A couple of oil downs, a short weather delay or a single accident and we won't be seeing the finals. Now when those events happen they shorten the turn around time from 75 minutes to 60 and adjust the recording to eliminate the dead spot. Once its at 50 minutes and live where do they go from there? This just seems to be an exercise in stupidity that is doomed to failure.
Reduced Turnaround Time - Safety (1 Viewer)
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Professional Fan
Nitro Member
I was at Phoenix and I was wondering why there was the big gap between Pro Stock and Funny Car. Don't recall ever seeing that before for the finals. Neither Funny Car or Top Fuel were anywhere near the 50 minute turnaround.
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
The bottom line is if you show something on live TV, it will attract more viewers. I know in the past, I have gotten results before hand and not watched the tape-delayed coverage. Live TV will also give NHRA a MUCH MORE advantageous time slot. Live TV puts you in a Sunday afternoon time slot rather than a late Sunday night time slot with the taped show. Lastly, Live TV should preclude many of the delays caused by other sporting events running long.
There is a simple solution that will NEVER happen. Run first round Saturday night under the lights. Charge the same for Saturday and Sunday admission to compensate for the one less round of racing on Sunday. This give fans more incentive to watch the qualifying shows on Saturday and you can start the Sunday live show with a highlight package of first round. And EVERYTHING looks better under the lights!
There is a simple solution that will NEVER happen. Run first round Saturday night under the lights. Charge the same for Saturday and Sunday admission to compensate for the one less round of racing on Sunday. This give fans more incentive to watch the qualifying shows on Saturday and you can start the Sunday live show with a highlight package of first round. And EVERYTHING looks better under the lights!
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You took the words right out of my mouth! Where I work, we have to go to "safety meetings" every other Tuesday. We sit through lectures and graphs and stats and frequently hear the same old line, "you have the right to refuse to do something if you feel it's unsafe." Then they turn right around and ask you to do the dumbest, most unsafe crap you ever heard of in the same day. Why? Money, money, money. Same at the NHRA, same everywhere apparently...
And then write you up for refusing a direct order.
rick
Nitro Member
I see that ESPN has no problem with pre empting nhra telecasts and does it on regular basis, but on the other end... espn will not let nhra pre empt anything else.
Like several others have said...1 oil down or a little bit of weather coming through will throw one heck of a monkey wrench of their live final round coverage.
Like several others have said...1 oil down or a little bit of weather coming through will throw one heck of a monkey wrench of their live final round coverage.
Larry jr.
Nitro Member
Ok my only question is, why not just run the entire race live?
And yes I mean from 11 am to 4:30 pm like Nascar or F1 or Indy does.
With all the popularity of Pinks and Pinks Allout it has been proven TV veiwers love the Stockers and Super Classes.
What about ESPN3 its on live for the entire event Sundays, its great. That is what needs to be done, not a taped show with live final round.
If the event were live they could have planned comercial breaks and use any down time for pre-taped segments or fill with live interveiws.
11 to 4:30 is a show that would be shorter than an NFL or Baseball game.
If they do a live final and something does go wrong, and something will, No one will give it a second chance ever again.
They need to run the race live on Sunday from first round to the finals, all classes, or stick to what we have now.
Really if you watch ESPN3 you will see that is allready what they are doing, the entire race is live.
All the comentary is live as it happens, in fact if you watch the E3 broadcast and listen to the NHRA audiocast,you find the NHRA.com audiocast is delayed buy several seconds behind the E3 live video broadcast.
Go Live or Go home!
And yes I mean from 11 am to 4:30 pm like Nascar or F1 or Indy does.
With all the popularity of Pinks and Pinks Allout it has been proven TV veiwers love the Stockers and Super Classes.
What about ESPN3 its on live for the entire event Sundays, its great. That is what needs to be done, not a taped show with live final round.
If the event were live they could have planned comercial breaks and use any down time for pre-taped segments or fill with live interveiws.
11 to 4:30 is a show that would be shorter than an NFL or Baseball game.
If they do a live final and something does go wrong, and something will, No one will give it a second chance ever again.
They need to run the race live on Sunday from first round to the finals, all classes, or stick to what we have now.
Really if you watch ESPN3 you will see that is allready what they are doing, the entire race is live.
All the comentary is live as it happens, in fact if you watch the E3 broadcast and listen to the NHRA audiocast,you find the NHRA.com audiocast is delayed buy several seconds behind the E3 live video broadcast.
Go Live or Go home!
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NFL games do not last 5.5 hours. Not sure NHRA can afford to buy that match air time to show the event live
Larry jr.
Nitro Member
NHRA has three shows covering the events now that equal more that 5.5 hours, The Lucas oil series showcasing the TAD and TAFC + highlights and the sportman finals, a one hour show, the Saturday Qualifing shows that are two hours and Eliminations on Sunday three to three and a half hours.
I don't see time as an issue.
clwill
Nitro Member
NFL games rarely run over 3.5 hours, and they draw 50x the viewers. Even wire-to-wire coverage of the most important golf tournaments do not run to 5.5 hours. And they draw 10x the viewers that NHRA does. Maybe the show you're discussing could be run on ESPN8 ("the ocho"), but I'm just not clear why/how anyone would run a show that long on the main channels.
I thought someone else had a great idea. Run round one on Saturday aft/evening. The current "qualifying" show could be a recap of qualifying and full round one coverage. The show for the real nerds of the sport. And it covers the longest (and often most painful) of the rounds.
The Sunday show could be the "mainstream" version. Show the highlights from qualifying and round one, and pick it up at round two. That show, with the 50min turnaround would be in the three hour neighborhood, and could often be live.
There would also be the side benefit that people who buy the tickets for the Saturday show would see actual racing that matters, not the frequent "tire blowoff" festivals they see today. Heck, you could even increase the price for Saturday's tickets.
This would even make the "top-12" qualifying format make more sense, since you'll actually be running races on Saturday. And the pressure to be "racing on Sunday" would be even more intense. You can't just run a number to make the Sunday show, you actually have to beat someone.
Yes, you'd have to redo the format of the Sunday live show. Yes, the driver intros would have to be moved. Yes, sponsors for rd1 losers wouldn't be happy.
But it would make for a great weekend of racing. And maybe increase attendance. If you want to see all the eliminations, you have to be there both Sat and Sun.
Who knows, seems like it might be a workable idea?
I thought someone else had a great idea. Run round one on Saturday aft/evening. The current "qualifying" show could be a recap of qualifying and full round one coverage. The show for the real nerds of the sport. And it covers the longest (and often most painful) of the rounds.
The Sunday show could be the "mainstream" version. Show the highlights from qualifying and round one, and pick it up at round two. That show, with the 50min turnaround would be in the three hour neighborhood, and could often be live.
There would also be the side benefit that people who buy the tickets for the Saturday show would see actual racing that matters, not the frequent "tire blowoff" festivals they see today. Heck, you could even increase the price for Saturday's tickets.
This would even make the "top-12" qualifying format make more sense, since you'll actually be running races on Saturday. And the pressure to be "racing on Sunday" would be even more intense. You can't just run a number to make the Sunday show, you actually have to beat someone.
Yes, you'd have to redo the format of the Sunday live show. Yes, the driver intros would have to be moved. Yes, sponsors for rd1 losers wouldn't be happy.
But it would make for a great weekend of racing. And maybe increase attendance. If you want to see all the eliminations, you have to be there both Sat and Sun.
Who knows, seems like it might be a workable idea?
Speedy_Sticks
Nitro Member
TNN used to do two or free versions of one race? Live session shows, then the main race recap shows then American Sports Cavalcade show.
I think ESPN should focus on a dedicated all day show on ESPN3 with its own announcing team.
Also somehow the (sorry can't remember the new name!) Winston Vision and ESPN need to do a combined contracted so we could share the stream from Winston Vision or they share the ESPN TV stream, because after Antron crashed, people on ESPN lost both the pictures of the replays that the Winston vision gave and the Analysis of Mike and Dave.
That is where ESPN3 fails, it was on the main show, but not on ESPN3. I had the audiocast on, but was a few seconds delays.
Cheers
James
I think ESPN should focus on a dedicated all day show on ESPN3 with its own announcing team.
Also somehow the (sorry can't remember the new name!) Winston Vision and ESPN need to do a combined contracted so we could share the stream from Winston Vision or they share the ESPN TV stream, because after Antron crashed, people on ESPN lost both the pictures of the replays that the Winston vision gave and the Analysis of Mike and Dave.
That is where ESPN3 fails, it was on the main show, but not on ESPN3. I had the audiocast on, but was a few seconds delays.
Cheers
James
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my friends call me Zappy
Nitro Member
Registered member said:
GREAT idea.
Raconteur
Nitro Member
There is such a small viewing audience compared to NASCAR or F1 or IndyCar. Only about 600,000 to 750,000 households watch drag racing, live TV will do nothing to build an audience with an interest level that is as low as it currently sits.
Live is already available via ESPN3, the few that'll watch their feed should be paying for it.
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
In America, NHRA actually has better numbers than F1. And to Larry's point, F1 has a 2 hour time limit or 300km, whichever comes first. F1 did have a nice 30 minute pre-race show on SPEED, I will be curious to see how NBC Sports handles that this year. So the longest F1 would be on is 2 hours and 30 minutes if you watched the pre-race show.
I do watch the ESPN3 feed quite often, and I am already paying for it ... it is part of my cable subscription.
I also disagree about live TV not increasing the numbers of viewers. Live TV puts NHRA in a better and more consistent time slot, and the fans that won't stay up til 11 or 12 on Sunday night to watch the race (like my Dad) will watch Sunday afternoon.
Your Dad must be like mine Chris.....he's on the couch "resting his eyes" by 10pm, if not before, LOL! He's always calling me on Monday asking me what happened!!
