Time for another NASCAR marketing dept. assault on the English language. NASCAR is overhauling the fan souvenir shopping. The driver trailers are going away and a large retail area with all driver and NASCAR souvenirs in one place.
NASCAR pledges an " enhanced, experiential shopping environment".
And that’s a damn shame. One of the fun things about going to a NASCAR race was walking around looking at the souvenir trailers seeing what was new and who has the longest lines. Bad move IMO.
NA$CAR Mall. Another cash grab. Your favorite team can have a store, for a substantial fee, and we’ll still rent you a spot to park that trailer that you now have to load and unload…
But
It will be “experiential”!
Am guessing they think that means “a wonderful experience”.
In reality (dictionary.com):
Experiential-- pertaining to or derived from experience.
Or perhaps it is derived from the aforementioned NASCAR cash grab experience…
Daytona was one of the best racing venues around on and off the track, and now they have made it better…no complaints and the place looks fantastic.
There were never any bargains on “vendor row”…all vendors always paid a fee to be there. It is probably less expensive for them to sell their merchandise now. The merchandise is probably easier for most fans to reach. It protects the teams as well from sales of unlicensed merchandise…more parking spots too. You forget that the teams are grabbing the cash, not NASCAR. It is their sandbox and one need not attend if it is sooooo unbearable!
Daytona Speedway management is really making the place into a world class facility.
For those that like the “Vendor Experience” (vendor-experiential?) there is typically a mob of them just aross I-95 at the Daytona Beach Flea Market during speedweeks.
Other nifty things there also, like inexpensive-but-looks-expensive jewelry for the oh-so-significant other.
I’ve read that the main reason for this is that not nearly as many trailers have been showing up in recent years because they don’t sell enough, because NASCAR has lost a huge portion of it’s fan base, because they alienated the fans, because…
And i agree with the NASCAR cash grab. There will be admission to this shopping experience.
Groundpounder, the place is coming along nicely i guess, but my question is, what sport are they building all of this for? Surely not race cars or race fans, because there aren’t any.
Welllllllllllllllll, on the one hand they sometimes take two steps forward and one step back (or is it the other way around…?).
For instance, the “NASCAR Experience” or whatever it was called (now closed) at Daytona.
On the other hand, given the Beethlo/TBARA/Citrus ongoing struggles, I think they have provided a consistent “Big Time” show for our sport (racing cars with doors, specifically) for decades.
IMO, this deal could go either way.
Your math is bad if you think there aren’t any cars or fans at Daytona…
As someone who still goes to about 3 NASCAR races a year, I think this is a good move. The trailer system has been quite antiquated for some time. Additionally, this could also free up more space for interactive exhibits from sponsors like Sprint, Budweiser, etc., and that’s the real draw anyway.
Also, no way there will be a cost to get in the store.
You’re correct, there are still fans and cars there alright. My math tells me that since DIS is eliminating ALL of the backstretch grandstands, and i think i read that some of the lowest rows on the frontstretch were also going away, the fan count must have dropped a bit. And my math also tells me that there have been just enough cars to fill the field last season, so i’d say there’s been a steady drop in competitors too.
[QUOTE=Joe;154719]As someone who still goes to about 3 NASCAR races a year, I think this is a good move. The trailer system has been quite antiquated for some time. Additionally, this could also free up more space for interactive exhibits from sponsors like Sprint, Budweiser, etc., and that’s the real draw anyway.
Also, no way there will be a cost to get in the store.[/QUOTE]
I agree, it’s not like NASCAR to charge fans for access. But i’m betting it happens.
[QUOTE=Groundpounder;154693]Daytona was one of the best racing venues around on and off the track, and now they have made it better…no complaints and the place looks fantastic.
There were never any bargains on “vendor row”…all vendors always paid a fee to be there. It is probably less expensive for them to sell their merchandise now. The merchandise is probably easier for most fans to reach. It protects the teams as well from sales of unlicensed merchandise…more parking spots too. You forget that the teams are grabbing the cash, not NASCAR. It is their sandbox and one need not attend if it is sooooo unbearable!
Daytona Speedway management is really making the place into a world class facility.[/QUOTE]
The teams are making money from souvenir sales alright. Do you suppose NASCAR lets them park their trailers on NASCAR property without getting a fee? And do you suppose that NASCAR doesn’t get a percentage of sales?
It’s becoming mooooore unbearable all the time. It’s a shame too because stock car racing at Daytona used to be a terrific event.
It still is great. Maybe one day you can find some good again.
Even the 2 recent ARCA tests had 30 plus cars each day, not all the same teams either. That will be a tough race to make and I expect a great show.
Yup, no cars…
The use of the word experiential tells me at least one of the Frances does crossword puzzles. The use of the word enhanced tells me the price of poker is going up. And to top it all off I sit here hoping they had the courtesy to let the vendors who helped promote the Frances sport that they would no longer allow trailers. It wasn’t so many years ago the vendor trailers were spread all over Volusia county from Astor to the flea market. I am sure if they could get away they would charge extra for handicapped parking.
Let’s put it this way, they aren’t taking seats out because they expect MORE spectators. As far as car counts go, Matt is right on. When we ran the Rolex series, i know for a fact Nascar was paying for several teams to be there, and I have heard thru the grape vine they are doing the same thing in Cup to make sure they have full fields. Seems odd that most times they have exactly 43 cars, doesn’t it?
They could leave up the empty unused seats like they have for a couple of years but they choose to remove them, most likely recycle or sell them. The back stretch seats weren’t that great anyway. The new front stretch seats are in a safer position and provide enhanced viewing…an improvement.
It’s real easy from the peanut gallery to criticize NASCAR especially when you don’t have a dime invested. If you own stock, attend the annual meetings and question the management. If I recall we still have capitalism in this country and so let NASCAR run it the way they see fit. You don’t agree? Well they called Big Bill crazy when he first built a 2.5 mile track in 1959 so what does the peanut gallery know?
Sanctioning bodies have “helped” teams get to the track for years. Nothing new here…so what? Whether it’s purses, appearance money, travel vouchers or whatever, sounds pretty smart to me.
Aight.
Between the economy and the fickle public (notice how the “hot” restaurants and nightclubs come and go?) and whatever NASCAR has done, there are not as many people coming to Daytona.
2 unprovable arguments:
>There would be a lot more people in the stands if they had left the points/cars/blahblah unchanged.
>There would be a lot less people in the stands if they had left the points/cars/blahblah unchanged.
From NASCAR’s perspective, it is what it is, and what is the “smartest” thing to do moving forward?
Clearly, their answer is to turn it into a Charlotte-like high end experience, and ditch the unused (and crappy) backstretch seats. Further, it is not good business for the TV cameras–or the folks in the frontstretch seats–to see a bunch of empty seats.
Kind of like a small bar with 30 people “feels” fuller than a large one with 50.
I am guessing that the goal is to appeal to the high end types that have the jack to travel and buy tickets, and the end goal is to…grow the business.
If that happens, or anything else positive just happens to improve attendance (like continued lower gasoline prices), for sure they will add more grandstands.
All of this is not unlike any other big business, or for that matter, the guvment.
ps–Yoho probably already has “dibbs” on the backstrech stands!
You bring up a good point about attendance. Gasoline prices. There has been a long term rise so if prices stay low that may help.