Something I noticed at Memphis

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by Lynn A McCarty

NHRA relies on the track to do promotion and marketing. I believe this is wrong. Marketing should be done at the NHRA level to improve fans participation. All marketing in most companies are done at the National level for economies. Local tracks wont get National pricing for advertising. Alex got tons of fans showing up to the US class Nationals without huge dollars invested.

Maybe a track owner could chime in here, but I'd love to know what the split is between the track and NHRA for spectator entry at an LODRS event. The reason I bring this up is this: If you owned the track, but had to give NHRA 80% of the gate, how much of your money would you shell out up front in an attempt to lure more spectators to the track?

That's a pretty risky proposition, especially given that there's one major factor that's not under your control: the weather.

Now, if it's 80/20 the other way, it would certainly make more sense as it wouldn't take near the spectators to earn back your marketing investment.

So, don't take this the wrong way as I would like to see them advertise these races just as much as anybody. But, until we know the financial details behind this, I don't think it's fair to bash the track owners. If it's 80/20 in NHRA's favor, how come they are spending more of their money to advertise these races???