Possible Shakeup in 2004

kat2220

kat2220

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NASCAR EYES BIG SCHEDULE CHANGES IN 2004

NASCAR officials said today that the sanctioning body is open to
a major shakeup of the Winston Cup schedule in 2004 that could
see some tracks loose one of their two dates and newer tracks in larger
markets gain races. While NASCAR would not mandate the changes itself,
it would allow track owners to move races that aren't selling out their
current dates to other tracks. NASCAR Chairman Bill France Jr. said, for
instance, Speedway Motorsports Inc. might be allowed to give up one of
its Atlanta dates to have a second race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Similarly, he said, International Speedway Corp. might move a race from
its Darlington or North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham to its
California or Kansas City facilities. NASCAR officials also said tracks
that don't currently have lighting for night races would be encouraged
to add it and said more races would be started later in the day to give
them greater exposure to West Coast audiences. NASCAR President Mike
Helton said th at even the Daytona 500 might one day be run at night to
run during television's prime-time period.
 
OK...my initial question: Is all this being done for the betterment of the sport? I'd weep and wail if Darlington lost a date, only to have it sent to Cali, which I don't see as nearly as competitive a track as Darlington.

Then there's the whole "tradition" thing, where tracks that built the sport deserve a little consideration...California wouldn't even HAVE a date if the Darlingtons and Rockinghams hadn't carried the sport for lo those many years. There would be no interest in the sport in Cali if these tracks hadn't built that interest in the first place.

Oh well, whadda I know?
 
Personally, I think this proposal sucks, please don't hurt the messenger:p
 
I think that is one way Bill France is trying to get out of this deal with Texas Motor Speedway. Taking an Atlanta race date and changing it to a Texas race date. They said it was 80,000 tickets vs. 160,000 tickets they would be accomidating 80,000 more fans, I see it as screwing 80,000 fans also. I finally quit going to nascar races after 11 years of at least 1 a year because it seems to me it was more about the money than the fans. Nascar and the France family are a bunch of money hungry s.o.b.s :bs:
 
This is so stupid, to consider moving more races to cookie-cutter tracks. If they're going to take races away from tracks, they should at least give them to circuits that currently aren't on the schedule. And what's with the push to have almost every race run at night. A few night races is great, and can uderstand some of them starting around 2-3 pm Eastern time rather than noon, but I don't want evey single race to run at night, thank you very much. That's what the weekly short tracks are for.
 
Originally posted by bowtie
I think that  is one way Bill France is trying to get out of this deal with Texas Motor Speedway. Taking an Atlanta race date and changing it to a Texas race date. They said it was  80,000 tickets vs. 160,000 tickets they would be accomidating 80,000 more fans, I see it as screwing 80,000 fans also. I finally quit going to nascar races after 11 years of at least 1 a year because it seems to me it was more about the money than the fans. Nascar and the France family are a bunch of money hungry s.o.b.s :bs:
Click to expand...

But how do you REALLY feel? :p
 
Originally posted by stridsberry
This is so stupid, to consider moving more races to cookie-cutter tracks.  If they're going to take races away from tracks, they should at least give them to circuits that currently aren't on the schedule.  And what's with the push to have almost every race run at night.  A few night races is great, and can uderstand some of them starting around 2-3 pm Eastern time rather than noon, but I don't want evey single race to run at night, thank you very much.  That's what the weekly short tracks are for.
Click to expand...

NASCAR would likely reply that they are just giving the fans what they want, and exposing the sport to more markets. Whatever.

And you make a fantastic point about the night racing taking away from the local series. In this respect, NASCAR may be becoming the beast that eats itself.
 
This is all being done because of the anti-trust lawsuit being brought against them by TMS.
 
So if you ran a business and found a possible way to increase traffic flow by in some cases 100% you would not do it??????? Please, its a business, it should be run like a business, and anyone that would not want to pick up gobs of extra bank by doing some shuffling around are out of there mind. I am all for change.
 
Originally posted by N2racin88
So if you ran a business and found a possible way to increase traffic flow by in some cases 100% you would not do it???????  Please, its a business, it should be run like a business, and anyone that would not want to pick up gobs of extra bank by doing some shuffling around are out of there mind.  I am all for change.
Click to expand...

Point well taken.

So I take it you approved of "new" Coke when that was offered? What about that snappy new Code Red Mountain Dew? Maybe they should replace the original with that crap too.

Change is fine, but you also gotta dance with the one what brung ya.
 
I don't like the idea of Dover or Rock losing a race. NASCAR should get rid of 1 Pocono race and replace it with a Night Nashville. We need to keep 2 races at Rock and 2 at Dover, becasue those are 2 of the better races during the year and short tracks. if they are replaced more than likely it will be replaced with another cookie cutter.
 
Knocks on monitor....hello!!!.

This all has nothing to do with where people want to see races.

This has everything to do with the anti-trust lawsuit being brought against them.
 
Originally posted by paul
This has everything to do with the anti-trust lawsuit being brought against them.
Click to expand...

That and other things that will get them more money.
 
I worry about tracks like Martinsville. They can only accomodate so many people at the track and there is no way to get a hotel room during race weeks.
 
Originally posted by paul
Knocks on monitor....hello!!!.

This all has nothing to do with where people want to see races.

This has everything to do with the anti-trust lawsuit being brought against them.
Click to expand...

Exactly. They're trying to get Texas another date and make themselves look less monopolistic, so that the suit will possible be dismssed/dropped. If NASCAR keeps this crap up, they can wish me goodbye. Oh, wait, they won't care if I leave, 'cause there's plenty of other fans to take up the slack. How's about that? :rolleyes:
 
I agree with Paul, just like Rick Hendrick getting cancer during the automobile scandal and then making a full recovery after being pardoned. Its called covering thy ass.
 
It doesn't suprise me. You can always be a winner when you make up the rules as you go.
 
I'm afraid that Darlington and Rockingham will be the first to be sacrificed to the great money god.

Sure, it's nice to be able to spread the sport around the country so that others may have a chance to see a race in their region. But to do so by doing away with races at tracks that are one mile or less is what is going to kill this sport.

All of these new 1.5 mile tracks......... sure the facilites are beautiful, high tech and well planned in most cases. But when it comes time to race, the races do not have anywhere near the excitement that the short tracks provide.

Yep, you are probably all correct........ it is an attempt by Jabba the Hut to get Bruton Smith off of his back. This way, the boys in Daytona can get back to more important things.......... like genuflecting at the vault when they go to the bank.

Do y'all detect a little negativity here? :D
 
there is now talk of CMS losing 1 of it 3 races. but like paul says it just bill france showing bruton smith who really runs the show
 
Dover Motorsports is going to have a hard time trying to figure out what to do with there two races. Dover has two great tracks that they want Cup races at (Nashville and Gateway) and can really only give up one of there two dates at Dover. We will have to wait and see what happens in 2004.
 
This thing goes a lot deeper than the original thread starter. France said that what he didn't want to happen was seeing empty seats at any track or an unenthusiastic crowd. He wants not only the track owners involved with the new schedule, but also the networks (reason for having later starts) and also, because they put in so much money, the sponsors (reason for going to bigger venues). Also, one of the concepts he talked about was "renting" tracks and dates. He wants all the track owners to get involved with each other. He also mentioned St. Louis, Nashville and Kentucky as future venues for NASCAR, but not at the expense of getting more dates. Yes, I believe the ultimate reason is profits, but here again, this is a free enterprize system country and everyone wants to get on the train to millions. What I would love to see is more series. Or, how about this...cut the racing back to only one day and have the Busch series at the other tracks and stop the companion races. How about no track getting two dates. Then we could have even more tracks to go to. :)
 
Interesting......yeh i think this has a lot to do with the lawsuit, but i also think it goes deeper. Mainly the sponsor angle, prime time sells the most. Why do you think that the Super Bowl is on later? Without the huge sponsors there wouldn't be huge multi car teams in this sport. Yeh there are a lot of problems that have to be worked out and the little guy gets hurt as usual. Business, especially "Big Business" is never fair, but bottom line is that Nascar is a hugely succesful business and to make it even more so there will be changes. It remains to be seen if this will be a negative or a positive result. Time will tell.
 
Funny you should mention football Mopar because that is one of the things that caught France's interest. He could see the bigger audience just by starting two hours later.
 
Now my 2 cents.Look at the baseball teams that are going back to fan friendly fields,After the greed is sucked out, the real sport may show up again in the form of fan friendly tracks,And the fat asses that have ruined the sport will drown in there pool of crap.;) Welcome to big buisness Nascrap super parasites.Enjoy the race,but spend a lot of money while you are at our fine shopping mall called a racetrack.:mad: Oh well we still have a good dirt track around,And I hope Tony buys Eldora,He may be in the right spot at the right time.:)
 
I don't see anything wrong with the possible changes. Except that fact that we are going to boring tracks, again, replacing the exciting ones.

Hey I got an idea...lets just get rid of the boring tracks and add tracks that drivers and fans actually enjoy. You would think that the France family would do some research and I bet they will find that almost all fans love short track racing. The only reason why the fans go to New Hampshire or some other boring track is because its the closest place for them to experience NASCAR.
 
Tracks that sell out a year ahead will stay 66.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$;)
 
Hmm interesting point and a good one 66, same here in Colorado with PPIR. If there was a WC race here there is no doubt that all the seats would sell out in a heartbeat. I don't think France will screw up the sport as much as baseball , he has been watching and learning from the other big sport screw ups. All the angles will be looked at to make more money that is for sure and if means another 1.5 mile track added to the schedule that seats 150,000 in a huge market area....it will happen. Where there is money to be made you can bet Nascar will find a way to capitalize on it.
 
Originally posted by pbunch
Tracks that sell out a year ahead will stay 66.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$;)
Click to expand...

Its always about that, and it will bite NASCAR in the end...
 
All good points, but remember this is now NA$CA$H.

AND, a war between Brutal Smith and Bull France. Neither really care about the fans, just $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
 
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