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

plain and simple, It does not as the midwest doesnt have enough fans that can support that many tracks or nights of racing. I sure wish it could though

plain and simple, It does not as the midwest doesnt have enough fans that can support that many tracks or nights of racing. I sure wish it could though

Iowa currently has the third most active dirt tracks of any state, the only problem is that only Knoxville runs weekly sprints. It already has the tracks, and if there are 42 active dirt tracks in Iowa, the fans must be there too. Just not necessarily watching sprint cars at this time.

Hey very good point, but how many of these tracks are paying over 750 to win an A feature in any class and how many could put up a 3000.00-5000.00 1st place and afford to do it a couple times a summer.

If Knoxville can, why not Osky. The new Monster Energy Drink series could foster some new competition and carve a deeper niche.

Well..... not everybody likes sprint cars (*gasp* !!). Oskaloosa is, in fact, mainly stock car country. They had a new promotor a few years back that tried to run winged and wingless 305s on a weekly basis, or at least bi-weekly. When the sprint cars took to the track, the fans actually boo'd. That lasted one season, if that. It whet Bronson Maeschen's sprint car appetite however, so wasn't a complete loss!

The Front Row Challenge and Ultimate Challenge only work because of the time of year they are staged (Nationals, chuh-ching) and solid promotion. I'll give McTwo a lot of credit, they do a great job. With that being said, if the Front Row Challenge was held there the 2nd week in June, it's not near as successful as it is now - if it even lasted beyond a year or so. There used to be IRA shows at Osky early in the year and also a stray open-comp 360 show -- but nothing in the past few years... just the two shows in August.

It is true that Iowa has a lot of dirt tracks, but most of them are ruled by the fender-loving crowd. The sport needs a persuasive visionary that has deep racing roots to get fairboards and promotors (some would no doubt be of fender persuasion) to buy into a mid-summer sprint speedweek -- that would be a start. Unfortunately, the right guy for the job is still winning features in the TK Concrete car at Knoxville. Soooooo

Economy is bad everywhere. Lack of population density is the big problem. Des Moines metro is something like 350,000. My county, just 50 miles from Knoxville, is only 19,000 total population. I'll bet Marion County (Knoxville) isn't much different. There are still folks around here that think 50 miles is a long way to go. I've tried to sell used vehicles in the Des Moines paper, when they find out it is 70 miles, they say 'forget it'. Newton is a "big city" for us, and it can't be more than 15,000 these days. A Pennsylvanian will have to tell us what the population is in the area of the Grove, Port, etc. but I'll bet it's in the millions. We've had multiple weekly sprint car tracks, at one point you could run 360s three nights a week and go no farther than 70 miles. Osky ran 360s weekly back in the 80s but the stocks were the draw. Fairgrounds ran 360s weekly in the late 80s and 90s. But Osky and Des Moines didn't get the car counts - guys "saved" their cars for Knoxville. I could make the A at Des Moines and take home a whole lot more than I did for running somewhere in the "B" at Knoxville - but I was guilty of running only Knoxville too often. Even in those "good old days" it was too much money, and I crashed too much. The other problem is that this seems to be IMCA Modified, hobby stock country. They run Boone, Des Moines, Osky, Marshalltown, and many more tracks around the state. And don't get me started on the Figure 8s! Why folks like them better than sprints is beyond me, but that seems to be the way it is. Plus, there is apparently a law in Iowa that prohibits folks from going out more than one night a week.

As much as I hate to admit it, I think you've hit the nail squarely on the head.

It seems that the only popular "recreation" on any given night in D.M. is eating out. Every restaurant parking lot is always full.

And you're right that people in D.M. don't seem to want to drive 40 or 50 miles, depending on which side of the city they live on, to go to Knoxville. They'd rather go see stock cars at the fairgrounds and be home and in bed by 10:30 p.m.

Economy is bad everywhere. Lack of population density is the big problem. Des Moines metro is something like 350,000. My county, just 50 miles from Knoxville, is only 19,000 total population. I'll bet Marion County (Knoxville) isn't much different. There are still folks around here that think 50 miles is a long way to go. I've tried to sell used vehicles in the Des Moines paper, when they find out it is 70 miles, they say 'forget it'. Newton is a "big city" for us, and it can't be more than 15,000 these days. A Pennsylvanian will have to tell us what the population is in the area of the Grove, Port, etc. but I'll bet it's in the millions. We've had multiple weekly sprint car tracks, at one point you could run 360s three nights a week and go no farther than 70 miles. Osky ran 360s weekly back in the 80s but the stocks were the draw. Fairgrounds ran 360s weekly in the late 80s and 90s. But Osky and Des Moines didn't get the car counts - guys "saved" their cars for Knoxville. I could make the A at Des Moines and take home a whole lot more than I did for running somewhere in the "B" at Knoxville - but I was guilty of running only Knoxville too often. Even in those "good old days" it was too much money, and I crashed too much. The other problem is that this seems to be IMCA Modified, hobby stock country. They run Boone, Des Moines, Osky, Marshalltown, and many more tracks around the state. And don't get me started on the Figure 8s! Why folks like them better than sprints is beyond me, but that seems to be the way it is. Plus, there is apparently a law in Iowa that prohibits folks from going out more than one night a week.

The Des Moines Metro Area is 570,000. Add Jasper and Marion counties to that (basically Newton, Pella, Knoxville) and it's 632,000. Total population within an hour of Knoxville is more than 750,000. With your only major entertainment competition being movies, dining out, and laziness; not getting 3000 people in the seats for a weekly race show is nothing more than poor marketing.

Economy is bad everywhere. Lack of population density is the big problem. Des Moines metro is something like 350,000. My county, just 50 miles from Knoxville, is only 19,000 total population. I'll bet Marion County (Knoxville) isn't much different. There are still folks around here that think 50 miles is a long way to go. I've tried to sell used vehicles in the Des Moines paper, when they find out it is 70 miles, they say 'forget it'. Newton is a "big city" for us, and it can't be more than 15,000 these days. A Pennsylvanian will have to tell us what the population is in the area of the Grove, Port, etc. but I'll bet it's in the millions. We've had multiple weekly sprint car tracks, at one point you could run 360s three nights a week and go no farther than 70 miles. Osky ran 360s weekly back in the 80s but the stocks were the draw. Fairgrounds ran 360s weekly in the late 80s and 90s. But Osky and Des Moines didn't get the car counts - guys "saved" their cars for Knoxville. I could make the A at Des Moines and take home a whole lot more than I did for running somewhere in the "B" at Knoxville - but I was guilty of running only Knoxville too often. Even in those "good old days" it was too much money, and I crashed too much. The other problem is that this seems to be IMCA Modified, hobby stock country. They run Boone, Des Moines, Osky, Marshalltown, and many more tracks around the state. And don't get me started on the Figure 8s! Why folks like them better than sprints is beyond me, but that seems to be the way it is. Plus, there is apparently a law in Iowa that prohibits folks from going out more than one night a week.

What marketing techniques would you suggest they utilize that they are not now?

Over the last 2 or 3 years, I have seen the track advertise in the 3 free weekly shoppers delivered to our home, on virtually every TV station in DSM and the DSM Register and the Newton Daily News and the Grinnell Herald.

Heard their ads for Knoxville on KGGO, KBOE, KNIA/KRLS, KHKI and those are just the ones I am subjected to at work or at home.

I doubt these are all the track has used as the odds of my hearing, seeing, reading ONLY the exact media the track uses would be a statistical improbability.

This year they have offered a great deal for a package price for weekly events that got my ticket price down to like under 8 bucks for a regular night (non special events.)

So, give us your marketing expertise on what they need to to do to overcome Knoxville Raceways 'poor marketing?'

p.s. Cappy is retiring this year... here is the adress to send your resume for the position: P.O. Box 347, Knoxville, Iowa 50138

I know you don't know me, but I do know a thing or two about sales, marketing, and business operations. I might just offer my resume when Cappy retires.

If Knoxville was willing to pay me more than they pay the winner of the Nationals I would love to run the track. I have great passion for sprint car racing. I would even consider taking a serious pay cut and do it for less. My guess is the pay isn't that high and might be more than the entire annual marketing budget currently.

I'm certain Knoxville does a great deal of ADVERTISING on TV, Radio, Newspapers, but let's not confuse advertising your events for marketing your business/sport. Marketing is not asking people to come check out your product, even for free, or firing shirts and frisbies into the crowd thats already there. Marketing is taking your product out into the market to generate interest and excitement, so they want to come and spend money to see what all the buzz is about.

Is Knoxville activily involved in as many central Iowa schools and communities as possible? Do they take cars, drivers, teams to state fairs, county fairs, malls, local football games, baseball games, soccer games, rodeos, concerts, businesses, Adventureland, Prairie Meadows, bars, downtown, Arena Football, D-League NBA, Iowa Cubs games, etc, etc.? Sponsor a golf event?

Do they sponsor nights at other dirt tracks and demo their product... match race with a fendered car? Sponsor the local fan favorite for that series? I'm sure Knoxville takes full advantage of the Indy and NASCAR events 30 miles north in Newton to do SIGNIFICANT marketing there right??? Sponsor Little League teams, youth soccer, go-kart tracks, bike nights? It's always a great idea to be heavily involved with education. Offer to make your sport part of a tech, shop, business, PE, or sports cirriculum at local schools, colleges, univerisites. I'm sure they do field trips for all of the local school districts to the Track and Hall of Fame and give tours, show educational videos, provide snacks, and give the kids a private viewing of a few cars running on the track from the suites to make them go home and tell their parents they want to go to the races that weekend...?

Allow all of these audiences to meet drivers and teams, sit in cars, race simulators, watch highlights, give away apparel, let them touch and hear the car so they know it's not a glorified go-kart. Anything and everything to sell the sport. Entertain fans with similar events at the track on race day from 2 to 5. What if the track was an actual entertainment destination with other things to do before and after races, like mini-golf, or go-karts, or an arcade, or hold actual concerts with bands that draw an audience. I know all of this means paying driver's and team's and handing out serious $$, but anyone who knows anything about business knows you have to spend money to make money. Otherwise it's just a hobby.

Maybe Knoxville already does all that stuff...? or maybe they just advertise on the radio a lot. Maybe sprint car racing really does suck and all of us are in the minority and none of this would ever work. Maybe Knoxville is happy making all of their money during one week in August and just running their little hobby the rest of the year.

I know you don't know me, but I do know a thing or two about sales, marketing, and business operations. I might just offer my resume when Cappy retires.

If Knoxville was willing to pay me more than they pay the winner of the Nationals I would love to run the track. I have great passion for sprint car racing. I would even consider taking a serious pay cut and do it for less. My guess is the pay isn't that high and might be more than the entire annual marketing budget currently.

I'm certain Knoxville does a great deal of ADVERTISING on TV, Radio, Newspapers, but let's not confuse advertising your events for marketing your business/sport. Marketing is not asking people to come check out your product, even for free, or firing shirts and frisbies into the crowd thats already there. Marketing is taking your product out into the market to generate interest and excitement, so they want to come and spend money to see what all the buzz is about.

Is Knoxville activily involved in as many central Iowa schools and communities as possible? Do they take cars, drivers, teams to state fairs, county fairs, malls, local football games, baseball games, soccer games, rodeos, concerts, businesses, Adventureland, Prairie Meadows, bars, downtown, Arena Football, D-League NBA, Iowa Cubs games, etc, etc.? Sponsor a golf event?

Do they sponsor nights at other dirt tracks and demo their product... match race with a fendered car? Sponsor the local fan favorite for that series? I'm sure Knoxville takes full advantage of the Indy and NASCAR events 30 miles north in Newton to do SIGNIFICANT marketing there right??? Sponsor Little League teams, youth soccer, go-kart tracks, bike nights? It's always a great idea to be heavily involved with education. Offer to make your sport part of a tech, shop, business, PE, or sports cirriculum at local schools, colleges, univerisites. I'm sure they do field trips for all of the local school districts to the Track and Hall of Fame and give tours, show educational videos, provide snacks, and give the kids a private viewing of a few cars running on the track from the suites to make them go home and tell their parents they want to go to the races that weekend...?

Allow all of these audiences to meet drivers and teams, sit in cars, race simulators, watch highlights, give away apparel, let them touch and hear the car so they know it's not a glorified go-kart. Anything and everything to sell the sport. Entertain fans with similar events at the track on race day from 2 to 5. What if the track was an actual entertainment destination with other things to do before and after races, like mini-golf, or go-karts, or an arcade, or hold actual concerts with bands that draw an audience. I know all of this means paying driver's and team's and handing out serious $$, but anyone who knows anything about business knows you have to spend money to make money. Otherwise it's just a hobby.

Maybe Knoxville already does all that stuff...? or maybe they just advertise on the radio a lot. Maybe sprint car racing really does suck and all of us are in the minority and none of this would ever work. Maybe Knoxville is happy making all of their money during one week in August and just running their little hobby the rest of the year.