Saying you have to pay double the admission charge to get double the payout is a little bit of an oversimplification of the situation. It’s not entirely wrong, but it’s not the only answer. You could also continue to charge the $18 or whatever the current price is, but double the number of spectators. That doubles the track’s revenue and funds the payout increase too. There are additional overhead expenses involved with handling twice the number of spectators, but there are also operational economies of scale that balance it out.
Now, if your facility is at capacity, there are no more seats to sell, no more parking spaces, etc., then yes, your option then is to raise ticket prices. But other than an indoor show with Fire Marshall concerns, you can generally let more people in.
The solution is more than likely a combination of the two, get more people to come AND bump up the ticket price. And that takes promotion, which is the thing we lack these days. I blame the movie “Field of Dreams”. It introduced the phrase “if you build it, they will come…”, and that’s just not true. You have to tell people about it and you have to make an argument for why they should come and watch. Create that environment of FOMO the kids all talk about to their therapists.
The work that’s being done for this “No Way Out 40”, that’s promotion. That what the Chili Bowl does every year, promotion. That’s what successful races and successful series do to be successful. It’s not that they picked the perfect rules package or best tire sponsor. You have to have a message and communicate it to fans and prospective fans, and if you don’t “have” a message, you better create one.
Originally Posted by racefan20:
Well this is the second post in a row ive read that you have posted before thinking about the consequences of what you are saying. I assume you are willing to pay double to get in? Or out of the kindness of your heart YOU plan to foot the bill for the doubled payout? I thought not......
I'm just going to throw this out there. If promoters keep bumping the back gate and the guy putting on the shows costs higher but not doing anything with the front gate. Car counts are going to drop dramatically pretty quickly after the first couple of months of racing this year. We are coming out of a few good years that showed good car counts etc. Eventually with the increase in all costs to go race the average local guy is going to need more $$$$ to show up week to week or he's not going to show up at all. In most cases in Indiana especially you rely on the average local racer to show up or you will have 10-15 cars.
Originally Posted by Pitdad:
Saying you have to pay double the admission charge to get double the payout is a little bit of an oversimplification of the situation. It’s not entirely wrong, but it’s not the only answer. You could also continue to charge the $18 or whatever the current price is, but double the number of spectators. That doubles the track’s revenue and funds the payout increase too. There are additional overhead expenses involved with handling twice the number of spectators, but there are also operational economies of scale that balance it out.
Now, if your facility is at capacity, there are no more seats to sell, no more parking spaces, etc., then yes, your option then is to raise ticket prices. But other than an indoor show with Fire Marshall concerns, you can generally let more people in.
The solution is more than likely a combination of the two, get more people to come AND bump up the ticket price. And that takes promotion, which is the thing we lack these days. I blame the movie “Field of Dreams”. It introduced the phrase “if you build it, they will come…”, and that’s just not true. You have to tell people about it and you have to make an argument for why they should come and watch. Create that environment of FOMO the kids all talk about to their therapists.
The work that’s being done for this “No Way Out 40”, that’s promotion. That what the Chili Bowl does every year, promotion. That’s what successful races and successful series do to be successful. It’s not that they picked the perfect rules package or best tire sponsor. You have to have a message and communicate it to fans and prospective fans, and if you don’t “have” a message, you better create one.
With the current price of gas you may have a difficult time retaining your regulars let alone inducing more fans to attend.
John Hoover
“To whom little is not enough, nothing is enough.” Epicurus
Originally Posted by racefan20:
With the current price of gas you may have a difficult time retaining your regulars let alone inducing more fans to attend.
Let alone what will car counts be with cost of diesel, methanol and hoosier tires all going up big time. Going to be interesting.
I have no answers on how to pay for it, but wingless drivers/ teams deserve a lot more. I'd be willing to pay a few bucks more at the gate.... have you seen concert prices lately?
The key was mentioned a few threads up. Promotion. Its all about promotion, advertisement and sponsorship. The last one man promotor and bank roll was Earl. He never took corporate money until the Mopar Million. In today's world this business model doesn't work. You must seek external funds beyond the front and back gate. If you can find local businesses to support some special race nights or add to the purse then the burden isn't on the admission and promotor.
Look at how Knoxville does its weekly shows. Its typically some sort of "night"..... Vermeer Night, 3M Night, Pella Motors Night, Casey's General Stores Night....... See where I"m going here?? The additional funds for those purses are coming from external sources that don't impact the gate. Those sponsors get their money back in return by the fans being consumers 10x. Race fans support what supports them....this where I don't see local tracks do enough to pull in the extra funds for larger purses.
