[illiNOISE]

Originally Posted by Rpracing1 Bring an actual car with this pre-show marketing and fire it up around 10pm and see what happens.

What would likely happen is that an angry City Board Member, accompanied by the police, would show up to shut this festival down by 10:15.

[openwheelfan1]

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.

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.

[davidm]

Bring your Teen Night. Kid gets in Free and Adult gets a couple dollar discount.

College Night. show you college ID at the gate and get in Free.

Mother - Daughter night. Mom gets a rose at the gate and Daughter gets in free.

Just a couple ideas that could get some new people to the track.

[Spi-nex]

What's the point of any sporting event? The real reason. To hang out and socialize with your friends/family.

Take any sport, remove the casual fans who wouldn't be there without a buddy(s) and you will be left with only a few handfuls of people who are really there for the big race/game.

Now since your casuals really only want to hang out, you can do that online in any number of facets, for free and in the comfort of their own home. You are not going to bait a majority of the current 20-30 somethings who really have the least amount of money of any demographic into attending. Especially when that demographic is in debt up to their eyeballs with college degrees, new cars, houses, kids, etc.

Most of the money spent going to a race is spent everywhere except the track. Then what do you do when you get there? You sit in uncomfortable bleachers in the burning sun, freezing cold, blasted with dust, out of date PA systems screaming in your ears (some cases not getting any PA...), all with nothing to do except SIT THERE until your bladder is about to explode where you treat yourself to a trip to a more than often than not dirty bathroom. That all sounds like a fantastic night to me where I just blew a bunch of money and several hours on the road.

The fundamental problem that HAS to be solved is how to overload the senses where sensations of every variety are being thrown at you left and right. Watch any modern movies or video games? There are so many things thrown at you that you don't have time to really think about stuff. It's all GO GO GO as fast as you can from every direction in every variety. This isn't a problem with just racing, but I believe racing is much more susceptible to the problem than your traditional stick and ball sports due to the nature of the program.

You want younger fans to come to your event? STOP WITH THIS "FAMILY FRIENDLY" CRAP! Why are bars/clubs/concerts hot spots? Booze and a more risque atmosphere would do wonders. When you were in your 20's did you really want to hang out for an evening with grandma and grandpa? Of course you didn't. Going to the track anymore feels more like going to Sunday dinner than a "fun filled night."

Cultivate and encourage fun outside of what is happening on that racetrack because frankly, it's the absolute least important factor to your casual fan (I'm not talking about you traditional purists!). There needs to be FUN. Otherwise.. out comes the cellphone... disconnecting from everything they paid to enjoy, all due to boredom.

[illiNOISE]

Originally Posted by Spi-nex You want younger fans to come to your event? STOP WITH THIS "FAMILY FRIENDLY" CRAP! Why are bars/clubs/concerts hot spots? Booze and a more risque atmosphere would do wonders. When you were in your 20's did you really want to hang out for an evening with grandma and grandpa? Of course you didn't. Going to the track anymore feels more like going to Sunday dinner than a "fun filled night."

Unless you want to cut off your nose to spite your face, this stuff better be separated into some sort of "Sprint Car Snake Pit", or you risk running off your core demographic.

[illiNOISE]

We're talking about growing the sport, but I also see a growing trend, particularly on social media, of a vocal minority of race fans trashing traditional "ball" sports.

It usually comes when we have an event that's over the top in terms of popularity, like the Super Bowl, or perhaps the Final Four. Here comes all the Julie Andrew's "This is me not caring" social media memes. And others like it.

Look, if you engage in this unsolicited,
passive aggressive baiting, maybe you have what you feel are legit reasons for hating mainstream sports. Perhaps you were bullied or harassed by your high school's running back 30 years ago. Perhaps it's the NFL anthem protest. Or perhaps something else.

But at the end of the day, when you attack mainstream sports on social media, you essentially attack the way of life for MILLIONS of sports crazed people. And, more ominously for our spirt, you potentially turn folks who were previously merely ambivalent about car culture and racing into actual hostile enemies of it.

And things get even worse when someone like Clint Boyer goes on the record saying "T ball is stupid.", like he did recently on a Dale Earnhardt Jr podcast. I wonder how many youth sports coaches, some of whom don't get car culture and racing, shared that on each other's social media walls? You think the whole sport doesn't just look like a bunch of Neanderthal Philistines in that light?

In short, boys and girls, like the new Kenny Chesney song says, can't we all just get along?

[racer-x]

[quote}
And things get even worse when someone like Clint Boyer goes on the record saying "T ball is stupid.", like he did recently on a Dale Earnhardt Jr podcast. I wonder how many youth sports coaches, some of whom don't get car culture and racing, shared that on each other's social media walls? You think the whole sport doesn't just look like a bunch of Neanderthal Philistines in that light?

[/QUOTE]

Clint also said on that podcast “if it don’t use gas it SUCK’S !!

What’s wrong with telling the truth???

[illiNOISE]

Originally Posted by racer-x [quote} And things get even worse when someone like Clint Boyer goes on the record saying "T ball is stupid.", like he did recently on a Dale Earnhardt Jr podcast. I wonder how many youth sports coaches, some of whom don't get car culture and racing, shared that on each other's social media walls? You think the whole sport doesn't just look like a bunch of Neanderthal Philistines in that light?

Clint also said on that podcast “if it don’t use gas it SUCK’S !!

What’s wrong with telling the truth???[/QUOTE]

My fear is that, with the rise of socialism on the political front, we may in the relatively near future see racing leaders subpoenaed before Congress, forced to defend why we're still burning fossil fuels. It could be an ugly day for the sport if this video gets played.

[revjimk]

Originally Posted by illiNOISE Clint also said on that podcast “if it don’t use gas it SUCK’S !! What’s wrong with telling the truth???

My fear is that, with the rise of socialism on the political front, we may in the relatively near future see racing leaders subpoenaed before Congress, forced to defend why we're still burning fossil fuels. It could be an ugly day for the sport if this video gets played.[/QUOTE]

Now you're getting carried away. The Left has more important things to worry about, like health care
Leave the ******** alone & i will too

[Ntfsprint5w]

Proud to say I'm 23 years young and a proud race fan lol. One big area that I think hurts dirt racing that is starting to get better, is the lack of TV exposure it once had in the 1990's. But that is all starting to change with the great PPV options available now like Speedshift, Dirtvision, Flo etc.... But to keep with what has been said there are a lot of owner drivers know who are younger, whether or not they stick around once they themselves hang up the helmet is yet to be seen.