!!!) to obtain additional attention from Corporate America and larger media outlets. At best, NHRA has garnered as much attention in these locations as they probably would have without the changes- there is no marked improvement on rasing the public conciousness of our sport.
They picked the wrong group of folks to sell it to, Peej...and have to continuiously force feed it to us to make sure we are all on board (have some more Kool-Aid, son...)
We already get it. We may not like it, but for the most part, we understand it and are deaing with it.
The Clowndown was started with the concept that the sport of NHRA Drag Racing needed some additional drama and excitement (!!!
The poorly thought-out concept mirrored the other major US racing series and was obvious to fans of the NHRA-sanctioned series, while gathering only minimal attention in the major media markets. Our contracts with ESPN are still exorbitant and we carry no more leverage than in years before the C/D, as shown by the programming changes that exist to this day. How powerful or important is our sport when we can still be pre-empted by random changes?
Magazines that do not regularly feature drag racing still don't. Events that do not regularly present drag racing content or competitors still don't. The increase in the overall public eye that was supposed to come with the implimentation of the C/D never materialized. The only place that the C/D became important was in the 21st Century version of the house organ- the NHRA coverage of the events on the tour on ESPN. The C/D still does not regularly make the Ticker at the bottom of the screen, or SportCenter, or ESPNews. If it couldn't be sold to them- and they actually LIKE us- how was it expected to be pitched to things like morning shows, and regular network programming?
Print media, and in particular, newspapers, are a dying breed. Writers on websites and blogs carry more weight than the local fishwrap. It seems the C/D was designed to make the sport more attractive to that market as well as to corporations. The timing couldn't have been worse- but that was not the fault of Glendora. What is the fault of the Ivory Tower folks is their belief that they no longer needed to listen to their constiuants (sounds familiar?)- the foundation of the sport that formulates its base and in the future, will be the basis of its history. They felt they could walk away from those of us that fly to races, bring out guests and buy the products advertised by the sponsors. And now, they are paying the price with empty seats.
Can they affford to backtrack now and return to the days when only consistant, superior performance is rewarded, and move away from the soccer-mom concept of rewarding all that came to play? Probably not. And with that, those that can recall the "golden age" of NHRA drag racing should do so with reverence of an era that made the sport attractive to us in the first place. We'll never see the "good old days" again- no matter how hard we try.
generated by the "little guy" getting to race the "Goliath" in the Finals at every race, while still rewarding the guys that made the playoffs by allowing them NOT to be eliminated by a "non-player" until the final round.)
They picked the wrong group of folks to sell it to, Peej...and have to continuiously force feed it to us to make sure we are all on board (have some more Kool-Aid, son...)
We already get it. We may not like it, but for the most part, we understand it and are deaing with it.
The Clowndown was started with the concept that the sport of NHRA Drag Racing needed some additional drama and excitement (!!!
The poorly thought-out concept mirrored the other major US racing series and was obvious to fans of the NHRA-sanctioned series, while gathering only minimal attention in the major media markets. Our contracts with ESPN are still exorbitant and we carry no more leverage than in years before the C/D, as shown by the programming changes that exist to this day. How powerful or important is our sport when we can still be pre-empted by random changes?
Magazines that do not regularly feature drag racing still don't. Events that do not regularly present drag racing content or competitors still don't. The increase in the overall public eye that was supposed to come with the implimentation of the C/D never materialized. The only place that the C/D became important was in the 21st Century version of the house organ- the NHRA coverage of the events on the tour on ESPN. The C/D still does not regularly make the Ticker at the bottom of the screen, or SportCenter, or ESPNews. If it couldn't be sold to them- and they actually LIKE us- how was it expected to be pitched to things like morning shows, and regular network programming?
Print media, and in particular, newspapers, are a dying breed. Writers on websites and blogs carry more weight than the local fishwrap. It seems the C/D was designed to make the sport more attractive to that market as well as to corporations. The timing couldn't have been worse- but that was not the fault of Glendora. What is the fault of the Ivory Tower folks is their belief that they no longer needed to listen to their constiuants (sounds familiar?)- the foundation of the sport that formulates its base and in the future, will be the basis of its history. They felt they could walk away from those of us that fly to races, bring out guests and buy the products advertised by the sponsors. And now, they are paying the price with empty seats.
Can they affford to backtrack now and return to the days when only consistant, superior performance is rewarded, and move away from the soccer-mom concept of rewarding all that came to play? Probably not. And with that, those that can recall the "golden age" of NHRA drag racing should do so with reverence of an era that made the sport attractive to us in the first place. We'll never see the "good old days" again- no matter how hard we try.
And all nitro World champs would be coming out of Div. 3 forever (Brownsburg, IN)...
Don't forget about Div. 7 (Yorba Linda, CA.)
That's where the checks get mailed to... Where's the workshop?
