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

Announced tonight at Eldora: $100,000 purse increase for the 2016 Kings Royal.  Still $50,000 to win, but now $20,000 for 2nd, $10,000 for 5th, $5000 for 10th, $3000 to start.  $1000 for the first non-transfer, and $500 to start the B!

Great news.  We need more of this...hope National Open does this soon.

Yes, its time to pay back through the field ,costs are killing everyone . Just one reason car counts dropping . The way its going the weekly racing will become less and you may see more special events  tracks . It getting hard to make a profit on weekly racing.

Would be nice to see them put up more for the NRA 360's also. Guess time will tell.

Easy, easy, lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet. If this purse increase does what it should, we might not even need the 360's on the card anymore.

They are going out on a limb to show support through the field, hope the drivers continue to do the same. Great car count this last year.

Now I can add my first King's Royal to my list.

Need to start from the bottom up.  More tow money & non qualifiers money.

Great news for a great event! T-MAC Motorsports plans on being there.

The crowds for this event have been awesome the last few years and that alone made an increased purse long overdue. But I must say, adding 100k to the purse is above and beyond. Kudos to Eldora.

The last thing I want to see at the KR is a piss load of 360s burning out the frickin track.

I like watchnig them...but would be more supportive if they cap that night at 23 of them and get to the real reason fans are there.

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

Well done!

  Without knowing a thing I bet Eldora could bump the purse up $200,000 easily if it wanted to. The revenue it takes in on tickets, camping fees, alcohol sales, concession sales, advertising, vendor commisions, etc. would be staggering and has been for years, which is all good. It's hard to believe the Kings is this old and has to be one of several huge money making events Eldora holds each year and yet the purse has remained paltry for so long from 2nd place on back. It's no wonder the car count has , at times, been ridiculously low for a major event. Shameful, really, with everybody always talking about the rising expenses of racing and purse increases so few and far between. The increase is in place now and that's good but it won't rise for years and years again. The King has thrown you  a bone so be happy peasants.

Take the 360 purse and add that to the 410 purse the nightt of the K.R. I have nothing against 360's, I do enjoy them. But pull in 60 to 70 410's and that's all the show and the track can handle. Adding even more money to the back of the field will draw that number.

So they add $100,000 and you are complaining? Cmon Man.

there is a HUGE difference between REVENUE and PROFIT.

I'll use the Late Model Nationals at Knoxville as an example.  THey stated 17000 people went through the gate over the 3 days in 2014 (if everyone paid $25 to get in that's $425,000 in REVENUE.  Posted Purse is $271,000, that leaves $154,000 for everything else (payroll, electricity, water, insurance, etc., etc.).

And you can't say well, that WEEKEND doesn't cost that much, you have to take the entire year into account when it comes to expenses. 

Payroll for full-time employees that work year round, not just working on race day at the concession stand.  Plus all those part time workers hourly rates.

Insurance costs (for just the facility, think of your home insurance premiums, is you home worth the $8-10 million that Eldora is more than likely Assessed at?  Bet that is a big bill every month.  Plus health insurance for full time employees, Workers Comp Insurance, and then the insurance needed on nights you race.

Security -- how much do they pay the local authorities for added security during the event?  My guess is they have to pay their payroll for being on-site.

Equipment depreciation -- you can only depreciate the value of equipment for so long on your tax return, so you are always spending $$$ to upgrade the equipment.

etc., etc., etc..

If it was so easy to make $$$ at racetracks, none would ever close....but let's complain about them giving the competitors another $100,000 to race for....

 No, I'm not complaining as I don't race or own a car so it doesn't change my life. My point is that it took decades to get this purse close to where it should be and everyone will have to be content for maybe  decades again before another increase. Look at the Outlaws and their $10,000,win. How long has that purse been stagnant, 10-12 years?  I applaud what Tony is doing with the purse but what took so long? He's made a lot of improvements at the track and a lot of that is done so maybe that's why Eldora feels that they have the revenue now to bump up the purse. I wish Tony would pull an Earl and do something exciting with a big-paying non-wing show, maybe not a yearly event but something to talk about and get excited about. Earl would pull a rabbit out of his hat every so often with taking a chance and trying something different and just shaking things up a bit. This purse increase should no doubt increase car counts at the Royal, though, and I am glad it's happening. The drivers deserve a great payday with the way they put their butts on the line in those cars.

You're missing my point. I realize tracks have overhead but put it in personal terms. If you worked the same job for 20 years and the boss was making good money would you ever expect a raise during that time or is a salary increase one time during that period sufficient for you? Earl could've bumped the purse up when he ran the race for about 25 years. I found it funny that you used to be able to take your own beer into Eldora until some how, some way when Tony got the track a year later a liquor law suddenly appeared that stated patrons couldn't bring alcohol in. I bet Tony and crew saw all those empty beer cans after races and saw big money they could make and stopped it. Maybe that's where the $100,000 came from.

First, I 100% agree with your first sentence and basically all of your post. I think people miss the boat on alot of things, first being the amount of people actually buying a ticket, 2) the cost of running a show outside the purse.

However, what about food? You seem to have some inside knowledge of the fair board, so perhaps you may disagree, but I have to believe many of those 17,000 people who bought a ticket also bought food at a healthy profit to the track.