Well folks snow is off the ground and the Robins are looking for a place to nest here in beautiful Gary Indiana. The break from racing after Florida is fading fast and the sights and sounds of our beloved Sprint Cars are cropping up with more frequency across the land. In today’s world of communication and technology almost all of it is available in the palm of your hand, on your PC or on your TV. This past Saturday, we had 4 TVs going in the Race Garage. Actually one was the Blackhawks hockey game. A couple weeks prior we had another gathering with a couple different race streams. As myself and a handful of my favorite people were gathering with a few beers and bucket loads of BS, enjoying racing from other parts of the country, the topic of streaming races and how it affects on our attendance to the track came up. Everyone one in attendance in the garage are race fans, however varying degrees, from hardcore to casual. I said many moons ago that streaming would never affect my race attendance, well I might have been wrong. I will firmly state that nothing beats going to the track but modern time’s has certainly created tangible options. After the season is in full swing I can have 4 races going from 4 different tracks with some of my casual race fan friends who are now going to watch racing that they would never have seen because they can drive 15 minutes to my house at race time instead of hours before hotlaps. It all sets up for interesting debate. I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter
I attended my first race in 1965 at Haubstadt/Tri-State Speedway and my USAC race in 1967, and have been a devoted sprint car racing fan ever since. My wife and I attended a USAC sprint race the day after our wedding! We have flown and driven tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of miles over the years to attend races across the country. However, as we have aged I find the travel to be less and less appealing. Yes, we still drive 12-14 hrs. to go to the Florida events in Feb. (but not this year with the pandemic) and we drive 9-10 hrs to go to the Knoxville Nationals, but our days of driving 4-5 hrs every weekend to attend a race somewhere are behind us. We have Flo and DIrtVision and now that we are on a "fixed" income, we are especially conscious of weather predictions and fuel prices before heading off to an event. We still plan to attend somewhere around 20 events/year, but will stream probably 3 times that number if not more.
Interesting topic. I've been to two races in PA so far and could have went to a couple of more but I'm just not the die hard twenty year old I used to be. As far as my attendance, last year was a bad year for me, I usually attend 40 + races a year, 2020 I attended less than 20, with the virus, new job, and family concerns. Flo was much appreciated last year. I don't know if I'll ever get back to going to eighty races a year again like when I was younger but the 40 + deal works for me these days. There are days when the temps are brutal and I can stay home and watch local racing on TV now instead of freezing my butt off in the stands. It's not the same as being there. I went to Williams Grove yesterday for their opener and it was sunny and super windy so you knew what the track would be like. The race wasn't that good but hanging out with my friends was my highlight of the day. I've been going to the races since the mid 70's and yesterday was about the windiest day I have ever experienced.
I'm glad to have Flo but I'm going to enjoy myself this year and get back to more racing and a few more new tracks.
I have Floracing and have used other PPV services. Nothing beats being at the track with friends and dirt in my beer. I live in Shawano WI, a couple of friends and I will drive to Kokomo or other tracks to watch a few times every year. I probably attend 70 or more races a year. I retired one year ago and love to travel to new tracks. I am leaving for Birstol tomorrow then Nebraska 25th to 29th then Westb Memphis for USAC show and finaly Marshalltown Iowa for two days. And I could watch all of those on PPV. The weather has to be real iffy for us not to head out. I am good friends with a promotor that is very successful and he has everyshow on PPV. He says it helps attendance fans telll hem they saw it on PPV and just had to come in person. As of right now I never stay home to watch a race if there is one in driving distance.
For me, I do not have any streaming services. I do not find races on streaming services to be the same as being there. However, I have also found that as I have gotten older (around 50) that I am not as much of a die hard fan as I used to be. Unless it is a special show, the weather will definitely impact my decision on where to go or if I stay at home. I also find my tolerance for poorly ran shows is especially low. Back in the day, I would stay to the very last checkered flag. Now, I am much more willing to leave in the middle of the show. I may watch one session of track farming during a night, but I almost will always get up and leave the second time that I see a track being farmed.
This is an interesting topic which I have thought about. I think the increase in streaming definitely helps the series (example: USAC or All Stars on Flo) because fans are now able to watch every race in the series, no matter how far away the track is from home. This keeps the fans more in touch with the series and the points championship if they are interested in that. The behind the scenes content that Flo has also allows fans to stay more in touch with drivers and teams.
As far as track attendance goes I do think it would increase attendance overall. You could argue there would be less fans at the track because they can watch it at home, but there would also be fans at the track who watched a video of a race and decided they wanted to see it in person, or they are more interested in a particular series which they can stream all the races that they wanted to see it in person when they race nearby. Or for example if there is a USAC race 4hr away that someone is debating whether they go or not, they can instead go to their local track 1hr away and watch the USAC race on their phone during breaks in the action at their local track, or watch the replay when they get home. This helps the local track and the national series together in the long run.
Here's my take:
Streaming only has a negligible effect on race attendance. I'd argue that many people streaming werent going to attend the race anyway. And since services like Dirtvision allow us to see racing from all over the US, we buy the sub. Which in the long run is cheaper, since I was buying the sub anyway. And it's putting the cars, and sponsors in front of a much larger audience as well.
A lot of tracks need to have more family friendly pricing. Using myself as an example, the WoO race at Volusia a few weeks ago priced admission at $40 adult, and I think $12 for children. That meant, to take my family it was gonna cost me $128 just to get in. We went in Feb. and GA kids were free. Couple that with the fact that literally every sport has seen attendance shrink in the past decade, and it's high time everyone takes a look at the long standing business models, and see how we can get more people to the track.
