Just a wild idea. I have taken a family of 5 to races that have not allowed coolers and I pack a big cooler anyway with food and drinks. Fits nicely in most trunks or truck beds I have ever owned. We eat and drink when we arrive. We eat and drink during at least one intermission. We eat or drink before we headed home if we felt like it. The kids knew that if there was action on the track there would be no going out to the car. The most we really had to spend were on 5 waters from the track. It seemed to work out fairly well.

Hope he spit right on the dude's shoe!

Cmakin, thank you when I read Charles post and comments about the race teams with all the coolers my first thought was the competitors pay two, three or four times more for a pit pass than a grandstand ticket depending on the venue. Maybe to make it fair granstand admission should be the same as a pit pass, ha, ha, ha. I don't think most race tracks would stay in business if they had that type of leadership thinking the fans should pay the same as the competitors do. Actually this whole thread has irated me, bloard, cowboyhar69, and cmakin have had some constructive thoughts to add to a thread that has otherwise turned into another negative thread on Indiana Racing in my opinion. Non Indiana and Ohio residents come on the board an have positive post about the great time they have when ever they get the chance to travel to the hot bed of open wheel racing. While local fans feel they are being held hostage if the program runs longer than they think it should or they are being shaken down if they have to buy track concession food or drink.

My second thought when I read Chales post was I had never been to a race track where the fans wouldn't have some type of intermission to go out to their cars and eat and drink what ever they cared to bring with them. Pack a cooler as another poster suggested and keep it in your car if the price of concession food and drink is going to keep you away from a track. Don't miss out on your favorite race track because they no longer allow coolers in the stands. Think beyond how it effects you and look at the big picture.

Over this past weekend I had a conversation with one of the former owners of Oswego Speedway, in one year the property taxes on the Speedway went from $24,000.00 to $68,000.00. That one example of an increase basically lead to a family that had owned a premier race track in the country for over 50 years to sell it That example was approximately during the 2002 or 2003 racing season. If my memory hasn't failed I think the track was under the new management by 2003 and currently one of the partners that owns Oswego wants out in the worse way.

In todays economy race tracks are struggling to stay alive, higher taxes, higher cost for utilities, higher employee wages, higher cost to stock the concession and novelty stands for a business that depends on the weather and it's fans to succeed.

The next time you want to jump on line and run down a race track or a race promoter remember if they fail, it not only effects them it effects every single race team that runs there as well as their fans.

Rumors are just that, until they are actually fact maybe they should also be kept off messgae boards. An how did a rumor of a new promoter at one track turn into a bashing of concession stand policy through out the mid-west?



Patti

Here in Houston, we have a very interesting situation. Houston Raceway Park (HRP) has been open since the mid 90's. It is a palace. Musco lighting, paved pits, seating for 8-10 thousand, luxury suites, lighted pits (to go with the paved part). Needless to say, the overhead at HRP is pretty tremendous. Now, they never turned a profit with the dirt track, yet still ran weekly shows since they made their money with the drag strip and the NHRA and ADRL shows. They also never really got the hang of promoting a weekly show, either.

Last year, they started giving away tickets for their special shows, but would charge ten bucks a car for parking (for regular and other shows without free tickets, they would not charge any parking). To give away the tickets, they used their mailing lists and handed them out at O'Reilly's stores. They really started to get some good crowds in there.

For this year, they dropped their weekly show, much to the chagrin of many local racers. The thing is, the local racers started turning their back on HRP for various reasons. Some nights there were only 30 cars in across four divisions, with about 100 people in the stands.

This year, the smallest crowd was for the WoO event, which wasn't free, but cost about 38 bucks to get it. They had about four to five thousand in the stands. The TNT show had about the same, but it was also not a free night, but free for military personnel. For the rest of the Sprint car shows, the crowd has filled the stands, overflowing to standing room only areas. They haven't lost any money for a single show, and they have been giving away their tickets. They do not allow coolers, but do allow folks to come and go to their cars, and even suggest as much on their website.

In the meantime, Mike Walling, who purchased Battleground Speedway struggles with crowds of only a couple hundred for his weekly and special shows. He doesn't have a liquor license anymore, so he allows folks to bring a cooler in of beer only for five bucks.

Cmakin, you described a scene that is playing out at more and more racing venues through out the country. low car counts and low fan attendance. With the inclement weather that has plagued the Northeast and Mid-West this racing season, race tracks are canceling earlier and earlier, long gone are the days when you will get the race in no matter what the weather throws at you and how long it takes. Now it is less costly to cancel.

In the future I see more and more weekly race tracks going to special only venues, it's a dollar and cents decision.

Something I'm not sure the average fan realizes when their favorite track decides to ban coolers, charge for parking or camping, etc., etc.; that track usually didn't come up with the idea all on their own to bleed their fans. Every year most of the track owners and promoters from across the country meet in Florida for promoters workshops, where they share ideas and brain storm to come up with new ideas to try to make their business sucessful. Once the business is no longer sucessful your favorite race track is at risk of being lost for good.

All I can say is support your favorite race track for as long as you can. One of mine is all ready gone!

Patti

If you are talking about Manzy, fan support was not the problem. It was simple economics. The land was worth more as another enterpise than it was as a race track.

I too miss Manzy, went there about once a year and I live in Indy.

Yes Don, I was talking about Manzy and I do realize fan support wasn't the problem. I also know it left 9 racing divisions without a premier track to run on a weekly basis and three USAC divisions and WOO looking for a new winter venue to race at. How many times do you think the Manzy economics plan could play out across the country other the next several years? The next race track owner may not receive a big check for the land, they might just have to close the doors because they are so far in the red financially with no way back to the black.

Patti

The problem with your reply to me is I bought a pit pass yet walking in, I was unable to bring a cooler, how do you know If I was working on a car or not.

I also stated tracks need to do what they need to stay in buisness, I wasn't asking for a major change in tracks policy, Just stating some Ironys.

I also stated visit the tracks as often as you can afford to. I don't call it negativity, I call it discussion. as I stated the good with the bad.

Now, to be honest, I think that the current economic situation is only part of the problem down here. As I stated, HRP really doesn't need to make money with their dirt track. The drag strip is a real cash cow, and the family that runs it owns a road construction company. They are primarily drag racers, and I don't think that they really ever got how to promote a weekly show. For that matter, that seems to be pretty widespread down here. All of the weekly tracks in the Houston area have gone to the same formula of Pure Stocks, Hobby Stocks, Limited Modifieds and Modifieds. Similar rules across the board. Guys with Pure Stocks are even "touring". Not a single track has a good weekly attendance in the stands, and the track owners are praised by their car count. When I think about inviting a sponsor for our team out to the race, it is a hard sell to point at the stands and show them what kind of exposure our team can offer him. This all seems to be lost down here. If I had the money, I don't know that I would make a stab at it; but I do know the key is to get folks into the stands, and that is something that has been an issue here in Houston for the last few years, before money was really an problem. It just wasn't a very good show, and people voted with their wallets. Yet, when a track opens, they run those same four classes and then wonder why no one shows up. It is like I live in the racing version of Ground Hog Day. I might have already written a similar post before.

Jerry #66j
stida.com