Just when things were starting to look promising, the greedy track owners have managed to set negotiations back almost to square one. Whoever the genius was that decided that local coverage blackouts would be a good idea seriously needs to be taken out back and flogged. Once that is complete, he needs to go in for a thorough head examination.
The economy is in the freaking toilet. People are worried about silly things like putting food on the table or even keeping a roof over their heads....and some Einstein wannabe thinks that blacking out local coverage of the races is going to increase attendance. I have news for you, not only will it not increase attendance, it may very well alienate some of your loyal fan base. The last thing you need to be doing is running off fans!
There is only one way to increase attendance at the tracks...make it affordable again. People simply have a budget these days...and if they have decide between necessities and luxuries, guess what is going to win. I can tell you that I have drastically cut back on my NASCAR related travel. I would much rather see a race in person than watch it on TV, but when the prices keep spiraling out of sight, I keep my dollars in my pocket.
This isn't rocket science that we are talking here. If a person has a $100 entertainment budget and that is stretching things....they are not going to spend $150 just to buy a ticket, which doesn't include parking or camping or food or travel. What the track operators need to realize is simply this....you can find a way to get that person to the track, into a seat, with a hotdog in hand and a beer on the side....or you can just get nothing. Do the math...100,000 fans in the seats @ $100 each or 20,000 fans in the seats @ $200 each. Me, I'll take the $10,000,000 gate and work with it....but the current crop of geniuses seem to think that they would rather take $4,000,000. Economics baby, simple economics...somebody needs to wake up.
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