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

Run one class 410, no wings, just like the old days, be compatible with CRA and USAC.

Better racing would bring more fans and more cars.

Either you are a sprint car driver/owner and can compete, or not.

Really??

I've never gotten ANYTHING from Iowa Speedway from either of my 2 kids in Knoxville's school system (elementary and middle school). However I have gotten plenty from the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame as well as Knoxville Raceway.

Maybe the kids choose what they want? Mine always brings home stuff from Knoxville.

I think parental choices help make choices for the kids. If kids continually get told "NO" when they ask to go to the local races, maybe they are taking the stuff from Iowa Speedway to see if they can get that "NO" turned into a "maybe" or "yes". I know tons of people that watch NASCAR races @ home and have NEVER stepped foot on the Marion County Fairgrounds, and I have "converted" other fans to dirt racing that used to stay home whenever there was a nighttime NASCAR race where they go to Knoxville no matter what and NASCAR on TV is a good alternative if it rains out.

Or, in my kids case, he doesn't care for the racing in Newton, so he doesn't bother with thier stuff and only brings home the Knoxville Raceway items (which he goes to anyway).

I find it hard to believe Iowa Speedway would come to Knoxville and get away free tickets/stuff. Maybe Newton? Possible they should start doing so, since Knoxville Raceway can't do their job.

When Iowa Speedway first started.. they tried to work together with the Iowa Speedway, scheduling...double promotions/trade.. due to lack of cooperation.. I dont believe you see any of the two tracks working together anymore..I know for fact that Iowa Speedway has once tried to work with Knoxville Raceway during Southern Iowa Sprintweek with USAC races.

One of the Nationwide races took place on Saturday of the 360 nationals..I'm forced to believe that many fans decided to stop by and "check out" Knoxville Raceway after the Nascar race. I highly doubt that Iowa Speedway sees any help or increase coming their way from Knoxville. Although I know Nascar has almost all the say in scheduling... how cool would it be to see a Sprint Cup race Sunday after nationals. Good for racing and would make Iowa the center of not just sprint cars.. but the center of all of racing for an entire week.

You would think with the most prestigious dirt and Sprintcar track and one of the biggest up and coming Nascar tracks being within miles from each other, they could work together. Brian Stickel has made it perfectly clear he's absolutely difficult to work with...

I'm a sprint car fan. Will be for life. Never enjoyed a concrete or fender race more than races at Knoxville.. but I can't help but admire what they do in Newton for racing.. especially in recession and "tough times"... There's clearly alot of money out there for grabs in racing but Stickel and the fairboard are too cloudy minded to work for it.

If they brought stuff home it could have been because the Hall of Fame was there. I was there a couple different times and Newton Speedway and Bob Baker from the HOF was there. He does a great job of representing the track. But both times Newton Speedway was there with there pace car and no one from Knoxville was there. I asked and there was no response why they weren't there. All I'm saying is they don't seem to go out looking for new people in the stands. When was the last time you saw any one from the track,( board members) actually thanking people for being there. How about out at the North Campground telling people thanks for being there. Never?? The last time they came out to the north campground they had their hands out wanting more money!!!

So you think Newton is a paying deal? WoW

Ask Manatts about a $90,000,000 bath they took on that good job you a talking about

uh yes. Manatts did exactly what they said they would do from the beginning and it DID work out for them. They handed over the track to the Clements just as planned. And duh, of course they coughed up the money.. that was the entire point. How much do you think it costs to build a world class Nascar track from scratch? Just like you would wonder why Randy Moss would spend money on a truck team. Taxes being one of them. Don't make comments about stuff you dont know what your talking about.

obviously, by your condescending post, you missed my point exactly... which is that the track is making money... and that they have an excellent marketing strategy.

Give away tickets?

I did not know you had the inside info

I never said they did? I dont know if they do.

this is a little stupid. what are you going to do when 6 cars show up? I have seen alot of horrific crashes with wing cars, take the wing of at Knoxville and go to funerals. How many times have you gone to Knoxville? Do you really think all the 360 and 305 drivers would get 410?

Very interesting thread. I have been coming out for the Nationals for over 25 years so I'm not aware of all the politics but one thing seems very clear. The difference between Iowa Speedway and Knoxville Raceway is professionalism. Iowa Speedway is run as a business and has a business plan that includes Marketing and promotions and they are not above using the venue for non racing functions, like concerts etc. Their PRIMARY job is to fill the stands and create revenue!

Knoxville is run by 24 voluenteers who do it as a side line. None of the 24 has any financial interest in Knoxville Raceway.

There is no doubt that the luster of the Nationals has diminished over the past 5-8 years and they better get their act together before they kill the golden goose!

Who ran it in the good years?

I think if you check 24 board members

Try and put on a concert there I am sure They will rent the place to you

Concerts have never been a big hit at the track but at the same time I think the biggest name to hold a concert here in the last 8 years has been Jason Brown..who?

The answers to success are not easy.

I would be perfectly fine to scratch a few weekends of sprints in order to move the LM nats and AMA races to summer or even add a modified nationals. Fans of 410 sprint car racing do seem to show up pretty well for special events at Knoxville. Outlaws usually bring a pretty good crowd with their 1 day shows as wells as twin feature night. I think there should be a few weekly shows with a $5,000 to win or advertise that the revenge draw will be used that night. Dollar beer night would be a big hit but I understand the insurance of running a racetrack has to be high enough let alone having a dollar beer night.

-Austin Rankin

Try reading.

uh.....$90,000,000? really

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

I dont know the exact number. But I do know for a fact that the Manatts did exactly to plan what they had hoped in the beginning. They built a world class racing facility from scratch and then handed if off now that it is as big as it is now.

You have to understand that numbers wise, Iowa Speedway is on a whole other level than Knoxville Raceway, in terms of revenues, advertising costs, ticket sales, etc. What really seems like a ton of money to Knoxville Raceway is pocket change in Newton. One thing I can say about Brian Stickel is that he does not have a whole marketing team... Iowa Speedway has a marketing strategy that includes a team of(off the top of my head) 4 people + interns. All of which who probably make double Brians salary. Thats why you will never anyone from Iowa Speedway (Chuck Spicer, Craig Armstrong) leave there unless Knoxville really decides to cough it up.

Do i believe that Brian Stickel and the Knoxville Gm/promotor need to a marketing team of 4 people to be sucessful... no. I can say that Brian hasn't done a good job but unfortunately I know his funds are not near what Newton gets to put on such promotion/marketing ventures. Knoxville needs to learn to make money, you have to spend money.. and that means it could be a 3-5 or even 10 year wait before their investments into promotion and marketing take any effect. These things should have been implemented years ago... yet still its all the same.

As far as the Iowa Speedway goes, last I had heard, they are still losing $$$ (even with sold out grandstands, as the purse and sanction fees are exorbinate (I saw an article that NASCAR is looking at taking the truck series back to some smaller venues, but they have to lower their sanctioning fee which is currenlty over $300,000 and give up some safety features such as SAFER barriers.

If there was no TV revenue for Newton from NASCAR's contract, they'd be in a WORLD of hurt right now (The last TV contract was for $4.48 BILLION over 8 years (expires in 2014)- that breaks down to $560 million per year / 92 total races (Cup,Nationwide,Truck) of which 40% (at least by published reports I've read, some say as much as 65% does) goes to the tracks ( $224 million) - break that down and it AVERAGES around $2.5 million per race in TV REVENUE for the tracks.

If I was a betting man, it's probably broken down along these lines however 50-55% for Cup Races, 25-35% for Nationwide Races and 10-25% for Truck races.

SO, let's say out of that $224 million, Nationwide gets $35% of the $$ / 30 races per season (of which Iowa Speedway has 2) - $78,400,000 in TV revenue for the Nationwide Series / 30 races = $2,613,333 PER RACE.

Now, the former owners and current owners of the Iowa Speedway have a spat going on about $$ owed and debt (http://www.newtonindependent.com/newton_independent/2012/05/trial-date-set-in-iowa-speedway-lawsuit.html) I never heard what came out of it, but it sure looks like they still owe a quite a bit of $$ on the place (Rusty Wallace is 10% owner and I would guess his 10% is paid for by $$ he earned while a driver).

It is EASY to pay for a staff and have operating income when you get large checks every time you hold a race that is televised.

Knoxville, nor any other dirt track works on this model. To have televised races, they have to PAY to have them televised, whereas NASCAR has a contract so that their tracks get paid when they race there. This makes it much easier and less of a financial risk to hold a race.

If the Iowa Speedway had to run on the same business model that Knoxville does, they'd never make it.

Could not have been said better

The only real reason I ever brought in iowa speedway to this thread was to look at their marketing/ promoting style.

but for the record. Yes Iowa speedway did not turn a profit this year. This is only because they hosted an "over the top" motercycle rally that lost alot of money. Without it they would have turned a profit... but you can say its a good loss because they plan to eventually grow the event to make money and the event self promotes Iowa Speedway.

You talk of Nascar taking away a truck race? IF that is true, that would be a gain for the track because they never wanted to take on 2 truck races to begin with. Having the second one inflates both the races and makes it hard to make money from both. Indy is the most expensive because they charge more than nationwide races for sanctioning fees and are obviously less popular than Nascar.

The Manatts "wanted" the track to turn losses because they could write that off of taxes. The track was built for estimated 70 million and sold for 20 million. I highly doubt they made 50 million in the years they owned. The Clements took over the track with the expectation that they knew they would only make big profit unless they get a Sprint Cup race, which is very much expected.

Too many comments are being made and we are way off the subject when talking of the GM/promoter position at Knoxville Raceway. Based on what ur saying vande...what if the WoO had television contracts so sprint car tracks could make money? I feel like I've beat up on Brian Stickel/Knoxville Raceway alot... when I think that the WoO has done just as horrible of a job. Hopefully, with STP on board, things change for them.