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

Well for the second year in a row, McCarl refuses to allow Internet coverage for the Osky show. 

Your ya man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

McCarl has NEVER allowed internet coverage (this is like year 19 or 20 of this race).  Why let people listen for FREE when you are trying to make $$$ by promoting a show??

I personally dislike McCarl, but I respect his "business decision" on this one. 

Some one says this every year. It has always been the same. If you want to see this race, then make plans to attend.

Buy a ticket n see the show....

he doesn't want to dilute the blood alcohol content of the infield...perhaps the biggest liability in sprint car 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

agreed....haven't been back for quite a few years now.  Unfortunately the "party" is a more important thing than the race to most that attend.

I don't think it's nearly as bad as it once was.

If you don't like the way Terry runs his races, rent a track and promote your own races with full internet for everyone....  I personally think he is just being smart....

I can't believe that Knoxville Raceville still lets KNIA send out the call of their races on the internet for free.  Must be 300 in Osky and more than that in Knoxville who used to go to the races that now listen for free....  One of the main reasons there are so many empty seats at the races every week....  

Yet they put more butts in the seats for weekly shows than most Outlaw races have capacity for....

I personally don't think having them on the radio locally is "great" for the front gate, but I know many elderly folks that used to go to the races that no longer are physically able to (and they aren't computer savvy either so PPV is not an option for them).

HUGE difference between listening and being there (most would rather be there I'm sure).

All for "if you dont like it BS!" However, could be added $ if t-mac joined the times. Big crowd, drunk crowd= big deterent for some. Seems like an issue out west. I personally like to go to the races and not have a bunch of idiots ruin it for the rest. As i am sure what will follow, "do'nt come then"!

I'm 200 miles from Osky and wouldn't be going anyway, but I can appreciate McCarl not wanting thousands of sprint cars fans in Knoxville and Pella to be able to listen and not make the trip over.  Is there some way it can be blocked within 150 miles of the track but broadcast to everyone else?

I'm sure there are several fans that would be willing to pay for an internet streaming, even just an audio one.

Sorry, gang.  But most of you are out of your element here.  As one who works in the broadcast industry, allow me to go over a few things some of you may not be aware of.

Radio (internet audio streaming) DOES NOT negatively affect crowd size at the venue.  The philosophy T-Mac (and apparantly many of you on here) subscribe to is the EXACT same philosophy that MLB owners did in the early days of radio.  They thought "why would anybody pay to come see my game when they can HEAR the game for free on the radio?"

Think about that for a moment.  They believed people would rather HEAR something for free rather than pay for something they can SEE, not thinking that some people cannot get away for 81 games a year to watch their product because they have something called "lives." So the answer was to DENY fans that access to the product because, even though they cared about it, they were somehow mooching for free the access to experience that game from afar.

As it turned out, some of the more intelligently run teams - like the Cardinals said "broadcast ever game home & away" because we want to keep the fans we have and GROW the fanbase because we're going to give you access to our product from a distance.  What they and other successful teams found out was that they GREW their attendance because their radio broadcasts were a daily FREE advertisement for their product.  Fans, through the daily exposure of radio, started to desire the chance to go to St. Louis and SEE all the excitement they were HEARING about.  The slower franchises started to figure that same thing out and soon everybody was broadcasting all 162 games, home and away.

In fact, the right to broadcast wasn't just a free advertisement - radio stations began to PAY the ballclubs for the right to broadcast the team.  So not only was the team getting a three-hour, daily promotion of their product - they were getting paid for it.  Talk about having your cake and eating it too!

How does that apply here?  Connect the dots.  Some people (like me) cannot breakaway annually to see Monday's (or Sunday's or the 360 Nationals) show.  Some of it is due to long distance, but for those who live close, the annual exposure of live radio (or internet audio streaming) serves as a free advertisement to check out in-person what before could only be heard.

The numbers of people who are able to make the trip to Osky who would rather stay home and LISTEN are far outnumbered by those potential FUTURE customers who cannot make the trip and are being denied the chance to be exposed to what boils down to essentially FREE ADVERTISING for the race.

Sorry for the long-winded post.  But it needed to be said.

Is this heaven?  
No, it's Iowa....Knoxville, Iowa.

Well said.

What are your thoughts regarding paid video broadcasts, and specifically the pricing that we're seeing for internet dirt races? I think they're far too high when they get around the face value price of a ticket. Agree or disagree?

It's an additional revenue stream.  I don't know what a fair price would be, but you figure that for every person who cannot make the race is paying $15 to watch a PPV video, that's $15 more than they would have got from that person in the first place.

What the savvy promoters do it make the product at the track too good to pass up in person.  Sell the experience of being there over the experience of watching on a laptop.  With football, it's hard to do because the sport in many ways is better on TV than in person.  But with short track auto racing, I think you have a much easier sell.  TV coverage will never beat the ability of the fan in the stands to watch whatever part of the track, whenever they want to.  With football, all eyes follow the ball.  With sprint car racing, the action is wherever the fan in the stands wants it to be.

A PPV video stream is a no-brainer.  Whether you do it yourself or farm it out to somebody else.  Cut a deal for a split of the profits or just get a flat rights fee and allow the broadcaster to sell the advertising to make it work, there are many ways to do it.  Knoxville does it every night.  It ain't difficult.

Is this heaven?  
No, it's Iowa....Knoxville, Iowa.

Agree on most points. Seems a point often made on here is the impact on the gate of a broadcast PPV. It's a very short-sighted point. Knoxville have a hit at the gate from people within geographic range of the event who choose not to go but will stream it in a group, but they're recouping revenue they would not have had in the first place in most cases and they're picking up a ton of revenue they never had a chance at getting from people all over the country/world paying to stream the race. I would guess the content delivery gets much cheaper per user with more users so that's the rationale for a lower price point - more sold at a lower cost to produce. 

That was a very well worded and intelligent post.   However, you are comparing apples and elephants.   Baseball has 81 home games.   Terry McCarl has one race sandwiched between the 360 and 410 nationals.   Baseball is trying to find new fans and grow the fan base.   Terry McCarl is trying to ride the coat tails of the 360 and 410 events.   If you asked him, he probably is not going for any new fans.   He is just going for all of the carry over fans.   Baseball is able to get a lot of money from baseball broadcasts.   How would Terry benefits from allowing his race to be on the free internet?    Espically given the captive audience that is back in all of the campgrounds in Iowa.  

Terry does not need Free Advertisement for his product because it is a once a year race.   Terry needs buts in the seats.   Everybody that is going to find the free internet stream is already die hard race fans.   You do not go to RacinBoys or Hoseheads if you are a causal fan.   If you are on these sites your are already a die hard fan.   Who is going to hear this free advertisement that already does not know about the race?

I think everyone that is complaining about this issue is completely in left field.

You are correct.  81 vs. 1 is apples to elephants.  But do you really think people who have bothered to haul their campers all the way to central Iowa are going to be content to just sit by the campfire and listen to a streaming broadcast?  That's if you can even get decent streaming on a 3G data plan - which is what's usually available in K'ville.

And anybody who is "not going for new fans" is going for the unemployment line.  In business, you are ALWAYS pursing new customers.  You cannot count on the same 3,000 people walking through the gates every single year.

TMac can sell the streaming rights or arrange to do it himself (with broadcast partners) on a PPV or pay-per-listen basis.  It's a new revenue stream.  You are correct that casual fans aren't seeking out Racin' Boys but there are many more sprint car fans who are not in central Iowa this weekend than are and would like to hear or see a streaming broadcast and would be willing to pay for it.

And even if it were a free audio stream - like Racin' Boys or KNIA/KRLS doing the 360 Nationals - you can make money by selling those rights or insisting on selling the commercial time.  Either way, it's NEW money for a strictly audio broadcast.

Is this heaven?  
No, it's Iowa....Knoxville, Iowa.

most are adding online streaming and ppv not taking it away.  As someone mentioned, the sales over ride the lost ticket sales.  mind you, they would have to recoup concession sales as well.  Technology is getting to the point where blackouts can be added to ip addresses within a certain radius.  Where it's at, im not sure, but considering the speed at which technology advances, I can't imagine it's too far away.  I live 12hrs away.  I'm not going to the weekly shows.  If I was able to get down to the nationals this year I would.  the fact I could listen or watch online wouldn't affect that decision, though it does soften the blow.  That being said, I'll be putting down my $150 to watch online.  not far off from the 200 in person.  Curious on sale numbers.  I would imagine that on a  few occassions, the online sales outway the in house ticket sales. 

Nothing beats being there live. 

We live 8 hours away and come to nationals every year. I would love to go up for the whole 10 days but it's not feasible for us. the few times we were able to get up there we always went to the front row challenge. Do I like being packed in there like a sardine? No but when you come to watch races you go watch them, not sit at the campground and listen to it. 

However, had this race been broadcast on PPV like some suggest we would have definitely bought it tonight to watch or listen. We watch all the weekly shows at knoxville on PPV as well as the 360 nationals. Had knoxville not allowed their races to be broadcast they wouldn't get the $15 every week from us because there is no way we could come to each weekly show. Even tho we watch PPV every week it has never once occurred to me to skip the nationals and stay home and just watch on tv. Why? Because there is nothing like being there in person to watch the best drivers in all of sprint car races on one of the best dirt tracks in the world. If we lived in Knoxville or close we would be at every race. Even the weekly shows.