NHRA boots ESPN!

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by goinbroke2

You know, show the wheels in the air launches and one car catching the other, then close in on the finish line, maybe slo-mo for effect and it'd work. Pinks proved you can race 9sec or 19 sec and make an exciting show of it.

Put camera's in the chaser car

Put several close camera's to pan along the track so it visually seems faster/more exciting

Put camera's down low to watch the front wheels lift up and off the line

Get somebody who knows how to build excitement, heck if they can show soap box derby cars starting and then coasting along a hill and pump fans up why in hell can't somebody figure out how to pump up two cars jumping the front and screaming to the finish?????

You hit the nail on the head. You need someone who can build the excitement. The current announcers are very boring at the national events. A really good announcer or commentator that knows the classes and their system can make all of the classes real interesting. Some of the fans like a long handicapped race between a low hp car and a big inch killer. I also think NHRA should mix up the run order. InStead or all of the pro classes then some sportsman they should be intermixed. That might keep some fans in the stands to watch sportsman. They also need to figure out how to speed up the pro classes. Takes way to long between runs and classes.

[ken robinson]

Dose this bring an end to D3TV which is great .....

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by Mike Pearson

A really good announcer or commentator that knows the classes and their system can make all of the classes real interesting. Some of the fans like a long handicapped race between a low hp car and a big inch killer. I also think NHRA should mix up the run order.

Other than the Triple Crown, how much horse racing do you watch on TV?

Jim

[FireSale]

TV set aside, to really boost interest in the drags bring in on track betting. Give fans a chance to get some skin in the game.

How many ways could you work this?

Storms v Boyce:
win
MOV
package
reaction time
dial to ET

Dale

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by jwsamuel

Other than the Triple Crown, how much horse racing do you watch on TV?

Jim

None but that is several hours of TV time and about 2 minutes of actual horse racing. The rest of the time is just talking heads analyzing what is going to happen in the actual race. Not a good comparison. Drag racing if properly presented is a great show. The HRA's need to think outside of the box to grow the sport and the fan base.

[BLIND MULE]

http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-...ckage-for-2016

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by BLIND MULE

http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-...ckage-for-2016

Now that looks like they did a good job with the new package.

Jim

[Nick Heath]

The National Hockey League increased their revenue ~60% and just about doubled their average TV ratings since they ended their deal with ESPN. I know that's miles away from an apples-to-apples comparison but I remember the same concerns being voiced back then; I mean how could you take a sport seriously when their primary TV deal was with what was then called the Outdoor Life Network!?!?

I guess what I'm getting at is, I can't see how this could be any worse than the ESPN deal was. Alan brings up a good point about the time slots and pre-emptions. It's true that a lot of people may not have FS1, but at the same time, I don't think a lot of people are watching broadcasts that start at 2am or are delayed for upwards of an hour because of some football hall of fame speech that's already being shown on ESPN News.

[Chris1529]

Drag racing is about the cars and the drivers just as much as it is on the on track action.
Perhaps showing everything live isn't the best answer.

Its about the guys that thrashed in the evening all week to change transmission or rear-end then drove for 6 hours from a different part of the country through a blinding rain storm to wait in line to get into the track.

They have to find a way to have a lot more stories like that in between the pro runs, classes, and clean-ups and unfortunately, it takes a lot of production and editing to do that, so showing everything live.
Merely interviewing the pros in this dead time has gotten old really quick. There are may personalities at a drag race other than the pro's that can make the TV viewing a lot more interesting, but it will be a challenge to do more on TV with the intent of keeping everything live or even tape delay with only 3-4 hours of editing.