Sell outs (3 Viewers)

[Nitro Fiend]

I attend several National Events each year. I've only been to tracks that have a huge seating capacity so I have never experienced a sell out.
At the smaller venues when they announce that the event is sold out do they truly turn people away that are standing at the ticket booth with cash in hand ?
I was wondering if it means that all the reserved assigned seats have been sold but there is still general admission tickets available ?

 

[Randy]

When I saw the title I was thinking this was about bad people.

 

[mick]

When I saw the title I was thinking this was about bad people.

taylor swift ...... now it is

 

[Jim]

I attend several National Events each year. I've only been to tracks that have a huge seating capacity so I have never experienced a sell out.
At the smaller venues when they announce that the event is sold out do they truly turn people away that are standing at the ticket booth with cash in hand ?
I was wondering if it means that all the reserved assigned seats have been sold but there is still general admission tickets available ?

NHRA will never tell you how many tickets were sold. Nor will it tell you the crowd capacity of any track. The stick and ball sports give you both pieces of information so you know when a sellout is a sellout.

When NHRA says it is a sellout, you are supposed to believe it is a sellout. Whether you believe NHRA or not is up to you.

 

[glofria]

dWhen I saw the title I was thinking this was about bad people.

I've been accused of that before. LOL

Going out on a limb here and think what is a sold out event is the maximum amount of people in the given space. That would include competitors, track personnel ans so on. So it doesn't necessarly mean spectator tickets sold and butts in grandstands.

 

[8sec71]

It just means they sold as many tickets as they have seats for. They don’t turn anyone away.

 

[Rajunz]

I went to the Vegas Fall race in 2012 and it was declaired a sell out. When I got to the ticket booth on Sunday, there were only a hand full of seats left to choose from on the pit side. Literally, less than 50 to choose, and this was before 1st round started. There were probably more on the other side, but yeah, it was packed.

 

[mick]

sellouts on saturday seem to happen more often than sundays. brainerd this year was most packed on saturday. if the playoffs meant something, wouldn't a sunny sunday
tend to be a 'sellout' too? rhetorical question. no, the fans like saturday because they get to see all the cars twice, and sometimes the day lasts longer, without having to worry
about work the next day. the die-hard fans are there all weekend or both weekend days every year, rain or shine; the repeatable annual spectator count

 

[z28]

sellouts on saturday seem to happen more often than sundays. brainerd this year was most packed on saturday. if the playoffs meant something, wouldn't a sunny sunday
tend to be a 'sellout' too? rhetorical question. no, the fans like saturday because they get to see all the cars twice, and sometimes the day lasts longer, without having to worry
about work the next day. the die-hard fans are there all weekend or both weekend days every year, rain or shine; the repeatable annual spectator count

I've only been to one final day since I started going. I like the Saturday show for the reasons you stated.

 

[J. S.]

I went to the Vegas Fall race in 2012 and it was declaired a sell out. When I got to the ticket booth on Sunday, there were only a hand full of seats left to choose from on the pit side. Literally, less than 50 to choose, and this was before 1st round started. There were probably more on the other side, but yeah, it was packed.

Does this mean that Las Vegas only has reserved seats? If so, then I can see when they would call it a sell-out. But at Pomona, for example, there are some reserved seats and some unreserved. Would NHRA declare Pomona a "Sell out" if just all the reserved seats were sold? I sure wouldn't think so. Of course, Pomona draws poorly now because the entire demo of So CA has changed and the "new people" aren't drag racing fans. They don't even use the old west side grandstands anymore. And that used to be a good place to sit. But I'm sure glad they still have 2 races a year there. I enjoy it while it lasts.

I would guess the local fire marshall would have a rated capacity for these facilities, and maybe that is what constitutes a "Sell out" at some of them, not necessarily when they have sold all of the reserved and general admission seats.

I expect NHRA is playing a little fast and loose with the terminology here, but at any rate if they call it a sell-out, that's still got to be good news for our sport.

 

[Custom Body Fan]

Of course, Pomona draws poorly now because the entire demo of So CA has changed and the "new people" aren't drag racing fans. They don't even use the old west side grandstands anymore.

The first time I went to Pomona was maybe 15-18 years ago, when Force was injured and Phil Burkhart was driving his car at the Finals. The west stands were open and fairly full then. I wonder if what is really happening is the NHRA has a marketing problem at that track. Despite changing SoCal demographics, the population of SoCal is huge - I am surprised there are not enough fans in the region to have a lot larger attendance than they are now getting. I was hoping with the In-N-Out sponsorship that In-N-Out would do some marketing and promotion to try to bring in the crowds, but I don't believe that has happened. To me, Pomona is hallowed ground, and I just can't believe that they can't find a way to bring in the crowds - maybe more effort would help, instead of just opening the gates and waiting for the fans to show up.

 

[robinjackson]

Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!

 

[J. S.]

The first time I went to Pomona was maybe 15-18 years ago, when Force was injured and Phil Burkhart was driving his car at the Finals. The west stands were open and fairly full then. I wonder if what is really happening is the NHRA has a marketing problem at that track. Despite changing SoCal demographics, the population of SoCal is huge - I am surprised there are not enough fans in the region to have a lot larger attendance than they are now getting. I was hoping with the In-N-Out sponsorship that In-N-Out would do some marketing and promotion to try to bring in the crowds, but I don't believe that has happened. To me, Pomona is hallowed ground, and I just can't believe that they can't find a way to bring in the crowds - maybe more effort would help, instead of just opening the gates and waiting for the fans to show up.

Chris: I do think there is a big marketing problem as there seems to be minimal marketing with most of these events any more. But with the demise of the once-great local newspapers like the LA Times, how do you reach people? Media is so fragmented now. The great Shav Glick of the LA Times would always write articles in advance of the Winternationals and NHRA Finals. So everyone new about the upcoming races. And thus the crowds were huge. Those days are gone. I assume other non-NHRA owned tracks - like Norwalk - do their own advertising. But Pomona is an NHRA track, and they seem to have minimal to no advertising. Hence, minimal crowds. Plus the changed demo issue I mentioned doesn't help. But people are way to distracted now and can't be expected to know about these races if you don't tell them somehow. I don't know how to reach the public, but I agree it is part of the problem.

 

[DragFan2]

Chris: I do think there is a big marketing problem as there seems to be minimal marketing with most of these events any more. But with the demise of the once-great local newspapers like the LA Times, how do you reach people? Media is so fragmented now. The great Shav Glick of the LA Times would always write articles in advance of the Winternationals and NHRA Finals. So everyone new about the upcoming races. And thus the crowds were huge. Those days are gone. I assume other non-NHRA owned tracks - like Norwalk - do their own advertising. But Pomona is an NHRA track, and they seem to have minimal to no advertising. Hence, minimal crowds. Plus the changed demo issue I mentioned doesn't help. But people are way to distracted now and can't be expected to know about these races if you don't tell them somehow. I don't know how to reach the public, but I agree it is part of the problem.

I have no idea how or when NHRA decides a track is a sellout as there is always room for General Admission spectators. Reserved seating has specific numbers of seats and they know if all those seats are sold. GA spectators tend to roam around more and don't care where they sit in the GA seating, if there is any! Gainesville and the Gatornationals is always pretty much a sellout but I'vew never heard of anyone being turned away.

 

[aakar]

The first time I went to Pomona was maybe 15-18 years ago, when Force was injured and Phil Burkhart was driving his car at the Finals. The west stands were open and fairly full then. I wonder if what is really happening is the NHRA has a marketing problem at that track. Despite changing SoCal demographics, the population of SoCal is huge - I am surprised there are not enough fans in the region to have a lot larger attendance than they are now getting. I was hoping with the In-N-Out sponsorship that In-N-Out would do some marketing and promotion to try to bring in the crowds, but I don't believe that has happened. To me, Pomona is hallowed ground, and I just can't believe that they can't find a way to bring in the crowds - maybe more effort would help, instead of just opening the gates and waiting for the fans to show up.

I started going to Indy in ‘83, every day was packed, Sunday crowd was humongous. First race with low attendance was after Louisiana flooding, second was when they increased parking 100%, other than that, spectacular crowds.
Now the place looks like a ghost town, very sad as you can always count on incredible racing there, just like Pomona

 

[Dragracer]

Does this mean that Las Vegas only has reserved seats? If so, then I can see when they would call it a sell-out. But at Pomona, for example, there are some reserved seats and some unreserved. Would NHRA declare Pomona a "Sell out" if just all the reserved seats were sold? I sure wouldn't think so. Of course, Pomona draws poorly now because the entire demo of So CA has changed and the "new people" aren't drag racing fans. They don't even use the old west side grandstands anymore. And that used to be a good place to sit. But I'm sure glad they still have 2 races a year there. I enjoy it while it lasts.

I would guess the local fire marshall would have a rated capacity for these facilities, and maybe that is what constitutes a "Sell out" at some of them, not necessarily when they have sold all of the reserved and general admission seats.

I expect NHRA is playing a little fast and loose with the terminology here, but at any rate if they call it a sell-out, that's still got to be good news for our sport.

There was a time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, that Pomoma attendance was only exceeded by the Gaters. The west grandstand was full and the pit side extended further than it does now.