Quote:
Originally Posted by Seadog
You have excellent points here. However, USAC is already behind the eight ball when using moto-cross as a model. Moto-cross can set up and tear down in a large stadium in any large metro area in a few days. Located right in the middle of potentially big populations. A number of USAC's venues are as you said in BF, Indiana which complicates the big crowd draws. With moto it's 50,000 fans within a half hour versus USAC's 1,500 fans within two hours. And USAC's venues at best hold 3,000 or 4,000, save Phoenix, Richmond and a couple of others.
And it will have to be promoted and sold as "totally bad to the bone action". We as die-hard fans know it is, but USAC has to convince the 15 - 25 year olds that it is.
Also, we all as die-hard fans/drivers/owners hate the cars with starters, but I believe it is imperative to bring these cars into the 21st century and make them more TV "friendly" if that is the direction we want to go with this. It's a necessary evil.
Just my two cents.
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Good points there, too.
What if they set up a tiered system in which they ran these Supercross-type events near big/bigger markets: Kamp and Route 66 (CHI), Granite City (STL), Lawrenceburg (CIN), Anderson, ORP and Terre Haute (closest good dirt facility to Indy, unless you count Kokomo), Knoxville and Osky (Des Moines), Las Vegas, Perris (LA), Devil's Bowl (Dallas), the list goes on. The rest could just be your "average" show.... Maybe there would be some trickle-down in fan interest.
As far as starters, I don't think they're a necessity at all. Again, look at what the AMA does. They run all the practice and qualifying stuff during the afternoon, and while the gates are still open, that stuff takes place prior to the advertised time on your ticket stub. Get all that stuff out of the way and you're down to your heats, B and feature, which you can easily do in a two-hour window. And nearly everyone already re-works the track; so why can't there be a re-work in between the preliminaries and when the bulk of the crowd arrives?
Just throwing ideas out there. Growth is good.
---------- Post added at 05:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:00 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary Silverman
But the thing you are missing is the fact is that a big part of the appeal of Supercross is that kids actually own and/or ride dirt bikes. And they have major manufacturer support as a result, which is where much of the heavy promotion actually comes from.
In modern circle track auto racing, there is no connection between what's on the track and what those in the stands would ever tinker with or drive. That's not just a USAC issue, and I have no idea how you solve it without starting from scratch (and still probably failing anyway).
Quite frankly, if you compared the average age of the spectators to the competitors in a USAC national series race... Chris Hanson from Dateline NBC would be ready to do a sting operation right there.
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True, but when I talked about the young personalities it was with the thought that the Chad Boats, Cole Whitts, etc. could connect with a younger fan base. And isn't that what anyone is shooting for these days?
As far as kids owning bikes, that is true. But show me a kid (or an adult, for that matter) who doesn't get fired up at a non-wing sprint car doing its thing and I will show you a person with no soul! That's your connection right there.