Originally Posted by racephoto1:
There is another idea I have , and this should scare every promotor who reads this board. We hear all the time that the economy is getting better and better from the politicos. We also know that everything you here in DC is far from the truth, and I'm singling out no one .
We all know that it isn't near as good as they make it sound in DC. Now with fuel prices on the rise it just gets worse. The thing that's scary is that the only way to pay for the jack in prices is to cut spending of disposable income. This will effect the local tracks.
Instead of going racing, you need to spend what used to be extra money on food, gas, and the like. There goes the budget for racing.I hope I'm wrong, but knowing Bristol is a perennial sellout, it seems to be more then a lack of interest, it seems to be that a lack of money among fans may also be playing a part. If that's the case, it could be a looong summer for the tracks around here. I hope I'm wrong.
I work retail, and that isn't exactly the most perfect gauge for everything, but I can honestly say our business has been up this past year over last. I mainly deal with businesses on my end of things, but businesses are starting to spend more, because consumers are starting to spend more. In certain areas it's better than others, and that's always going to be the case.
Bristol has been on the "downswing" for a few years now, I believe it was 2010 that they started advertising tickets for the night race. I remember when me and my dad looked at getting some back in the mid 90's, we were on a waiting list to even get a call on some. People are finally realizing that you can get much better entertainment value for a better price elsewhere. It isn't about how much disposable income people have, it's how much value they can get.
I'm not bashing promoters at all in this deal, but we as fans need to share some of the work too with getting more people to the local dirt tracks. It's hard to do, but if you know someone is a race fan, and they go to see a couple nascar races a year, it's better for their bottom line to spend it at their local track I would assume.
Main issue is Rome wasn't built in a day, and the USA can't get fixed overnight either.