National event chaos?

[Stephen & Horace Johnson]

Originally Posted by Byron Worner

Rumor has it, and this is a rumor but should not be taken lightly, that at National Events in 2017 there will be no rig stacking prior to gates being opened, no tech inspection and random pair first round.
Please notify any powers to be how these would be detrimental.

I heard the same thing from a close source...I emailed about how much of an besue this will be!! A few officials will be let go next year. ..

[SSDA Hemi]

My business plan was always to take care of your customers. NHRA seems to disagree with me on this theory

Originally Posted by Skydog

Some quick math after looking at the membership revenue indicates that the association could have lost close to 20 percent of their members between 2014 and 2015.

Looks like 20% of their "customers" have spoken. Do you think NHRA is listening.....


United we stand Divided we fall

[james schaechter]

Look at the gap. If their topline dropped 2 million and they know they squandered association dollars to the tune of a million to pay off Compton, that is not as concerning to me as the increase in cost. That didn't come from sportsman support in most cases. Now rain and reschedules can sure cause increases overall. I just hope they know what they are looking at. It also seems as though they don't realize that no one in this chain HAS to participate. NHRAdepends on discretionary spending from fans AND racers alike. They don't seem to understand that if they make the racing experience bad for racers, just like fans, we will take our money elsewhere. That goes for pros as well. I sure want it all to succeed, because I love class racing, but I sure as heck don't have confidence in most of their decision makers. When you have bean counters and lawyers making the decisions and no real influence from people that love and understand the racer , it is no surprise that their strategy in key areas miss the mark. I don't even want to get into marketing, they don't seem to be even minor league. The contingency program is embarrassing, etc. They need to open their ears to track owners and some key business minded racers that have racing in their hearts and business acumen in their brains. They don't realize that the things that have created value to the racer such as the structure, the incredible large base of members, the network of tracks all supported by the local staff was what made NHRA stand out. If you cut away staff and structure such as tech and all of the niceties that we expected for our money, you are no longer special. You are just a commodity. It quickly goes downhill because the many smaller associations can compete and really do better than NHRA because NHRA chose to stop supporting us. Track owners are not dumb either. If NHRA fails to provide value, they will figure out how to make money without them.

They don't have to chose the wrong path. Even in difficult times, the majority of us want NHRA to succeed and we want to participate. They need to listen and come up with a better plan. When they have a plan,,they need to execute the plan. If the teams in Glendora are in place due to nepotism and buddy deals, but they aren't effective, cut them.Don't cut the staff that are customer facing.

Originally Posted by Skydog

Did you see how much money NHRA supposedly lost.


From Dragracingonline

No profit, no joy found in NHRA's 2015 tax return

The Agent has just skimmed the NHRA's 2015 tax return and the news isn't good. Their gross income is down from 2014 by $2,000,000 going from about $99.5 million to $97.5 million. The company lost 5.7 million for the 2015 season.
Some quick math after looking at the membership revenue indicates that the association could have lost close to 20 percent of their members between 2014 and 2015. One thing that jumped out at the Agent was that former president Tom Compton was paid just over a million bucks in 2015 including a severance package.
No matter how you look at the NHRA, from a business point of view Peter Clifford and his management team have some issues they are going to have to deal with. One thing is absolute and that is currently the NHRA is both a non-profit and money-losing business. [12/02/16]

[Dan Fletcher]

Excellent post James. We've all over paid for years to be there because it was "special", but in the most simple of terms, the NHRA national event experience has totally lost that feeling of "being special". Obviously, there are much better overall values n the market place for a $330 entry fee. Nero grab your fiddle...

[Billy Nees]

maybe it's time to do whatever it is we would have to do to get our "NHRA Member" vote back!

[Rich Biebel]

NHRA is failing from the top down and it's painfull to see and be a part of.

James post is spot on and tells it like it is....

In Oct. at Maple Grove, we spoke to one of our NHRA folks who does national events. They get paid a ridiculously low amount to work events and do it as many do more for the love of the sport and the people they are with....

Cutting costs by cutting personnel there is unwise....

They cut personnel that do story write-ups in ND after someone wins and that has had a very negative effect with anyone I talk to...

Winning an NHRA event used to be a big deal......pretty much any event they had...

It's nothing like it once was and it will cost them in the end if they continue as they are.

[Ed Wright]

Wife is after me to quit racing. Maybe it's time. Sad deal.

[Alan Roehrich]

A lot of good points here. I think NHRA needs to hear them, live, and in person.

It seems that several of us are going to the PRI Show, perhaps we should all get together and go to the NHRA booth.

A visit with NHRA to explain to them what WE spend in order to enjoy the sport, and what we are looking for, and feel what we are within reason in expecting from them when we get there.

[cicero819]

Billy as usual is right on the money, time to give our vote back that they stole many years ago. I decided four years ago to stop supporting NHRA, no more paying for membership, I stop going to National events and attended mostly Divisionals because this is where you see and meet the real racers.In their income return you have to take into account the money losing ESPN TV broadcast that they produce for entising prospecting advertising dollars to help selling their shows and of course the Pro circuit. This is a bankrupt way of thinking that will only cause your business to fail, if your product is any good it will sell. I've seen a lot of business go this way. NASCA founder Bill France always made sure that the fannies in the seats counted more than any TV broadcast they could generate, he counted the tv revenue as a side order of fries. The problem I fear is that too many people at the top aren't invested in this sport, financially or practically. We need our voices to be heard, racers and fans. Claude R.

[fredjohnston]

Lots of opinions but I haven't noticed anyone posting what they want from NHRA or what they want NHRA to do for the sportsman racers. By telling NHRA what the sportsman racers want (as a group and not 100's of different opinions) is a starting place to try to move this along.