re-brand sprint car racing

FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING KARNAC's FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING
1

At the moment, the 3 Florida sprint car sanctions are all fat on their back, on life-support, and its shaping up to be a terrible year for the pavement sprinters and their fans like me. I just read about the Must See Sprint Series that runs up north. They have the same basic show as the TBARA, and if they are lucky the races are as good as the TBARA. Must See is a roaring success: lots of cars, lots of money, a TV deal, you name it. They appear to be as successful as a regional series can be, and they do it with the same cars that have lost most of their Florida schedule. How? It isn’t the cars or racers. The FL groups, especially the TBARA, had fields filled with top quality teams, skilled drivers and super competitive and interesting races. Why on earth don’t these cars draw a crowd in Florida?

Why are so many sprint car fans so damn old? Where are tke kids? Why aren’t we attracting lots of new, young fans to action that is flashy, fast, competitive and certainly more “extreme” than some clowns on skateboards.

The answer has to be promotion. The product is good and fans have to be taught to buy a ticket to see the sprints every time they come to town.

Sorry, I don’t know the roadmap to turn around the front gate performance at our FL tracks, but it is out there somewhere. Here is a no-cost, first step in the right direction. Rebrand the name of the show into something more recognizable.

For example, the “CFWSCA” is a totally useless acronym. Its not descriptive, its hard to remember, and its designed only for the participants. Will the promise of a “CFWSCA” show attract any fans who are not already familiar with it? No, it won’t. It needs a new name. Ditto for the TBARA. This acronym forms a word that is unpronouncable in english, and implies that the cars only race in the Tampa area. It needs to be phased out and something more modern, descriptive and that identifies with a true action sport has to take its place. “Checker Flag” sprints is better where the name is concerned, but can also be improed.

Consider the PASS series. Now there is a good name! Combine that name with a big pile of ad money and presto…your stands fill up. But because the name is memorable and descriptive, maybe, just maybe, it will attract some new fans, and just maybe they will remember it and be more likely to return.

Think I’m off track? Consider the Dixie United Limited Latemodels. Their acronym is the DULL series. Would you buy a ticket to see the DULL race? How about the American National Auto League? Are you lining up for the ANAL race? Of course not. Come to think of it, you would at least sell a few tickets for the Am Nat. Auto League just out of morbid curiosity. Something that will NOT happen with the CFWSCA.

So there it is. Step one in rebuilding the excellent sport of sprint car racing in Florida: rebrand the groups that run it. If anyone would even consider it, I’d make them a top 10 list of much better club names with memorable, descriptive and modern acronyms.

2

Agree with you on this Rex. But, as I posted on the other site, there is more to the problem than this. What are the tracks getting out of this for the money they are paying out? They aren’t getting more fans in the stands. They are actually losing money by having the sprints come to their tracks. The sprints need to be doing something to make the tracks want them and they aren’t doing that now.

3

Yes, of course there are other problems, but what racing problem can’t be solved with the application of some more money? None! Rebrand and promote to save the class and benefit the tracks.

4

Actually some of the problems I see here wouldn’t cost money to fix. Granted re branding is a no cost and good idea. I see a need to eliminate some of the egos and political bs in the asphalt series. There isn’t a need for 3 different series of the same cars. They need to all work together and promote themselves. That wouldn’t cost anything. They can’t expect the tracks to give them money when they aren’t giving anything back. If they aren’t drawing fans to the track, they need to do something to get them there. That might mean a little money for advertising but a better product would help too. They have to make fans want to see them. If the fans want them, the tracks will book them at a reasonable price. I really want to see sprint racing thrive but they have to realize they are a major part of the problem and they should not be pointing the finger at the tracks. Right now, they don’t seem to be doing that. As I asked on the other site, what are the track owners getting by having a sprint show? The answer appears to be they are losing money by booking the sprints.

5

Winger
Now I see you get it. (what are the track owners getting by having a sprint show? The answer appears to be they are losing money by booking the sprints.). Try sponsor and teams willing to promote there sport. And get the tracks to listen one more time.
It has gone to this 3 times in the past years.One time TBARA only ran dirt with wings and the PRO SPRINTS ran non wing pavement in Fla.
The sprint car beast will never be tame. Its what the drivers and teams are all about. 3 generations of them.
Bone man i hate you when you say something smart…A new promo name would help. How did FUNNY CAR ever work (haq ha ha )? World of outlaws.(big biker cookout).
Don 62

6

Here is a good brand for you, “Travis Pastrana’s Nitro Circus”. Too bad its already taken! “Nitro Circus”! What better example of a name that implies a wild and rockin’ show that you gotta see when it comes to town?

A bad promoter would refer to it simply as the TPNC, and then wonder why the fans didn’t show.

7

Another great idea from Boneman. He gets it.

It’s all about the hype, before the event. You can’t sell tickets after the race is done, no matter how epic it may have been.

SuperX
Nuclear Cowboyz
Monster Jam

These folks get it as well!

8

for example , right now at this very minit , since Tony Carreno and Citrus have worked out a deal to run a non - sanctioned race , drivers and teams willing and wanting to race are being threatened by their series head retards if they go race this event . its time for all drivers and teams to kick these useless scumbags to the curb . they are not needed or wanted . get rid of them now by uniting together and just go race when and where you choose without hassle and politics . maybe more tracks would find ways to schedual them if they didnt have to deal with the idiots in charge making retarded demands . sprint cars are just another class no different than sportsman , street stocks ,or bombers and should not expect to be treated any differently at any track that is nice enough to allow them a spot on the schedual .

9

The other side…

…of the “hype” coin is that if you really pile it on and play up the [SIZE=“7”]FREAKIN’ WOW![/SIZE] factor…it had better be one damn good show.

Remember the Bobby Diehl backlash. If people come to an event after reading all the flyers and seeing the video promos expecting one thing but get something altogether different…don’t expect them back anytime soon. People have weird way of wanting their money’s worth for something. Whether it’s a race event or a 1/4 pounder from McDonalds. Can’t forget the meat and expect a hungry person to be okay with it.

And as much as I miss the way it used to be…I know that racing has reached a point of no return and will never be able to recapture the glory of the 60’s thru the 80’s…maybe some of the 90’s…but not much of them.
Like my high school sweetheart and my hairline…I won’t be seeing any of them anytime soon. Racing back then didn’t need as much hype-ing, in my opinion. It had a ton more character, plenty of drama (the good kind) and much more colorful personalities involved both on the track and off.

But that was the past and today is now.
Rex is right (for once). There has to be a way out there to get the younger crowd interested in grass roots racing again. Even if, for them, grass roots means 4cyl, fuel injected, computer controlled buzz bombs with whale tails and turbochargers. It’s what they like. And a kid will not even feign interest in something that won’t keep his (or hers) limited attention span locked in for more than 30 seconds. Got to find a way to convert our old analog racing system to fit into the new digital world.

I can remember being excited to spend my nights (after working all day in my dad’s repair shop) building race cars for myself and other racers. Lots of late, late nights, too. On Saturdays, dad’s rule was we worked on customer’s (for the shop) cars un til noon and THEN we could get the race car ready for the races that night. My parents knew they could use my desire and love for racing as a tool to get me to be a better student, get my chores done around the house and had me pretty much bent over a barrel for anything I wanted or needed.
They had me.
I just don’t see that in young kids these days. Far too many distractions to ease the pain of losing one or two special priviledges or night at the races. Most kids are content to sit in their rooms talking to their friends on their phones or their computers to be bothered by their parents needs and wishes. Almost none are interested in following along in their parents footsteps and learning about and enjoying the things their moms and dads found exciting and fun back when they actually had lives.(then the kids came along and ruined everything…lol)

Anyways, yeah. We need a newer, more streamlined product to sell to the masses. There’s a punk rock band with an album titled, “Give me convenience, or give me death!” They meant it as a social comment about people in general but it really rings true for all of our lives if you think about it. Everything, and I mean everything in our lives constantly is undergoing change to be made easier for us to deal with.
Convenience. How much will you pay for it?

oj

10

How about…

some self promotion. I know it boils down to a money issue but takeing advantage of small town festivals this time of year. Almost every town and city has something going on with a parade in it.
Example; Stump Cabbage here in LaBelle. Get a hold of a Swamp Cabbage commitee member and they will pick you a place to line up and show off your race car to about thirty thousand or more people. We did that a couple of years ago with about ten differant class of cars in the parade.
Passed out a bunch of fliers and cranked up some of the cars and made some noise. Later on the night we had some new race fans and made some race fans and a good crowd too.
Self promotion.

11

Take a bow dnsno, I think you are right on the money.

Rex is right (for once) Hey Osmo, I seem to recall you were the American National Auto League champion. Was it '86 or '87?

12

I’ve been thinking about the state of Sprint car racing in Florida for the past few days. I have some ideas that I think could bring it back and let them start filling the stands. One of the things they must do is to provide a fun and exciting product. Can you imagine the thrill the fans, especially kids, would get out of this if they saw it at each sprint show? Could be done on asphalt with a little water sprayed on the track and dirt. Watch the video.
[URL=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMYycbiX4xE&feature=player_embedded#”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMYycbiX4xE&feature=player_embedded#

13

No…

Remember? I was runner-up to you both those years…then you left to compete with the International Series for Unlimited Compact Kars and ended up wiping up after the competition there, too.

Geesh…you tell a guy he’s right about something and this is the kind of thanks you get…:ernaehrung004:

14

Man, dnsno has a great idea,I can say I’ve never been to any of those events or the state fair or strawberry fest and seen race cars in the parade’s, or even parked on the fest. grounds for that matter, except maybe your nascrap junk.

Oj, a huge thumbs up to you bro, I really like the way you think.
What does Bowman Grey do to attract such huge crowds? Even before madhouse that place has always been packed. It’s a shame asphalt sprints are suffering, TBARA always was my favorite to watch and at the time were the only game in town. I remember seeing 30 sprints at Desoto!

How many teams really exist at this point? Surely not enough to support three series, seems to me this has happened to Florida late models as well. Florida Pro, Sunbelt, the All American deal at Desoto, and even Hooters at one point, to many series and not enough cars to go round. the flyers and commercial reads come see the baddest late models on earth with pictures of Pletcher, Cope, Anderson, but not one of them may even be at the race you choose, would you go back? I think not. If I didn’t have a computer there’s no way i would know 90% of these races even go on. No flyers, no commercials, no radio, no newspaper ads, nothing, so how are you supposed to attract more fans?

You gotta promote, you have to find a way to get your product in front of people, example dnsno’s idea. Here’s an example not related to racing but I’ll throw it out there anyway. My dad has a bluegrass band, usually they have huge crowds show up where ever they play. why? Because every place that will let them has a flyer in the window or somewhere that the customer will see it all over the state. A little promotion goes a long way, honestly, how many people outside of Florida even knew the Snowball Derby was ran or even know the race exist? Besides the race teams themselves very damn few. Just today I mentioned David Ragan’s finish at Lanier, the group I mentioned it to said " I didn’t know Nascar raced at Lanier "! What does that tell you? Todays fan has no idea anything happens outside of nascrap, you have to show them, get the product in front of them, and actually have the drivers in the race that you show on your flyer,ad or commercial. It can be saved but everyone has to do this as a team, no more of this me me me stuff, leave the ego’s at home and lets fix this before it’s to late.

15

ABYSS just hit the solution on the head, without mentioning it:

If the Nascar fans know nothing BUT Nascar, advertise your local tracks during THEIR broadcasts. There are plenty of people tuning into that, that might just say “Hmmmm… I didn’t know they had this stuff right over in XYZ town… we gotta try that some night”.

It won’t be cheap, I’m sure, and would need some slick production work. You can’t make your commercial look like a bunch of hillbillies going in circles, can’t show beat-up Bombers with primer and duct tape… it has to be shiny, colorful cars, side-by-side action, and a few viscious crashes. I’m sure the “Madhouse” adds didn’t lean towards a squeaky-clean image… it was about ACTION. The World of Outlaws is good with that… they have commercials and print advertising that is really professional, and all the individual track needs to do is insert their local track info.

It’s very hard to convert non-fans into being a fan. It’s much easier to convert fans from other types of Motorsports into trying out your local product.

I would bet it is MUCH easier trying to convert a Protestant to a Catholic, than it is to turn an Agnostic into a Christian…

16

I have to agree with all you people out there. When was the last time you saw an advertisment for OSW about anything other than Crash O Rama. I can’t remember the last time I saw any kind of promotional advertisment for a show out there. The only time they run ads for NSS is for speedweeks or the Govoners Cup. How much would it cost to run a weekly ad in the newspaper,in the sports page, and tell the fans what they will see and who will be there. How hard is this to do and give the fans something to look forward too :ernaehrung004:

17

One of the primary responsibilities of a promoter has got to be building a relationship with the local news media: the paper, the TV sports editors and a variety of radio on-air personalities. Yes, this would be a full-time job at the beginning. Yes, it would take some skill and great persistance to overcome whatever happened in the past.

Over the years I’ve heard lots of reasons why this can’t be done. Reasons like the paper only publishes if you advertise with them, etc… I bet these reasons are true, BUT you can’t give up. Its time to find a new way to penetrate and get on the same team with them.

Just because it didn’t work in the past, or at least hasn’t worked lately, does not mean that it can’t work at all. Apply persistance and creativity over and over and over.

There it is from the arm-chair quarterback. No, I am not volunteering to do it, but I am certain it can be done, and must be done by whomever is supposed to be building attendance at the gate (assuming there is a show worth seeing).

18

[B][I]Here some things that I have learn through personnal experiences:

Mr Everyday Joe DO NOT read newspaper ads, unless he is looking for it. So Joe Blo, unless he is looking to go to a race, or a race fan himself, he will not read your ad in newspaper.

An ad in a newspaper is very very expensive, here in Qu?bec Journal, a 4X4 inches add, in sports section(not prime place) will easily run you 500$, Journal of Montreal… 2 to three time that much. A good publication in Fl probably burst into the thousands real quick. Way too much for what they bring.

And no, newspaper do not talk more of the ones that buy ads in their journal, 2 completes differents departements that have nothing to do with each others. Tried that many times, always to be sent my way. Which finally led me to the real way…

Here’s the real way to go: make friend(brown envelope$$$) with the sports writer of the journal you wanna be in. A very good & colorfull article , WITH PICTURE, in Thursday morning edition, will really help you with the fans count. The Thursday deal is the day supposedly people decide what they do in coming w/e.

Another thing, for your announcer, pick one that works in a well known radio station. Somehow, sometimes, he will inevitably talk about your racing events on air.

It’s a good thing too to invite journalist at your events, have a special place for them, with some food and drinks, always help and very cheap compare to ads. Make them feel welcome and like kinda king of the night. Always remember they can help you a lot if they decide so.

And make sure you have an entertaining and well run event, bcuz all this stuff is worthless with 4 cars feature or an event that run forever into the night.[/I][/B]

19

I do think you are mistaken about rebranding the clubs. It won’t make a bit of difference. Just my opinion…

20

I’ve made my case, so what is your idea?

The status quo has worked in the past, but is not working at the moment. Who knows what the future holds? TBARA has a single Florida race scheduled, CFWSCA has two, Checker Flag has none.