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

Comments on the low attendance at both events.  Will High Limit return to these tracks as the result of these attendance issues?

It seems HL has had several races with poor attendance.  I hate to see tracks take a hit unless it is HL putting on the show by renting the track etc.  

Don't overlook the elephant in the room. FLO is the money behind High Limit.

This year is all about Flo exposure.  Both HL and WoO booked tracks that they normally would never visit. Part of it was an arms race to be first to sign southern tracks to keep the series fresh in peoples minds.  I "suspect" many tracks were rentals so minimal exposure to the actual tracks. 

Difference is WoO behind the strength of the brand has had multiple record crowds and HL with no brand to speak of has struggled. 

WRG owns Dirtvision HL doesn't own Flo big difference.

Got that backwards 

An example, also in Oklahoma, the WoO, in lesser populated area, Arrowhead Speedway had a standing room crowd.  

Who is responsible for the local media advertising, the track or High Limit?  I heard NOTHING and saw NOTHING about the Salina event, in the news, on TV or radio.  It appeared the only way of knowing about the race was social media.  With Kyle Larson's notoriaty and resources shouldn't High Limit be working with the media prior to the events?  Scheduling a "Press Conference" a week or two before the event, inviting all the local media, could increase the awareness.  Comments?

With the resources of the Kyle Larson/Brad Sweet family LLC and FloRacing media empire, it seems a bit premature to hire my buddy Steve, the best damn grave digger in Texas.

I was at Red Dirt and it was probably the best attended event there since the 2020 All Star race. Attendance at the other two Oklahoma events were impacted by rain chances and low temps. 

I was at all Arrowhead and the last 2 HL races in Ok. I assure it was NOT standing room only at Arrowhead. and the crowds were not that bad at either HL race. The parking lots were pretty full. Southern Oklahoma speedway has some fence parking for vehicles to watch the races while sitting in them. I am sure this had some affect on what the crowd looked like. Salina Highbanks grandstands are massive. But the most important thing for me was the racing and the outlaw race was the worst of the 3.  Now to be fair warm temps and high winds all day hurt that track. That is why they reduced the race from 41 laps to 30 that night.

I'm starting to think Flo doesn't care about attendence.  High Limit seems to be a TV/Stream product.

This is the Outlaws name recognition that was also a factor in 1989 and 2006.  For every hard core fan that follows the HL and WoO attendance figures and car counts there are ten who pack up the kids and see the WoO at their local tracks.  When we get into the bigger events that are predominantly Outlaw and HL participates it will be even more interesting.

Meanwhile the TV viewing has been pretty awesome.  

Stan Meissner

It was kind of funny seeing Larson in a WOO late model race while a HIgh Limit race was going on

I don't think they have to care about attendence. H-L was set up for streaming.Remeber some years back when there was televised swamp buggy racing? The attendence at those events must have been pretty dismal.

The sippy hole!

Bring back swamp racing!

Front gate is still a very important factor to profitability. You look at the money being thrown at LMs for a few years that has been dialed back a ton with the XR failure and the scaling back of some of the Flo mid week shows. Its not the only factor as it once was but you can't consistently have $100k shows (purse and all the other expenses) with a thousand people in the stands. Over time they'll have to make adjustments. 

The other thing is drivers used to racing in front of a minimum of a few thousand people likely are seeing at track t shirt sales decline a bit, online sales may make up for it but it can't be fun racing in front of empty grandstands. 

Flo Brooo...sign up for their newsletter, has all the schedules there...

Ascot was the greatest of all time..

West Capital wasn't half bad either..

Life is good...

I wouldn't put too much stock in crowd sizes at a 410 sprint car race in Oklahoma in the middle of April. The area's that both the Outlaws and High Limit are racing in are not exactly 410 sprint car hotbeds. Now granted, the Outlaws probably had a better front gate attendance but they do have brand recognition which does matter here. For years I thought with a niche market that we had and social media the way it is that it did not matter what promotion or series showed up. But then in the past several years I have read articles about the All Stars, which were a pretty well recognized brand here in Ohio, coming to certain tracks in Ohio. In the comments there would be 3-4 people commenting saying things like "what series is this?" "Is this the World of Outlaws?" "Is this Tony's IROC series?" And that is in areas that get crowds to the track. One article was talking about the former Mansfield Track in Ohio and someone commented that they lived in Mansfield and did not know the track had reopened. I would guess that there is a large % of people, even within the sprintcar fanbase that have no clue that High Limit even exists. Might be hard for some of us to understand because we are so in tune to it being hardcore fans but that is the uphill battle that High Limit will have. The streaming part will help significantly with that as well as Kyle Larson's name but it will take some time. How long? Who knows and how long can it be profitable with just FLO money who know.