Why I saw no Drag Racing on 4/14/07 (2 Viewers)

[PJ]

Only 5 bucks! Cool!

Parking in downtown Chicago, $20 minimum

Weekend parking at O'Hare economy lot, $52 minimum per race weekend.

Parking at Indy $20.00 per day.

Parking at Pomona per day $25.00

Parking for a Divisional..$5...piece of cake.

20 for Indy!!!! Your parking in the wrong place then

 

[Toejam]

When Roger Penske was in the race track business he never charged for parking at any of his tracks. His feeling was that if you dont get them into your parking lot how are you ever going to get them into your race track.

When John Bandimere DOUBLED his Parking fee's to $10 per day around 98-99? I wrote him a letter telling him how disapointed I was about it. So, I ran into his daughter Tammy at the Motorplex of all places, and I voiced my dissapointment with her Father over his doubling the Parking fees in just one year. She asked what I payed to park at the track there(Dallas) I told her Nothing! I even said Topeka, Houston and Gainesville don't charge anything either. She had a stoned look on her face after that, guess she didn't know that! Ever since Denver dumped the Alky cars I quit going anyway, plus sitting in 100 degree bleachers gets pretty old!

 

[Tony]

Here's my 2 cents,

I don't really know what the ticket prices are but did they go up as well? I feel charging for parking for any thing other than a parking lot is totally uncalled for. It is like going in to a Pizza place and buying a pizza and they they tell you, " oh, by the way, the box is going to cost an extra $2.00. When you attend an event of any kind and have to pay for parking, all it boils down to, someone is trying to fill their pockets with extra cash because it is only a cash deal and cash is always nice to have around. It also seperates the track or facility from the people who set the price of the tickets for that particular event. What I also think it means is while they are going to charge X amount of dollars for the show and the track is aggrivated they aren't getting a big enough cut so they gouge us for parking. I feel it should be a one shot price to get in and that is it. My hats is off to those to who turned around, with out people like that, it just gets worse and worse. Lets not even get into the whole captive audience, we are going to rape you for $4.50 for a 10 cent soda and you can't go down the street and shop for it cheaper because they got you and you can't leave to find someone who won't rob you blind.


Thanks,

Tony

 

[Stroker]

Here's my 2 cents,

I don't really know what the ticket prices are but did they go up as well? I feel charging for parking for any thing other than a parking lot is totally uncalled for. It is like going in to a Pizza place and buying a pizza and they they tell you, " oh, by the way, the box is going to cost an extra $2.00. When you attend an event of any kind and have to pay for parking, all it boils down to, someone is trying to fill their pockets with extra cash because it is only a cash deal and cash is always nice to have around. It also seperates the track or facility from the people who set the price of the tickets for that particular event. What I also think it means is while they are going to charge X amount of dollars for the show and the track is aggrivated they aren't getting a big enough cut so they gouge us for parking. I feel it should be a one shot price to get in and that is it. My hats is off to those to who turned around, with out people like that, it just gets worse and worse. Lets not even get into the whole captive audience, we are going to rape you for $4.50 for a 10 cent soda and you can't go down the street and shop for it cheaper because they got you and you can't leave to find someone who won't rob you blind.


Thanks,

Tony

Well said Tony, I feel the same about venues that do this sort of thing.

 

[none]

Here's my 2 cents,

I don't really know what the ticket prices are but did they go up as well? I feel charging for parking for any thing other than a parking lot is totally uncalled for. It is like going in to a Pizza place and buying a pizza and they they tell you, " oh, by the way, the box is going to cost an extra $2.00. When you attend an event of any kind and have to pay for parking, all it boils down to, someone is trying to fill their pockets with extra cash because it is only a cash deal and cash is always nice to have around. It also seperates the track or facility from the people who set the price of the tickets for that particular event. What I also think it means is while they are going to charge X amount of dollars for the show and the track is aggrivated they aren't getting a big enough cut so they gouge us for parking. I feel it should be a one shot price to get in and that is it. My hats is off to those to who turned around, with out people like that, it just gets worse and worse. Lets not even get into the whole captive audience, we are going to rape you for $4.50 for a 10 cent soda and you can't go down the street and shop for it cheaper because they got you and you can't leave to find someone who won't rob you blind.


Thanks,

Tony

This about sums it up for me, Thanks Tony.

 

[Bob]

Here's my 2 cents,

I don't really know what the ticket prices are but did they go up as well? I feel charging for parking for any thing other than a parking lot is totally uncalled for. It is like going in to a Pizza place and buying a pizza and they they tell you, " oh, by the way, the box is going to cost an extra $2.00. When you attend an event of any kind and have to pay for parking, all it boils down to, someone is trying to fill their pockets with extra cash because it is only a cash deal and cash is always nice to have around. It also seperates the track or facility from the people who set the price of the tickets for that particular event. What I also think it means is while they are going to charge X amount of dollars for the show and the track is aggrivated they aren't getting a big enough cut so they gouge us for parking. I feel it should be a one shot price to get in and that is it. My hats is off to those to who turned around, with out people like that, it just gets worse and worse. Lets not even get into the whole captive audience, we are going to rape you for $4.50 for a 10 cent soda and you can't go down the street and shop for it cheaper because they got you and you can't leave to find someone who won't rob you blind.


Thanks,

Tony

Hi Tony,

I agree with some of your points and disagree with some.

National event ticket prices aren't set by the sanctioning body, otherwise, they'd all be the same. Different track owners set different ticket prices. Using your pizza box comparison, they could include parking into the ticket prices, but that would penalize the people who load six people into a car to go to the race. That car takes up just as much parking space as a car that only has one fan in it.

Track owners have to have the land available to park thousands of cars. There aren't many venues where that property can be used for something else during the other 51 weeks a year that they are paying property taxes on it. Depending on the tack, some of that land is assessed at a very high value.

One track owner tried to charge a parking fee based on the number of people in the car (I guess he thought he was operating a drive-in movie theater instead of a drag strip). People turned around and left. That was a very foolish move on the part of the track owner, and the policy only lasted a few hours.

The prices of concessions at some tracks are ridiculous, but at a few, they are almost reasonable. This is another matter that mostly rests in the laps of the track owners. The fees they charge vendors to do business during an event can vary wildly. I know of one that charges (or at least did in the recent past) $1500 for a vending space, plus 30% of each vendor's gross sales. Local tax authorities get another piece of each sale, so the guy selling a brat and a coke for $10 is only trying to make a profit after paying his overhead, and all of the other fees imposed by the track and the city/county/state revenue departments.

Off the subject, your mom used to be a regular participant on the old Prodigy racing message board. That was quite a while back, maybe 13 or 14 years ago. I hope Rose is still with us and in good health.

Take good care,

Bob

 

[T.Smith]

National event ticket prices aren't set by the sanctioning body, otherwise, they'd all be the same. Different track owners set different ticket prices.

Is there a loaded revolver pointed at their heads when they set those ticket prices?

 

[Bob]

Is there a loaded revolver pointed at their heads when they set those ticket prices?

.....you might want to ask the owner of Firebird why his tickets cost so much more than (just for an example) Houston. I doubt there are firearms involved, but I could be wrong...

 

[Nitrohaulic]

I did just think of another possible angle to this that could defend the tracks. Don't tracks and NHRA split the gate/ticket prices? Everything goes up over time due to inflation if the economy's working right. You can't get a Coke for a dime anymore.

What if a track needs to make another $5 off of each customer to maintain it's previous profit margin due to it's costs going up? What if, in order to get that $5 via ticket prices, it has to raise them by $10 in order to have it after splitting? If I knew my choices were to pay $5 for parking or an extra $10 for tickets, all of a sudden paid parking is a good thing!

Like many of you, the "nickle and dime" aspect gets an emotional response when I think that's what a company's doing to me. IF I knew the above were the case, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Maybe a track can't exactly explain it that way and maintain good relations with NHRA. I think we might be conditioned from past experience with other businesses so that the first thought is some evil bast*rd trying to shake us down!

You know? This thinking could also defend the tracks for their high concession prices. Same thing. What if a track charged $2 for a Coke instead of $4? What if, in order to recover that $2, they had to raise ticket prices by $4 in order to have it after a split. You're then effectively paying $6 for the Coke so NHRA can get $2 of it. All of a sudden $4 Cokes aren't so bad (especially when I don't buy them, anyways. They can make them $20 for all I care!).

Maybe a track needs more than 50% of the gate in order to build, operate, and maintain a multi-million dollar facility and make a reasonable profit that's in line with it's investment.