More bad Rockingham news

KahneFan said:
There has to be a way to save that track, and be profitable to a potential owner too. I know the economy sucks in that area, but there still has to be a way to make it work.
Click to expand...
Didn't RCR make a late bid for it back in '07?
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Yep, you read that right.
Click to expand...
What has made you so insecure that you always have to bluster so?
Come on man. I bet I've been to as many "local" races as you have and I'm a fan of both.

Your insecurities show through in nearly every post. Maybe we should all stop hating on you and your ignorant ass posts and realize the pain you must be feeling. Maybe we should try and convince you to seek help for your problems.

There's no shame in seeking help.
 
blanston said:
What has made you so insecure that you always have to bluster so?
Come on man. I bet I've been to as many "local" races as you have and I'm a fan of both.

Your insecurities show through in nearly every post. Maybe we should all stop hating on you and your ignorant ass posts and realize the pain you must be feeling. Maybe we should try and convince you to seek help for your problems.

There's no shame in seeking help.
Click to expand...

Good for you.

NASCAR fans are "fans" who will only watch races if the "superstars" are in it and they wouldn't give a single thought to going to their local short track on a Saturday night.

Racing fans are fans who will watch NASCAR, will go to their local track, will watch IndyCar or whatever.
 
Roanoke has less than 100,000 people and is the anchor for the 4th largest metro area in Virginia. It's not even in the top 300 largest cities in the country. In the grand scheme of things, it's really not that large.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Roanoke has less than 100,000 people and is the anchor for the 4th largest metro area in Virginia. It's not even in the top 300 largest cities in the country. In the grand scheme of things, it's really not that large.
Click to expand...

There's more to the Roanoke area than Roanoke City, bro. The Metro (Roanoke, Salem, Hollins, Cave Spring, Vinton, Rocky Mount, etc.) has more than a quarter of a million people.
 
Oh, and racing is a big damn deal here. When I doing PR at Franklin County Speedway, the local NBC station here was leading with race highlights during the sports report on the Sunday night, Monday morning and Monday evening newscasts.
 
I went to the last CUP race at Rockingham, logistically it is in a bad location as far a hotels and restaurant accommodations. All two lane county roads in and out to the race track. Parking was easy, but getting out was a another story.

I had a blast and would go back again if possible.

I really hate this for Andy, he really tried to make it work.
 
sdj said:
I went to the last CUP race at Rockingham, logistically it is in a bad location as far a hotels and restaurant accommodations. All two lane county roads in and out to the race track. Parking was easy, but getting out was a another story.
Click to expand...

A lot of tracks are like that though and do fine.
 
sdj said:
I went to the last CUP race at Rockingham, logistically it is in a bad location as far a hotels and restaurant accommodations. All two lane county roads in and out to the race track. Parking was easy, but getting out was a another story.

I had a blast and would go back again if possible.

I really hate this for Andy, he really tried to make it work.
Click to expand...

When I went to the UARA/ARCA race, they were working on widening US-1. Don't know if they ever finished it though.
 
blanston said:
Nascar fans aren't race fans?
Click to expand...
I think that is bound to happen any time something experiences significant growth in a short period of time. Everyone here actively sought out this forum so it doesn't apply to most of us, but go to a race and you'll notice most fans are casual followers of NASCAR (at least, I do) and to a greater extent auto racing as a whole. The same goes for other leagues and organizations that dominate their respective sport - I think you'll find most NFL fans aren't necessarily football fans; they'll attend games for the experience or to say they went there and whatnot but they probably don't follow the league as a whole and football as a whole too strongly (ex: couldn't name the majority of the schools making up the Mountain West or what two high schools are playing in the national game of the week next Friday).

The smaller and more intimate a fan base is the more likely you are to have a knowledgeable and passionate fan base - ex: American soccer fans don't limit themselves to MLS but also watch the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, etc.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think that is bound to happen any time something experiences significant growth in a short period of time. Everyone here actively sought out this forum so it doesn't apply to most of us, but go to a race and you'll notice most fans are casual followers of NASCAR (at least, I do) and to a greater extent auto racing as a whole. The same goes for other leagues and organizations that dominate their respective sport - I think you'll find most NFL fans aren't necessarily football fans; they'll attend games for the experience or to say they went there and whatnot but they probably don't follow the league as a whole and football as a whole too strongly (ex: couldn't name the majority of the schools making up the Mountain West or what two high schools are playing in the national game of the week next Friday).

The smaller and more intimate a fan base is the more likely you are to have a knowledgeable and passionate fan base - ex: American soccer fans don't limit themselves to MLS but also watch the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, etc.
Click to expand...

A guy I used to work with was a huge soccer fan and he was actually pretty negative on MLS. I guess it's like us open-wheel fans that crap on NASCAR sometimes. Oh well. :)
 
KevinWI said:
A guy I used to work with was a huge soccer fan and he was actually pretty negative on MLS. I guess it's like us open-wheel fans that crap on NASCAR sometimes. Oh well. :)
Click to expand...
I've seen a lot of the same sentiment. I'm pretty sure the EPL on NBC/NBCSN actually gets better TV ratings than MLS does.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I've seen a lot of the same sentiment. I'm pretty sure the EPL on NBC/NBCSN actually gets better TV ratings than MLS does.
Click to expand...
Andy does have a point though. There is a difference between a NASCAR fan and a racing fan. Some people just aren't interested in anything beyond just stock car racing or even just NASCAR racing or even just Sprint Cup racing. I'd be hard pressed to call those people "racing fans", but not in a prerogative sense. You aren't an Olympics fan if you only watch Kobe play men's basketball in the Olympics every four years.
 
FenderBumper said:
I agree. People were saying it's in the middle of nowhere, but it really isn't.
Click to expand...

Have you actually been to Rockingham, NC? It's a small town with a population less than 10,000 people. I used to date a girl from there and I'm honestly not surprised at why Rokingham has no support. The track is out in the middle of nowhere, a town that small cannot logistically support a NASCAR weekend, and it doesn't exactly have the highway infrastructure for it either.

In contrast, Concord NC, home of CMS has 82,000 population, has I-85, I-485 and I-77 and it has the infrastructure like hotels, malls, movie cinemas, etc.

The only other track comparable to Rockingham in this regard is Martinsville, and I'm guessing the reason Martinsville is still in business is because the track consistently puts on a good show, sells more tickets and the town of Ridgeway and Martinsville can support the NASCAR weekend.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Have you actually been to Rockingham, NC? It's a small town with a population less than 10,000 people. I used to date a girl from there and I'm honestly not surprised at why Rokingham has no support. The track is out in the middle of nowhere, a town that small cannot logistically support a NASCAR weekend, and it doesn't exactly have the highway infrastructure for it either.

In contrast, Concord NC, home of CMS has 82,000 population, has I-85, I-485 and I-77 and it has the infrastructure like hotels, malls, movie cinemas, etc.

The only other track comparable to Rockingham in this regard is Martinsville, and I'm guessing the reason Martinsville is still in business is because the track consistently puts on a good show, sells more tickets and the town of Ridgeway and Martinsville can support the NASCAR weekend.
Click to expand...

My point and Fender's point is that Raleigh and Charlotte both have large enough populations that there's really no reason they shouldn't be able to get 30,000 fans to come from those areas on raceday.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
My point and Fender's point is that Raleigh and Charlotte both have large enough populations that there's really no reason they shouldn't be able to get 30,000 fans to come from those areas on raceday.
Click to expand...

The reason Charlotte Motor Speedway is the way that it is, is because the city of Concord supports Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Speedway is being used all the time. Not only do you have the Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Truck races. But you also have things like the Auto Show, the Christmas Lights, movie nights, Richard Petty Driving Experiences, etc. You also have the Drag strip and the dirt track. Wouldn't mind the dirt track having a Saturday Night race event during the racing season, but that's another thread.

One of the failings of Rockingham Speedway is because the city of Rockingham failed to support the Speedway. I don't know if it's because they simply can't afford to do what Concord does for CMS, or they just didn't want to, but the city def. fail Rockingham Speedway.

I mean it's easy to say "Oh the real fans should have drove the 2 hours trek to support Rockingham.", but honestly that's just wishful thinking. People have lives outside of NASCAR and stock car racing, they either didn't have the money, time, or they had other plans. Life tends to do that. But the simple fact is that honestly....Rockingham Speedway just did not have the support it needed to survive.
 
I think the point is that Rockingham and Richmond County's economies are so terrible that they can't afford to support a speedway. These mythical race fans from Raleigh and Charlotte are not going to drive 2 hours when they have lives and other financial priorities. North Carolina is not a racing starved area so there really isn't a need to drive 2 hours to get racing there.

Rockingham is a poor town in a poor area with not enough of a tax base to really help things out.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
There are a lot of other reasons Rockingham didn't survive - not just fan support (or lack thereof).
Click to expand...

It's easier for me to attend a race 2 hours away because I'm a single guy who lives alone and own his own business. I can attend any damn race I want to. However, a guy who works for someone else, who has a wife and kids, etc. It's not exactly easy for him to just haul the wife and kids to a race track in the middle of nowhere to attend a race and have nothing for the wife or kids to do.

I mean yea, it's easy for guys like me to say that the fans should have supported Rockingham more, but that's because I'm more free to attend the races than someone like my brother, who has a wife, children, and a job to consider.
 
I got in trouble with the girl I was DATING when I drove 2 hours to a NASCAR race. If you don't have a significant other who likes racing or sports in general, it's hard to do things like driving 2 hours to an event.

And for crying out loud, the argument started with me outlining the key reason why Rockingham did worse than Loudon/Martinsville/Bristol/etc. Martinsville is in (or near) the Southern Appalachians. There are things to do there that might interest someone enough to make it a destination. You just spent the entire last page refuting my classification of Martinsville as a rural track that does well because of where it is. Rockingham is a nice area and all but there's NOTHING THERE that would attract anyone. It's really boring, not very scenic North Carolina Piedmont land.
 
The Nature Boy said:
I got in trouble with the girl I was DATING when I drove 2 hours to a NASCAR race. If you don't have a significant other who likes racing or sports in general, it's hard to do things like driving 2 hours to an event.

And for crying out loud, the argument started with me outlining the key reason why Rockingham did worse than Loudon/Martinsville/Bristol/etc. Martinsville is in (or near) the Southern Appalachians. There are things to do there that might interest someone enough to make it a destination. You just spent the entire last page refuting my classification of Martinsville as a rural track that does well because of where it is. Rockingham is a nice area and all but there's NOTHING THERE that would attract anyone. It's really boring, not very scenic North Carolina Piedmont land.
Click to expand...

True, Rockingham is part of North Carolina where it's just flatland all around. At least in the Appalachia mountains, there are hiking trails, camp sites, Nature museums, etc. I mean it's not casinos and shopping malls, but it's still good Non-Race activity for the wife and kids to do while dad goes to watch cars go around in circles for 4 hours.
 
SpeedPagan said:
True, Rockingham is part of North Carolina where it's just flatland all around. At least in the Appalachia mountains, there are hiking trails, camp sites, Nature museums, etc. I mean it's not casinos and shopping malls, but it's still good Non-Race activity for the wife and kids to do while dad goes to watch cars go around in circles for 4 hours.
Click to expand...

Definitely. The area around Rockingham is just more boring than most other rural race tracks. There's absolutely no reason to travel there other than the race track and unfortunately, that just isn't enough.
 
The Nature Boy said:
Definitely. The area around Rockingham is just more boring than most other rural race tracks. There's absolutely no reason to travel there other than the race track and unfortunately, that just isn't enough.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100%. That part of North Carolina is drive-through country on the way to Myrtle Beach or on the way to Charlotte or Asheville if you're going on the opposite direction.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Agreed 100%. That part of North Carolina is drive-through country on the way to Myrtle Beach or on the way to Charlotte or Asheville if you're going on the opposite direction.
Click to expand...

And Darlington is already the "I'm going to Myrtle Beach, might as well see some racing" track.

Luckily NASCAR remembered this and put it back on Labor Day Weekend.
 
The Nature Boy said:
I got in trouble with the girl I was DATING when I drove 2 hours to a NASCAR race. If you don't have a significant other who likes racing or sports in general, it's hard to do things like driving 2 hours to an event.

And for crying out loud, the argument started with me outlining the key reason why Rockingham did worse than Loudon/Martinsville/Bristol/etc. Martinsville is in (or near) the Southern Appalachians. There are things to do there that might interest someone enough to make it a destination. You just spent the entire last page refuting my classification of Martinsville as a rural track that does well because of where it is. Rockingham is a nice area and all but there's NOTHING THERE that would attract anyone. It's really boring, not very scenic North Carolina Piedmont land.
Click to expand...

You keep repeating this over and over, like Martinsville, Virginia is a tourism hotbed or something. It's not. Maybe it comes down to the fact that locals in the Piedmont-Triad and in the Roanoke area support Martinsville Speedway.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
You keep repeating this over and over, like Martinsville, Virginia is a tourism hotbed or something. It's not. Maybe it comes down to the fact that locals in the Piedmont-Triad and in the Roanoke area support Martinsville Speedway.
Click to expand...

And I call BS on the whole "We have better fans!" homer line. It's a lot easier to convince a family to go to the mountains than to Rockingham. And honestly, the Piedmont Triad is almost as far from Rockingham as it is Martinsville.
 
And it's not like Martinsville is 10 minutes away from Greensboro and Rockingham's four hours from there. They're about the same distance.

I know these things. I've made these drives.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
You're still being obtuse and ignoring Roanoke. Is it deliberate?
Click to expand...

The Roanoke metro area is as big as the Fayetteville, NC metro area, which is as close to Rockingham as Roanoke is to Martinsville. I'm not ignoring it because unless Roanoke is a bigger racing hotbed than Fayetteville, I doubt it factors in very much.
 
Well Roanoke does have a lot to offer, more to offer than Rockingham or Fayetteville. I mean Roanoke was the home of Norfolk & Western Railroad before they merged with Southern Railway to form Norfolk Southern Railroad. It is situated in the Blue Ridge mountains, so I gotta agree with @The Nature Boy on his assessment.

Nowadays, tracks need to be more than just a place to watch good racing, it needs to be a tourist destination, it needs to have something that'd keep a family of four around for an entire weekend. Rockingham did not, and still doesn't have that.
 
The Nature Boy said:
The Roanoke metro area is as big as the Fayetteville, NC metro area, which is as close to Rockingham as Roanoke is to Martinsville. I'm not ignoring it because unless Roanoke is a bigger racing hotbed than Fayetteville, I doubt it factors in very much.
Click to expand...

Racing is a big deal in Roanoke. I know this because I live here.
 
SpeedPagan said:
A lot of other tracks are also supported by the city.
Click to expand...
Eh, define "city". There are only a few tracks that are really in cities or towns. Most are in the middle of nowhere.

Looking at the schedule, I'd say Fontana, Richmond, Dover and Indianapolis are the only ones who are really "in" a city. Places like Daytona, Texas, Kansas and Charlotte are kind of on the skirts but close I guess.

Road America, Pocono and Bristol are in the middle of nowhere and do fine. Most race tracks were in the middle of nowhere before ISC and SMI decided that race tracks were like NFL teams and every major city needed one. Before Fontana and Chicagoland they raced at places like North Wilkesboro and Rockingham.
 
SpeedPagan said:
Nowadays, tracks need to be more than just a place to watch good racing, it needs to be a tourist destination, it needs to have something that'd keep a family of four around for an entire weekend. Rockingham did not, and still doesn't have that.
Click to expand...

Wow, totally uncertified statements for the win?

Prey tell, when I see the mountains of tents and RVs at Bristol, Road America and Watkins Glen, all literally in the middle of nowhere, what hot tourists attractions are they going to?

Hey, @dpkimmel2001 do you leave the track during a race weekend to go check out the local tourist traps?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom