Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

Scott Ronk, INDY parts Bernie, and crew busting their butts on fixing THAT up and giving you folks in Indiana/Illinois a good place to watch the races. You folks in turn are to cheap & lazy to go watch your beloved USAC sprints in person and now Ronk is blaming FloRacing streaming and NOS energy drink (cause track sells Bang) for giving away free cans, for financially loosing their butts tonight as promoters. You people pound your chests on how great non-wing & USAC racing is. But you folks can’t even go support the race tonight. If there were 500 people there beside crews, I would be shocked. Don’t be blaming it on a Sunday night or $4.50 a gallon gas. I drove an hour last Sunday to Waynesfield for the ASCOC show, the crowd was soso, probably 2000. I went to Attica for the WoO show (again another 1 hour drive) and paid a $32 gate price and seen a packed house, 5,000 plus people. I have both Flo & Dirtvision, but I go support the track & promoters in person. You people that clam to be diehard USAC & non-wings fans are your worst own enemy. Couldn’t even go support the silver crown or sprint races at THAT. Pitiful. If USAC went to “protecting the brand” and not allowing full time drivers to race for peanuts, you people on here would have a coronary. USAC is dying again & the fan base is helping it along.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

I went to a Automotive swap meet Saturday in Franklin,and there were hardly any sellers or buyers there,compared to years past. $5.00 to get in and no live streaming either.

I'd say low attendance is not just limited to Auto Racing.......

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

I would never be "mad" about anything I knew about in advance and agreed to upfront.

I'd tell him who he should be mad at, but :deadhorse:

Did you read my whole post? Attica was a packed house for the World of Outlaw show. Even ASCOC last 2 nights in Wisconsin had good solid 80% capacity crowds, would’ve been even better with warmer temps. So that throws your theory out the window.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

Split decision...... I have very rarely ever seen a Sunday "rain date" be a financial winner. For as much as people love the idea, it is almost always a losing decision for a promoter. If I were a promoter, it would never even entertain the idea. As far as Flo and Dirtvision hurting the gate, I have always thought that this was the case. If a person was undecided if he wanted to go to the races, being able to watch it from home for no additional cost will always impact the decision.

I was surprised by the car count. I saw on social media where they were throwing a lot of "appearance" money around and it did not appear to have a significant improvement in the car count.

Did everyone see how empty stands were at LPS also? This even when THAT targeted LPS with xtra $ to racers that would run there Sunday. So here is what we learn. Competing tracks in close proximity of each other = no good for anyone. Sunday makeup races = low turnout. Inflation is hitting families hard and $35 pit passes and $5 fuel + food = $125+ disposal income that a lot of people just do not have at this time. Anyone to say the economy isn’t impacting this is truly disconnected from reality and the average working person

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

Can’t speak for anybody else, but I’ve been to all 3 races at THAT this year. It’s about a 4 hour round trip for me. And wait for it…..I’ve got Flo. So that’s 12 hours of driving which eats a little over a half tank of gas round trip. It’s takes little over $60 to fill up Now. $90 on gas, plus $90 for 3 tickets, plus $15 to park, plus what I bought at concession stand for those 3 races. Saw many hard core regulars there last night. What I saw very few of compared to Friday was family’s with kids. I’m tired of the Flo and Streaming services killing the sport arguments. Every other sporting event is on TV and I still see great crowds. Guess the Indy 500 stands will be empty because we can watch it on TV.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

And NOS trailer wasn’t there last night. Guess they needed to move on to the next place, but you can’t tell me they didn’t know NOS sets up at every USAC race and gives away their product.

💯

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

Just decided Im not going to get into this at all. The other track had nobody either. From my understanding the event wasn't even on the Vigo Fair sign until Friday. Only going to say people disposable income more and more is being wiped out. The smart ones are buying food or saving for when it really gets bad. The ones who still aren't hurting are picking and choosing I don't think FLO is the problem unless weather is a threat.

I said I wouldn't get into it. I said my piece and it's just sad after looking at twitter and seeing someone throwing blame around, actually bashing fans calling them elites etc. I mean you already took my cooler and smoking. I really want to go now.... I complement them for all the improvements, having as good a track surface as I've seen, But how does throwing blame everywhere help? I said before the season started if tracks didn't work together, Make fewer but more enticing events. There was going to be problems with both car counts and fans.

Also many two day shows have available two day ticket sales clearly stated that start times and dates can be changed at anytime for any reason. So if they couldn't make Sunday. You at least go the $$$ for it or gave them more incentive to come back because they're already invested.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

First, you can't compare the WoO sprints to anything else in short track racing, outside of maybe a big LM race in LM country. They draw all kinds of occasional fans for reasons we've already talked about a million times on this board. But even they, the premiere attraction in dirt racing, have very few Sunday dates on their calendar, and VERY rarely try to make up a rained out Sat race on Sunday. For example, this weekend they were rained out on Saturday and even though they were in a decent area for sprint car racing (Sharon) they cancelled.

Unless FLO forced the promoters to run on Sunday, I don't think you can blame them. I also don't think there would have been a lot more interest in the event had they not been streaming. For example, I watched yesterday on FLO, but I live 700 miles away, apologies for not being able to make it to the track on a Sunday night.

Yeah I read your whole post. Last nights races were both poorly attended. I was comparing an inexpensive thing to go to that had lots of people in past events. Much like racing, why was it poorly attended? Probably a combination of events, weather, economy,401k’s loosing thousands of dollars in people’s accounts etc.

To compare with your mobbed WoO race, for comparison, I recently went to a car show on a Saturday morning that was mobbed. Cars and Coffee. Not held every weekend. Yet some weekly cruise ins on Friday and Saturday nights all 3 close by to each other haven’t had as many cars as in past years, and these are every week, and all 3 different ones are free to get into.Weather was perfect for all 3 I’ve mentioned.

So why is that? Both have their own followers,and I’ve done both. Races cost money for admission, but cruise ins are free to come look at? Some are mobbed, some are average,and some poorly attended.

Are you speaking on behalf of the promoters or was there an actual public “rant” by them? I haven’t seen anything but positivity from them.

Every promoter knows what they’re getting into with USAC - or any series that has their races live streamed. Once a promoter agrees to sign the dotted line for a race, the right to complain goes out the window. Same thing with complaining about giving out free NOS. Hello, they are the the title sponsor for USAC.

I agree with Chief (did I just type that out loud?). Last night we saw mostly die hards instead of the casual fans and families / young kids. Hard to do on a Sunday night.

I attended race and I also applaud the improvements that new promoter has made.

But, new promoter may just need to refine their social media loud pedal just a tad bit to please the masses.

Some things are better left unsaid.

Silence is a virtue, etc., etc.,........

Proper choice of words is crucial nowadays.

JMO..............Congrats Robert Ballou!



(Jen, check Promoter twitter post)

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

Have you ever seen the Sunday night crowd at the Knoxville Nationals after a the Saturday night final has been rained out?

Scott Ronk and Bernie are smart business men that have been around racing long enough to know better. The lack of a knee jerk reaction for a reschedule would have behooved them. Push the show to the September date so people could have planned better. Not sure what pressure may be behind the scenes at THAT, but this isn't their first promotion and seemed like an odd move.

Were they forced to run last night by USAC? If so, is just trying to pass the failure to someone else(NOS, Flo).

Deferring doesn't mean failure, in some instances it shows intelligence. In this instance a deferment would have been prudent.

I’d say weather kept some away from Franklin??

I know I will get shot for saying this, but would Tuesday July 27th for sprint week have worked ? I know that would be 8 days straight of racing and hard on teams. Don’t some teams skip Terra Haute any way? Just an idea 🤔

I just read it. Wow. And now I find myself agreeing with you!! What is this word coming to?? 🤣🤣

My own opinion is he is not winning over any casual fans to visit his race track with his attitude.

One thing I can say Blitzman is correct about is his part about USAC dying, well at least some fans. My Dad passed away a couple weeks ago. A life long USAC fan and he did a great job of passing along his passion for it to his two son’s, my sister not so much. He was 83. A lot of USAC’s fan base is old, that is a fact. And one other thing is that I completely agree with is the current economic situation is affecting everything more and more. I have a good job and pays good wages. Many guy’s I work with have big campers and such. I hear a lot of talk now about how much the trip is going to cost and maybe we should find something closer to home. I’m going to stop short of calling anyone stupid, but if you don’t think it’s affecting things, you are delusional

I went to Attica for the WoO show and our group decided we're not leaving Ohio this year. Everything is to damn expensive right now. I'll stay in my area and enjoy what it has to offer.

As far as streaming, the promoters are way off. Streaming races is the present and future of this sport. It's the promoters jobs to give a product that people want to be a part of. Both THAT races have been USAC races and they have a deal with Flo, not THAT. The promoters should know that going in. I have never not gone to a race that I had planned on attending because its streamed. I watch much more racing now on nights that I can't attend.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

For those of you that haven’t read the :10: Twitter rant here you go.


https://mobile.twitter.com/scott_ron...rVrU7oimp4l9wg

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

My wife and I talked at length about driving the 4+ hrs to attend the shows at THAT. We even had our hotel room booked. But, after looking at what the weekend was going to cost us, the uncertainty of the weather and knowing that our monthly expenses are not likely to go down even though our 401K is, we opted to cancel our hotel and not travel to the races. I’ve been going to THAT for over 50 years, and my wife is a Terre Haute native. We would have loved to see the “new” THAT and support the new promoters, but the reality is we have to be smart with our decisions. Yes, we watched on Flo, but honestly, we would have made the same decision whether we had Flo or not. I’m sorry that the promotional team is upset with the race fans and their lack of support, but IMO, we’re going to see LOTS of empty seats this summer as Cost of Living continues to increase.

IMO, a lot of these promoters and track owners need to shut up. Stay off social media and get to work. Don’t attack fans or drivers publicly! Without them you have nothing. You all need to realize that.

Saw in the twitter comments the promoter called a fans wife a princess cuz she didn’t like some restrooms at race tracks. Instead of saying, hey, maybe we should look into making our restrooms cleaner and being better than the others, he attacks her by calling her names.
That’s one way to go about it. But it ain’t the right way.

I don’t have any sympathy for em. Back in the day you could bring your beer and pop and sandwiches and bring everyone and enjoy the show. Then they decided to nickel and dime and quarter you to death by slowly banning everything trying to make more money off us. “Hey let’s ban beer”, “Hey no more coolers or carry in”. But every toter or rig has a loaded fridge or coolers along with microwaves or a grill but nobody checks them at the pit gate. Let’s put the squeeze on the fans and see how much they can take. What was nickel and dimes and quarters has turned into a 5,10, or $20 bill, throw in todays upside down economy and decisions have to be made. Tracks can be there own worst enemy!!

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

For him to lay some of the blame on Lauren Albano from Monster/NOS is hilarious (Monster Energy owns NOS Energy). She has done more for USAC and dirt racing in general the last few years that we could never thank her enough.

Scratch attending Terrible Hoax anymore this year for me. I deal with enough childish rants daily I don't need them at the races.

I really wanted to see the improved THAT but i had to work the weekend, mandatory overtime at my plant so i was grateful for Flo. But after this tantrum over their decision to race Sunday has left me debating if i should even visit the place at all.

When are people going to realize the danger of making a spur of the moment social media post? The THAT promoters have spent a bunch of money and had the track headed in the right direction but in an instant have wasted the goodwill and momentum they had going. I suspect at some point he'll apologize but it's going to be hard to overcome this and the current economic situation is going to make it even harder. I really do hope they find a way. Personally, I'm willing to give them a second chance.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

On the flip side, for years on this site there has been constant whining about rain outs, promoters not scheduling rain dates, etc. This promotor took a huge chance in pre-scheduling a rain date for this $10,000 to win event and was rewarded with "fans" sitting home on their couches. Nice job whiners!

Social media plays way too much influence on some people, let's face it, we're not in to good of condition as a country right now, we're still in a pandemic state of mind, people and businesses are over loaded, costs of living go up daily, the weather is not good for any of us, but we have to get thru it, and keep our nation alive and free, I'm old school, and served my country, we need to remember how well off we are, people are overloading our country, attempting to find a better place, like our fore fathers did, but not following the same rules, I can't change what is, but we need to at least try, myself and my wife are in our mid 80s, and been married 60yrs, I'd like to see a few more years, but who knows that, just taking it one day at a time.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

The promoters agreed to or caused everything that happened that weekend except the weather. Don't try to act like a freaking victim. They should have been out there on the front stretch thanking the people that did attend. I was planning to travel to THAT several MORE times this year [that's an overnight trip] in lieu of much closer races. Have to rethink that.

If they had a lot of food to throw away they should have cooked it up on Sunday and given it away.

Oh by the way, the dust is still a problem. The wind carries it into the bleachers.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

Yeah but there was a rant on the last race as well. Not by Ronk but a worker.

And I agree with the nickel and dime. Fifteen to park? Seriously? Makes the real gate price 45.

They got Monster Trucks next. They'll probably have to turn people away.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

I'm guessing that was $5.00 times 3 trips to THAT...

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

I wonder how many unhappy e-mails were sent back and forth today between sponsors,sanctioning bodies,business partners,Flo,Etc Etc....

I honestly don't know, what did this guy do prior to running the racetrack?

bingo!!!!!!!!

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

I not once, but three times seen a promoter feed probably half the attendees at sprint week, a buffet of bratts, metts, dogs, burgers, chops, corn on cob, mac n cheese for free And NOS was out front giving out drinks and not whine a bit when his concessions did virtually nothing. He no longer does this but still also had at least one Free admission night that forced turn aways as they couldn't get no more on the property. The effect was a packed hillside for nearly five years of loyal fans and every usac races has had FLO for three years there.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

He owns a couple very successful businesses in the Kokomo area. He supplies or did supply a auto manufacturing plant(Subaru?) as a vendor. He owns ChalkStix. His stepson is PPM. He is deeply invested in the sport financially and passionately. I think he let his passion for not having good attendance for a couple early races get the best of him.

As with most successful people in business the don't like to lose money, hence why they have money. This is really no different than a professional sports team owner getting pissed cuz his team didn't win and ranting on twitter or firing the coach the next morning. Unfortunately, he doesn't control all of the corollary streams associated with the series(Flo, NOS, etc), which can be difficult as most of these types are control freaks. The reality is he will have to answer to someone else around these items since he isn't the "owner" and has to partner with each series and what they bring to the table when he opens the gates for them.

Its all risk and reward. They took a huge risk racing on Sunday and now they are paying for it. They could have mitigated the risk and choose another date to race later in the year, which may or may not have been better, but everyone knows a Sunday race is risky business.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

Phil Castallini president of Cincinnati Reds earlier this year after cutting several favorite players and payroll, made the comment, Other than what we did, The best thing we can do to make this team competitive is to move the team to another city.

It's cost them millions in attendance, ratings and merch sales.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

Correct $5 to park each time. I’ll also add this, while leaving Sunday night, I looked in the concession stand. It appeared there was a lot of food under the hot lamps that went unsold. A lot of tracks will announce half price or discounts towards the end to avoid the loss and at least get something back. Maybe they did and I didn’t hear it, but usually when they do you’ll see people getting stuff before they leave.

Re: Scott Ronk mad at live stream
 

[QUOTE=Charles Nungester;552443]Just decided Im not going to get into this at all.

I said I wouldn't get into it.

Charles?? Do you read what you write???? Even when you repeat yourself. 🤷*♂️