"Market your Track"

[kt]

2012 Lancaster Purse:

Sportsman 24 cars........$4510
.................16 cars.........$3835
Street Stocks, only pays 15 spots.....$770
4cyl., only pays 10 spots......$450

total pay out(3 divisions) with 16 mods..........$5055


2013 Chemung Purse:

16 cars (includes $200 bonus)........$3635


10th spot at Lancaster: $160
10th spot at Chemung: $125

I was unable to locate the Spencer Speedway Purse

[Groundpounder]

price of food dont help atleast fan wise. do i stop at mcdonalds on the way and get 3 double cheeseburgers at a buck apiece plus tax, or go to track and get A cheeseburger for 4.00

At most tracks, you're getting a much better quality burger than you are at McDonald's.  Most tracks I go to they are $3.00-3.50 and worth the price.

[uticamike]

All that notwithstanding I culled this little piece from the Evans Mills Speedway site/ track history section.

.....The expense of asphalt racing, and the fact that asphalt tracks were beginning to struggle and either fold or convert to dirt added to the Evans Mills Speedway headaches.
Declining attendance, and lack of drivers support prompted the Zeigler brothers to lease out the speedway to Art Parker. In a promotional opportunity, Parker advertised free admission to the speedway because he wanted people to come and see his track. Unfortunately for Art Parker, even with the advertised free admission, only thirty people showed up to watch the event. That was enough to discourage Parker, who in turn walked away from it. Ron White, who was racing at the area tracks, and his father Francis eventually purchased the track from the Zeigler family and converted it back to dirt.........

Cheap gate, great food, clean crapper can't negate a lousy show.  It's what your selling..bottom line.

[silverbullet]

If you offered this package to the race teams registered for your track, say 40 cars and they took advantage of this offer,

that would generate $ 20,000 in revenue for the track. In an effort to raise money for my race team, I would sell tickets to my friends, co-workers,

and anyone who would want to help my team. Every member of my team, would be have tickets to sell at there places of employment...

[dan19n]

this is an interesting topic,,,, I wish there were more discussion and sharing ideas about promoting both the sport and your local track. Silverbullet should realize the track cannot "afford" to give away tickets at a 50% discount,,, it still costs the track money. A promotional package could be developed for the race teams or individuals to sell and then receive a fair commission for their sales efforts. Racing is fun, but needs to be run as a "business" if you want success. Honesty is important when dealing with customers (race teams, owners, spectators) and running a "for profit business". Take a course in small business at the local college.... it will give you the basic skills. Promoting a race track takes hard work,,, many hours and skillful, creative thinking. There is no magic bullet. Get your team uniforms,, present a clean, colorful race car and trailer..... do your part in making the sport more corporate friendly. Look for ways to work with the track to spread promotional opportunities. I offer to bring a new person to the track as a "guest pit crew". I look for car shows to attend during the week to hand out flyers promoting the track. The basics always need attention (good food, clean bathrooms, parking,, ect.) but to get corporate money you,, me,, and the track owner,,,, HAVE to BE PROFESSIONAL.

[jdd00]

What's to stop a race team from buying discounted tickets, then just selling them to friends, family, and whoever for the same $5, or even just giving them away?  If a track I went to was crazy enough to do this, I'd be all over buying them and selling them to friends and family (who go every week anyway) at cost or barely above what I paid.  Yeah, the track would make $5/ticket, but it'd be for people who normally attend anyway at $10/ticket or $12/ticket or whatever it may be.  I'd break-even or earn a profit, while the track would be losing $5-10 per ticket on people who already attend on a regular basis.

[ask0329]

I'm trying to think of how the kids fundraisers work. I know in some instances you pay for 50 candy bars up front at a cost of say $100 so thats $2 a bar. Then its up to you to sell them and get your $100 back. Trying to figure out a way where jdd's concept would work isnt easy but there has to be some way.

The tricky situation with the proposed idea is how do you know your selling to or targeting new fans. Definatley a good topic and great to see someone else thinking of ways get new people to the tracks. I feel its not only the tracks responsibility to get fans to the track but us as drivers need to do our part.

I've always thought about a track taking maybe 6-10 tix and going out to a local bar(s) and doing some give aways during the season. But do a huge push during the off season.

Are there any racetracks the utilize Living Social or Groupon?

[TidTow]

silverbullet,
Your "Market your Track" idea has been discussed here and now it's time to put your plan in action and make a sales pitch to an area track.
Please report back with updates whether they be positive or negative.  We'll be here and thanks in advance.

[streetstockguy]

price of food dont help atleast fan wise. do i stop at mcdonalds on the way and get 3 double cheeseburgers at a buck apiece plus tax, or go to track and get A cheeseburger for 4.00

At most tracks, you're getting a much better quality burger than you are at McDonald's.  Most tracks I go to they are $3.00-3.50 and worth the price.

unless you get it at lancaster then you wind up in the hospital with bottulism

[silverbullet]

Every driver should be carrying around tickets to there local track, and contact information. My concept, was to "salvage" a seat for 5.00 dollars,

that would of been empty anyway, and make up some of the loss, with the purchase of concessions. If forty teams, bought in, the track would

gross $ 20,000... If a race track records "Lost sales" for the night, they might consider the concept,  with the hope of turning  them into a

"full admission seat...

[jdd00]

I think you have the making of an idea.  I am just thinking that those 40 teams would be giving tickets away to their crews, families, friends, co-workers who are probably already coming to the track; that way they aren't spending as much.  Without a way to somehow monitor it, they'd be used as essentially discounted tickets.  I'll be honest, that's exactly what I would do with them.

[dan19n]

 The idea of selling "empty seats" is similar to the cruise lines getting rid of empty rooms on cruises. It would be up to the track owners on how they want to do it. The method of reselling general admission tickets by outside sources (race teams) would work like the girl scout cookies sales...... you buy full value tickets from track,,,, add on a percentage (that you would keep as your profit) then convince customers to buy your ticket because of your great sales talent,, "hollywood personality" and for the CAUSE (to benefit your race team). As far as I know.... there are no "free lunches" (unless you voted for Obama),,,, success takes hard work, long hours and even alittle luck..........you have to decide..... are you marketing the track or are you trying to promoye your race team..... I am not sure you can do both.  A guy named Ernie Saxton is an expert on sales and promotions,,,, give him a lookup.

[raceannouncer]

Every driver should be carrying around tickets to there local track, and contact information. My concept, was to "salvage" a seat for 5.00 dollars,

that would of been empty anyway, and make up some of the loss, with the purchase of concessions. If forty teams, bought in, the track would

gross $ 20,000... If a race track records "Lost sales" for the night, they might consider the concept,  with the hope of turning  them into a

"full admission seat...

I applaud you for trying to "think outside the box" but no promoter would ever go for it...are the words "control freak" included in your planning?  If not, you'd better re-think your idea!

[Blue92]

Why should I market their business if they don't do it , we put the show on and now we should sell tickets for them . Every time I hear a so called promotor/ track owner open their mouths they usually just want more money from the racers. And to add to that they ALL CAUSED THIS PROBLEM !!!!!!!
                  And some most of them are to dumb to figure out why they don't have cars and fans in the stands.

[Big Al-VT]

To me the key is to NOT disappear in the off season. One of the tracks I am involved with does lots of off season marketing that is really not all that expensive. They Go to every Home Show, Car Show, public event that is possible, hand out schedules etc. They also have at every event a contest to win free tickets. At the conclusion if the event a few pairs of tickets are given away, along with about 10 more single tickets. Very seldom does just 1 person attend an event that signs up to win free stuff, that means If that ticket is redeemed they usually sell 1 to 3 more.

I was amazed when I was told the percentage of tickets that were redeemed before the end of the season. The home Shows had a better return than the racing shows also.

There is always a car on display, most of the time it is available for children to sit in, and the Kids gets a free photo out of the deal of them in the car. There is always decals on the car for the track strategically placed so anytime someone looks at the photo, you cannot miss the track name.

The names in the drawing box also make an excellent mailing/e-mail list for further promotion.