[midgetmaniac]

Originally Posted by apexonephoto I think the downward trend in attendance at any racetrack affects all of us negatively. I live 45 minutes from MIS and have only been there 3 times. It isn't a whole lot of fun, the crowds, the prices, the time commitment. But I never wish ill will on NASCAR, I don't want to see them fail. But this whole music, and picking out "your song" is just a little too close to wrestling for me. I fell asleep, woke up with 7-8 to go, turned it off once I saw Stewart wasn't going to win, that was enough to change the channel. I do find it amusing how those on this board who love to call it Napcar and Nascrap seem to know so much about it.... To me we still have a whole lot of rain to wait out around here before the racing gets going. I can admit I like it more then baseball, basketball, football and hockey. I would like to make it to the Whelen Modified race and the truck race in August at Bristol. Then come home before Cup and Nationwide...

I agree about no ill will on Nascar. At least the owners are giving our young open wheelers a chance unlike Indycar.

[REH24]

Tickets sales must be really down at Bristol. Just got an e-mail from Bristol Speedway for tickets available for the August week-end races. This is hard to believe that at one time there was a 3 year waiting list for tickets for the August race and now they have ticket available. I guess they won't be advertising the hardest sport ticket to get anymore. You expect tickets sales to be down at some tracks but who would ever thought this would happen at Bristol.

REH

[bullring]

Originally Posted by REH24 Tickets sales must be really down at Bristol. Just got an e-mail from Bristol Speedway for tickets available for the August week-end races. This is hard to believe that at one time there was a 3 year waiting list for tickets for the August race and now they have ticket available. I guess they won't be advertising the hardest sport ticket to get anymore. You expect tickets sales to be down at some tracks but who would ever thought this would happen at Bristol. REH

Once an event doesn't sell out you lose all those sales to the ripoff ticket brokers trying to make a buck on those tickets. If the event doesn't sellout they have no interest in the tickets and I bet a ton of Bristol's sales were to the brokers. Then there is also the human nature factor. When somebody tells you you can't go to something, which before was because you couldn't get a ticket, you wanted to go. Now that you can just call the track and get a ticket, you think there must be a reason everbody else doesn't want to go and you don't want to go either.

[Mud Packer]

I just got back from Bristol and I did enjoy the weekend. They have made the track, in my opinion, much more raceable than it has been before. We always take the motor home and 8 guys and have been going to Bristol & Talladega for over 20 years. We used to attend another 4-5 NASCAR races per year as well but that went out of the window a number of years ago. Priced us out of the market.

With the economy being in the dump, ticket prices have remained the same for the most part or become cheaper. One thing we have noticed is a lot more people drive in the day of rather than spend the money to camp. The attendance at the Saturday Nationwide race is the worst I have seen with the current configuration of the track.

I doubt seriously that they had 100,000 people there for the Sunday show. If so, many were diguised at empty seats. I also agree that this doesn't look very promising for future events. Last year I predicted to our guys that 2010 would be more difficult than 2009. The reason, we have to buy tickets 9 months in advance and last year we had already purchased them so most people still went. This year, not even close.

I have taken a lot of the money I spent on NASCAR races and now go to more open wheel, short track events. NASCAR is in trouble on numerous counts as TV ratings are down, attendance is down, sponsorship is down, etc. I will say this, the next two years will decide the fate of all entertainment venues and I hope auto racing survives.

[REALDEAL]

Well, from what I am gathering, Nascar and it's tracks loss are gains to local tracks and the surrounding businesses. Last year some of my wife's relatives were down from N.Y. for our wedding. A couple of her uncles were diehard nascar fans so we talked alot about racing. I talked them into staying in town and going to Kokomo for the sprintweek show. After our usual tailgateing in the parking lot the racing was on and the look on their faces was priceless. They will definetely be coming back this summer to see some real racing!

I try to let nascar fans around here just how awesome the racing is at our local tracks and hopefully, if I can get them to come out once, they will be back.

Originally Posted by Eatin Dirt As I watched on tv today it looked as if our old tickets (8of them) 16 rows up dead center of turns 3/4 were empty. Would rather spend that money on some dirt track racing.

The only time I ever went to Bristol, Kevin Harvick won and your seats are almost exactly where I sat. It was the old Bristol before they made it 2 lanes. Back when all the drivers left there mad at someone.

[767]

Face it people like the wrecks. Put bristol back to the way it was and it will sell out again. Step #2 build more short tracks, or go back to existing tracks. I watched sunday just long enough for them to get strung out, then switched back to basketball. Smaller tracks, more beating and banging, thats what people want to see