[bloard]

The bottom line is that a track has to bring in a certain amount of money each night to make it float - and that number is directly relative to the amount of expenses. So, some tracks let you bring in coolers but maybe they skimp on something else, like a purse, or facility paint, or website or something else.

I'm a car owner, not a promoter.. but here we are on a thread about a track that hasn't been able to make it financially for awhile, already griping about potential revenue streams to make it float. As a car owner, I have about a $500 nut to crack every night - and I think that's bad. But the promoter has a $20,000 or more nut to crack. If that nut doesn't get cracked there isn't a track for me to race at.

For some reason we want to be able to go watch racing and pay $2 to get in, bring our own food and drink, pay $10 pit passes and expect the track to pay $5000 to win just because the promoter owes it to us as racers or race fans. Yet we have no problem walking into a movie and dropping $30, or the chain restaurant for a night out for $50, or my corner bar and dropping $20 without griping about it.

A track probably needs to make about $15-$20 profit in the grandstands to crack that weekly nut and show a fair return on the investment and risk. Whether that $15 profit comes from a $10 admission and over-priced food and beer, or $15 admission and letting you walk in with your own drinks really doesn't matter. What matters is that enough revenue was generated to make the show work out financially.

I bet there are a lot of fans with nearby tracks that are closed that wish they would have willingly paid that extra $2 admission for a special show or bought that bag of popcorn. A race track is a business - we might care more about the business than a different business in town - but it's a business and I don't begrudge a promoter trying to make a buck at it.... Unless I'm willing to step up and cover the losses on a week he doesn't.