[QUOTE=scott bertram;155925]I went to both tracks, VSP stayed packed, great racing, great car count.
I am a fan of the north eastern big block mods, love the bodies. Of course being raised in NY at a dirt track it’s all I saw.
NSS had some great racing as well, but as stated fan count was not impressive to say the least.
I think the atmosphere dictated the fan base mostly.
first thing I noticed was the flaggers at both tracks, the music, the announcing, the workers demeanor, and of course the prices.
the flag man at NSS seemed less than energetic lets say.
the music (if any) typically dictates 1 crowd type and isn’t very lively,
and I was pretty irritated with hearing “circuit” non stop at both tracks. I don’t recall hearing that term used before in place of “lap”. Maybe I just noticed it and they have been doing it all along.
while it seems VSP strives to pull a fan base, it appears that NSS is content with just the back gate.
I heard many times the excuse for the lack of fans at NSS was the weather, which is crazy talk considering VSP packed the stands the same nights.
I have witnessed first hand the difference in workers between the tracks also. at NSS some of them act as if they are doing you a favor and would rather not do it let alone go the extra mile. these types could really use a kick in the ass to the curb.
VSP seems to cater to the fans, with very bubbly personalities. And look as if they actually enjoy what they do.
One thing I don’t understand (not secluding any track here): if fan count is down why in the world keep ticket prices high?? if I’m missing something please enlighten me… say admission is $30, you pull 100 fans = $3k. now these people aren’t exactly happy with the price they just paid and aren’t as eager to spend the $ at concessions as they would be had they spent $10 to get in.
now lets say we start charging $10 admission for the same quality show, after a few weeks word gets out that its cheap entertainment and fan base say only gets increased to 300 fans. we are at $3k again…but… these 300 fans feel so great about the cheap admission and great show that they willingly spend the extra $ on concessions. so now we have $3k in admission plus 300 fans buying concessions vrs the 100 that was penny pinching.
personally when I’m a paying spectator I bring 3 adults (because one of my kids is considered an adult)and 1 kid. if I spend $50 in gas to go, $90 to get in and I’m heading home by 10:00 I spent at min. $140 not counting concessions for essentially 3hrs of entertainment. meanwhile the kid wants this and that. so $200 is the norm for 3 hours, much of that filled by wreckers cleaning up wrecks and other non racing situations. We have a problem in our sport of not offering a valuable service for the price paid. what I see is stubborn tracks refusing to lower prices because they aren’t making the profit they desire. sounds a lot to me like biting the hand that feeds you. It kind of goes hand in hand with tracks in the tire/fuel business that don’t encourage car counts. Many times I have wanted to race and had new tires and fuel ready to go but there was a min. tire/fuel purchase that I couldn’t afford. If things are bad… don’t make it more costly. instead get costs down!! The poor fan base kills growth all around. Sponsors aren’t going to fork out $ to get to a whopping 50-100 fans, a lot of sponsors are family/friends/ or the car owners business. the day of getting a non affiliated sponsor is about done with the local scene. and how can you blame them? so here we are with no raise in car counts, no fans, no new sponsors bringing a bigger fan base to the sport we love. every track that doesn’t do everything possible to bring fans in the stands has a role in this. which to me is crazy considering it hurts track owners the hardest eventually.[/quote]
Did you make sure you were invited Scott??? I think next year , I will go to vsp