Quote:
Originally Posted by BrentTFunk
I don't think this is just a USAC problem. I see this as a racing problem. People will tell me that wing racing draws younger fan, but every crowd shot I see are my age or older. NASCAR has the same problem. I have brought some families in their 20's the last couple of years. They have enjoyed it, but finding the money to attend has been a problem. Wish I had the answers.
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Being retired (yes, I am an “old fart”) we have attended the season opening races for WoO sprint cars at Volusia and then the opening races for the USAC sprint cars at Bubba Raceway Park the next week. While I don’t know the exact “why”, Volusia has been absolutely packed the last couple of years, while the races at Bubba, while a decent crowd, aren’t half of what is at Volusia. Over the last two years at Volusia, 3 of the 5 nights that the races were run (the Sunday finale this year was a rainout) have been sell-outs per the announcement.
While there are certainly a lot of older people at Volusia, there are way more families in attendance at Volusia, as compared to at USAC and Bubba. Is it because of Volusia’s proximity to Daytona Beach and people vacation at the beach and come to the races? Is it the tie in to the Daytona 500? Is it because WoO/DirtCar/Volusia does a better job of promoting (there are billboards along I-95 in Florida promoting the DirtCar Nationals) than USAC and Bubba Raceway? As I said above, I don’t know the “why”, but I do know what I have observed. As for costs, tickets for 3 nights of WoO sprints at Volusia for reserved seats run about $10/night more than tickets for 3 nights of USAC sprints at Bubba Raceway. I THINK reserved seats run about $5/night more than General Admission. Food is probably close to even.
Just my observations. We attended 24 races last year, 14 non-wing races and 10 winged races. I know it is borderline sacrilegious to say, but we enjoy both winged and non-winged Sprint cars. I do believe that as a rule, more families can be seen at winged shows than non-wing shows. I stress this is my opinion.