My first real thought was. "THEY CALL THEMSELVES RACE FANS"? All Midget week is a excuse to party and I bet there was four times the people already setup camped at LPS watching it on FLO than at the Burg for the race.

BUT, It was a doomsday forecast. Too many it would have cost a couple hundred in fuel etc to travel for what probably wouldn't get completed or even maybe started. The race wasn't on the original schedule. Wouldn't even surprised me if a few didn't show up at Gas City. It was a Weds. Work night.

Me, Im a hour away, if it doesn't get in, I got that arm band to use for one of three more USAC races. Im only out a quarter tank on a night I'd of been watching TV or Youtube or something and not have to worry about work the next day if they were to get done late, or not at all.

That being said, I can't be upset with whatever choice people made. Can only thank those who came. I Know the Cordings made it from England and someone stopped by as I was talking to the flagman afterward and said they came from three hours away.

Id be pushing to say there were 500 people there (Which may include the pits). Normal shows are probably 800 or better. Shane not only ran the show, he had the concessions fully staffed, gates fully staffed The track was IMPECCABLY PREPPED and has been, the only blip I've seen in the track was that first USAC show where it got a couple holes in the bottom of 3-4 The racing was awesome. From guys comin off low to drivers like Seavey pullin his best Rico Impression of running it straight into the fluff and keeping the pedal down.

No amount of atta boys can make up for the hole in the Promoters bank account.

But I sure hope you'll show some love by attending Sprint week, The Staab Memorial and Fall Nationals. Your out there. The Spring Usac show showed that. For startup, probably the best run, prepped and speedy show I've ever seen.

Chuck. Who ranks that up with the first Midget Week show (Old burg with the new main grandstand), The first Blue Collar bash at Eldora With Sprints and LM's. The cancelled but still run and fully paid LIberty Indiana show as the biggest baths promoters have taken.

I remember that liberty show fiasco, what a night. I was surprised at the low car counts and fan attendance last night, but the weather looked terrible. I went since it’s the closest on the schedule and was texting with a friend who was watching on flo. They didn’t take their sprint down due to weather forecast. He was watching the radar while the midget feature was running and couldn’t believe it wasn’t raining there as the radar showed the track solidly in the green. It was a pretty racey night though esp for the lead in both classes.

First I could not go due to daughter having basketball games. Who knew high school basketball actually starts in June? Thats another story.

I did watch the race when I got home. Darn good job by the track to get that event in. I just hope the hit was not to bad, but I'm afraid it was a 5 figure hit. Racing was GREAT, wish I could have been there.

So lets look at a few downers:
Usac Midget Week- 26 cars???? this was night 1, where are all the cars? I was not expecting over 40, but sure thought we would see mid 30's. I'd hate to be the tracks on the end of this thing. It would be sad to see less than 20 cars on this "Special Week".
Scheduling: is this the smartest week to be running? Like it or not, Eldora is pulling alot of fans out of the region. Yes you can say that's a late model race, but I have several friends camping there right now that watch as many open wheel shows as they do LM shows. If I am an average fan going to Eldora Saturday, I'm probably not going to one of these races beforehand. Its not a cheep night. The traveling circus that should be following this thing must not be that big. The few crowd shots were ugly last night.
Sprint cars: What more does this track have to due to pull in cars? Even car count for the HiLimit race was not good. I watched the complete replay late last night, did anyone do the double? That used to be something kinda special about midget week, guys running both.

I think streaming hurts crowds for events with bad forecasts. For example, last Friday at Knoxville they were calling for rain all week. Every day I checked on it and it was consistent so Thursday we decided we’d stay home and watch on Flo if they happened to get it in. Knowing you can still basically see it (even though they zoom in WAY too much) definitely makes it easier to stay home. However, on Friday morning the forecast changed and they took the rain mostly out of it so we went to the race and got it in but the crowd was terrible. Worst crowd I’ve ever seen at Knoxville. And now the worst crowd at Lawrenceburg? Not a good look for USAC.

767 hit on something. Really bad to schedule against Dream and upcoming Ohio sprint speedweek.

That being said, I came home and watched what they got done at Eldora. Despite pictures of the campgrounds being near full capacity around the track, the stands were more than half empty with 75 cars hot lappng and attempting to qualify.
-33
Midget week was for awhile 40 plus at a few tracks and Burgs mostly been 25-35.

The sprints were a non point show and people like JJ Hughes (Work Night and two hours travel each way. Abrams operates franchises. Kendall? IDK but there were about five regulars not there. It was still a good show.

I was in the car at 840 after the sprint winner was pushed off the track. Home at 950. Watched all that occured at Eldora. Then rewatched what I seen live at the Burg skipping the few down time moments and it was still before midnight

Kendall said they were afraid of rain and that Tyler would’ve had a hard time getting there on time from his job. Said he wishes they’d went.

I have no idea what FLO pays the promotor, but I understand it is not a significant number. In my opinion FLO has grown over the years with more significant advertising on their platform. Maybe it’s time that FLO and track owners, promotors and sanctioning bodies have a meeting of the minds.

As a former promotor I understand the impact of FLO on the local tracks, especially on major events at the local track level and especially when inclement weather is in the forecast.

My beef with Flo is that it seems Certain series and races get all the $$$$ while the Track (Which you have to have to have a race is sometimes losing a few hundred fans) *Mostly iffy weather ones* but still.

Get your point, but I think it goes deeper than this. Someone is going to have to show me empirical evidence of the benefit Flo provides, such as increased revenue for tracks/teams and a growth of the sport in terms of participants and fans. Frankly I'm not seeing it.
Flo comes in and essentially takes over a track, especially if it is a travel series they broadcast. It is likely that the track's support series never get on camera, or if they do it is heat races only and Flo is gone by feature time.
The track's regular announcers are booted in favor of who ever the series and/or Flo hires. They take over the PA and the track's sponsors are never heard all night long, a problem if the promoter has secured a title sponsor for the event and has sponsor people in attendance, or as part of the program (waving green, victory lane, etc). The stream guys never mention them.
If there is a decrease in fans, then there is also a decrease in concessions, which many promoters need to show a decent profit. And there is the potential of the community losing a few hotel reservations, restaurants losing business, gas stations, etc. I really can't say that streaming causes a huge loss of fans, maybe with bad weather or bad roads, I imagine the loss of fans is small. But I think we can say that the streaming isn't adding much in the way of fans. And a Flo broadcast isn't making the promoter's bottom line for the year.

I myself was unable to attend the race. I also was unable to watch on Flo. With this week being my kid's graduation and open house, on top of her 10th and final year of 4H, and her being gone this week to her final 4H camp as a kid and 4Her, I didn't get done with work and our livestock until 9pm. Furthermore Lawrenceburg is very difficult on a normal day for me to make a show. However, I have been a few times and loved it, unfortunately haven't been since the new people took it over.

From what I seen from the replay, the track looked phenomenal, darn good racing, I've seen and heard lots of drivers commenting on how great the track has been this year. Kudos and great job to the new promoters!! Thank you for running the track and doing the best you can!!

With that said, maybe the weather did play a big role in car counts and attendance. But for those who don't think Flo has any negative impact on a track and/or race, you may want to see about taking a basic online math course. Each person that stays home and watches Flo instead of going to the track and/or race is what, $30 from the gate price? Then add in most will at least get a drink or two wether it's water, soda, or beer...some will get food as well. So roughly $10 a person in concessions. $40 per person. Times that by 10, $400. Times that by 100, $4,000.........Flo doesn't negatively impact a track and/or race???

Our racing group consist of 20 people AT SMACKDOWN...the rest of the season it's 3-5 people and has been that way the past 2 years. 10-15 people in our racing group stays home outside of Smackdown. That means in our group alone, a track is losing $400-$600. I can assure that our group isn't the only group who has decided to be that way. Flo doesn't have a negative impact on a track and/or race?

And yes, I watch Flo quite often when I cannot make it to a track and/or race on time due to work and other priorities that come first in my life such as my kid. Midget Week this year I will get to see 1/2 of the Kokomo show and that's it. Thank you for Flo, but reality is, it does negatively impact a track and/or race, especially with bad weather conditions approaching and/or major construction projects in and around a race track area. Also I agree with B99 100% that can also negatively impact area hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses. It's just reality is all.