Bristol crowd or lack thereof

[Terry]

Man, I was amazed at the lack of fans in the stands for the Sunday telecast. I don't believe I've seen a lighter turnout on a tv race. Is this normal for Bristol, or was running on the same weekend as the roundy-round all star race in the same area hurting the crowd because of fans having to make a choice of which race to attend? Just wondering what the other maters thought about the sparse attendance.

 

[Sleepy]

Did look a bit vacant, didn't it. Of course the Match game was a nice touch tho. What's next ... Lets Make A Deal

 

[Terry]

Did look a bit vacant, didn't it. Of course the Match game was a nice touch tho. What's next ... Lets Make A Deal

Agreed there--would have been kinda cute if it was just one quick segment, but it went on and on...

 

[PJ]

I liked it, 3 quick segments fun

Now they need to do the opposite of the newlyweds. Put Force and Lori, WJ and Arlene and ??? on and see what happens.

 

[DG]

The local weather reporters were reporting an 80% chance of rain and it rained hard from about 8pm on Saturday night. All of the roads were still very wet at 8am Sunday on the way to the track, so I’m sure a lot of folks just wrote it off as a bad idea.



We actually had dry weather for the rest of the day and some great racing. The DA was almost 2000 feet lower than Saturday’s high. Pro Stock cars really loved it!

 

[Randy]

The stands appeared pretty full for qualifying. I would guess Mr. Gerard is correct.

 

[sammi]

I know bupkiss about the economics of staging a major event, but one has to wonder a) 10,000 @ $60 or 50,000 @ $10 --which is better for the sport? b)how did this event sell TV advertising in the future when the gradstands were empty?

Geez...at least NASCAR is a little more skillful in hiding there lack of attendance the past two seasons...

mark

 

[mastertone]

The local weather reporters were reporting an 80% chance of rain and it rained hard from about 8pm on Saturday night. All of the roads were still very wet at 8am Sunday on the way to the track, so I’m sure a lot of folks just wrote it off as a bad idea.



We actually had dry weather for the rest of the day and some great racing. The DA was almost 2000 feet lower than Saturday’s high. Pro Stock cars really loved it!

I learned years ago NEVER LISTEN TO A WEATHER MAN! If there is an 80% chance of rain that means there is an 80% chance it won't rain!

 

[Randy]

I learned years ago NEVER LISTEN TO A WEATHER MAN! If there is an 80% chance of rain that means there is an 80% chance it won't rain!

What other job would pay you very well for being wrong 80% of the time?

.

 

[BrettV]

What other job would pay you very well for being wrong 80% of the time?

.

Baseball. As a hitter if you get it right 1/3rd of the time you are an all star!

 

[Randy]

Baseball. As a hitter if you get it right 1/3rd of the time you are an all star!

Professional baseball players fail 2/3rds or 66.6% of the time . Weatherman sucks 80%...Hmmm.

I'd be a professional golfer if I could take 2 strokes off every hole. 2x18=36. If my typical round is 99, subtract 36 which equals a round of 63. Or a pro bowler. If I could knock down 2-3 more pins every roll I'd be hitting 300...or maybe a 310 LOL.

RG

 

[JB3]

Geez...at least NASCAR is a little more skillful in hiding there lack of attendance the past two seasons...

mark

The most clever of TV producer wasn't hiding all these empty seats. There were plainly visible empty sections from front row to last row and starting line to finish. And, aren't 90% of the seats on that one side of the track?

How many people roll out of bed on a Sunday morning and decide ... "Hey, I think I will drive over to the track and buy some tickets for today". I could be wrong but, I would venture to say that most people planning to attend Sunday racing had purchased tickets in advance and probably for at least more than 1 day. Therefore, if I was holding a ticket for Sunday and it was raining cats and dogs at my house with an ominous forecast ... I'm still going to the track. JUST IN CASE

 

[Nunz]

I may be wrong, bit I believe plenty of people buy tickets when they get to the track, even if they have planned on going for awhile. Who knows, like I posted earlier and Randy did also, it seemed during qualifying that the stands were pretty full, and there usually isn't that huge of a difference from Saturday to Sunday, a little, but not huge.

 

[DragFan2]

I fall into that category. I quite often wait till I get to the track to buy my ticket(s), granted though I quite often only go for one day, and that decision is not always made until the last minute, such as Thursday of the race weekend. And I'm talking about Gainesville which always has big crowds. Never had them tell me the place was sold out. I can't speak for the fans in and around Bristol, but with a weather forecast like they had for the entire weekend, I would have had to think twice before driving 100-200 miles to attend the race with a weather forecast like they had for this past weekend. My one and only trip to the Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol in 2005 was rained out completely for Friday, and Saturday they barely got one round of Pro Qualifying in so they set the field by the single qualifying attempt and then used that screwy system of putting Top 10 cars into the field even if they did not qualify quick enough. Sunday turned out to be a good day but by then we were on our way back to Florida, so Bristol bit me big time in 2005 and haven't been back...although would love to go again.