IndianaOpenWheel.com Sprint Car & Midget Racing Forum





Register! Forgot Password?
Post Reply
captrat (Offline)
  #1 9/15/10 1:56 PM
OK, so I am going around with the remote and this is what I see. 1 hour of Whelen Southern Mods, an hour of some non-descript regional pavement late model show, an hour drifiting from Japan with english dubbing. Yet, we can't seem to get even a half-hour of highlights of USAC, Sprint Week or any other non-wing dirt track show. For years I have heard USAC, its fans, its promoters lamenting the fact of what a great product we have, but no one seems to know about it. It would seem, at least from the outside, there is no real USAC business plan or proactive approach to solving this issue. I am aware of things like production costs, etc, but others seem to find answers to these issues. I await answers from those much more knowledgeable than I about this.
Hubie (Offline)
  #2 9/15/10 3:23 PM
they sometimes have streaming media, what more do you want :2:
Seadog (Offline)
  #3 9/15/10 4:11 PM
Originally Posted by captrat:
OK, so I am going around with the remote and this is what I see. 1 hour of Whelen Southern Mods, an hour of some non-descript regional pavement late model show, an hour drifiting from Japan with english dubbing. Yet, we can't seem to get even a half-hour of highlights of USAC, Sprint Week or any other non-wing dirt track show. For years I have heard USAC, its fans, its promoters lamenting the fact of what a great product we have, but no one seems to know about it. It would seem, at least from the outside, there is no real USAC business plan or proactive approach to solving this issue. I am aware of things like production costs, etc, but others seem to find answers to these issues. I await answers from those much more knowledgeable than I about this.
Once again, the answer is MONEY. Nascar and IndyCar are about the only series that don't have to pay to be on TV. Kevin Miller's plan for the future (as I heard him say once) involves the internet.
apexonephoto (Offline)
  #4 9/15/10 4:47 PM
Originally Posted by captrat:
OK, so I am going around with the remote and this is what I see. 1 hour of Whelen Southern Mods, an hour of some non-descript regional pavement late model show, an hour drifiting from Japan with english dubbing. Yet, we can't seem to get even a half-hour of highlights of USAC, Sprint Week or any other non-wing dirt track show. For years I have heard USAC, its fans, its promoters lamenting the fact of what a great product we have, but no one seems to know about it. It would seem, at least from the outside, there is no real USAC business plan or proactive approach to solving this issue. I am aware of things like production costs, etc, but others seem to find answers to these issues. I await answers from those much more knowledgeable than I about this.
I don't know if you were watching Madhouse or not. I just read in a paper where Bowman Grey Stadium has 10,000 fans in the stands on a weekly basis. To me that is amazing. I hope USAC keeps going with the internet. I believe TV is a dying thing, and would like to see internet streaming and grassroots take a big step forward.
captrat (Offline)
  #5 9/15/10 4:51 PM
Originally Posted by Hubie:
they sometimes have streaming media, what more do you want :2:
What I want is media exposure that will put more new fans in the stands. Streaming media is almost exclusively directed towards people that are already fans. The real long term danger to our form of motorsports (besides money) is the aging and regional fan base.
Likes: mowerman
Pavement Dave (Offline)
  #6 9/15/10 4:58 PM
The younger tv viewer could care less about USAC or sprint cars for that matter. The new age fans like drifting, monster truck, carnage acts, and what not. To see more sprint car racing on tv in the future we are going to have to convince the younger viewer that a sprint car race is far better tv entertainment than smashing cars and trailer figure 8 races. Good luck on that. Kids wont even go to a short track race anymore. This younger fan is dictating where the sponsorship dollars are going when it comes to putting motorsport related programming on tv and the younger fan doesnt wanna see sprint cars.
Likes: jim goerge
captrat (Offline)
  #7 9/15/10 4:59 PM
Originally Posted by Seadog:
Once again, the answer is MONEY. Nascar and IndyCar are about the only series that don't have to pay to be on TV. Kevin Miller's plan for the future (as I heard him say once) involves the internet.
I agree that money is the key component, however it would appear that these regional or second tier series which are getting much greater exposure than USAC; have either found series sponsors who help with production costs or have been able to sell their concept to cable networks.

The internet is great, but I personally feel it is at best very volatile and is still in its infancy as a proven sports marketing tool.
Likes: jim goerge
D.O. (Offline)
  #8 9/15/10 6:30 PM
USAC has TV coverage of their Torc series on HD Theater every week right now. Great coverage of the series, great if your an off road truck fan.
Charles Nungester (Offline)
  #9 9/15/10 6:47 PM
So bring a monster truck to a sprint car race. GEE, what happened to PROMOTION?

Charles Nungester
sprinter25 (Offline)
  #10 9/15/10 8:51 PM
Originally Posted by captrat:
OK, so I am going around with the remote and this is what I see. 1 hour of Whelen Southern Mods, an hour of some non-descript regional pavement late model show, an hour drifiting from Japan with english dubbing. Yet, we can't seem to get even a half-hour of highlights of USAC, Sprint Week or any other non-wing dirt track show. For years I have heard USAC, its fans, its promoters lamenting the fact of what a great product we have, but no one seems to know about it. It would seem, at least from the outside, there is no real USAC business plan or proactive approach to solving this issue. I am aware of things like production costs, etc, but others seem to find answers to these issues. I await answers from those much more knowledgeable than I about this.
As others have noted, it's the $$$. NASCAR Images, a NASCAR subsidiary, produces the modified shows; the late models are likely produced by Lucas Oil, and the sponsor of the drifting show probably gets the show for free(no producyion costs except the dubbing. SO if somone will spring for the bucks, I'm sure that USAC will put together a show using Sean Buckley or Dean Mills' tape efforts.....
Post Reply