How do we get fan base back?

[gman17]

I often attend farmer city raceway as many of you know i grew up there. I always remeber as a kid if you werent there before 5:30 or 6 u were sol for a seat. I have seen and heard as of late our car counts are strong but crowd attendance is awful. I love that place i wanna help as fan and future driver what and how can i help get crowd back? I used to hear annoncer (mike norris) say bring a friend to races and i always try to get new people to go. I have got my kids into it. I often wonder at times does it have to do with the town not supporting the place? I wanna see this place a go i spent better part of my child hood here on friday nights. I am not saying there gonna close just writing and sorry i know its a bit much. I would love to hear some opinions and some positive comments leave the negatives out please.

[old fan]

No its a industry issue both dirt and ashalt

[noballsnobabies]

The real problem with racing attendance is sports.. When a child turns 2 they stick a bat in their hand and it doesn't stop til they are 22. When we were growing up starting in 8th grade you had the option of football in the fall and basketball in the winter. Now it's something year round 5-7 days a week, up to 3 sports at a time. It's the perfect racket because every parent, grandparent, ant, uncle and cousin feel they must attend every game. Then if they do get a rare Saturday night without a game they are too tired and broke to go to the races. I will never encourage my child to play sports, so far so good.

[chupp n bloomer fan]

Another poster and I say the same thing on this topic, as do others I'm sure. Does sports play into it, probably, my older daughter is getting into gymnastics pretty serious.

But to me, it's the fact people work a lot, and there's other stuff to do that requires less effort. Most of the time, I just wanna piddly around the house and make it look nicer. Not sitting at a track thinking about all the sh!t that needs done. If the race is awesome, then that's null and void. But anymore, a lot of the racing is kinda blah.

Do I still enjoy racing, yes, but there's only so much time and my priorities are different than when I was twenty.

So I hit 2-4 races a year. One always being the World 100, and at least one at Atomic. Then hopefully watching my brother at least once up at Sharon. Just my opinion.

[kidrock]

This is a discussion that happens every year now but, gman17 Farmer City is not alone. I'm guessing many factors come into play. Economy, the drivers or owners of race cars don't have the money like they used to have, the promoters don't have the extra money for promoting like they used too, kids into year round sports, your top notch late model drivers running the touring series, like I have said in the past could you imagine guys like Sheppard, Babb, Feger, Pierce, Erb, Shirly, Heckenast running at your local tracks on a weekly basis around here in central il I would have to think you would see more fans so, I'm not sure your going to get them back unless some of these things change

[TheJet-09]

I'd probably look at two areas, the first being the fan base itself. Most likely each and every one of us can point back to our first exposure to racing, be it attending a race as a child for a friends birthday party, or having a father/elder family member who was involved somehow, or maybe even a neighbor who owned a racecar and we hung around their garage as kids. The fact nowadays is with fewer racers, there's a trickle down effect (so to speak) yielding fewer "friends" of racers.

Secondly, I'd look at the product itself. Even when I started racing in the late 80's, there was always something else to look forward to at the races than just the races. Be it a penny or gum race for kids, or a demo derby after, or even a stunt guy trying his best to blow himself up at intermission. Nowadays it seems there's just not as much "entertainment value" in going to the races.

It also used to be you had to go to the races to see the races! With the internet, videos, websites, PPV, message boards, etc., the allure to go in person is maybe not always there. I remember having to wait for the weekly racing newspaper to see who won last weeks show at any track I wasn't at in person. Now you just check the internet.

[onlyfacts]

I often attend farmer city raceway as many of you know i grew up there. I always remeber as a kid if you werent there before 5:30 or 6 u were sol for a seat. I have seen and heard as of late our car counts are strong but crowd attendance is awful. I love that place i wanna help as fan and future driver what and how can i help get crowd back? I used to hear annoncer (mike norris) say bring a friend to races and i always try to get new people to go. I have got my kids into it. I often wonder at times does it have to do with the town not supporting the place? I wanna see this place a go i spent better part of my child hood here on friday nights. I am not saying there gonna close just writing and sorry i know its a bit much. I would love to hear some opinions and some positive comments leave the negatives out please.

The biggest reason we have lost fans and fans lust for the sport of auto racing is because of social media and sites like 4m, DOD and ect. It now too easy to stay at home watch the results in real time and not have to drive an hour, two or three to watch a race to know what happened. I can remember before cell phones and Internet if you wanted to know you had to go or you wait till your friends came back from race or you waited for the racing news paper to come the following week. It was a desire you developed for the love of the sport... It was like you didn't know what was going on at every race in the country but you knew what was going on at the race you were at and that's all that mattered that night. We seem to destroy what we loved the most with about everything. Communication with cell phones and Internet has destroyed something that the younger fans will never know.

[jeffreymo]

The real problem with racing attendance is sports.. When a child turns 2 they stick a bat in their hand and it doesn't stop til they are 22. When we were growing up starting in 8th grade you had the option of football in the fall and basketball in the winter. Now it's something year round 5-7 days a week, up to 3 sports at a time. It's the perfect racket because every parent, grandparent, ant, uncle and cousin feel they must attend every game. Then if they do get a rare Saturday night without a game they are too tired and broke to go to the races. I will never encourage my child to play sports, so far so good.

I've seen some dumb, selfish chit posted here from time to time, but this one tops them all.
Do everyone a favor and don't have children.

[ptown]

The fan base like large car counts is gone and they aren't coming back. In the 70s Fairbury would get around 4,000 people every Saturday now they get 1,000 to 1,400 for a regular show.

[cgrace]

2 me it is length of show the race should be over around 10 so people can get home

[cgrace]

how 2 get them there work with youth orgs outside of fc to try to get fans there. make a statefarm night or just pick another big company. continue keep place clean people arent used to old fairgrounds anymore. have drivers night where kids get to meet drivers. sponsor race car shows in offseason think people used to like that

[kidrock]

The fan base like large car counts is gone and they aren't coming back. In the 70s Fairbury would get around 4,000 people every Saturday now they get 1,000 to 1,400 for a regular show.

And there's quite a few tracks that would love to get that number at their tracks today.

[Bubstr]

It all boils down to buying power and priorities. The middle class buying power has been shrinking since 1968. It wasn't a big deal to take a family of 4 to the races, when food was $10 a bag. Now it's a choice of food Gas or entertainment. The middle class is quickly becoming the lower class. The new priority is eat work and sleep, if your lucky. Nothing left to go to the races.

[MasterSbilt_Racer]

I've seen some dumb, selfish chit posted here from time to time, but this one tops them all.
Do everyone a favor and don't have children.

We will let you be the one to put their child in 5 sports, pray they are going pro, wear a shirt that says "My kid is my hero", and cover the back of your vehicle with their jersey numbers. Then, in 10 years, wonder why they are entitled brats.

[jeffreymo]

We will let you be the one to put their child in 5 sports, pray they are going pro, wear a shirt that says "My kid is my hero", and cover the back of your vehicle with their jersey numbers. Then, in 10 years, wonder why they are entitled brats.

That's quite the assumption, don't you think? How about instead I let my kids make their own decisions on what they want to do, instead of telling them they can't so that I can sit my ass at the racetrack every night? Heaven forbid that a family shows up to support their child/niece/nephew/grandchild in whatever sport the kid is playing.
Since we are making wild assumptions here, I'm sorry that you guys got beat up by the jocks when you were younger.

[TackyTracker]

to me it's boiles down to priorities... w/o those I'd be at a track every w/e

[champion24]

We can't really discuss this on probably the greatest racing weekend of the year! Tons of reasons, but big crowds & cars are basically GONE! There's a few exceptions, but everyone has to realize this. Us racing nuts,hopefully, will continue to promote our sport & hobby! As a middle-aged man, I really miss the open trailer from my younger years. To see race cars everywhere was so cool. When we got the chance to follow some to the track, it was unbelievable. I Understand why most have enclosed ones, but the more open trailers the better. Especially local drivers. I applaud Senoia & other tracks for continuing to invest & improve. I think good racing, without a ton of dust, will still bring in solid crowds. Let's go racing & we'll discuss this more in December!

[turnleftandgasit]

In my opinion, FC worst enemy is FALS. If you have limited funds for the weekend, which track would you choose? FALS every time in my book. FC had 140 through the front gate last week, how long can the bleeding continue.

[acetone]

The real problem with racing attendance is sports.. When a child turns 2 they stick a bat in their hand and it doesn't stop til they are 22. When we were growing up starting in 8th grade you had the option of football in the fall and basketball in the winter. Now it's something year round 5-7 days a week, up to 3 sports at a time. It's the perfect racket because every parent, grandparent, ant, uncle and cousin feel they must attend every game. Then if they do get a rare Saturday night without a game they are too tired and broke to go to the races. I will never encourage my child to play sports, so far so good.

some of my best memories is playing travel ball with my daughter. a lot of quality time was spent together. and if no game on a weekend we went to the races. you are very selfish to deny your child that time in there life. you do not deserve children.

[acetone]

We will let you be the one to put their child in 5 sports, pray they are going pro, wear a shirt that says "My kid is my hero", and cover the back of your vehicle with their jersey numbers. Then, in 10 years, wonder why they are entitled brats.

what makes you think kids who play sports are brats? 99 percent of them are straight a student in school. I knew my kid was not going pro but we met a lot of great people and saw places that we would not have seen. now my grandsons go to the races now. going tonight actually. my daughter is now a school teacher. you have no clue what your talking about.