NASCAR and greed

buckaroo

buckaroo

Here kitty, kitty, kitty
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It's clear to me that there are more than just a few fans here who believe that NASCAR (read that the France family) is greedy. We can sit here and debate that all night and day long, but I've got a question to ask those who think what is going on is in the name of greed, or is it just that you don't like what is going on and are just calling it greed. First let's see what the definition of greed is. According to www.dictionary.com, greed is "An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth". While it's clear that more than just a few of us don't like the direction in which Brian France is taking the sport we so love, is that being greedy? I believe that what Brian is trying to do is take the sport to places it's never been before. He has a dream that he might be able to achieve the status for NASCAR around the world that F1 has achieved. Now if you think that is being greedy, well I guess then that you don't have any asperations of doing better for yourself and your family. Having dreams like Brian's doesn't mean that he will not fail, but it also doesn't mean that he is being greedy. There are many people who have become very rich with a product that they made and the Frances are just one in a long list of those names. It took the family many years to make those millions of dollars, but it might not take half that much time for them to lose it. Just because one person in the family could make a product and make it big, doesn't mean that everyone in that family can carry the load just as good. But greed? I would imagine that if you were a stock holder of ISC, you might have a different opinion on that, but maybe not of Brian France. Maybe NASCAR just outgrew itself. I just wouldn't call it greedy to try and continue to make it bigger, even if that might not be possible.
 
Any and every promoter is greedy. It's called business. That's the nature of the beast. They're not there as a charity, they're there to make money. As much as they can. Drivers, team owners, merchandising reps, even hotdog vendors. Money, money, money.

This sounds like a continuation of the same conversation about the UFC's Dana White. He's being accused of not looking out for the talent's best interests. Well Duh .... that's what the talent's manager is for. Dana isn't supposed to look out for the talent, he's supposed to look out for his own company. Same with NASCAR.

There's no more money in Nascar than what the talent puts there. Believe it or not, the talent always has the final say. If things are as bad as they're made out to be, the talent doesn't compete ... and the promoter makes no money. The promoter then changes policy to follow demand ... or fails ... and another promoter will.
 
If Nascar is going to go international then IMO it needs to be as separate series. Run a European series, an Asian series, etc. Even a South American series. Let each series survive or die on its own.
More importantly do away with the Chase and let the American series determine its champion. Then let's have a Chase where X number from each series competes for the World Championship. It may take a few years to get the other series competitive but that would make money.
 
I can't help but think of the days when I had a golden opportunity. I was offered the chance to provide a specific trade on a major contruction site with a time and materials contract.

It all sounded very good at the beginning, lots of profit due to the size of the job, BUT, the catch was, we already had a respected small business established with several employees. Taking on the larger job, forty miles distant, required hiring union help and a payroll of large proportions.

Were we ready for this ????
There were many complications entering the picture and after many sleepness nights, the answer was, no. The reason being, my bread and butter living came from the situation that existed before this opportunity was offered and the opportunity itself, offered much but also meant the potential of losing what business we had worked so hard to establish.
The really big question, was money that important ???

We took the road that offered status quo. As it turns out, the opportunity went elsewhere and we were never dissatisfied with our decision.

The explanation and point being, it took Bill France, Sr., thirty years to get the sport noticed by major media. It took Bill france, Jr, twenty years to bring it relatively closer to larger markets and today Brian France is bringing it further, faster, than either of his predecesors.

What is taking place is greed, but in reality it is called "business". Failure may not be on the horizon, but NASCAR is hanging on the edge of a cliff trying to expand to international markets and populated markets in the U.S. of A.. Not good.

The more available NASCAR becomes to the international world the less popular it will become, not just those who have followed the sport for so long. Bigger is not always better.

That's my thought and I'm sticking with it until someone offers a better idea on the future of NASCAR.
 
Whizzer, I can't argue with your opinions on the subject as I tend to agree.
 
People forget that racing, along with other sports, is actually a business and not there just for someone's few hours of entertainment. I don't have anything against a person or business trying to make money, except the oil companies (another topic for another day). NASCAR is no different than the NFL, MLB, or even the PGA in trying to expand its fan base and reach more people. What I have a problem with is a business such as this making very poor business decisions. It's not a matter of them being greedy (most are), but making very poor decisions. Their bad decisions are now starting to bite them in the butt.
 
Whizzer said:
I can't help but think of the days when I had a golden opportunity. I was offered the chance to provide a specific trade on a major contruction site with a time and materials contract.

It all sounded very good at the beginning, lots of profit due to the size of the job, BUT, the catch was, we already had a respected small business established with several employees. Taking on the larger job, forty miles distant, required hiring union help and a payroll of large proportions.

Were we ready for this ????
There were many complications entering the picture and after many sleepness nights, the answer was, no. The reason being, my bread and butter living came from the situation that existed before this opportunity was offered and the opportunity itself, offered much but also meant the potential of losing what business we had worked so hard to establish.
The really big question, was money that important ???

We took the road that offered status quo. As it turns out, the opportunity went elsewhere and we were never dissatisfied with our decision.

The explanation and point being, it took Bill France, Sr., thirty years to get the sport noticed by major media. It took Bill france, Jr, twenty years to bring it relatively closer to larger markets and today Brian France is bringing it further, faster, than either of his predecesors.

What is taking place is greed, but in reality it is called "business". Failure may not be on the horizon, but NASCAR is hanging on the edge of a cliff trying to expand to international markets and populated markets in the U.S. of A.. Not good.

The more available NASCAR becomes to the international world the less popular it will become, not just those who have followed the sport for so long. Bigger is not always better.

That's my thought and I'm sticking with it until someone offers a better idea on the future of NASCAR.
Click to expand...

I hope that elsewhere was not the mom and pop company that became Bechtel... :eek:
 
barelypure said:
I hope that elsewhere was not the mom and pop company that became Bechtel... :eek:
Click to expand...
Bechtel was formed when Warren Bechtel hired out a mule team to the railroad............and, away they went. They are providing me with my retirement. :)
 
Well Whizzer is old...he could have had his own mule team...
 
I don't know if I would exactly call what NASCAR is doing as being "greedy" per se. I would call a lot of it bad business. I have no problem with the governing body trying to expand the business to other markets. The more the merrier in my opinion, as long as they don't spit in the face of the ones who supported them all along and made them profitable in the first place.

The miscalculation I think they made is in assuming (and we all know what that can do) that the new fans they attract in these other markets are going to be just as loyal and rabid as the fans they started out with. That clearly is not the case. NASCAR is like a religion to many long-time fans and unfortunately in some cases more important to some. It is a part of life and a very strong part of the culture in many southern areas. I just can't see the wine and cheese croud they are attracting in places like California going to great lengths to decorate property with their favorite driver's memorabilia. Much less going as far as getting numbers tatooed on their body. Many new fans treat it like the newest fad. It is cool to be interested in it now because other people are, but shortly the newness wears off and they just move on to whatever the newest fad is.

The other problem they have is that they shunned many long time fans in their efforts to attract new ones. They took dates from tracks that fans have supported for years and that frankly provided much better racing than tracks like California provide. The new bread of fans wouldn't have much issue with that if it happened to them because of the reasons I stated above. Long time fans are hurt and offended that their support and affection are not being returned.
 
Greed

Well said BO. I always felt that by cutting off it's roots that NASCAR would soon die out. I personally wish they would leave the international racing to F-1. Too many culturals out there to try to change NASCAR to meet all of them.
 
Some great and not so good replies. BP stick to the issue and not the brain.

What I'm reading here is that there are lots of fans that don't like what they see in the future of NASCAR. C'mon folks, this is water under the bridge. If I wanted to see what people thought of the direction of NASCAR, I sure wouldn't have started this thread. Talk about something that is obvious. I'm talking about greed here and what you people believe is real greed, not something that you don't like. For cryin' out loud, I bet I could find plenty of people who believe that most of us here live with greed, if you give me enough time. So, for those greedy people amoung us, which is all of us in one way or another, give me your idea of how NASCAR is greedy, keeping in mind what you would do if in control of NASCAR. (Oh yeah, I know, you would move back the hands of time so that NASCAR was what you liked way back when. Hmmm, are you for real? Time moves on and ... )

Gimme some crap stupid!
 
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