Motorsports

Build it bigger and better and they will come

One of racing's greatest challenges is treating all of its new fans well enough to keep them coming back.

By BRANT JAMES
Published May 25, 2006

CONCORD, N.C. - Standing in the middle of the Lowe's Motor Speedway tri-oval, one leg further up the rough asphalt banking for balance, H.A. Wheeler sweeps his sport-coated arm over his realm.

Perhaps in a bit of self-congratulation for the construction going on behind him, Speedway Motorsports' president declares that one of racing's greatest challenges is treating all of its new fans well enough to keep them coming back.

Better racing. Better seats. Better everything.

Television revenue is one thing, but souvenir-and-ticket-buying fans in the stands are everything to men like Wheeler and his counterparts at rival promoter International Speedway Corp., and the handful of smaller track operators that host Nextel Cup events. Wheeler estimated SMI would budget as much as $240-million for track improvements over the next three years, as much as $180-million at LMS.

"When this sport really took off is when we began to have facilities similar to what the NFL had, and for the most part, we've had to do it with our own money and that's why it's been slow," Wheeler said. "But we have a lot of aging facilities in NASCAR, not just this one. I never thought I would be old enough to see concrete wear out, but I have, and even that has to be replaced."

SMI opened a track in Fort Worth, Texas, and refurbished its Las Vegas venue in the last decade, while ISC ventured to Fontana, Calif., Joliet, Ill., and Kansas City, Kan. - with the help of massive local tax concessions - and hopes to penetrate New York City and Seattle in the future. Challenges remain even with investment. SMI's Atlanta, Charlotte and Dallas-Fort Worth venues have not routinely sold out in recent years despite their amenities, and the 82,000-seat Kansas City track does not have a waiting list for the first time since it opened in 2001.

Still, ISC president and spearhead of the Kansas City project Lesa France Kennedy believes her track's amenities will keep the place packed.

"I'm very pleased about the repeat customers," she told the Kansas City Star. "It was designed that way."

ISC- or SMI-owned tracks in large markets have an advantage. The real crunch comes for the independent families such as the Mattiolis (Pocono) and Bahres (New Hampshire) and even Dover (Del.) Motorsports, which has managed to hold on to two Nextel Cup events with its choice location between the more than 10-million potential ticket buyers in New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

"The expectation of the fan today is a lot higher because, you think about it, we're selling entertainment," Darlington Raceway president Chris Browning said. "Movie theaters are selling entertainment. Today's movie theaters are a whole lot different than they were 15 years ago."

Professor Jon Ackley, a race fan who teaches a course on NASCAR at Virginia Commonwealth University, said patrons expect more in exchange for high ticket prices and traffic jams than "watching cars go around the track."

"One year (in the 1990s) me and my wife went to the night race at Richmond - it was after a considerable expansion - and my wife ran into (late former owner) Paul Sawyer and he said something to the effect of "How do you like our new facilities?' and she said, "What new facilities?' " Ackley recalled. "He told her about all the new women's restrooms they put in, and she asked, "Yeah, but how much did you increase the seating capacity by?'

"Nowadays, I think there is some attention being paid to that. The last time I went to Martinsville there was a long, long wait to go to the bathroom. There has to be some improvements. You just can't add seats."

About 100 miles southeast of Charlotte, in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina, Browning is juggling that reality. He sees himself as curator of a Wrigley Field or Fenway Park, and now that Darlington's place on the schedule seems secure after selling out the spring race in a record pace despite adding capacity, he is emboldened to seek more ISC money for grandstands. But there are some flourishes he covets from ISC's grandest revitalization project at Daytona International Speedway in 2005.

"We want to improve the infield," he said, "and I'd love to create a garage area like Daytona's done, where the fans can actually see what's going on with the cars and interact in a way, at least visually, with the teams, and get closer that way. We are going to have to build more seats as we go along, but obviously, we have to do that in a smart way. We've got to build the place and improve it, and make sure we address what our fans want, but we still can't lose track that this is Darlington, and we don't want to screw up what Darlington is all about, which is the race track and the racing it creates."

That's a sensitive topic around Concord right now. The race last fall was marred by a spate of blown tires after the surface was ground to create more grip, and a repaved surface proved slippery during the all-star race last weekend.

Keeping the customers happy is no simple task.

[Last modified May 25, 2006, 00:55:15]