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Bristol Motor Speedway COO Marcus Smith was a recnt guest on Dale Jr's podcast. He dropped the bomb that he intends to put a roof over BMS in the next 5 years.

https://www.sportscasting.com/dale-earnhardt-jr-podcast-breaks-nascar-news-about-changes-bristol-motor-speedway/

Personally, I think it's great. Could open the possiblity for some off-season races for some different series, asphalt or dirt.

What does everyone think?

(Disclaimer: I realize this article was written on April 1st, and I did not listen to the podcast - so I may have been bamboozled. Wouldn't be the first time! I think it's legit)

My brother texted me something about that yesterday, but I also assumed it was an April Fools thing. 

I did some research and it's been talked about before as far back as 2017.   Bruton Smith discussed it and wanted to do it but it never got to the engineering part.   Any roof that would fit over Briston would have to be able withstand the weight of several feet of snow according to that article.   This latest deal is just the new COO of the place speculating that he would like to.    I would assume that it still wouldn't happen for the same reason.   

I listened to the whole thing, I think they tape on Tuesdays anyways so it wasn't an April Fools thing. 

Dale Jr. and Mike (co-host) were basically trying to speculate where we'd be five years from now.  Jr. predicted that there would be two dirt races at Bristol (after making his repeated push to tear up the concrete surface, he is hoping it doesn't survive this year's dirt).  Marcus laughed and basically said "in five years we need to put a roof on Bristol" and talked about how they were so impressed with how they were able to hang the Collossus TV above the track that it wouldn't be a totally absurd idea to put a "roof" of sorts on Bristol, since the technology has come a long ways and it's out there already (they didn't mention it specifically, but Wimbledon's retractable roof is what I'm thinking).  Talked about how the benefits of it would also be to shield the dirt from being baked in the sunshine to mitigate the dust.  So I don't think it was just an off-the-cuff remark Marcus made, he and the SMI team have clearly put some thought into it. 

It's possible but not likely.  I mean think about it like this.  How many times a year do they run there now?  Even if they increased it tenfold it would still not be financially feasible.  Sure it's possible, but it would cost multi millions for it to be done.  I think it's BS.

Ya, can't imagine what that would cost to do, especially if the made it retractable.

Obviously I know it's not an apples to apples comparison, but Wimbledon only uses Centre Court for the two week tournament every year and it has worked so well for them they added a roof over a second court. (I realize the revenues are far, far different)

You could say that about lots of these tracks' infrastructure (how many times a year do they run).  The giant TV, the suites, etc.  If it means keeping the race on schedule in front of the biggest possible audience, it could prove worth it in the long term. 

Heck the TV they take three panels off in between events every time because of the weight/wind. 

You are right it is not apples to apples in comparison, because Wimbledon is 1/10th the size of Bristol.

I said the same thing. I think dirt track racing needs to be very skeptical of NASCAR all of the sudden giving a shit and throwing us a bone in the past few years. There's a reason why for 30+ years, you never heard a damn thing about dirt track racing from anything affiliated with NASCAR despite the fact that guys like Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, and Tony Stewart were experiencing lots of success in NASCAR. They didn't give a shit about it then and they sure as hell don't now. What they see is that their ship is taking on water at a rate where it's inevitable that it will sink and they're trying to get dirt track racing to tow them to the harbor. They see dirt track racing growing and they see an opportunity to leech onto it with Larson and Bell and maybe steal some thunder. They're not our friend. They never were nor will they ever be and you can bet your ass, if NAPCAR sees another boom in popularity, they'll throw dirt track racing aside like a cheap whore and never look back. 

Never going to happen. The sound level alone would be so loud people would be leaving in droves. April fools, pipe dream, call it whatever you want. Ah, but wait, we could muffle the cars and put strobe lights and Lazers on the cars. That's the next nascrap gimmick. Although I did watch my first crap race in 3 yrs from green to checkers it was the same thing, announcers talking to fans like there first time viewers. No real driver personalities.  Wait for it, Yea Jeff it looks like Clyde will be sent to the rear, he bumped Alice to hard and he's crying his case to the crap officials. Poor Clyde. The took the splitters off and bad Brad couldn't drive the dam thing. 

Zero percent this ever happens. The cost alone would be astronomical. It's really expensive to have roofs on football stadiums, and for Bristol it's going to be like twice the size. There is no way the return on investment would be worth it.

Withstand the weight of several feet of snow?  Well, I don't think they'll want to hire the people who designed our last stadium.    https://youtu.be/BI2mBiy1FGE

Stan Meissner

As small group of Canadians discussed the logics if having a tarp like system then pulls out from the concrete wall to the infield as a rain guard. Obviously not realistic for one or 2 races but if the track was dirt all the time it might be a way to preserve the surface from too much rain or too much sun.

Even though I may not know you, I 
care what most of you think!

I don't know if it is possible or not because I have no clue as to what their finances look like. Might have been a way just to get people talking and say how much they like or do not like the idea but who knows when it comes to $$. Seems like Bristol over the past few years has tried to do more than just two Nascar weekends as they have done the Short Track World Championships for Late Models on Asphalt, a couple Monster Truck shows, plus a Football game. Same with SMI in general at their tracks doing some other types of events.

I would say if they have to mortgage their future, then it probably would be best not to do. I think they would be better served to bring something like North Wilkesboro back to life which he also somewhat threw something out there as well. I think that would do more benefit for Nascar and SMI in general than a roof.

The pipe dream has already been thought of previously,

https://www.racing-reference.info/showblog?id=3640