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

I would have no problem spending 10.00 for the pay per view but $25/30 for one nite? I dont think so....    

If a ticket to the race costs $25 or $30, why should you expect to see the same racing for 1/3 of the price?  Assuming the coverage is the quality that it needs to be, I think a PPV price that is the equivalent of the ticket price is more than reasonable.

i think the days of the low dollar ppv are gone. The tracks want a piece of the pie with ppv and I think a slight 10-20% discount off ticket price is fair for a ppv price.

Here's a solution to the problem--Pay per view price is subject to your proximity to the track.   For example--if you are within a 100 mile radius of an event, the PPV cost can be the $25-30.  If you are outside of that radius, the price should go down dramatically.  I think a $30 PPV price is bad marketing for someone outside of driving distance of an event.  They should do some studies (assuming they haven't?) and find a price that would generate the most revenue.  I know a lot of people that would pay $4.99 to see an event across the country.  This serves two purposes.  1--it creates revenue on the spot.  2--it creates and builds the fan base of your sport.  With this increase would come increasing popularity and with this comes the justification for higher PPV costs. 

For example--i refuse to pay the $300 (or whatever it costs now) for NFL ticket.  However, if there was a better game on Sunday at 3:00 than the one they are showing, I would gladly pay a small fee to watch the game.  Sounds like additional revenue, doesn't it?   I'm lost as to why all of these products price the average consumer right out of purchasing them. 

To sum up--I agree with you.  If the price were much, much lower, I would likely pay for a few events each year.  As it stands, I refuse to pay for any.  Not worth it.  I will wait for a race to come to my area to spend that kind of money.  $30 is only worth it if I get to smell the fuel and rubber!

1) there is a huge difference between watching a race live and watching it on a television

2) too often the ppv quality just isn't there.  I've been burned a few times paying for a low quality product

You hit the nail squarely on the head. 

When they figure out a way to let ME control which cars or battles I watch, let me toggle between the cameras, give me the thump in the chest 900HP provides when it screams by and a way to transfer the smell of burning methanol through my computer...all while guaranteeing no skips, glitches, buffering, poor signal quality or stream overload I will gladly pay 30 bucks for online PPV of at least 1-2 races per week.... until then I won't be spending any more than 5-10 bucks to watch any online PPV...with the exception of maybe 1 or 2 crown jewel events that won't have any TV coverage. No way should PPV cost even half as much as a grandstand ticket costs, especially for people who absolutely logistically could not attend a particular race.

For 30 bucks I can play 18 holes of golf in real life or on a simulator, pay my internet bill for the whole month, pay for 3 months of a TV package upgrade, etc etc etc. Hard to justify spending that amount for a total of 45 minutes of on track action and 2 hours worth of downtime of a sprintcar race.

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

I have ordered PPV to watch my friend from 1,000 miles away many times. He runs 10th in the A main and i i might get to see him for a couple seconds here or there. How is that worth $25?

i don't think a lot of tracks allow it without the pricing the way it is. 

I know the technology has to be there to 'black-out' the immediate area, doesn't it?  If that were the case, I think tracks would love to show their product to other parts of the country, no matter what the cost.  Wouldn't they?  I know I would watch a lot more sprint car racing for the right price.  Bad news for me?  I am hours away from sprint car racing. 

I agree. If it was set by distance to track I would watch ALOT of the PPV.

I did  the PPV for Knoxville & the WG National open this year and since I am race deprived right now I will probably lay out and buy 1 night of this PPV. But I'd do more if it were in the $10-15 range. 

It's just not the equal value of being there. Racing on TV just loses too much of the dynamics. 

If you go to a local race do you typically go alone? For some of yes but for most you have a couple buddies that go with you.  While I agree that the racing is somewhat watered down compared to being there please subtract the cost of gas/ motel/ time on road etc... from the price. Then dive the cost of the PPV by how many guys you have watching it. I purchased all nights of chili bowl and cocopah showdown. Total cost for 10 nights of dirt racing on tv = $200. I only have one buddy coming over but now cut that cost in 1/2. So that's about $10 a night to watch dirt racing. I'll rather be there live but it's actually not a bad deal if you can get some buddies to go in on it.

I agree 100%.  $28 per night for the PPV of the Cocopah races is ridiculous.  That is $140 for all 5 nights!

This caters to the rich folks who have money to burn but these PPV events should be a max of $10 per night. 

I bet if they charged $10 per night, the amount of fans buying the PPV would be 4x the current amount at $28.  This would bring in more profit to cover the costs of the event.

Got Winter Heat for $99.95 before Dec. 15th. Went half with a friend which is $10 per night each. A third person would make it $33 and change each for all five nights. Very reasonable.

... and the stream would stutter and buffer all night causing everyone paying $10 to post how terrible the stream was and what a waste of money internet streamed racing is.

Can hardley wait for tonight!

I would agree with the tiered pricing if you were talking about a regular local show but how would that work for a knoxville nats or world finals where people come from all 50'states (or pretty close)? There is a bias (right or wrong) that tv or internet streaming takes away from the front gate attendance, and I think promoters are saying "we'll allow streaming but only if the price is near the level of a real ticket". 

I agree if the races were more closer to 1/2 the price of a ticket i would be more likely to watch.  For example UFC 183 tickets are $140 minimum and HD PPV for the event is $60.  I wish the NSL would make a deal for those who wanted to buy the whole season on PPV.  I would still go to the races that are close my home track.  I also like the idea of charging by your location.

no one is making you purchase the ticket, we are lucky there is any coverage at any price  

WIth that said, when PPV went higher, I have reduced my PPV purchases.  I bought the PPV season pass two years, and although it had problems, it was a good value, I watched lots of WOO races, and consequently I went to more WOO races.   In 2014, the price was too high, I bought zero races, and only attended one WOO race.  I think WOO my business and $ by pricing themselve too high.

My local track, Perris, normally does not offer PPV at all, including the Oval Nationals, but they did do Turkey Night.

When I go to PAS, I figure I was easily spend $120 plus on gas, tickets, parking, concessions, etc for a weekly race.  So for $25 PPV, it saves me a shit load of $, 4-5 plus hours of LA traffic etc.  But since PPV prices are high, I usually wait to watch them for free at a later date on you tube or just go to my local track (20 min) and spend about $40 for night to attend same race for gas, tickets, parking etc.

But we should be happy this race is on PPV.   WIll I buy all the nights, not likely.   I recently got MavTV (for free) and i will likely wait to see it on replay.   For the chilli bowl, I will likely purchase all the nights.   Where I live, $25 for a night of entertainment is cheap, and I can drink all I want in the comfort of my warm home.   Yeah I would love to be Tulsa in person, but I can not afford the time/travel/expense of $1500 K to travel where as I can spend $100 plus for the weekend at home.  Lastly though, if PPV was more affordable, more would purchase and they could make a bigger profit..

Just my $.02  (I grew up waiting to get results through a weekly Newspaper (NSSN) and it often came about a week late if at all, so when I hear people bitch about the quality and cost of PPV for a niche sport like sprint cars, I chuckle, u guys don't know how good you have it)

Do you purchase a PPV and watch it alone?

I never have, not a boxing one in the 80's and 90's, WWF (WWE, whatever) in the early 90's or even the Chili Bowl in the early 2000's.

I don't blame them for setting the PPV price the same as tickets to the event, lots of people get slices of that $$$ I'd think.  The production team, the track/promotor, the provider for the bandwidth, equipment costs (if it's a company where all they do is PPV, they have overhead costs to cover).

As a fan who watches from the stands, I consider PPV for those unable to attend because they can't afford the travel, or they are no longer phsically able, most would rather be there in person, but $30 for a night of racing on TV for your entire family (or group of friends), is still way cheaper than if you all piled in the car and went to the event (even if you live where the event is being held).