Friday, March 25, 2011

Kevin Harvick: Race tracks should be held accountable for fans in the stands

   There has been much discussion in recent years with the sub par attendance at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., particularly since the track was given a second Sprint Cup Series race date - in theory because it deserved one.

   This season, International Speedway Corp. elected to remove one of the speedway's Cup dates and give it to Kansas Speedway.

   Several drivers were asked Friday about returning to one race weekend per year at ACS and its attendance woes. Kevin Harvick offered an interesting perspective:

   "Honestly I wish all the race tracks would be held accountable for how many people are sitting in their grandstands.  I think sometimes there’s just certain places that we go to -- I think this particular track is a good venue that when we first started coming here supported one race very well.  Sometimes a lot of people want more and you try to make two races out of it.  I always tell people there is no reason to make two mediocre out of one good," he said.
 
   "This is a good one event (track) and there’s several race tracks that should be held to the same accountability on a yearly basis in my opinion. I think that new markets and new, fresh fans that haven’t been able to see the races year after year would be an eye opener for a lot of race tracks.”

11 comments:

  1. Bring a cup race to Denver. Build the track, they will come. If not, the track owner can cry about it, get a cup race (like Kansas).

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  2. Yes, someone should hold tracks accountable for empty stands, right along with holding Nascar accountable for lame racing, which is sort of what the fans are doing by not being in the stands, isn't it?

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  3. I know it's borderline insanity to confuse the two, but was it Earnhardt Jr. or Humpy Wheeler that said the joint TV deal caused track owners to forget how to promote?

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  4. Hold tracks accountable? That's like holding a movie theater responsible if people don't show up for a lousy movie. I think not. Chasing the almighty dollar, NASCAR monkeyed with the races until they mucked it up, now whining. There was a time when you couldn't get a ticket to Bristol, now plenty of empty seats. Eliminate the chase, get some personalities in the driver's seats, and cater to the real fans. The seats will begin to fill once again.

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  5. Amen RacerBaser!! Denver wants some big league racing!!

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  6. Jeff, the sport needa LEAD CHANGES, not personalities.
    Forget about Denver - it proved it not a racing demographic when they had a track.

    The reality is there are several demographics the sport has or once had that are simply poor racing demographics. Southern California is an abysmal racing demographic. Chicago is a poor racing demographic. There are no new markets for the sport anymore - only those like rural New England, Pennsylvania, the general Southeast (except parts of the Carolinas and the Atlanta area), the general Midwest, the Texas area, the Southwest, and central-northern California that are good racing demographics.

    When Kevin Harvick wants tracks to be held accountable, specifically what does he want?

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  7. i think he wants more promotion,effort, incentives for fans, more cooperative hotels in the area and to probably fix the damn seams in the race track!

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  8. A cup race in Denver? Those clowns wouldn't drive an hour to PPIR tosupport the Busch series. If it ain't orange denver will not support it. In Dec there were more Red Wings fans then Av fans in the Pepsi center.

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  9. lee - More promotinal effort, maybe. The problem is this is a sport that has been hideously over-promoted for a decade-plus.
    Incentives for fans - like what?
    More cooperative hotels - let's all get real here - hotels have to operate the way the market works; if prices are too high fans have to accept it because that's what the market is going to dictate - don't ask for lower prices because it's called price controls and it means artifically-created shortages.
    As for the series - they can start by plating the cars, smaller than what they recently mandated for Talladega.

    tc80917 is correct - the fanbase does not exist in Denver for a track - people should forget about ever bringing Cup there.

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