When will tracks get smart and lower ticket prices?

MRM

MRM

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It's pretty basic business principles - if you aren't selling all of your inventory, you have to lower your prices. I've been saying it for a while and I'll say it again after seeing all those empty seats at Michigan. When will these tracks get smart and lower their ticket prices? If you're not selling the place our or not even coming close to selling it out, you have outpriced what the average fan can afford and is willing to pay.
 
MRM said:
It's pretty basic business principles - if you aren't selling all of your inventory, you have to lower your prices. I've been saying it for a while and I'll say it again after seeing all those empty seats at Michigan. When will these tracks get smart and lower their ticket prices? If you're not selling the place our or not even coming close to selling it out, you have outpriced what the average fan can afford and is willing to pay.
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Mabey they look at it this way...50.00 ticket 40,000 people show up.
25.00 a ticket 80,000 people show up. They make the same amount of money for half the people. Less cost to clean up, wear and tear, water, sewer and the like.

I'm just a kid so go easy on me....This is just a thought......
 
Fontana lowered their ticket prices and gave me 8 free pit passes. I wish Vegas would lower their prices, too.
 
MRM said:
It's pretty basic business principles - if you aren't selling all of your inventory, you have to lower your prices. I've been saying it for a while and I'll say it again after seeing all those empty seats at Michigan. When will these tracks get smart and lower their ticket prices? If you're not selling the place our or not even coming close to selling it out, you have outpriced what the average fan can afford and is willing to pay.
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I think it's a combination of ticket prices, hotel prices and gas prices. If the tics and hotels were a bit lower, people might spend the money for the gas.
 
They already did..We still Spent $400 at a NationWide Race..extra Souvys , but still...
 
MRM said:
It's pretty basic business principles - if you aren't selling all of your inventory, you have to lower your prices. I've been saying it for a while and I'll say it again after seeing all those empty seats at Michigan. When will these tracks get smart and lower their ticket prices? If you're not selling the place our or not even coming close to selling it out, you have outpriced what the average fan can afford and is willing to pay.
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It's easier to paint the seats different colors to make it look like they are full or sell advertising and put it on a tarp and cover the seats.
 
**** said:
Mabey they look at it this way...50.00 ticket 40,000 people show up.
25.00 a ticket 80,000 people show up. They make the same amount of money for half the people. Less cost to clean up, wear and tear, water, sewer and the like.

I'm just a kid so go easy on me....This is just a thought......
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Pop...Beer...Lemonade...Hot Dogs...Ect...Ect...Thats where the head count makes up for the discounted ticket...
 
MRM said:
It's pretty basic business principles - if you aren't selling all of your inventory, you have to lower your prices. I've been saying it for a while and I'll say it again after seeing all those empty seats at Michigan. When will these tracks get smart and lower their ticket prices? If you're not selling the place our or not even coming close to selling it out, you have outpriced what the average fan can afford and is willing to pay.
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A general admission ticket for yesterdays race was only $30.00...
 
Vegas did not lower their ticket prices but the did discount the beer by $1 (which prolly saved me $50 over the weekend :D ).
 
One track that REALLY needs to reconsider ticket prices is Bristol. I am sure many of you have heard me talk about the only tracks I have been to are Bristol and Martinsville. At M'Ville you can get a ticket as cheap as $25 and still have an awsome view of the track and generally see a great race. Average Bristol prices run from $90-$110 and since the reconfig. it is a lot of "follow the leader" type racing. Bristol is only about a 90 minute drive from my house, and if tickets were closer to the $50 range I would be there in the spring and night race every year...but I can't see paying $110 per ticket for much of any event!
 
I agree that the ticket prices need to come down, but so does the price of food and drinks. No way should a luck-warm bottle water be 3-5 bucks.
 
A 24 oz. can of domestic beer goes for about $9.50 at PIR. At $8.50 or $9.50, it's still a ridiculous price if you ask me. But as long as people keep buying 'em, they'll continue to be sold at that price.
 
my 2 cents,

ticket price and product. ticket prices continue to rise and the product gets worse. bad combination. the "show" nastycar puts on weekly has been in steady decline for years the racing today is all about leading if your not in "clean air" it is almost impossible to do anything.. to put it bluntly the racing nowadays sucks.
on the other hand Bristol had the NHRA thunder valley nationals this past weekend. now that is a show. it definitely is not boring unless you think 300MPH+ in 3.8 seconds is boring and the price you can get 3 DAYS of racing total access to the pits (when was the last time nastycar let you do that) for less than the price of 1 cup ticket at BMS.

i got out of drag racing back in the 70's to watch nascar. this makes the 2nd year in a row i have attended the NHRA show at BMS since a friend got me to go back and folks i have found a new sport. i think unless things in nascar change dramatically i have been to my last race.
 
I agree about going to my last race, unless the price comes down, and the racing gets substantially better, I won't be attending another cup race any time soon.
 
I know a few people at Old Dominon, spectators, that spend less going there an entire season than they do at one NASCAR race.
 
$120 for tickets + $5 for a can of soda or $8 for a 12oz. bottle of piss-flavored beer (Coors, Miller or Bud), $4 for a hot dog.... it all adds up.

When I went to Richmond with my buddies, we'd go to KFC, buy two buckets of fried chicken ($40), wait 'til we got to the track to buy tickets from scalpers (ended up buying $120 seats for $60) and just buy drinks at the track.

You can almost always get one of the FanView scanners free for the weekend at Richmond if you go to the 250 lap Friday Night televised Sprint Cup Series test session... I usually got reserved Nationwide seats for general admission price or less (people can't even give those tickets away).

The companies that give tickets away to their employees -- six years ago, those tickets were gone before they left Richmond. Nowadays, those things make it up to Baltimore before anyone bites.

NASCAR has priced themselves out of the market... honestly, a lot of professional sports are. The MLB and NBA give tickets away, by the thousands, and those teams make their money up in concession sales. The Orioles, Nationals and Wizards are always giving away tickets.

Hell, we have a sports venue here (ice hockey arena) in Southern Maryland that has free admission to every sports event they have.

ADRL gives away 60,000 tickets for every race, and they pack the house out. Track pays the ADRL to race there, ADRL gives away tickets, track makes up money in concessions.
 
You want to talk concessions go to a Dallas Cowboy game $8.00 hot dogs $60 cheese pizzas $15 Cowboyritas.
 
de7xwcc said:
my 2 cents,

ticket price and product. ticket prices continue to rise and the product gets worse. bad combination. the "show" nastycar puts on weekly has been in steady decline for years the racing today is all about leading if your not in "clean air" it is almost impossible to do anything.. to put it bluntly the racing nowadays sucks.
on the other hand Bristol had the NHRA thunder valley nationals this past weekend. now that is a show. it definitely is not boring unless you think 300MPH+ in 3.8 seconds is boring and the price you can get 3 DAYS of racing total access to the pits (when was the last time nastycar let you do that) for less than the price of 1 cup ticket at BMS.

i got out of drag racing back in the 70's to watch nascar. this makes the 2nd year in a row i have attended the NHRA show at BMS since a friend got me to go back and folks i have found a new sport. i think unless things in nascar change dramatically i have been to my last race.
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I went to TMS every year from 1999 to 2010. The only way they're gonna get me to come back, is lowering prices.
 
A few points to consider.

-More races, more seating capacity, everything has limits the threshold has been discovered.

-Overall saturated coverage, all practices, qualifying 2 hour pre-race coverage, 2 or 3 hours post recaps on Sunday night, @ Speed . No mystery remains, you don't need to plan your life around events as tightly, you can DVD etc. The couch has closed the gap on what previously required more legwork to see.


-Ok, the prices Bruton Smith has pushed to make the profits, bundling or forcing things like buying tickets for all of Bristol, nets a bad taste, or sticker shock. Against the economy, and the ease of the couch, buying an expensive actual ticket suffers.

- Oh man it is so easy for me to go on an anti corporate rant, I even get tired of myself that way sometime . I know time moves and going that way is almost impossible to avoid.

-But cars, tracks, drivers, the whole thing is more generic than ever, it is all science'd out to follow a business model. Less owners more consolidation demands a more domesticated driver.

-That goes against the grain of the old heroic, rugged racer with a survival of the fittest mentality. Good overall moral drivers are interesting that know how to Roy D. Mercer at times, while squeaky clean always proper drivers are less. Boys have at it has helped some.


-Nascar's base traditionally has been pleasantly uncouth, embracing the raw and crude, maybe that's forever gone, but it is missed.


-Also back in the day the 60s, 70s, 80s, the local home tracks has more cred. Their where regional veteran driver heroes, like recent inductee Richie Evans. It was gritty, blue collar, and the average working person connected. The bridge to the Sprint Cup series felt closer then, stop running against your building blocks in their race time zones, that's a foundation.


Yep, even a small price cut would help, along with concession price cuts. You want routine maximum capacity , then look at the Macdonald's pricing mindset, and their business seems to be inflation proof.
 
When Bristol and NASCAR was on top, they could name their price and fans would still buy the tickets. There was one year I couldn't go to the night race and I made $50 per ticket by selling them. But I also lost $50 per ticket on two Busch tickets that no one wanted because they give those things away.

Forward to today and they can't sell the place out. Granted, this is new to them. Still, they have done nothing to lower ticket prices. The only thing I saw was for the spring race where a person could buy a ticket for both races for $121 in honor of Trevor Bayne's 500 win. Big deal :sarcasm:. When there are 40-50k empty seats in August, maybe they'll figure it out.
 
MRM said:
When Bristol and NASCAR was on top, they could name their price and fans would still buy the tickets. There was one year I couldn't go to the night race and I made $50 per ticket by selling them. But I also lost $50 per ticket on two Busch tickets that no one wanted because they give those things away.

Forward to today and they can't sell the place out. Granted, this is new to them. Still, they have done nothing to lower ticket prices. The only thing I saw was for the spring race where a person could buy a ticket for both races for $121 in honor of Trevor Bayne's 500 win. Big deal :sarcasm:. When there are 40-50k empty seats in August, maybe they'll figure it out.
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Ticket prices aren't the only problem for Bristol. The racing there sucks now, and the hotel prices are ridiculous.

Even if tickets are $60, people aren't willing to pay $250+ per person per night at a hotel with a minimum three night stay. NASCAR needs to work with the hotels as well about lowering prices.
 
MRM said:
When Bristol and NASCAR was on top, they could name their price and fans would still buy the tickets. There was one year I couldn't go to the night race and I made $50 per ticket by selling them. But I also lost $50 per ticket on two Busch tickets that no one wanted because they give those things away.

Forward to today and they can't sell the place out. Granted, this is new to them. Still, they have done nothing to lower ticket prices. The only thing I saw was for the spring race where a person could buy a ticket for both races for $121 in honor of Trevor Bayne's 500 win. Big deal :sarcasm:. When there are 40-50k empty seats in August, maybe they'll figure it out.
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Regardless -- as far as Bristol goes, if they never "reconfigured" that track to make the drivers happy, they'd still sell out every race.

Bristol is evidence that when the drivers love a racetrack, the fans are either not showing up or asleep in their recliner (same with California and Michigan).
 
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