Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Young families with kids to the tracks yes that is great and we need that, but as was mentioned by Vande77 tweens and younger have disposable income that they are willing to part with. They make impules buys that the grey haired fan just does not do. Event, Entertainment and Sport, do you not think the NFL is ENTERTAINMENT! Sorry but that is what it is, pure and simple it is enterainment and the sooner the sport wakes up and realizes that it will go further. Younger fans and yes younger families want entertainment and that means quite simply keep me interested the whole time and have other distractions to occupy me when the action is not happening on the track.

Like it or not NASCAR is just that entertainment, do we need to go that extreme? NO! Do we need some of it? YES! Hey here is a thought, the track is DIRT, BMX Bikes go on DIRT! Hmmmmm BMX attracts younger fans! Hmmmm what about a BMX display before the event? OMG What a concept or at intermission? Hey here is another thought,,, hmmmmm how about a CAR SHOW with sub compacts? Get a Audio Store to sponsor it and have a stero blast competition and charge and entry fee which is good for one admission ticket. Wait that would require effort and marketing.

John like it or not those that view this as pure sport are declining as they age they die and they are not being replaced at the same rate. You get the YOUNG GEN X excited and they come in droves and they have $$$$$ and corporate America wants those $$$$$. X-Games ticket is $20 for the whole day ,,, hmmm wonder why that is? Oh yeah CORPORATE SPONSORS and they have attendance of over 45,000 per day. Do not believe things are going that way did you watch the Olympics? Summer and Winter dedicated over 40% of programming to the so called X-Treme sports ,,, hmmm wonder why that is. Gray Beard sports get less and less coverage every year and will continue to do so.

Either we reach out to the younger audience or our audience dies and we sit on the front porch and talk about hey remember when....

Whoops one more thing the more Gen-X the easier it is to sell sponsors for the teams. The larger segment of the audience that is younger with more disposable income means more sponsors for teams as well.

Probably...

The fact is that this train of thought is either coming from an accountant or someone covering their ass.

It's easier to control costs (reduce the purse) than it is to create new sales / marketing opportunities and attendance.

Unfortunately, that is a very SHORT term answer and one that the Fair Board, The Sprint Car Hall of Fame and the Fans of Knoxville Raceway should not except.

The simple facts are:

You must create demand for your product (whatever it is). How do you do that with Sprint Car racing? Make the shows a "CAN'T MISS" EVENTS.... Something that each and every attendee goes home to say I won't miss another.

EVENT is the key. Not just a weekly show a WEEKLY EVENT. Racing donkey's doesn't qualify in my mind as adding to a sprint car race but things like "PIT PARTIES, DRIVER APPEARANCES, MUSIC can add to the demand.

Show value to the product (cost vs.return). Examples of $10 tickets at the DesMoines Cubs, the $30+ tickets at Iowa Stars, etc.... only go so far. You handle the above demand and most will create their own assumed value that might even be higher than you present. Free Tickets only get people in the first time. It pisses off season ticket holders (and the paying ones), lessons the value of the product and.... so don't go crazy on the free just to fill seats. You create that value and everyone will only come when they are free.

Maintain consistency of the product (do things right as much as possible). While most hard core fans will wait for the track to be worked (for the quality of show), the majority of the casual fan would rather things run on time and won't know how good a show is anyway. Start times and ending times are a major issue.

Once you can safely say you can provide the above then you need to tell people about that product and explain why they should buy. Obviously TV, Radio, Print advertising can all play major parts in this. In a market such as Des Moines it can also be done at reasonable rates. Try it with the Devils Bowl (and Dallas) and you're screwed. But promotions with such general advertsing methods require "ALL THE TIME" building "BRAND AWARNESS" and can also get expensive. Appearances (pay some teams to show up) at Malls, Schools, other Events (Hockey Games) can do a great deal of good. Some good ole door banging, how about getting school kids to generate money (fundraising) selling tickets?...... and the thoughts go on.

To make a long story short(er) the creativity in remarks like let's move to 360's would be like "I can't make any money growing 1,000 acres of corn so I'll just grow 500 acres this year. You still lose money, just not as much.

PS:.... IMO there are very few race tracks (or promoters) that should be in the food business. Sell / Lease / Rent out the concessions to people that know what they are doing.

Excellent job by src!

Now there is someone who understands the situation.

Finally, somebody gets it! E-Mods and Mini-Vans! The future! Tons of cars/vans, local sponsers and family crowds. One set of "national rules" and presto, a WoO E-Mod and Mini-Van Tour! Who down wit dat? E-Mods.

John (K), the Knoxville situation (dwindling crowds) is a global trend. At least Knoxville can point to its small population of 7,000 as a reason for small crowds for weekly shows. I live in Sydney with a population of 4.5 million people where the raceway is within easy access via a multi-lane freeway, yet it draws a crowd only slightly larger than Knoxville does.

If just 1% of the city's population attended speedway regularly, then we would need a stadium with a 45,000 capacity! Unfortunately attendances suggest that about 0.07% of the city's people attend speedway.

You may have hit on the reason in your earlier post in this thread, and I quote: I swear that 60-70% of those fans that I saw walk up to the ticket window were older than me (52). Not many families with kids, either. Any product with a profile like that is nearing the end of its life-cycle. A continued slow decline extrapolated over the next 5 - 10 years is terminal, unless dramatic intervention takes place.

It may be beyond individual promoters to save the sport. Perhaps a national body charged with the administration and marketing of the industry is needed. And they need to be staffed with seriously smart marketing people and lots of dough...

www.sprintcardaily.com

If the track raced cars and not one lane freight train events that are over late and dusty things would be different...People go to the races to see just that, and, boring no passing dusty shows just drive prople away.. IF the races were good fan would make plans to go to Knoxville instead of " I guess I'll go since there is nothing better to do"... Bitch about it all ya want but the track made their bed and are now dealing with the ramifications...For years the attitude of it's Knoxville they will come has been the watchword..There have been several shows that were attendance flops because NOBODY thought to advertise in the right areas..I'm sorry but the local radio and paper jsut doesn't reach enough...Now they have this petty asphalt is for getting there and dirt is for racing.. GROW UP!!! Work with Newton and PROMOTE... For Gawd sake this joint seats 25K and we can't even get 2K a night.. HELLO!!! Instead of spending $'s and a new front brick wall spend the money on promoting. I was told that the speedway sold the track at Marshalltown a thousand tickets at $1.00 each to give away for the USAC show.. I"ll bet they made that back if hotdog sales.. When was the last time Knoxville did anything like that....Old fashion PT Barum promoting and a lot of it as the fuel prices are doing NOBODY any favors..............=

i guess i need to snap a photo of the main grandstand at lincoln this week...evidence that defies this "trend" in parts unconcerned about racing.

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May

Let's see Cap says 3,100 to break even,,, hmmm let's do some Math shall we... Let's say average ticket with kids tix $8.00 = $24,800 now if they spend another $3 each that is $9,300 on top of that and that makes it $34,100 and that should definately cover the purse and put a bit back in... now how hard can it be to do the following..... HIGH SCHOOL NIGHT.... Pick a large high school in the area or two and with student ID you get the following: Admission and Hot Dog and soda for $10... bring a date and she is $5. That is a cheap date night for kids. The High School gets promoted at the races and it is a win win.

Whenever Eagle Raceway has a "customer appreacitation night" with $5 admission the place is packed...but, they also promote the hell out of it on local radio stations.

If I was a promoter, I would look into punch cards like you get at almost every lunch buffet and auto parts store where would you pay for 10 events and get one free.

What about having on the back of the ticket "1 free piece of pizza" during next weeks races?

What about giving tickets to the teams to disturibute to their sponsors for discount admission?

And who can forget...start on time & a short intermission (5- 10 mins max). I really don't care if the races go long as long as they do those two things.

34

TERRY MCCARL would be the best thing to happen to Knoxville from the promoter standpoint Love him or hate him as a racer the guy bleeds sprint car racing and he has the kind of personality that when put in a business situation could make valueable friends. Some people may scoff but put aside all of your hero and villain BS his interview in SC&M magazine opened my eyes

Usually toward the nearing of our point season end (August) we do a $5.00 night for everyone and the place is packed. The money you makeup in Beer and Concessions put it weigh the low ticket price. It is a win, win. We have a Kids bike night all kids 11 and under are free, they bring their pedal bikes and race, They are given trophies for the top 5 and the rest get ribbons. Ask Duane you don't have to spend a fortune on these for the kids and they are thrilled. We also give them a ticket when the come in which entitles them to one coke and a small popcorn free. We pirchase a kids motorcross bike sponsored by our Bicycle shop in town and when the kids enter they are given a tickets for a chance in the drawing and the winner is awarded a brand new bike. Fourth of July we do a huge Fireworks show at the end of races and it lasts about 30 minutes. They do a great job with the pyrotechics and they oo and aaah. We charge 14.00 for adults 10.00 for juinors and 11 and under are Free and the place is packed, also, one of our local radio stations has their huge speakers up in the infield and they choreography music to the fireworks. We also do a sponsors night, where a business purchases 200 tickets, which had their logo and names on them, they are charged $900.00 which 800.00 of that goes to the sprint main winner , we give our PR person 100.00 for securing the sponsor for the night. They can use the tickets how they chose to promote their business,. and all of our Friday nights have been sold. Some have given out t-shirts through out the night, some pass out items when they enter the gates. This is just some of our little promotion that has been very successful. One of our sponsor is a furniture company and they give away beautiful new mattress set.

Regards,

Robbie Padjen

I am hoping for good weather for the Bradway this weekend.

YZman has the trophies and plaques for the event, hope you enjoy.

Thanks for all you do for the sport

Duane

Save your butt, get a colon screening TODAY

For complete line of Sponsor Awards check out 
MarshallTownLaser.com

Duane Davis

Laser Engraving 
641-751-7777
101 N Center
Marshalltown, Iowa 

I am going to presume that Knoxville is a member of the Chamber of Commerce in DesMoines. Have a Chamber night at the track plus be a presenter at a Chamber lunch. I did that every year that I helped promote a track and not only did it help get butts in the seats but it also brought in sponsors. Robbie is right on when you sell tickets to businesses. We did the identical same thing went to the HR person at the company and said all tickets to your employees and families are $5.00. They would sell them hand me a check and we had new butts in the seats. Gee how many businesses are in DesMoines that they could sell to? Fundraisers as I saw on here are great ,,, get the boy scouts out knocking doors selling tickets at $10 they keep $5. Put their logo on the ticket make it special.

Everyone that has posted here has some great ideas and let's hope Knoxville has seen this thread and takes some note. As for the fairboard, yes perhaps new blood is needed and changes to get things moving forward.

I believe that the Padjens are great examples on my list of  "creating events, creating value and maintaining consistency".

Knoxville has to start there.... all the advertising in the world won't keep 'em coming back.

Likely the best thread in the 10+ I've been around this place. It is more than just a coincidence that some of the people I know who have put forward their own thoughts about saving this sport are most successful in their own businesses. Folks this ain't brain surgery, you have to actually PROMOTE to succeed in anything these days and all tracks had better figure this out sooner than later! Heck, there are enough good ideas and thoughts as well as potentially successful business plans in this thread that it should be copied and sent to every promoter in the country, well maybe not Chico, lol.

The only time in the thousand plus races I attended the last decade and a half that I ever saw competitors (in this case the World of Outlaws) come out of the pits to watch an intermission was at Cottage Grove, Oregon of all places. They had brought in some Gen-X kids who jumped their 'cycles from ramp to ramp along with a four-wheeler, what a show it was, dang near worth the price of admission in my opinion. Bottom line, it has to be a show and KIDS HAVE to be involved/interested or this sport is done, finished. Time to turn it around folks, today, not tomorrow. Take It Easy....

my 4 boys ages 4 to 11 love to go to the races, however it makes it real difficult to go on a big show night such as the outlaws because it cost us over 100$ to get in plus the 30$ or so at the consession stand. make the races more cost effective for the family and you will see future dividends on the new fan base.

when the venue is short on seats on Outlaw nights, they have to keep the price for kids high. (lol)

Save your butt, get a colon screening TODAY

For complete line of Sponsor Awards check out 
MarshallTownLaser.com

Duane Davis

Laser Engraving 
641-751-7777
101 N Center
Marshalltown, Iowa 

justbusiness,

The raceway is NOT a member of the DSM Chamber of Commerce. They are a member in Knoxville, but aren't in Pella, Newton, Chariton, Osky or any of the other surrounding communities. I agree with you that it would help but butts in seats and sponsor wise, but all the fairboard sees is the $$ it costs them to be a member, not the benefits.

Maybe nodust can forward some of these ideas on to Tom Schmeh (last I knew he and Tom were acquantances) and he will take them to the fairboard (they seem to ignore what anyone else thinks unless they are already connected to them somehow).

just my $.02