Originally Posted by flagboy55:
Openwheelfan1 You’re in some way taking me where I’m hoping to go. I understand completely that there is no comparison in the size and commitment to the event. But I’m trying to keep it “in class”. We’ve gotten a little off track, no pun intended. ISW is different in that it travels to different tracks 4 crown is different with 3 classes. The purpose of the comparison is twofold. First, the size and popularity I think is a great gauge on the overall comparison of W vs NW. We talk about guys leaving wingless for wings. It’s very clear there’s a much bigger demand for wings except here in Indiana. Secondly, 30,000 filled up the Marion County Fairgrounds Saturday night, and I’m wondering if we can fill Kokomo Speedway in a week and a half from now in the state that’s the undisputed bastion of non wing racing. All of it seems to me to be a very accurate study on the supply/demand of sprint car racing.
I’m very proud to be a diehard Hoosier state sprint car fan. I want Indiana to continue to be the paragon of wingless, and continuing to make Smackdown a premier event will help keep up our reputation
This is one of the better debates I have seen on here in a long time. There is reality and discernment, which means people are seeing a macro picture of sprint car racing vs. the micro of what I like to watch.
There are couple things at play here:
-Promotion. This is a big problem and many of you on the board know it. Knoxville promotes the Nationals 365 days a year. We are two weeks out from Smackdown and there is barely any mention of it except in the racing circles here in Indiana. How do you draw in new people? Where does it come from? KNIA the radio station in IA does the races weekly and reaches alot of listeners who may or may not attend. They're reaching more demographics too. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of diversity I saw this week. This leads into my next point
-Maketing $'s. How many people can I reach and what is my cost to obtain a new customer. If NOS spent $250K to be the title sponsor last week they spent probably $2.50 per head over the 4 nights of racing. I figured total attendance for the week was roughly 100K. The preliminary nights had better attendance than I had seen in years. Does that fit their model on what it cost to obtain a new customer plus they provided free product all week long. What did Casey's spend to be an associate sponsor? I stop at one when I get a chance and support them so its working. People want to sign up and spend their Marketing $'s there because its clearly getting them a return on their money. The place was wrapped with banners and signage top to bottom around the facility. That's a lot of eyes on your brand. Someone will be a customer because of it. Both sponsors already have cars.
These are the things that is really missing with the stuff in Indiana. Not saying its going to change things overnight, but if you want to grow the sport/event you need to promote and market it as a destination event. Time will tell if it truly becomes a destination event and if the things needed to make it occur take shape.