When I first posted my thoughts on this on the Smackdown thread, It took me a little while to get my head around is. By the way, flagboy, good move making this its own thread.
Flo is its own company. They air many different things, usually all related to sports. So the only interest they have in motorsports is to make money for themselves. They are not owned by a group of midwestern tracks owners or promoters.
My Flo subscription was ~$50? I honestly cannot remember the exact price, but for the sake of argument, let's says that is money for three race nights for me - tickets. I have more than gotten my money back from Flo for this service. I am now much more apt to watch something on Flo when I am tired, pressed for time, etc., than go on a four hour round trip drive to a race. The latter half of that drive coming home at night. Nothing new. I have done this for decades.
But with this new Flo dynamic in my life, it has distracted me from attending the events live. And I am your average dirt track sprint car fan. A litmus test, so to speak. A larger comparison of things is how many kids play board games anymore? Or cards? Video and computers have knocked out that old way of living. Ten years from now, where will your crowd be, how big will it be, and who will actually BE the crowd? I am not talking about the Knoxville Nationals, or Kings Royal, but your weekly crowd at your weekly track.
The one thing I think will happen, though, is as Flo and others become more popular, the price will start slowly ratcheting up. They will be able to ask this of people and probably get it - to an extent.
In the early 00s, I want to say/remember Emmett Hahn not wanting to air the Chili Bowl live for he wanted the fan base at the track. This was when it was on SPEED TV. Then it did not air for a few years, but came up as PPV in 2007. $24 on HBO. Now that is 24 2007 dollars. Flo is like.... $50 for the year. So Flo is a true deal. All people like deals. But the Chili Bowl can get by airing live (on MAV-TV) for that event is self sustaining, like the Nationals or the Kings Royal.
So for now, I think this is going to start trickling down into Flo's coffers as more and more fans sign up and start slowly putting away their "board games" and get out the "video games".
Enough of me for now. Back to masses of the forum.
Chiming in live from the West Coast of Michigan.... Mike