2025 Vegas 1 (2 Viewers)

[Nitro Fiend]

My random thoughts after spending the weekend at the race.
Decent crowd but the seats seemed to be only half full when nitro was running. ( I know it’s a big venue, many people walking around the pits,etc). Short Top fuel field cut down on the number of 4 wide passes ( I think only 13 cars ran on Friday and 2 more ran on Saturday). It’s typical for the announcing staff to interview people or provide other content from the tower or trackside during track prep times. I totally get why they do it then , but that screeching sound made by the tractors applying rubber makes it
impossible to hear what is being said. I wonder if there is any coordination between the track prep people and the announcing team that could be done to allow each of them to do their jobs while allowing the fans to hear the interview or other content. I am a long time fan who has attended numerous national events. At many of these I was at the track for 10 hours or more. I really like the 3 days I spent this weekend - arriving to the track at 11:00 am and leaving at 4:00 pm. Maybe I’m just getting old and I still love the sport but I like the condensed schedule that NHRA has used in recent years. All in all it was a great event.Ill see a few more in the upcoming months and be back in Vegas in the fall.

 

[robinjackson]

Crowds continue to dwindle. I attended the first Vegas 4-wide in 2018 and the place was packed. And it was 90-degree weather then too. I've watched some of yesterday's action on YouTube and the crowd looked patchy. Admittedly this April race didn't attract big crowds before the 4-wide moved in.
Last July I attended the Northwest Nats at Seattle. During downtime they showed film of the 1990 TF final and the spectator-side stands, including the tall one, were packed. Last year they weren't, anywhere near.
But it's not just NHRA that's suffering. Yesterday I watched a short replay of the Bristol NASCAR race and the stands in that huge speedway were very thinly populated. Perhaps they shouldn't have shown drone shots from above.
And I've read mutterings about poor crowds at Indycar races too -- Iowa and the Worldwide Tech event at Madison notably.
Might the big crowds of the past have been a generational thing?

 

[z28]

Crowds continue to dwindle. I attended the first Vegas 4-wide in 2018 and the place was packed. And it was 90-degree weather then too. I've watched some of yesterday's action on YouTube and the crowd looked patchy. Admittedly this April race didn't attract big crowds before the 4-wide moved in.
Last July I attended the Northwest Nats at Seattle. During downtime they showed film of the 1990 TF final and the spectator-side stands, including the tall one, were packed. Last year they weren't, anywhere near.
But it's not just NHRA that's suffering. Yesterday I watched a short replay of the Bristol NASCAR race and the stands in that huge speedway were very thinly populated. Perhaps they shouldn't have shown drone shots from above.
And I've read mutterings about poor crowds at Indycar races too -- Iowa and the Worldwide Tech event at Madison notably.
Might the big crowds of the past have been a generational thing?

those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s enjoyed a car culture. Not the case in todays world plus tariffs have many reluctant to spend on non esential entertainment.

 

[J. S.]

Crowds continue to dwindle. I attended the first Vegas 4-wide in 2018 and the place was packed. And it was 90-degree weather then too. I've watched some of yesterday's action on YouTube and the crowd looked patchy. Admittedly this April race didn't attract big crowds before the 4-wide moved in.
Last July I attended the Northwest Nats at Seattle. During downtime they showed film of the 1990 TF final and the spectator-side stands, including the tall one, were packed. Last year they weren't, anywhere near.
But it's not just NHRA that's suffering. Yesterday I watched a short replay of the Bristol NASCAR race and the stands in that huge speedway were very thinly populated. Perhaps they shouldn't have shown drone shots from above.
And I've read mutterings about poor crowds at Indycar races too -- Iowa and the Worldwide Tech event at Madison notably.
Might the big crowds of the past have been a generational thing?

NASCAR has poor crowds because the racing is terrible. Way too many yellow flags the last 20 laps of every race.

The Long Beach Grand Prix this past weekend had record crowds. And that's saying something for a race that always draws well. It's all about promotion.

NHRA does very little promotion anymore. This is a huge problem. With few exceptions, people need to be reminded every year that the race is coming up.

 

[camaro]

. . . NHRA does very little promotion anymore. . . .

That is an inaccurate statement. The NHRA has never done any promotion, worth speaking about (sorry for the double negative)
The only TV ads I’ve ever seen, regarding an NHRA event, occur during one of its own broadcast, so it’s free advertising and it’s also ‘preaching to the choir’ The biggest problem with Vegas is, it has to be a race that must to be held at night. Very few people are gonna sit and bake for hours in that Nevada heat . Thank God for the ‘DRAW’ donation booth, on site! They were selling sunscreen and save the day for me.

. . . . . Lately I seem to feel a lot more Bold, when leveling a critique, of NHRA, now that I know Alan R. is not gonna swoop down and ‘tear me a new one’ with red font.

 

[LoPony]

I too have noticed the crowds are consistently more sparse year after year since Covid. This is a tragedy. I think NHRA used to advertise some, I don’t know what they do now. But they need to figure out how to get it back. I hate seeing empty grandstands at any track. It gives me anxiety, unless it’s just a routine weekly bracket race program.

Empty is also the case at many local tracks, they just can’t seem to attract crowds anymore. Maybe they put on crappy shows, or no special events, and maybe not that many people are interested in watching pro mod run down the track when there is a special event. I would consider myself one of those people, I don’t think I would exert much effort to go see pro mod.

Now, nitro? Jet cars? That’s a different story. You can also add stick shift cars and gassers to the things that are entertaining.

 

[Chili]

There are so many reasons why attendance is down compared to 20 years ago. I attend 5-6 national events a year and some tracks seem to struggle more than other. As others have mentioned, the car culture for many of us grown up has really changed. It’s hard to get excited about the auto industry where the majority of sales is SUV’s. When I was a teenager ( late 80s)I wanted a muscle car or something that was at least used in drag racing. My first four cars were Malibu, Firebird, Beretta and Avenger. All of them had a footprint in drag racing. Today those options do not exists outside of a Camaro, Mustang or Challenger. That has caused the fan base to get really old. I would guess that this forum is mostly populated by males of age 40 or older. I also think this is a decent sample size of current NHRA fans.

The cost of the ticket is another issue. I always buy the entire event pass because it’s cheaper and I’m going to go all days. The guy sitting next to me said the cost of a Sunday only ticket in Las Vegas was $81. While I don’t think that is a crazy compared to other sports, it’s a good chunk of money for a casual fan to drop. Figure a family of four and now the whole day at the races is going to cost well over $400 for one day. We like to say it’s a deal because it’s 5-7 hours of entertainment but most don’t want to stay that long. They only want to be there for 3-4 hours which means the stands tend to get empty as the day goes on.

Another thing that has hurt attendance is the fact that they can be seen on TV either live or the same day. We didn’t have that option growing up. If you wanted to see the race you had to go to a race. Between the cost, weather, travel distance they can instead sit at home and watch it for free. To me it’s not the same but at some point in my life I will be forced to cut back because of either money, health or age.

NHRA does advertise. There were billboards around Las Vegas and they usually have some television advertisements. They also did some segments on local Fox5. The piece I saw was about Capps and Gordon. The younger generation don’t watch local TV like previous generations so they need to be reached through social media channels. I don’t know how much NHRA does but they are trying to increase that presence.

So what can NHRA do to improve the attendance? The YES program is a great idea which gets a lot of teenagers out to the track on Friday. If I was in charge for a day, I would make one day for most national events $20-$30. They can still charge the current prices the other days but make it affordable for the family and maybe attract some future fans. Maybe even charge a half day ticket on Friday that gets you admission after 5pm for $20 to see the night session.

 

[z28]

There are so many reasons why attendance is down compared to 20 years ago. I attend 5-6 national events a year and some tracks seem to struggle more than other. As others have mentioned, the car culture for many of us grown up has really changed. It’s hard to get excited about the auto industry where the majority of sales is SUV’s. When I was a teenager ( late 80s)I wanted a muscle car or something that was at least used in drag racing. My first four cars were Malibu, Firebird, Beretta and Avenger. All of them had a footprint in drag racing. Today those options do not exists outside of a Camaro, Mustang or Challenger. That has caused the fan base to get really old. I would guess that this forum is mostly populated by males of age 40 or older. I also think this is a decent sample size of current NHRA fans.

The cost of the ticket is another issue. I always buy the entire event pass because it’s cheaper and I’m going to go all days. The guy sitting next to me said the cost of a Sunday only ticket in Las Vegas was $81. While I don’t think that is a crazy compared to other sports, it’s a good chunk of money for a casual fan to drop. Figure a family of four and now the whole day at the races is going to cost well over $400 for one day. We like to say it’s a deal because it’s 5-7 hours of entertainment but most don’t want to stay that long. They only want to be there for 3-4 hours which means the stands tend to get empty as the day goes on.

Another thing that has hurt attendance is the fact that they can be seen on TV either live or the same day. We didn’t have that option growing up. If you wanted to see the race you had to go to a race. Between the cost, weather, travel distance they can instead sit at home and watch it for free. To me it’s not the same but at some point in my life I will be forced to cut back because of either money, health or age.

NHRA does advertise. There were billboards around Las Vegas and they usually have some television advertisements. They also did some segments on local Fox5. The piece I saw was about Capps and Gordon. The younger generation don’t watch local TV like previous generations so they need to be reached through social media channels. I don’t know how much NHRA does but they are trying to increase that presence.

So what can NHRA do to improve the attendance? The YES program is a great idea which gets a lot of teenagers out to the track on Friday. If I was in charge for a day, I would make one day for most national events $20-$30. They can still charge the current prices the other days but make it affordable for the family and maybe attract some future fans. Maybe even charge a half day ticket on Friday that gets you admission after 5pm for $20 to see the night session.

seems to me years ago NHRA would have deals with a local supplier like a NAPA to sell discount tickets you could buy at the store. It was a good promotion for the store and fans and sold alot of tickets. I haven't seen that in years

 

[mick]

seems to me years ago NHRA would have deals with a local supplier like a NAPA to sell discount tickets you could buy at the store. It was a good promotion for the store and fans and sold alot of tickets. I haven't seen that in years

totally agree, wonder why this doesn't happen more often? i can even remember way back in early 90's, i got a free one day pass to the div. 5 race @ BIR
for buying a 2pack of winston smokes.
wonder if the problem is this electronic world we live in? but i can still enter brainerd for any race, not just the national, and give green cash or credit, and in
return i get a paper ticket. why couldn't i present a promotional coupon for same purchase? even $5 off ...... spend $100 at my store and i'll give you a $5 coupon for XYZ race.