Whats the difference? (1 Viewer)

[yoda]

Westminister Kennel Club just left New York after a week's worth of international press coverage.

A bunch of wealthy people (some a little more, some a little less) competiting a fairly valuable possession.

A possession that many people in the world have, albiet most wouldn't spend the kind of money it takes to maintain that possession in preparation for competition. Common people are spectators that enjoy the competition, and pay healthy ticket prices to watch hours of the event.

A lot of people in the world are more interested in another species entirely (that is also run in competition), yet still there has been national news coverage for at least a week straight.

Seven major classes, with up to 24 catagories per class were run in competiton, with some differences between catagories being so minute that only the well trained eye could tell the difference.

People transported their valuable possessions from all over the planet in custom transporters, stayed in hotels and generally added to the economy of the city.



Hmmmm.....

The similarities are fairly equal, yet when we get to our "Westminister"- The U.S. Nationals- gets a small percentage of the press coverage, especially for the final day and the awarding of Best In Show/ Top Eliminator. The fact that a pup that came out of retirement at doggie age 70 to sweep the field would be equivilant to Connie jumping back in the seat and kicking Morgan's butt.

Dogs have been around since, well, forever, yet didn't start competiting in an organized manner until 135 years ago. Cars are about 125 years old and have been competiting in an organized manner for 60 of those years (in regards to hot rods). Yet the level of marketing of the main event has light years of difference in the way its sold to the media.

Maybe we should look at the marketing firm that's handling the dog show....

 

[Tim5636sc]

NOW THAT...IS WHY I WANT TO PARTY WITH MARTIN THOMAS! Awesome dude!
Good points though.

 

[tomslik]

are you saying we should go "doggy style"?

 

[I was NITRO BREATH]

martin---why doesn't nhra get more coverage??? a question that i do think about sometimes. I appreciate your comparison to the dogshow and i do believe if the englishtown race was held in madison square garden [in the heart of nyc] it would get as much or more press than westminister. that may be the simple answer to the question. but staying in nyc where the most powerful far reaching media in the world is located, why hasn't nhra gotten itself into an article in the ny times when it comes to englishtown?? [which is only a 40 min drive from times square] I dunno . we should ask them. or some coverage on ny1 our local 24 hr news station which is always looking for events in the area to cover.
Well all good questions ,but in the end maybe there is just a finite group of people who will ever love the sport of drag racing. maybe the hordes of fans that attend the NFL,NBA, NASCAR, etc will never "get it". And to that i say lets keep it that way

 

[Toby]

Maybe that is just a true indicator of how popular drag racing is too the real world. Its real easy to think in our little fishbowl called NHRA that we think the world should be watching. But in actuality, very few really give a ****.

martin---why doesn't nhra get more coverage??? a question that i do think about sometimes. I appreciate your comparison to the dogshow and i do believe if the englishtown race was held in madison square garden [in the heart of nyc] it would get as much or more press than westminister. that may be the simple answer to the question. but staying in nyc where the most powerful far reaching media in the world is located, why hasn't nhra gotten itself into an article in the ny times when it comes to englishtown?? [which is only a 40 min drive from times square] I dunno . we should ask them. or some coverage on ny1 our local 24 hr news station which is always looking for events in the area to cover.
Well all good questions ,but in the end maybe there is just a finite group of people who will ever love the sport of drag racing. maybe the hordes of fans that attend the NFL,NBA, NASCAR, etc will never "get it". And to that i say lets keep it that way

 

[d'kid]

Maybe that is just a true indicator of how popular drag racing is too the real world. Its real easy to think in our little fishbowl called NHRA that we think the world should be watching. But in actuality, very few really give a ****.

Watch the 'House' episode last night with k'dubs that had the 4.5 second 330mph injected piperack in it... all piperacks look the same to JQ Public... or Hollywood, or the news.

I really think Toby hit it on the head. What I get from 99% of the people I've taken to the track, or talked to about it at work, it's over too quick, it's too loud, and stinks to high heaven.

d'kid

 

[megadeth]

Westminister Kennel Club just left New York after a week's worth of international press coverage.

A bunch of wealthy people (some a little more, some a little less) competiting a fairly valuable possession.

A possession that many people in the world have, albiet most wouldn't spend the kind of money it takes to maintain that possession in preparation for competition. Common people are spectators that enjoy the competition, and pay healthy ticket prices to watch hours of the event.

A lot of people in the world are more interested in another species entirely (that is also run in competition), yet still there has been national news coverage for at least a week straight.

Seven major classes, with up to 24 catagories per class were run in competiton, with some differences between catagories being so minute that only the well trained eye could tell the difference.

People transported their valuable possessions from all over the planet in custom transporters, stayed in hotels and generally added to the economy of the city.



Hmmmm.....

The similarities are fairly equal, yet when we get to our "Westminister"- The U.S. Nationals- gets a small percentage of the press coverage, especially for the final day and the awarding of Best In Show/ Top Eliminator. The fact that a pup that came out of retirement at doggie age 70 to sweep the field would be equivilant to Connie jumping back in the seat and kicking Morgan's butt.

Dogs have been around since, well, forever, yet didn't start competiting in an organized manner until 135 years ago. Cars are about 125 years old and have been competiting in an organized manner for 60 of those years (in regards to hot rods). Yet the level of marketing of the main event has light years of difference in the way its sold to the media.

Maybe we should look at the marketing firm that's handling the dog show....

Simple Dogs are universal to people Drag Racing isn't and will never be able to compete with man's best friend.
Two totally different ends of the spectrum to try and justify or compare in my view.
Dogs beileve it or not are a billion dollar business. Hey they threw a little Jim Dunn's way.

 

[BrettV]

Dogs beileve it or not are a billion dollar business. Hey they threw a little Jim Dunn's way.

Maybe next year they can have Jim Dunn's car at the dog show!

 

[yoda]

Maybe next year they can have Jim Dunn's car at the dog show!

And this is a bad thing why???

And for those of you defending the concept of the pups show being more socially acceptable, tell me this- what makes watching a pooch that is pampered, coffed and spoiled to the point of making me want to puke so much better to the general public than our little pastime? Does Joe Couchpotato relate better to a dog with papers and an obsessive owner than they do to ANY aspect of our sport? If that kind of media blitz continues to get annual attention, how come it wouldn't be acceptable for drag racing to take its shot to draw in another 2-3% more fans?

I'm a big believer that we can do without the whole "NASCAR mom" phenonenon, where their huge influx of fans only came in because the car was painted a pretty shade or the driver was "2 kewl and a cutie" , but that shouldn't stop us from exposing the sport to a wider audience.

My point with the original post is that there is a media out there that is ALWAYS looking for another great story, and our sport is full of them. For the 3 minutes per segment that the dog show recieved for EACH broadcast mention (on average), why is it so beyond the concept of everyone that our "Westminister"- INDY- couldn't draw that same kind of media attention? NOT to increase our fan base (although that may be a result), but to just put ourselves in the news for what is something that happens to actually BE NEWSWORTHY...
... you know, like Jessica's weight or some woman having a litter...

 

[yoda]

....Maybe we should look at the marketing firm that's handling the dog show....

.............

 

[DrRocket]

..........What I get from 99% of the people I've taken to the track, or talked to about it at work, it's over too quick, it's too loud, and stinks to high heaven.

d'kid

But, but,............

Those are some of my favorite parts...........

 

[BrettV]

And this is a bad thing why???

I didn't say it was a bad thing. Not at all.

 

[megadeth]

And this is a bad thing why???

And for those of you defending the concept of the pups show being more socially acceptable, tell me this- what makes watching a pooch that is pampered, coffed and spoiled to the point of making me want to puke so much better to the general public than our little pastime? Does Joe Couchpotato relate better to a dog with papers and an obsessive owner than they do to ANY aspect of our sport? If that kind of media blitz continues to get annual attention, how come it wouldn't be acceptable for drag racing to take its shot to draw in another 2-3% more fans?

I'm a big believer that we can do without the whole "NASCAR mom" phenonenon, where their huge influx of fans only came in because the car was painted a pretty shade or the driver was "2 kewl and a cutie" , but that shouldn't stop us from exposing the sport to a wider audience.

My point with the original post is that there is a media out there that is ALWAYS looking for another great story, and our sport is full of them. For the 3 minutes per segment that the dog show recieved for EACH broadcast mention (on average), why is it so beyond the concept of everyone that our "Westminister"- INDY- couldn't draw that same kind of media attention? NOT to increase our fan base (although that may be a result), but to just put ourselves in the news for what is something that happens to actually BE NEWSWORTHY...
... you know, like Jessica's weight or some woman having a litter...

Never said it was more acceptable (although it is) just pointing out that more people can asscociate with dogs than Drag Racing which is pretty obvious.
Brett makes a good point that would expose the sport to people who normally wouldn't have any idea. That's how a sport grows expanding it to people who normally could give two $hits less about it!

 

[Toby]

Unfortunately televised drag racing is about as exciting to watch as a dog show to the 'unexposed'

 

[none]

So many points..
Start up Jim 's car at Westminster- See all the dogs go nuts!!!!
The smell- nitro is great.
I was watching the show- Westminster, and they talked about the money to have a grand champion. It's just another person's addictive substance.

Lee
Nitroclovers

 

[none]

So many points..
Start up Jim 's car at Westminster- See all the dogs go nuts!!!!
The smell- nitro is great.

Lee
Nitroclovers

Now if you did it inside, I would tune in to see all the blue hairs eyes watering & noses running,gasping for breath

 

[none]

Ah the images!!!
And the dogs going nuts.
Lee
Nitroclovers

 

[d'kid]

But, but,............

Those are some of my favorite parts...........

Mine Too....

to show on TV complete runs, fire up to turn off T/f and Flopper 24+12+6+3 minutes each class

P/S 16+8+4+2 without burn downs...

do fluff and top end interviews in an embedded window in the upper left or right corner...

that would be great tv coverage... hour and a half fuel, 1/2 hour P/S, 30 minutes of commercials, and heck... 30 minutes of JFR Today or PSB if they are running

d'kid