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

If you would want the Saturday night WoO show at Knoxville rescheduled say YES or NO?

my vote: YES

Reschedule it is my vote

All you're doing is petitioning Knoxville Raceway to lose money.

Get 10,000 people to petition and purchase tickets and you'll have a glimmer of hope.

My question is this. When do you propose they race the remainder of this season?

Looks like pretty much every weekend is booked for the WoO and Knoxville only has August 21st (Outlaws are in ND) and September 11th (Outlaws are in Chico) open on thier schedule until Late October.

Just resign yourself to the fact that the race was cancelled and won't be re-scheduled.

My guess is that next year will be a 2 day show in June as the fans didn't turn out on Thursday or Friday night this year (I was there, where was everyone else??). If the fans don't turn out for Friday night in 2011, my bet is a one day show in 2012.

The Raceway is a BUSINESS, just like WalMart, Target, or Dingus across the street. If they could make $$$ on re-scheduling, I'm sure they would try. My best guess is that they lost close to $50000 for the weekend since no one came to the races (maybe 2500 on Thursday and LESS on Friday). No matter how you slice it, it's a BUSINESS DECISION.

If you want to pressure them into making certain business decisions, vote with your wallett by attending the races that they do schedule (ie, Thursday and Friday) instead of complaining about the 3rd night of a 3 day show being cancelled.

Same goes for the Nationals, people have complained about no Live TV because they can't sit at home and watch it, yet make no attempt to attend in person.

Just my $.02

Some fans didn't come Thursday because its a week day people didn't go Friday cause they try to make the masters classic big but its never going to be with 15 people racing in and the outlaws didn't even have full event Friday. I'm just saying having a 3 day show is dumb which one shouldn't event count as an event then plus it th Sprint Car Capital Of The World they should be coming here twice for 2 day shows. This year they only come once when they go to Williams Grove and Eldora 3 times!

It's still about butts in the seats.

They did a 2 day show in 2009. Guess What, less people there for the first night than there was for the Masters Classic this year.

I'll reiterate my opinion, it's a BUSINESS DECISION on whether or not to have a 1 day, 2 day or 3 day show. Obviously the Outlaws aren't the "draw" they used to be in this area and quite frankly, the racing (both nights that they got to run) was sub-par compared to the weekly shows @ Knoxville this year.

Williams Grove and Eldora management are also making a BUSINESS DECISION to run the Outlaws 3 times (it wasn't that long ago that Knoxville had the Outlaws 3 times per year as well). When it stops being profitable, they'll reduce their # of shows as well, and everyone will complain about them not having multiple shows. Right now, their fanbases are willing to spend $30 per person 6 nights a year.

At Knoxville, that's not the case currently as the local economy has undergone major changes in the last 5-7 years (Maytag closed down operations completely (3500 jobs), Vermeer cut staff by 50% 5 years ago, Pella Corporation has had reduced hours during the winter the last 2 years due to the housing bubble finally bursting, Iowa Telecom was bought out recently and they announced layoffs as they currently have the same staff in Arkansas, etc.) No one has come in to replace these jobs / hours and people are making decisions on where they $$ is best spent (currently, it appears to be groceries and searching for jobs).

I can see the Outlaws coming to Knoxville multiple times again in the future, but my best guess is at least 5 years (maybe more).

Vande77 makes very good points in both posts and I'll add one more to the fray...the Nationals. I've read several people complain about Knoxville only having the 1 WoO weekend scheduled this year while the Grove and Eldora both have multiple weekend shows. Well, Knoxville still has the Nationals, and even though it's not a sanctioned WoO race, it might as well still be. I have a gut feeling that many of the locals are probably saving their hard earned money for this years 50th anniversary celebration of the Nationals. I will also be there that week but chose to save my $ and not attend the 3 day WoO show. I, along with many other people across the midwest have not had a raise in over 2 years, and I work for a Fortune 200 company that is still recording profits through the recession. So I have had to make sacrifices in other areas of my budget to offset the rise in the essentials (food, electricity, gas, insurance costs, etc, etc). The economy has a huge affect on crowds as well as the low car counts seen across the midwest this year. I think the diehard fans of this great sport need to take a step back and evaluate why so many other fans are not regulary coming to the races; while not being so critical of what the track owners and promoters are doing and just be damn glad these tracks haven't closed shop for good. I had a few friends that went to Knoxville for the WoO weekend and they were also amazed at the low number of butts in the stands. I have a very strong personal opinion that Saturday nights races were not cancelled due to the rain, but because Cappy cut his losses one day early - a business decision.

vande77:

You just hit the nail on the head.

Jobs ...jobs...jobs...

TPI Composites lays off 200 hundred or more in Newton and the idiots in Des Moines along with their genius leader .... Comrade Chet Culver give the SAME company millions to the same company in Sioux City 1 day BEFORE they announced slashing the Newton TPI plant employment by over 200 jobs..

DSM Register article quoted below:

The TPI proposal calls Sioux City and Woodbury County to “construct and lease the facility back to the company,” state documents show. The city and county would consider providing up to $17 million for the project. (end quote)

$12.00 for most and not quite $14.00 for a select few an hour ....BEFORE any taxes are taken out (state income, federal income, ssi along with health care premiums ) doesn't leave much for any kind of entertainment ...let alone $30.00 tickets to ANY event. Groceries, housing and utilities are kind of a priority over ANY entertainment.

R.A.

S.H.S.

Leadfoot,

For the record, I don't think cancelling Saturday night of hte Outlaw weekend was a business decision. I was at the track @ 9:30 when they cancelled. At best, it would have been 3 hours before they started any cars to warm the engines IMO. Trying to be a good neighbor to those who live in town, combined with the track conditions, I had no problem with them cancelling (would've been a motor eater of a track and more than likely one lane causing major accidents which would have cost the racers in the long run, not to mention the keyboard jockeys that would've come out of the woodwork the next day saying the track should've cancelled because it was too dangerous and too late)

Some of the "fans" in attendance were already packing up and going home @ 7:15 when it rained (prior to purchasing tickets), however, there was still a very hearty crowd roaming the grounds and attempting to wait it out.

Hopefully the economy will turn around in the next couple of years and we'll have some of the jobs that were lost in our area replaced so people have more disposable income again.

just my $.02