Seating capacities (1 Viewer)

[GumbyWVU]

Hey everyone, not long ago there was a very interesting graphic posted on here about track lengths.

Does anyone have a list of seating capacities at the national event tracks, current and former? I've read where Houston could seat 30,000 and Pomona 40,000. I wonder how accurate that is? I've been curious to which had the most and which the least. Couldn't find any previous postings about this.

Never been there but I'd wager either Chicago or Charlotte could seat the most and maybe Richmond or Epping the least.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jim]

Hey everyone, not long ago there was a very interesting graphic posted on here about track lengths.

Does anyone have a list of seating capacities at the national event tracks, current and former? I've read where Houston could seat 30,000 and Pomona 40,000. I wonder how accurate that is? I've been curious to which had the most and which the least. Couldn't find any previous postings about this.

Never been there but I'd wager either Chicago or Charlotte could seat the most and maybe Richmond or Epping the least.

Thanks in advance!

NHRA does not give out seating capacity. That's why its claims of selling out races are bogus.

 

[Jer]

NHRA does not give out seating capacity. That's why its claims of selling out races are bogus.

Was told by a reliable source they stop selling tickets around 60% cap then they can say they are sold out...

 

[mgty3whlr]

why not go to like 45% so they have some wiggle room on their numbers.

 

[Old21stud]

Was told by a reliable source they stop selling tickets around 60% cap then they can say they are sold out...

As a former track owner, (yes, many decades ago) there is no logical reason NHRA would ever do that! Race track promotion is the equivalent of going to Vegas every race. Too many things that can wipe the profit out and turn a race into a money loser.

The reason the bleachers always have vacant areas is drag racing has a variety of things to do that NASCAR and stick and ball sports don't have. The Pro pits, Manufacturers Midway, the Sportsman Pits, the concession row plus the time it takes many of the ticket buyers to walk to the parking lot to get their favorite beverage or food. Heck, the race day is super long and many just head home ahead of the stampede when it's over. Additionally, and unlike the stick and ball games, there isn't as exact of a nature to the event like a football game where you can watch the opening kickoff after the tailgate party and nobody wants to miss a single play.

I can't fathom NHRA and their track owners ever refusing to sell every ticket they possibly can. Especially when empty seats look bad for selling their tv program that would make them huge dollars IF they had attendance like the NFL or NASCAR. Typically the Fire Marshall is involved in stopping sales as they did at S. Georgia Motorsports Park when Ozzy and the Duck's Lights Out and No Mercy races were held.

 

[TopFuel@Lions]

We have gone over this a few times, the biggest attendance that I know of, and I was there, was the 1965 Winternationals at Pomona that had over 65,000 fans on that one-day wonder race. Opening the gates at midnite to ley the huge line of fans in,


TopFuel@Lions

 

[mgty3whlr]

Same with ATCO Raceway. The state police got involved because of the capacity for an import race this year.

 

[mick]

i think ennis has largest seating capacity on the tour. someone told me that once. just beats pomona; but i wonder what pomona # really is since 1320' bleacher section went away?
gainesville, zmax, joliet, bristol and indy i think are next in line around 30k (maybe vegas too), then the rest

 

[ZWeinstein]

NHRA does not give out seating capacity. That's why its claims of selling out races are bogus.

I do not believe their sellout claims are bogus at all. We have had a few sellouts in Phoenix over the years and two that I remember (2018 Sunday & 2020 Sunday) The grandstands were packed to the point it was hard to fit anymore people and there were still people at the wall and obviously roaming the pits. Granted Im sure Phoenix has probably one of the smallest grandstand capacities but I do not think they make bogus sellout claims

 

[Jim]

Same with ATCO Raceway. The state police got involved because of the capacity for an import race this year.

The cops got involved with that because of the traffic on the local roads and because the track was under limited capacity orders at the time because of COVID.

 

[Jim]

I do not believe their sellout claims are bogus at all. We have had a few sellouts in Phoenix over the years and two that I remember (2018 Sunday & 2020 Sunday) The grandstands were packed to the point it was hard to fit anymore people and there were still people at the wall and obviously roaming the pits. Granted Im sure Phoenix has probably one of the smallest grandstand capacities but I do not think they make bogus sellout claims

The sellout claims are bogus. There have been times I have sat in the media center and we are told the race is a sell-out. Ask how many tickets were sold and NHRA says they don't release those numbers. Ask the seating capacity and thy say they don't release those numbers. All the stick-=and-ball sports release seating capacity and attendance for every game.

 

[mick]

The sellout claims are bogus. There have been times I have sat in the media center and we are told the race is a sell-out. Ask how many tickets were sold and NHRA says they don't release those numbers. Ask the seating capacity and thy say they don't release those numbers. All the stick-=and-ball sports release seating capacity and attendance for every game.

nhra used to publish attendance figures for nat. events in the digger. bleachers were packed. numbers were high. that was 100 years ago.

 

[Billy]

The sellout claims are bogus. There have been times I have sat in the media center and we are told the race is a sell-out. Ask how many tickets were sold and NHRA says they don't release those numbers. Ask the seating capacity and thy say they don't release those numbers. All the stick-=and-ball sports release seating capacity and attendance for every game.

I believe the sell-out is based on Reserved Seating sales, not General Admission sales. Hence times when there is a sell-out, but doesn't look completely full.

 

[Jim]

I believe the sell-out is based on Reserved Seating sales, not General Admission sales. Hence times when there is a sell-out, but doesn't look completely full.

If they will not tell you the number of tickets sold compared to the number of seats available, it is a bogus claim of a sellout. Other sports announce sales and capacity.

 

[Chili]

Compared to NFL/NASCAR/MLB, our seating capacity is not impressive.Boasting we sold out a track with 23,000 seats doesn’t exactly blow people away. The same reason NHRA doesn’t brag about payouts. Its also a catch 22. Most of our facilities don’t seat 50,000 fans. Could you imagine if we became as popular as NASCAR. If 80,000 people all of a sudden started showing up to an NHRA race, we have no where to seat them and no where to park all the cars.

 

[mick]

the trick is filling stands for 3 days. i can recall back in 90's the digger posted an attendance figure for BIR @ 110k over 4 day event.
that's an impressive number if in fact it was real.

 

[ol21stud]

"Back in the day..." (1970's) The number given to the press was double the somewhat actual amount. If we had 9500 on the grounds at a Sunday AHRA Gateway Nationals, the press was told 20k. In talking to people with knowledge at the time from NHRA, they did roughly the same thing. With the computer information available today, I'm not sure I would want to do that as the IRS would be all over it. My understanding was that IHRA did the same thing, but I wasn't involved when my brother was IHRA sanctioned in St. Louis, so I can't say for sure.
Off topic: If I remember correctly, Larry Carrier was related to Ruth Tice. Anyone remember how?

 

[GumbyWVU]

"Back in the day..." (1970's) The number given to the press was double the somewhat actual amount. If we had 9500 on the grounds at a Sunday AHRA Gateway Nationals, the press was told 20k. In talking to people with knowledge at the time from NHRA, they did roughly the same thing. With the computer information available today, I'm not sure I would want to do that as the IRS would be all over it. My understanding was that IHRA did the same thing, but I wasn't involved when my brother was IHRA sanctioned in St. Louis, so I can't say for sure.
Off topic: If I remember correctly, Larry Carrier was related to Ruth Tice. Anyone remember how?

Thanks, I appreciate all the responses thus far. I know NHRA doesn't give the attendance figures but unless it's a track they own, I don't know why they would (or could) withhold seating capacity info. I'd think the local fire marshall would be privy to that.

Good information about the bigger tracks provided. Any speculation about which tracks have the least seating?