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

According to AARN Williams Grove Speedway, along with those at local and national series tracks around the country during the Coronavirus shutdown that enters its fourth week. Some speedway operators have discussed having races without spectators;

isn't money from the fans paying for admission and buying food and drink where the race purse comes from? If Earl needed to sell just one more hotdog to break even, having no fans can't be good.

Racer X

There was a southern stock car track that did that exact thing 2 weekends ago.  No spectators/concessions,  invite only with a limit on crew members, pits spread out so nobody was within 20 feet of anyone else, etc. 

One of the small benefits of back gate promoting where the racers pay for their own purse + insurance I guess. 

Local drag strips pay the purse thru entry fees and buy backs? I wouldn't think they could pay huge purse though 

Some of these drag strips pay huge purses-------but the entry fees can be huge as well.  I have heard local drag racers in my area have paid $2500 to enter in one day of racing before.  

I can't see this working with most of the sprint car teams

Not gonna happen unless there is some kind of tv deal to come along to televise them live (which I guess could be feasible with the lack of programming on sports channels). Empty arena games are a potential viable option for NBA/NHL because ticket sales are a small portion of revenue, unlike dirt racing that depends a large amount on ticket and concessions to be profitable.

What's the phrase? "Heck! I'd pay $10 just to watch a sprint car standing still".

I'd assume they'd have to rely on increased pit passes, lower purses and online streaming revenues to make that work. 

That's exactly my thoughts.  Honestly if I owned a racetrack, I think I would cancel racing for the year now.  Even if something happens to where they would allow racetracks to open to full capacity May 1st, I don't think anyone would disagree that crowds are going to be down just because of paranoia.  How much will they be down?  Who knows?  But as tight as race tracks are run these days (budget wise), I don't think I would take a risk, this could bankrupt several tracks.

Exactly

One of the last live broadcasts we did was on March 13 at Silver Dollar and it was run with no fans allowed. Turns out, fans get angry when they're told they're not allowed to attend. We, the broadcasters, received a lot of flak about that event so I can't imagine what the track had to deal with.

Drag Racing works on back gate because payout is limited. 200 racers show up and you only pay the top 16 or in some cases the top 8, if you pay them at all. Many divisions are trophy classes. 

On March 13 Chico was limited to 250 in the stands, the CA procedures at the time.  I was there, staying mostly in the pits, and did not see any angst over the limit.  I asked security midway through the races how many were in the stands and he said 230 so nobody was turned away.   It was made clear prior to the race about the limit.  Luckily there was no case of someone showing up and being declined admission.

I-37 Speedway in Texas raced March 28 with empty stands and strict procedures in place regarding distancing.  It went well and the show made a profit because the PPV company, Race On Texas, gave all their profit to the track to support the event.

I-37 paid a higher purse than the 2020 standard payout, but appeared to pay only top 12 as opposed to top 20.  This worked financially for the track due to lower expenses and the support of the PPV company.  I do not see it working for a sprint car show or any other that pays a much higher purse than what the limited modifieds and factory stocks raced for at I-37.

Risk is not worth the reward; safety crew... fire crew... if a bad accident happens... 

I dont like it but part of this social distancing, mitigation, stay home ect... is helping lower "stupid shit" from happening to allow more focus on the issue at hand. 

We will get back to racing. When? I dont know, but a lot of people are going to be really excited! I'm excited! But for now we just have to wait.

Racing on TV or video doesn't even begin to compare to live racing

Just be patient & it will be back

Bingo. Big time T.V contracts and naming rights are the reason why empty/no spectator events can happen in other sports. The ticket revenue is a very small chunk of the pie for those leagues.

Only way I can see it happening at some tracks is if some have a way to stream their races online. But with how the monthly subscription fee that Dirtvision, Speed Shift, and Flo racing for the amount of content you get, I do not see how that could be profitable either. I know some people are getting the itch to see some racing but, is anyone going to pay $15-$20 for a regular weekly show. The profit margin is next to 0 for a lot of shows for some promoters, and shows that profit like the Outlaws or All Stars add additional costs. Only way for them to get up and going is, as good ole JR from WWE used to say, if there is an ass every 18inches in the stands.

I didn't mention the subscription services because there's no feasible route to use them to pay purses and everyone makes a profit. A one time big PPV could potentially work, like a world finals type event with all the big names- probably could sell that for $20-25 a pop and get enough people to buy to make it work. Otherwise the only way it would happen is if like FS1 said we need live programming, here's X amount of dollars