I had a very informative conversation with a guy on Saturday concerning what’s going on with Florida short track racing. He gave me some interesting information that really made me think.
He was raving about the new soccer team in Orlando, and we started comparing one sports venue, the Orlando soccer team, with another, Orlando Speedworld oval.
The soccer team came to town and from what he was telling me, within 1 year had backing from T-mobile, Orlando Medical Center, the City of Orlando, the Orlando Airport, and numerous other large corporate sponsors. I think they even got the city or the county to build a new stadium.
Now let’s compare that story to the sad saga of OSW. They have backing from none of those. Not one. In fact OSW has no backing from anyone. Now a lot of that is Robert Hart letting the place crumble year after year because he was too cheap to spend any money. And Ozzy has proven to be able to top Hart when it comes to not lifting a finger to help the place.
But in the last 10 years, all of the resources that were available to the Orlando soccer franchise were also available to OSW. The soccer team wrapped them up in 1 year or less. I’m willing to bet that not one of the corporate sponsors of the soccer team ever heard of OSW. And i’m betting the " marketing " people for Robert Hart and now Ozzy never considered talking to those companies. They were never approached in a professional manner by anyone from OSW. One sports venue, ( not even a particularly popular sport in America ) got all the corporate sponsorship they needed in no time. Another sports venue across town got zero.
Now of course the corporate money would be far more for a televised sport like soccer. But T-mobile, Orlando Medical, Orlando Airport, and the rest all need the customers from the race track just like they need soccer fans. Far less of their ad budget would have been available for OSW, but some would have been.
It was Phil Jacques, wasn’t it?
I’m sworn to secrecy.
Another OSW thread,awesome
Completely agree with Kendo. If all the people who log on to swipe and snipe at OSW and its operation were to simply attend the races regularly we would have neither this thread or the problem. You might even end up with a successful race track. It begins and ends with butts on the wood and cars on the track. Thanks to the France family sponsorship in racing is shrinking everywhere.
Snooze. It’s whatever
Let’s call this a " stop the madness " thread. It has to do with OSW only in as much as that was the easy comparison. Bradenton and New Smyrna don’t have have new Pro soccer teams yet ( though i hear Bronson might be close to signing one ), we’ll see what happens when they do.
The point to the thread was that sponsorship, major sponsorship, is out there. The Orlando soccer team proves it. So it isn’t necessary to fund your race track off of the racers, nor even the fans. It isn’t necessary to pay the same purses as 15 years ago. It isn’t necessary to force racers to purchase track only products, or rent slabs. Tracks need to get off their butts and go sign up the same companies as soccer. The same companies that track owners tell us aren’t out there. The Orlando soccer team disagrees.
Only a hand full of people even give a shit anymore. Move on, nothing to see here folks.
OSW is so dead the flys have even left. The weekly racing is comparable to a sun bleached armadillo shell on the side of the road.
this is easy. how many kids want to play soccer and how many want to drive or work on a racecar. how many soccer parents are there vs parents that want their kid race a racecar or work one.
Let’s see, what is involved with racing? Cars.
Not mass transit train cars, real cars. Noisy, smelly, and probably heavy contributors to global warming.
Who is the primary demographic group that make up racing fans? <you can fill in the blank as to your best guess>.
Finally, will there be any Grande’ Hoopla Events for City Officiatin’ Folk or heavy related contributions to their campaign?
[SIZE=“1”]…oh, I see…[/SIZE]
This isn’t even and apple an oranges comparison, it is apples and garlic! The Orlando soccer team is a MAJOR LEAGUE club, with the backing of an internationally recognized organization. As mentioned already, there is a huge farm system of 10’s of thousands of kids with passionate parents putting them into soccer programs. They attracted over 62,500 fans to their opening night!! No major sponsor is going to be interested in spending big money for an event featuring us good old boys even if there were 2500 fans in the stands.
But on the other side of that, why on earth would the swipe and snipe crowd ( or anyone else for that matter ) want to attend races regularly when there isn’t anything to see. Heat races with 5 cars, Features with 10 cars. Splintered, wobbly grandstands, PA systems that don’t work, track lights that don’t work, same tired classes of cars, etc.
The France family rules the racing world in the greed category, i agree. But they can also act as a guide when it comes to getting sponsor dollars for a show that often isn’t very good, in front of crowds that have been shrinking steadily for years.
The Orlando soccer team managed to find big sponsors when the short track owners tell us that big sponsors don’t exist. They managed to sign up local and national companies that were also available to ALL Florida track owners. The soccer team went out and got them, the track owners raised the back gate and slab fees. The soccer team invited local and state officials to become involved. The track owners invited any has been or never were politicians that would agree to show up. And many tracks don’t even do that much. The soccer team and local government handed out about 20,000 of those tickets for free to help fill the stadium. The soccer team handed out tens of thousands of team t-shirts for free. The soccer team had huge parties in downtown Orlando to create excitement for the first match. I see where the crowd for the second match was about half of the first one, but impressive none the less. 5% of the Florida track owners handed out some tickets at a local parts store and once a year have 5 or 6 cars on display at a local drive in. The other 95 % of tracks just keep raising the fees and prices while offering the fans and the racers less and less.
There is also a huge farm system of millions of kids who’s parents have taken them to the races over the years. And more kids ( all of them ) are exposed to cars than are exposed to soccer. Also quite a few who’s parents back their racing.
All of what the soccer team did has been available to the track owners for years. They just never did anything about it. The big companies have big budgets. They can spend $1 million a year on the soccer club. They can also afford to spend $25 thousand per year on local short tracks. But only if they’re asked.
Any moron could kick a ball around a field. what amazes me is that 62 thousand pepole want to go and sit a watch this garbage and at the end of the game there may not be a winner or it can end with a tie. can’t wait till they get pissed off after a game a decide to to destroy orlando like they do over seas. it is easier for them to sit on there rear ends. racing would take brains which most of them don’t have thats why this country is going down the drain.
Are the soccer events televised and/or in the news?
Typically the size of the audience is one of the questions of a sponsor.
I still maintain it is a PC thing also.
Racing was popular a few years ago.
But then, so was I with the ex’s.
“Any moron could kick a ball around a field. what amazes me is that 62 thousand people want to go and sit and watch [that stuff]”–ST1
Perhaps they empathize with the game?
Apparantly soccer has more interested morons that racing has highly sophisticated fans.
Ding, ding, ding.
I don’t even know why people entertain Matt by replying to him anymore. The fact that he compared an MLS teams sponsorship, to what kind of sponsorship a race track should have is hilarious.
[QUOTE=JC26;157073]Ding, ding, ding.
I don’t even know why people entertain Matt by replying to him anymore. The fact that he compared an MLS teams sponsorship, to what kind of sponsorship a race track should have is hilarious.[/QUOTE]
Apparently that’s not all you don’t know. What’s even more hilarious is the state of short track racing in Florida. All brought on by track owners that were too incompetent or too lazy to bring in sponsors that were there all the time.
Let’s just hope track owners wake up before all short track racing in Florida dies. And i include Desoto in this too. Denny seems to have put the brakes on spending. And this place was run into the ground so badly by the former owner that there is still a huge amount of work to be done. We have T-Mobile here, we have an airport authority, we have major companies who spend ad dollars on minor league teams, 5 k runs, fishing tournaments, off shore boat races… just not at the speedway.
[QUOTE=JC26;157073]Ding, ding, ding.
I don’t even know why people entertain Matt by replying to him anymore. The fact that he compared an MLS teams sponsorship, to what kind of sponsorship a race track should have is hilarious.[/QUOTE]
No doubt. The comparison is totally idiotic. This soccer team sold 13,000 season tickets before they ever played a match, and they sold out the 60,000 seat Citrus Bowl for their opening game this year. Their games are broadcast on Foxsports Florida and some are on ESPN. Apples to hammers comparison.
Hey, Matt is trying to come up with something…I say make a call to your local politician and see how receptive they are.
Heck, Daytona Beach even tried to jack NASCAR’s taxes up and they threatened to shut down the Speedway and leave. They backed off in a hurry but the point is, Dick Q. Politician has no love in his heart for racing (the tax income, but not the sport).
I blame it all on Phil Jacques, er, “the guy on the phone”.