 9:00 or 10:00 AM (whenever it was that the gate was scheduled to open).

Originally Posted by Michael Beard

They assume they'll sell more merchandise with it on a rack or table instead of at a trailer... instead of working to reestablish a dynamic bond between the fan and the car/driver. If the fans don't care about the car/driver, they're not going to buy a shirt regardless of how it is displayed.

I was never really a Whit Bazemore fan, but he nailed it in that Comp Plus article from a few months back. When I was younger, people looked forward to Force/Hofmann, Force/Cruz, WJ/Geoffrion, etc....
These days, who really cares who wins or who's racing who?

The ticket prices aren't necessarily horrible, but for Friday/Saturday, you're paying $50-$60 just to watch QUALIFYING! And if it's a three day national event and you like S/SS, that means you're paying $50-$60 to watch them! That's not including a reserved seat, which you need to sit anywhere on the track, even though the stands are barely 2/3rds full even when the Nitro cars are running.

[Jim Bailey]

This is probably NASCARS first response to the Race Team Owners announcing recently they are "organizing". Forming a union like our "PRO" in NHRA. ( Now the turf (money) battles begin! ) - JB-