Teams boycotting?? (1 Viewer)

[BaldyLochs]

I still say the entire Kalitta racing team going IHRA would be cool.

And that's already happened once in the past!

 

[mick]

i'd like to see who the other pro teams are before forming an opinion
on this 'boycott'.
one thing is for sure though, there is strength in numbers.

 

[PJ]

i'd like to see who the other pro teams are before forming an opinion
on this 'boycott'.
one thing is for sure though, there is strength in numbers.

I'm not sure they who is as important as how many, although a big name(s) who among the many may be heard louder.

 

[Rajunz]

When a show like PINKS ALL OUT draws more spectators and more viewers than either the IHRA or NHRA with 10.50 bracket cars racing, it shows there is huge room for improvement for both those organizations in marketing and presentation.

I'd sure like to know where are you getting these numbers? Those stands are never filled on the broadcasts, not even close, and it's only shown on SPEED, in only about half the households as ESPN2.

 

[PJ]

I saw the 2 millions viewers quote here

"PINKS: All Out, one of the most popular automotive television shows in history, comes to Summit Motorsports Park June 6 and 7, 2008. It has rapidly become the most-watched weekly series on the SPEED Channel, drawing more than two million viewers a week. "We've really struck an emotional chord with our audience," said PINKS: All Out host and executive producer Rich Christensen (pictured below), "giving fans a very pure product, two drivers, two cars, the drop of my arms, winner takes all. Now we want to find who thrives in this kind of pressure-cooker environment."


it was in an newsletter email from Norwalk

 

[davey]

Not speculating but three names I would think that could afford to sit out would be Evan, Conrad (with Ken Black), and Forrest. All self-sponsored to a certain extent. That would carry some punch over to the IHRA.

 

[Fuel FC Fan]

Got to get the IRHA to the West Coast too. Sure like to see that happen.

Not speculating but three names I would think that could afford to sit out would be Evan, Conrad (with Ken Black), and Forrest. All self-sponsored to a certain extent. That would carry some punch over to the IHRA.

 

[Jay]

Even if he did purchase IHRA, what would he have? It would still be a 2nd tier racing series......no offense intended.....to the "Big Show". He's got tons of money, but I don't think he would put himself in that position. He's having too much fun runnin' all these cars. Sooooo many things would have to happen (TV package, expanded fields, etc.) for the big show cars to defect to the other side. Just my .02..........

Late................Mitch

You are right...Evan Knoll HAS tons of money....How did he get it? Making VERY smart decisions, for sure....

While it is obvious that Even is a huge fan of the sport, I would venture to guess that he wouldn't purchase the IHRA because it was "fun." While that may be true, I would say that he has a very, very aggressive and quite significant plan for it...

On the TV side, I know that many folks and especially casual fans may not realize the innerworkings of TV deals...Maybe I can shed a bit of light on that for everyone...I have touched on it before a bit, but I will try to get more in depth for you..

20 Years ago, cable TV was just catching on and the "Big 4" OTA (over-the-air) newtorks, NBC, CBS, ABC, and "then new" FOX, had a very, very strong hold on domestic television viewership. Cable started to eat into that little by little as their household penetration started to grow in small increments, as well as the fact that new cable networks started to pop-up from time-to-time as well...If you remember back 20 years ago, there were hundreds of cable operators...You may have had a small cable operator that was owned by someone local in your community that only had 5000-10,000 subscribers, and there were a series of these in one metropolitan are, let alone the country. Then what happened next, started the cable boom. All of a sudden, cable TV providers started selling to a few of the major players, and now, there might be 20 cable operators in the country, instead of 2000, right? Well, these cable operators started to really dig into the viewership of the OTA networks because they started launching their OWN national networks because they had the national footprints to do it in, and/or they made deals with OTHER national or large scale regional operators to carry each OTHERS networks, and so on...

So, now you have literally, over 100 networks available, and while the number of available networks has quadrupled in the last 20 years, the number of TV viewers has not. This has created an incredible abount of competition for viewers, but also for programming.

The point to all of this is simple. All of this availability crerated what is now referred to in the industry as "time-buy" deals. As long as you can afford it, and your programming is produced with high production values, you can literally ALWAYS find a network that will run it for you, if you pay them. A perfect example of this is how the NHRA is paying ESPN to run the drag races for them. In turn for paying ESPN approximately $90,000-$95,000 per hour of airtime, the NHRA receives all of the "network" airtime to control. THis means that the NHRA gets approximately 11 minutes per hour (22 :30 second spots), plus all of the "billboards (Brought to you by....etc), and creative content within the body of the broadcast (Lucas Oil Ladder, Valvoline Tech Tip, etc...) that they can sell and keep 100% of the revenue for...In a perfect world, you would sell enough to just break-even, or get as close as you can...

Now that you understand the business model of the TV "time-buy," I will give you some real life numbers on the costs to produce a show that is of broadcast quality, as well as approximate costs for airtime, as well...

To produce a "live" or "live look" motorsports event, you will have to hire a third-party production company to "produce" the telecast for you. THis is onclusive of cameras, trucks, switches, graphix generators, slo-mo, etc.....It also includes your personnell requirements as well...By the way, these are real numbers that are based on a piece of sports programming that I am considering producing for one of the "Big 4" OTA networks next year.

Live and/or "look live" broadcast quality HD production with (10) stationary cameras, (4) roaming cameras, and (12) "on-board" cameras, including use of a 53' production truck, and all necessary personnel (approximately 30 people)... - $100,000 per event + Hotels, Meals, and Flights for all.

Airtime on the network (either ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox) - $250,000-$275,000/per hour.

So, as you can see, you can easily spend $650,000-$800,000 on a 2 hour event in total. Now, in 2 hours, you have (44) :30 second spots to sell, so if you can average $15,000-$20,000 each as part of a sponsorship package, then you are golden! If you do it right, then it is VERY attainable.

Now, on the flip side, IHRA and their deal with SPEED Channel is more like this:

Production with "live look" but not as many cameras, personnell, and LOTS of time to edit to a "live look" after shooting, I would venture to guess that their production budget could be in the $30,000-$35,000 range per show, but again, that is an educated guess. Based on the quality that I see in their telecasts, I would strongly doubt that it is even that much, to be frank with you.

Airtime on SPEED CHannel: Approximately $40,000 per hour, with a re-run or two in there as well...

So, you can see that there is a wide range of airtime and production options available.

The bottom line, now that you understand the very basics of TV sports programming and its costs, if Evan bought the IHRA, and put all 12 events on an OTA network, it would cost approximately $8,000,000 to do it, however, much if not all of that could be offset with sponsorships, etc...

BUT, if he ran 2 Friday night and one Saturday early afternoon qualifying sessions, then he could run a 1-hour qualifying show on Saturday late afternoon (after allowing 2-3 hours of "buffer" time to allow for schedule overruns from oil downs, etc...) and then ran Saturday afternoon/night eliminations, you could run that on the network on Sunday afternoon, and now you have a monsterous TV deal and the IHRA would surpass the NHRA in about 5 minutes...OK, well, maybe it would take a full season, but you get my point...

NO QUESTION that Evan could pull this off...The networks would love it, too!

And if he was to double the purse or something close, I'd bet that ALL of the Pro Teams would show up! More money & a more than double TV audience for their sponsors would almost certainly guarantee large, full fields as well as more sponsors for the teams...

 

[Jay]

I agree both organizations could do a much better job of marketing their respective series, but come on, Aaron. Pinks All Out drawing more of a crowd and more viewers than both organizations???!!!! I'll have more of what you're using, Bra!!!!!!!!! Show me (and everyone else) the stats to back that statement up, please.

Late................Mitch

This is actually very true, bro...Pinks is a VERY high rated show on SPEED.....It gets GREAT numbers for them...But its important to note that a lot of this is because SPEED owns that show...That is why they promote the crap out of it...

 

[Toejam]

if NHRA or IHRA was promoted half as heavily as Pinks then maybe they'd get some better numbers...
it seems like every second or third add on SpeedTV is for Pinks (or Unique Whips )...and when you show a program 5 times a day, 3 or so days a week, even a small number of viewers per show adds up to "impressive" total numbers

Don't forget that they don't charge $50-60 to attend Pinks either!

 

[spike 06]

I think a boycott is a great idea! There must be more to the countdown than the few races included currently at the end.

 

[none]

Jay, with Winston now out of NASCAR is there any way they could pick the NHRA back up when the deal with Powerade is done? If I remember correctly didn't they have to drop NHRA because legally they could only sponsor one series? The reason I ask is because it seemed like Winston was more racer friendly in that they started paying the weekly top 10 bonus and improved purses. I also wonder if we would have been subjected to the beloved Countdown because NASCAR did not start their chase until Nextel took over.

 

[megadeth]

I'm for it!
It seems everybody is making money except the competitors NHRA needs a serious shake-up anyway!
This might not be good for NHRA Drag Racing but one thing is for sure it can't stay in it's current state.
All this countdown crap did is magnified the problems that exisited, stealing potential sponsors, costs sky rocketing, money getting tighter not to mention the US dollar is at a all time low so it's worth less.
Trickle down econmic's 101 at it's best! It's going to get worse before it gets any better.
The competitors need to take a stand, it's about time if you ask me!
Mercedes dropping Chrysler will probably effect sponsorship money down the line if it hasn't already.....

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

Forgive my ignorance about the inner-workings of the NHRA but aren't they supposed to be evolving, progressing, improving, and enhancing everyone's racing experience across the board for competitor and fan alike? Why does every bit of news seem to lead to the fact that the sky is still falling in one way or another. Should we really need to have a boycott by those who put on the show as a result of the sanctioning body (who is nothing without the racers) continually moving back-wards? One quality of great leadership is being able to create added value across the board-in this case that includes racers and fans alike. From all I continue to hear the fans are getting less, but being charged more and now the stars of the show are up in arms due to misappropriation of precious TV time and exposure for their life-blood, the sponsors besides being grossly under compensated for their performances. Is there no one at the top who can see the importance of a course correction?

I may be the only one who believes this way but I sure hope HD Partners or someone with a real interest takes over and cleans the executive slate then shows us all what real leadership can do to improve all areas of this sanctioning body.

I'm really anxious to hear some great news in lieu of what has been pouring in as a result of the current regime.

 

[Toejam]

I wonder how long before Evan gets a phone call from Glendora?

 

[Bob K.]

I ran Pinks all out here in Las Vegas. It cost $40.00 for all three days. It was hot as hell but I was lucky enough to make the TV sixteen with my 64 Thunderbolt. Yeah, I lost first round but it was a cool experience! The only time I have ever seen that many spectators was during an NHRA national event! Bob

 

[Jay]

Jay, with Winston now out of NASCAR is there any way they could pick the NHRA back up when the deal with Powerade is done? If I remember correctly didn't they have to drop NHRA because legally they could only sponsor one series? The reason I ask is because it seemed like Winston was more racer friendly in that they started paying the weekly top 10 bonus and improved purses. I also wonder if we would have been subjected to the beloved Countdown because NASCAR did not start their chase until Nextel took over.

Technically, yes...But they wouldn't do it at this point IMHO...Plus, POWERade is signed through 2009 I believe...

 

[ROCKY]

I was thinking cigarette companies could no longer advertise,sponsor races,cars or drivers?

 

[Smiley]

I was thinking cigarette companies could no longer advertise,sponsor races,cars or drivers?

I believe it's all in the presentation..

US Smokeless can sponsor a car, but "Skoal" cannot.

 

[Bullet]

I am almost positive that the PINKS shows at Milan and Bristol, both drew the most spectators that either track had ever had for a single day. I think Dallas may have also but am not so sure on that one.

I was at Dallas for PINKS and there were empty seats everywhere. The fall race had WAY more people at it than PINKS and PINKS were handing out tickets everywhere at the fall NHRA race.

PINKS is bearable on TV, it sucks in person.