Entry Fee's

[TUTY]

What does it cost to enter the big Late Model races? Cedar Lake Modified Masters was $400 if pre-registered by March 31st., now its $500. Seems crazy ?

[Hoosier]

Vote with your dollars - don't enter high priced shows.

[Forward Bite]

500 Dollars is not a bad deal for a chance to win 50000 dollars.

[jensenracing18]

The Dream pre entry was $150(included pit pass) after the cutoff it went to $200+pit pass

[vande077]

IMO, depends on what the teams get for their $$$. If it's just entry fee and they still pay full price for pit passes, it's a scam on the promotor's part.

If their entry fee gets them discounted or free pit passes, it may actually save the teams money.

I can only use my local track as an example, but the Entry Fee for the Late Model Nationals @ Knoxville is $100 and after Sept 1st is $150.

If you enter before September 1st, you get up to (6) people in the pits every night for $30 each (regular price and late entry price is $40 each). So, by giving the track $100, they can advertise your attendance, and you can actually save up to $180 on pit passes, so you actually spend $230 less if you pre-enter rather than show up and enter the day of the race. ($100 Entry Fee and $540 in pit passes). If you don't pre-enter or enter after the deadline it costs you tons more ($150 entry fee and $720 in pit passes).

Seems like a no-brainer to pre-enter an event where you actually get something in return.

Pre-Entry also allows the tracks to advertise to YOUR FANS. People complain that the purses aren't better everywhere, yet teams won't pre-enter events and wonder why the stands aren't packed and purses aren't increasing.

Pre-Enter, get the tracks to advertise to your fanbase, and all of a sudden the tracks are selling more tickets which allows them to raise purses, it's a win/win/win for fans/teams/tracks. But racers have had the attitude for years that the tracks are out to get them, so most drivers/teams don't ever pre-enter.

I've seen more social media this season from local drivers supporting our local track and encouraging their fanbase to get out of the house and to the races. Guess what, crowds are up, purse increased for the teams and even the weekly racing has a buzz to it like never before.

Teams, drivers and tracks need to work together to make racing grow. If they don't it will remain stagnant.

Last night Eagle, NE had the WoO Sprint Car Series there. Kyle Larson decided to run (unpaid appearance, he just likes to race sprint cars) and put it out there himself on social media and alerted the track so they could too.

It was great for the track, other teams to race in front of maybe some NASCAR fans that don't watch anything else, Kyle (to continue to build his grassroots fanbase), NASCAR (one of their guys going to a local dirt track put on a show and WON in a car he has never sat in before), and dirt racing in general. It takes everyone working together to make it work.

[TUTY]

Agree, and there is no discount on Pit Passes with the entry fee paid ahead of time at the Masters. Wonder how they come up with a $400 or $500 Entry Fee and $35 or $40 Pit Passes per night for 3 nights. Seems a Promoter trying to make a money grab. Yes $147,000 A-Main purse is a lot and gutsy but 1/4 of this will be paid from Entry fee's and another 1/4 from pit passes. 65 pre registered cars would be 100+ if Entry Fee was $200 or $250.

[B_K]

Agree, and there is no discount on Pit Passes with the entry fee paid ahead of time at the Masters. Wonder how they come up with a $400 or $500 Entry Fee and $35 or $40 Pit Passes per night for 3 nights. Seems a Promoter trying to make a money grab. Yes $147,000 A-Main purse is a lot and gutsy but 1/4 of this will be paid from Entry fee's and another 1/4 from pit passes. 65 pre registered cars would be 100+ if Entry Fee was $200 or $250.

Just speculating, but you could have just answered your own question.

65 pre registered at $400 is $26,000. 100 @ $250 is $25,000. Now he will lose the additional pit pass money, but that may have been his way of politely limiting the number of cars without putting a hard cap of 66 like Knoxville did in the beginning. Less "fringe" cars will be willing to pay the $400 so you get guys who feel like they have a legit shot of at least making the show. That in turn would lead to a better quality and more manageable show for the staff and fans.

[Krooser]

If you think the promoter's are getting rich it's time for you to get into the business... the $$$ always looks better on the outside.

[vande077]

If you think the promoter's are getting rich it's time for you to get into the business... the $$$ always looks better on the outside.

I don't think the promotors are getting rich, but there has to be something in it for the teams. Tracks are still charging every single person admission with pit passes. Other than the loss at the back gate, what's it hurt to give the teams that pre-enter a better deal on pit passes?

If tracks are relying on the back gate to pay the purse they need to re-evaluate their business model. Most tracks in IA that are doing it that way have slowly but surely gone out of business. Track owners / promotors that concentrate on the front gate are in much better position financially. (you can actually attract sponsors when you fans in the stands).

[huskerdirt]

Isn't this a USMTS show? If so, usually the sanction gets the entry fee or at least most of it.

Farley did the exact same thing for its 50,000. Only it was unsanctioned. So they track got all the entry fee money. People wondered why some locals guy didn't go, the entry fee was the answer. If the goal was to weed out some back markers. Charging 400 bucks an entry will do that.

[TUTY]

Thursday is USMTS but Friday and Saturday not. But could still be USRA but not USRA points. They could be splitting the loss or gain?

[CIRF]

It's been more than a decade since I've been involved in racing beyond watching from the grandstands so I don't know what the trend has been in recent years regarding participant entry fees. However, $400 seems a bit steep even for this day and age but if charging that amount is a means to an end for the track then it must be a sound policy.

The back gate vs. front gate conversation has always been interesting to me. I can count at least a dozen friends and acquaintances who are strictly spectators that will take a pass on a show that contains more than a certain number of support classes.

I've also seen many fans on other message boards that feel the same way. It seems that there is a point of diminishing returns.

Macon is a good example. I have a hard time finding anyone who is willing to make the 2 hour drive to Mighty Macon because almost every race we're interested in attending there will sometimes have as high as 5 support classes. The management must be confident that entry fees and pit passes make up the difference for the number of front gate customers who don't attend for that very reason.

It would be interesting to know what the break even point is. As successful as Macon is, and has been, someone surely knows.

[BloomerHarvickFan]

I despise Support Classes at big races. If you must run other classes, I like places that run Limited LM, Crate LM, or some other kind of Late Model class, or put a very strict time limit on the Support Classes.
The worst thing is to be up to the support race right before the A main, and it have 5 cautions in a 20 lap race with 6 cars!!

[KAOS]

Everyone from 16th in the C main on up wins their entry money back

[Bubstr]

There seems to be something wrong wit the racers putting on the show and have to pay for it too.

[dirtcrazy4u]

Earl charged 85.00 at the grandstand gate for the million dollar race. I'm not sure how much to enter a car in the race. Only reason I example earl's race was because at say 10,000 people that comes out to 850,000.00 so add that to the pit gate fee's and i'D say he may have broke even. So the high amount they are charging sounds like they don't want to take any chances.

[MI Dirt Fan]

I despise Support Classes at big races.

Give me something else to watch to make sure I get my $30+ entertainment worth.

[Mud Packer]

Earl charged 85.00 at the grandstand gate for the million dollar race. I'm not sure how much to enter a car in the race. Only reason I example earl's race was because at say 10,000 people that comes out to 850,000.00 so add that to the pit gate fee's and i'D say he may have broke even. So the high amount they are charging sounds like they don't want to take any chances.

A couple of points about your post. First of all Earl didn't have a big time sponsor to help offset some of the purse. So I'm sure that it was a entry fee just to help offset that big of a purse. Also, they had more than 10,000 people in attendance for that race.

The race was originally scheduled for October but due to cold and rainy weather it was postponed until the following June in place of the Dream.

A few years later he ran a traditional sprint car race with a million dollar purse. For that particular race he had a big time sponsor to help out.

[RapidRuss]

J W Hunt left a large sum of money in a trust for Eldora Speedway. Earl paid the Dream winners check with the interest off this fund every year. Earl also paid the Million out of this fund. I have no knowledge of Tony inherited this fund when he bought the track.

[dirtcrazy4u]

Yea I just used the 10,000 as a number nothing more. Donnie Moran was a happy man.

[Matt49]

I look at entry fees like a cover charge at a bar. It keeps the riff raff out. Meaning that if you're pissing and moaning about a $100 entry fee for a $50K race, you are probably going to be in the way all night and causing a lot of the cautions that so many complain about. People go on and on about car counts but quality of the field will always produce better racing than quantity.
I'm not saying, "shut out the little man," but what business does a guy scraping change for $100 have at a crown jewel event?
The bar I used to hang out at had $1.50 domestic beer and I was in or nearly in a fight there about once a month due (mostly) to the clientele. Got married...settled down a little...the bar that my wife and I now go to from time to time charges $3.00 for domestic bottles. I've never had a problem there. I hope I've made my point.

[BloomerHarvickFan]

Give me something else to watch to make sure I get my $30+ entertainment worth.

I understand that point, but it always seems that most of the time, at least to races that I've been to, the Support Classes have held the show up more than just give us some entertainment in breaks between SLM action.
That's why I like it when tracks run their local LM class as support. Good racing, and typically less cautions and wasted time.

[zeroracing]

Typical late model show from MLRA regional to Lucas Oil is $100-$150, and most all the time they pay at least that to start the b main. The reason behind the high entry feee for the kids is to pay the purse with it. A local track used to have a big b mod show, the way he claimed to have set up the entry fee it covered most all the purse, add in average of 3 pit passes per car and he made money or broke even without opening the front gate.

I am very thankful that our late model entry fees are reasonable and payback is the same, my wife for example shows horses, the big money events have entry fees in the thousands.