Forum: Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Forum (go)
Moderators: StanM

I would put the grandstand seating in the 3,000 to 3,500 range. That's based on the first night of last year's All-Star race. The crowd was so thin, that during the half time event when two goobers put on an exhibition crap-beating demonstration, I counted the number of people in the stands.

3500 seats? Your not even close.

Huset's has around 9,000 seats & have crammed up to 10,000 race fans for World of Outlaws shows there in the past.

And if you don't believe RHC, go to a WoO show there. Try to borrow a vehicle with a DVD player in it so you can watch a long movie while waiting to get out.

I don't know man. I might be willing to bet you a beer on this one. I assume you live in Sioux Falls?

Consider this: Husets is about a 5/16 mile track. That makes the straightaways about 321 feet long, slightly longer than a football field.

The Sioux Empire Fairgrounds, which had a 1/2 mile+ track had a 6,000 seat grandstand. Do you think Husets has 50% more seating than the fairgrounds?

Howard Wood field has 10,000 seats, 5,000 on each side of a football field that is 300 feet long.
Do you think Husets has that many seat, but all on one side of the oval?

Two years ago, when Hartford had a HUGE crowd for an ASCS race, people were guessing 4000-5000 fans in the stands. Someone from the track posted that the true number was 2,000.

Last night's State AA basketball tournement had something close to 9,000-10,000 fans. (?) Do you picture that many people at Husets?

Here's my train of thought: 3,500 seats+ 250 on the north grass + 500 walking around or
standing + 300 in the turn 1 suite + 200 in the vip booth + 500 in the pits = 5,250 total (?) for the heydays
of a WoO race. I often wonder if the 10,000 number isn't a just promoter's hype.

To be upfront here- I don't mean to come off as confrontational on this. I'm just a math junky, and a sprintcar junky.
I just think my 3,500 is closer than your 10,000 figure. If it means I owe you a beer, so be it.
If it means you owe me a beer, I like mine thick and dark as motor oil.

-Cheers!

Murphy you are much, much closer to the accurate figure with your 3,500 than the 10,000 and I do not even drink beer.

Murphy: Why don't you call Steve or Greg Rubin (Owners of Huset's). I bet they would tell you pretty much the same answer that I gave.

Butch: I've been to every World of Outlaws show at Huset's except for 4 of them since they've had the first one back on April 30, 1983. I know what it's like waiting about an hour to get out of there.

And many times as a resident of Brandon, SD from the late 1990's to last year, I actually walked out to the Speedway & back several times, which only took 20 minutes to get home, instead of 1 hour.

I would have to go with your estimate. They have a big grandstand at Husets. I know of tracks in the 5,000 range that don't have that much seating.

By way of comparison Princeton holds something like 1,500 to 2,000 and Husets is quite a bit bigger. If Husets was 3,500 then places like Princeton and Ogilvie would be 50. Kopellah would be -200.

Stan Meissner

-200 Stan? LOL

I don't pretend to know what Husets seats, but I honestly think it would be closer to Ron's number than the 3500 number of Murphy. I've been a part of and seen some whopper WoO crowds at Husets over the years, but Ron has me beat my light years in that category for sure so he should have a pretty decent idea. I do know that often times attendance is a bit over-inflated for reporting purposes. Think back to when Don Riley would have his annual estimate in the St. Paul paper for the CLS WoO show. CLS could never seat the number of spectators Don would put in his article, but it was fun to read about the huge crowd even though his numbers were on the steep side.

Well, it looks like I'll need to go early some night and do some serious cipherin' just to satisfy my own curiosity.

Attendance figures at ALL sporting events and not just automobile racing have been a much discussed and debated topic for a long time. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, like most facilites, does not release attendance figures but the media, and especially the TV reporters, are very loose with their estimates of numbers of fans on hand. Many, many times I have heard both TV and radio sportscasters remark about the crowd that 'is in excess of 300,000 to 350,000 people' and apparently nobody questions that figure. The Indiana State Police (highway patrol) estimated at the end of the 500 two years ago 'approximately 275,000 people were on the grounds which is probably relatively close. In the mid to late 1990's car owner Roger Penske was also wondering about the capacity and hired two college kids to 'count every seat' and they came back with a figure, I think as I do not remember the exact number, of 274,000 actual seats per posterior and also included the suites available at that time. So if 274,000 are sitting down does that mean that another 50,000 to 100,000 are in the pit area, garage area, concourse, infield, media center or other assorted spots? I do not believe that is possible and I have been to the Indianapolis 500 several times BUT not in the last12 years. I think it is very easy to 'overestimate' a crowd when faced with thousands and thousands of fans in triple decker grandstands and I also think it is easy to overestimate the thousands covering the hillside at Husets Speedway. Just an opinion.