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

I didn't see anything on Osky's website about any PPV, anybody know something about this? Thanks!

I've asked several times in several threads that both the promoters and their media people have been involved in and haven't heard a peep. 

For whatever reason, this race will never have PPV it seems. Who knows, it could be a technical issue... But if it's fear of PPV damaging the monetary gate, that's some seriously misguided tunnel-vision thinking. 

Fair enough point, but not sure what's ignorant about my post. 

Nothing  ignorant about your post sir , it is good promoted race by Terry Mc Carl , but it would be great if USAC would come back at both Knoxville and Oskaloosa , but I think its USAC where most of the problem lies . But most winged racing tries to keep non-wing  racing out , as they put on a good show . But then there are some places  that do allow fans to see all kinds of racing .

I havent been in a few years, but the FRC was always sold and marketed as more of an experience or party, rather than a pure racing event.  I imagine wanting to maintain that feel and allure adds warrant to not having PPV.  How does the infield atmosphere, bead throwing, and taking home more Clean-O shirts than one can hold translate over a webstream?

This of course discounts the format change and NSL sanction.  SprintFan16's questions are completely valid. 

Not this again..... 

Keep It Real

Not what again? 

Selling FRC as a party is fine, and it does well as an event for those in Central Iowa this week to attend.

However, there's a big world out there of people who can't attend for whatever reason - work, school, money, prior schedulings, etc. I'd love to hop in my truck and head there and watch it but work just doesn't allow it. Would I pay $20-30 to watch from home? Absolutely. Would a substantial amount of others? I would bet so.

TMac might be fine with packing 3500 people or whatever Osky holds in at $25/head and getting the concessions money, etc., but there's a lot larger amount of sprint car fans out there to buy a webcast. 

Knoxville has it figured out. The NSL has it figured out. ASCS has it figured out. I guess some just aren't ready to embrace the technology.

How many people currently drive there from the various Knoxville area campgrounds/hotels etc to attend in person? If PPV was made available, how many would just stream it at the Camper with the neighboring campers and not make the drive? (not have to worry about having a sober driver back to Knoxville, etc). While I'm not sure how to quantify it, I think T-Mac is just protecting his investment. Like others have said, that track can be rented. I dont think he wants to test those waters on his dime.

Right or wrong, just my opinion.

The point being, I see people in the campground do the same thing (PPV) for the Nationals Friday night show. I dont think it's inconceivable that he would lose people in seats at the show if that was made PPV.

Last year there were a few complaining about it but I'm not sure everyone understand what it takes to do this and what type of racing typically is ran at Osky. 

The FRC is the biggest, and PROBABLY (not 100% sure) most attended race at that track, other than demo derbys. So to set up the infrastructure and equipment to do this for a single event may not make sense. 
Knoxville is able to set this up b/c they already have the equipment there for their weekly shows and specials. 

NSL is a multi track event, ASCS is no different. 

Keep It Real

I'm in an industry that is related to camping and the big difference between a webcast and TV broadcast for those camping is that webcast is much, much more difficult to get. You would have to either rely on using a large data off a 4G plan (ie: tethering cell phone) or use park Wi-Fi, many of which aren't capable of supporting streaming devices at the necessary level. People may have watched the Nationals when broadcast on SPEED but it's a hell of a lot easier to get set up with satellite/cable while camping than reliable data. 

There's certainly a risk and it absolutely will have a detrimental effect on ticket sales, but it seems to me that the negative effect would be marginal. You might lose a couple hundred ticket sales (and I feel that's being generous) but if you pick up a thousand or two PPV buys you're now a net positive. 

At a $25 PPV purchase price, even if it grabbed only 500 buys, you're at $25,000. I think would would be an extraordinarily low number of purchases, but I could be wrong. Based of what I've seen from Twitter, I have to think the market is bigger than people give it credit for. 

Like I said before, if Knoxville, the NSL and WoO (select events) offer it, they're making more off it than they think they're losing to lost ticket sales. 

I alluded to it possibly being a technical issue earlier - that would be a valid answer. But, I just can't see that being the case. The track is in the middle of Oskaloosa, meaning there would definitely be infrastructure to support it.

I'd have to think broadcasting from some of the remote places SpeedShiftTV has done would be much more difficult than Southern Iowa Speedway. 

I'm unable to attend the FRC Monday because I have to work.  The only way Terry would get my money is if online PPV was available.  I would purchase that event and watch it for around $25.     So I guess that's money Terry isn't getting from me.

Ben T

"If you're gonna run the bottom, you might as well get 
a real job."

I believe this horse is dead folks. Move on to a new topic. We can probably skip it next year too and settle for "it is what it is". Want to see this race? Make plans to attend it in person at some point down the road.

You're right - why discuss something related to sprint cars on a sprint car board? What an asinine idea. 

They don't even have on radio.

It isn't going to happen, so it is a mute point to discuss it. But....that race has become a happening and it will always sell out simply because of when it is. There are how many thousand sprint car fans in the area already, so drawing a crowd is not the issue. PPV does make sense. The NSL implements PPV because a number of the races fall with a work day following the event. They know they are reaching a fan base that simply won't make the show live. Expand the PPV on sprint car racing and maybe, just maybe if the numbers reach a significant number, the sponsorships will increase and the networks might get involved. It isn't going to grow without PPV participation. Short term thinking never leads to long term success!

For those that are great distances away, you have the 360 Nationals (3 PPV nights), the Cappy Invitational (1 PPV night) and then the 410 Nationals (4 PPV nights).  This is $200+ already, so it might not have drawn as much as you think, just sayin'...

We appreciate the debate over our event Monday in Oskaloosa. Unfortunately most of you don't know the real numbers involved & the bottom line is we have done the #'s & don't feel it is a smart business decision for our event. We work very hard to put on an amazing show for the fan's and the teams. If you want to see the show please come out & enjoy it, if you can't make it we understand the frustration of not being able to see it on PPV.

We are giving away 5 television sets to lucky fans {courtesy of Sea Foam Motor Treatment & Monarch's Restaraunt in Pella), throwing out over 300 hats, shirts & other fun items. We have 6000 Mardi Gras beads that will be tossed out also.

We are distributing over $10,000 in prizes to the teams & owners not to mention a free Casey's Pizza while they work on their cars prior to hot laps.

We have committments from WoO teams, All Star teams, PA. Posse teams (plus a $1000 bonus from Allan Holland to highest finishing PA Posse driver) , CA. teams & the most exciting driver in racing Rico Abreu!

Again, sorry fo the frustration about PPV. Maybe in the future.