NickHolt Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 In keeping with Larry's (29LL) suggestion that new threads are needed to keep suggestions better organized, I am picking up on a point that KISS Racing made: Tracks want higher attendance, do something to bring in more people. You ask me which you didn't, I'll tell you again, sell discounted tickets to the very people who are helping to run your business; the racers. Let them give out the tickets to people. If your preselling tickets 10 at a time versus not selling any tickets at regular price your making money... Whoops that rocket science! Actual studies have shown that the vast majority of free or discounted tickets given to race teams wind up in the hands of people who would normally purchased tickets anyway. So, instead of gaining a new "half-price" customer the track ended up losing a full price ticket as well as the potential to gain a new fan with that half price ticket. You really can't blame the race teams for wanting to save their relatives and freinds some money, but .. well.. you know. The only discounted tickets that seem to be effective are those given through the local school systems, events, social agencies such as the YMCA or Boys Club and through sponsorship programs such as ACME Widgets Night at the Races" type promotions. There is something to be said for the season ticket approach or the "purchase a ticket bundle" approach since it gives the track some "up front" money to start the season. And there are several tracks using the "7th night free' plan where the customer gets a serial-numbered card punched every time they purchase a full price ticket and gets the 7th admission free. So, I'm not saying that free or discounted tickets are a bad thing, but the goal and sole purpose should be to bring new fans in and reward "proven" customers with a free admission every now and then. Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProTree Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 i agree with you nick- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WildRacer5 Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 as far a discount ticket goes, I'm sure that all one needs to do is talk to the powers that be at a race track. At October"fast" I talked one of the powers that be at SAS about getting some discounted tickets to give to a potential sponsor for a sponsorship proposal I was working on so that they could see what the races and racing was all about. Now keep in mind that I did not ask for a pack of free tickets from the racetrack, just a pack of discounted ticket to have the chance to possibly bring more fans and sponsors to the track. That person's response was, get us some more information and the there is something that we could work out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REBELRACER Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 thats a good point...........like i said on the other thread, mike gave my wife some tickets for a silent auction at my daughters school, and by doing that it helped both the school and the track.............the season ticket idea is a good one too.........kinda like fiesta texas or sea world, when you buy the season pass you also get discounts on consessions..................if a person bought a season pass they would obviously go to the track more because they will want to get their money out of it.......so by doing that they will still be making the track money because they will always buy drinks at least.............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truck99 Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 I partially agree with Nick's comments about giving bundles of discount tickets to race teams. We bought quite a few of the discounted tickets offered by THR before last season, and the majority of those went to one sponsor. The sponsor and his family would have been there each week regardless. However, that sponsor used the tickets to bring people with them who had never been before on numerous occasions. We also gave a number of the discounted tickets to fans who had never been before. I was hoping THR would do this again for the 05 season. I agree that there are better ways of dispersing discounts. I've often wondered why there aren't THR flyers and coupons in ALL auto parts, small hardware, and other related strores in San Marcos. You know, the places where the men go. cs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrungot Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 Promotion spend.. such as the discount tickets does take away from the Revenue.. however with proper structure you make this promo spend up in Quanity and Repeat business.... Its all about balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REBELRACER Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 or if you give a bundle here and there to the radio stations to give away, kinda like they do with concert tickets and spurs tickets............... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerx Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 There is a God...bless you all... ss99...Jon Sagester will be bringing up the flyer/coupon thing at the start meeting...that is something he definetly wants to get going...he will be asking for our help... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted December 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 I've often wondered why there aren't THR flyers and coupons in ALL auto parts, small hardware, and other related strores in San Marcos. You know, the places where the men go. cs Those are good locations to place flyers. However, the very best results from free and/or discounted tickets is when they end up in the hands of elementary and Jr. High school kids. "Hey Dad. They had this really cool race car at school today and I got to meet the driver and he gave me some discount coupons and you should hear that car when they started it up and .. and .. and... and can we go see him race on Saturday, Please. Please Pleeeeeease!?" That kind of pressure is hard to turn down without coming across as the grinch that stole Christmas, or worse... Anthony Jetter and I used to take our Late Model to elementary schools and give a talk on the value of math and computers and writing skills in the world of racing. Anthony was up there with his driver's suit and hanging on to his helmet and I was up there looking all nerdy and doing most of the talking about math and stuff. We usually kept most of the boy's attention for quite a while and the teachers and principal were all smiles, but the big payoff came when we all went outside and fired the car up. A certain percentage of the boys and a few of the girls were absolutely spellbound - eyes popped and mouth wide open. We gave out dozens of discount tickets every time we went to a school and left FREE tickets with the principal to hand out when he/she caught someone doing something positive around the school or whatever. Just some thoughts on the subject from someone who's seen it work first hand. Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted December 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 or if you give a bundle here and there to the radio stations to give away, kinda like they do with concert tickets and spurs tickets............... Unfortunately, radio stations charge you big bucks to do that. I thought they would do it for nothing, but when I approached them it actually costs about the same as a regular ads. Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted December 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 Promotion spend.. such as the discount tickets does take away from the Revenue.. however with proper structure you make this promo spend up in Quanity and Repeat business.... Its all about balance. Aaron, The trick is to make sure the discount or promotional tickets end up in the hands of NEW customers. It goes without saying that the goal is to get the new customer hooked and make them into a fan who will be back many times. Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KISS_Racing Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 Hey Nick, Thanks for starting this... I have been talking to Debbie Williams about things like this to get New fans into the stands. I know that last year Mike S @ SAS went out with us to several appearances we did with Mark Ackerman and the Lone Star Light Car. Alot of people we gave tickets to didn't know there was a Nascar Weekly Racing Series Track in San Antonio. These were the people that we focused on when we gave out the tickets. I'm not asking for the tracks to give out free tickets for a person who would be there anyway, sell me those tickets at a discount if you can. But if I have a potential sponsor lets say for the Track, then give out a few tickets. I made contact with a gentleman a few weeks back, it turns out he is the Regional Sales Manager for a rather large company that sponsors a Nascar Team. I mentioned to him that there was a track in San Antonio who is actively seeking sponsors and might I have Debbie Williams contact him. As it turns out , Debbie contacted him and she is in the works to do something with them next year... NICK, I know that SAS, THR CCMS and HMS are all doing the best with what you'll have. My ideas are only suggestions of what I see could work. Maybe it might be a nice idea for the tracks to have lets say a email address where people might make suggestions, obviously positive ones on how or what the track could do to better attract people in. I don't claim to have all the answer, I do know that sometimes things need to be tried several times before they work. THR does stuff with Chuck Nash, I don't know if you'll have tried to do a pair of tickets free with the purchase of a New Car or maybe come test drive the NEW Corvette and receive a pair of tickets to THR. Then get Chuck Nash to spring for radio ads. You'll could even take a few racecars out there. If you've been there and do it sorry, but it's a thought... Again remember tracks don't just make money off admission, you'll make money off food and everything else. One last thing and not to go way off topic... I've did a GOOGLE Search the other day looking for "race marketing package" I'm amazed as to how many tracks have websites up. Have whoever does you'lls website send into to GOOGLE, LYCOS and the other search engines to get your website higher up in the search results... There is another thread going on (Stickers) How about www.thr.com or whatever you'lls url is. On there have a discount coupon for $1 off My ideas didn't cost a dime and are just my .02. Thanks again Nick... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UMSCHEIDRaceServices Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 I do alot ofr driving back and forth from Austin to Fort Worth and i listen to WACO 99.9 becuase i can get the same station from place to place and cnahge channels trying to find a song. but anyways they give away 2 sets of family tickets for Heart O Texas speedway every morning. not sure what their crowds are like but it seems to be full when i pass by on some friday nights. Just my thoughts.......................please dont yell at me!!! J.C could you do a 4 for $40 or something 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 small drinks for 40.00, then a family could get in at a resonable rate. Not sure what the answer is but we could try something huh... J.C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KahneFan Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 "Stop buy your local (big sponsor) location for the 4 for $40 discount coupons." Sounds good to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KISS_Racing Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 JC, I was wondering the same thing on the ticket/food package deal... The tracks would get monies for sure that way... Like JC said, do a package/combo deal complete with dog, chips and drink... Now we're talking... PS Im not yelling am I? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 I have read the first few posts from both threads and I am not sure if anyone has mentioned TSZ or not, but this place needs to be on top or near the top of the list. What better portal could you use for getting information out to the fans and public than right here! I personally think (IMO) that the only thing you can get off of all of the track web sites that are worth anything are the race schedules and the rules. Other than that, they serve no real purpose. No videos, no pics, nothing that says to the fans, "Come here to this track and watch some awesome, exciting racing!" Why don't track promoters pay for these "little" things? Is it because they don't want to pay for someone elses services? Do you get where I am going? I would love to watch the last 5 laps of an exciting race online with an option to buy the entire races for night if I wanted to. Internet advertising is pretty cheap these days. All track owners and promoters have to do is figure out a way to budget some of these services for the digital world. Maybe all of these tracks could pay Jason or TSZ for these services and have them hosted right here? In order to make more money, you just might have to spend a little bit more. I don't know of many other states that have a TSZ equivalent. Ok, I think I am done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The_Greek Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 sure is funny how everything has been twisted upon the fans, the tracks are begging the fans to bring new fans to the races, and now we are having groups forming to start supporting racing in Texas, i guess its the fans fault that attendance dropped off and the car counts got less and less towards the end of the year. maybe us fans can start recruiting race car drivers too, so that way tracks wont have low car counts. heck maybe the fans should go out and start recruiting potential sponsors as well. but when fans express their opinions about how awful some of the racing has been lately they get bashed!! i still think its a travesty that CCMS put up big money for an end of the year race and only 9 latemodels showed. ive said it before and ill say it again, when a race track can figure out a way to get their car counts up, and put on an exciting racing program the fans will be there! thats the way to do it! you need to have a product to sell. lastly, again racetracks should figure out ways to build car counts and have a great racing program, as ive said before we have way too many touring series, jmo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelracewriter Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 Well I'll be damned.........someone's finally "GETTING IT!" FREE TICKETS What a freaking concept! How much does it cost to print one of those things anyway? $100, $10, $1, $.10, $.01? My guess is less than that, though it appears that some tracks think it costs thousands of dollars. Lanny Edwards at Devils Bowl Spwy., one of the most successful tracks in Texas, has been doing this for years and laughing all the way to the bank every Monday. Every weekend it's different suburbs or zip codes that get in free. HRP had a deal, when Todd Parker was running the dirt track, to give them away at schools for good grades as well as those in the service professions(Police/Fire/EMS/Military) during holidays like Veterans day, Memorial day. I-37 Spwy was busing in soldiers from BAMC. In each of the last three cases, those people would bring family/friends. In all cases these people would buy concessions, beer, hats, shirts.......... Hmmmmmm revenue! Now two big points; giving them away to people who are going to be there anyway, is counterproductive. You want new patrons, that if satisfied will return as a paying customer. And now the big kicker. You MUST put on a good enough show that those people will want to come back. No long delays, no drawn out intermissions to sell more concessions, no freaking clown acts! God, if I had a dollar for every track owner/promoter I told this to and got the proverbial, deer in the headlights look in return, I could buy my own racecar. Ok, so that's an exaggeration, but you get my point. MAYBE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The_Greek Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 And now the big kicker. You MUST put on a good enough show that those people will want to come back. No long delays, no drawn out intermissions to sell more concessions, no freaking clown acts! its just like football Reb, when the team is winning the fans are packing the stadiums, when the team has a losing record...only the diehards show, which kinda reflects some of the racing venues around our area. thats why some tracks are forced into giving away free or discounted tickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tqj3 Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 The difference, Greek, is that with football, no matter how the team is doing, the owner is keeping the press and public informed on when the games are, who is playing, and why the fans should come out and watch. Someone noted earlier that the only time the stands were full was for shows like ROMCO, which is true. But there was a time when ROMCO either advertised, or co-op'd (paid for half) of the tracks ads featuring ROMCO. At least, whether because they had bigger fan bases to begin with or due to word of mouth, the ROMCO shows and, to a lesser extent, the ARTS truck appearances, had some advertising even if they had no promotion. I don't care how good the show is. If no one knows (and not just the 1500 or so people who visit this web site) when the races are, they ain't coming. Is that supposed to be a surprise? Do the Texas Longhorns only tell their season ticket holders when the games are, or do they make sure the entire freakin' world knows? We don't need to preach to the choir, we need to recruit a heck of a lot more choir members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelracewriter Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 If no one knows (and not just the 1500 or so people who visit this web site) when the races are, they ain't coming. Do you know how many tracks still REFUSE to send me weekly results to forward out to numerous papers and post on racing sites? FOR FREE! Just another point here, though kind of contradictory. Last year Bateville Spwy. had a $100,000 to win modified show which drew 400 car from across the nation. Their only advertising was done on 4m.net, whowon.com and word of mouth. Go figure! Maybe it's just a bigger choir? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted December 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 If no one knows (and not just the 1500 or so people who visit this web site) when the races are, they ain't coming. Is that supposed to be a surprise? Do the Texas Longhorns only tell their season ticket holders when the games are, or do they make sure the entire freakin' world knows? TQ, While it is true that TSZ has almost 1,200 registered members, we have far more people than that who visit the site without registering. Last time I looked, we have between 16,000 and 20,000 unique visitors a month at the site. That's a pretty big choir! I'm not disagreeing with what you are saying, TQ, just want to get the facts straight. Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 Their only advertising was done on 4m.net, whowon.com and word of mouth. Go figure! Maybe it's just a bigger choir? whowon.com is huge! Probably the most viewed, all around racing site there is. We need to make TSZ like that for the people in Texas. We have only looked at the "Table of Contents" page and there are still a lot more pages to get to. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tqj3 Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 Nick- You're right, it's a pretty big choir, larger than I had thought, and I am (obviously) a big fan of TSZ and happy that Jason elects to do it. But you'll probably agree that the TSZ "audience" isn't big enough. We don't need to be satisfied to reach 20,000 people when there are a million people in the Austin area and over two million in San Antonio. At that, as someone said to me today, THR probably has a larger crowd per capita than SAS does, though it's also true that many of the THR fans come from San Antonio, and many SAS fans come from the Austin area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean-accstudent Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 Nick or anyone interested, As you can see in my ID I am an accstudent attending Riverside Campus. Most importantly I live in San Marcos. I can really help you guys out with advertising for THR. My degree is in automotive technology so i work with gear heads all the time. For Example, I wore my team shirt to school a couple times when I went to class and I mentioned to a couple people that I was going to be attending NTI and now everytime I go to school I have alot of students wanting to be involved in racing, wanting info on the track. If you can give me some of those discount tickets and or flyers with photos and highlights of THR, I can get you some people in the stands easily. Give me a call my number is 512-644-1303 P.S I also know the owner of Sign ARTS and Designs here in San Marcos, He used to sponsor my car for car shows. I can Probably get a good discount on items such as bumper stickers, Flyers, Signs, ect ect. Let me know if u want my help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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