Condsider this if you will. Late Model show: LUCAS vs WOO. MILLION win or $1M + PURSE

[HoosierDirtFan]

Consider this if you will - a huge late model show - LUCAS vs WOO.
$1 MILLION TO win or $1 Million plus total purse.

Consider this if you will.
A huge late model show pitting the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, against the World Of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series, to determine which series reins supreme the given year.
Now follow me here, let's take an adventure.
It would be a 3 day show consisting of a full points paying L.O.L.M.D.S. race one night, and a full points paying WOO race the next.
Each driver would pledge their allegiance to one of the two upon registering for the event, and would only race on that respective series' prelim night.
At the completion of each prelim night, the top 10 finishers would lock into the big dance on the final night, giving you 20 competitors in the main event.
On the final night you would run 4 heats for each series taking the winner only from each into the big show, to add 8, bringing the total up to 14 drivers from each series (ok maybe that could be 3 and 3 for a total of 26... the details could be adjusted depending on the size of the track).
After the heat races are done drivers names missing the show will go in to a hat, and 2 names will be drawn and the will be positions 29th & 30th.
After 100 laps, we'd find out which series is king for a season.
Oh the races would also pay a million dollars to the winner & $10,000 to start or have a million + total purse and $10,000 to start increasing the winners share by $25K each year.
Tow Money would be $1,000 for drivers missing the big show.
Could be huge for that series' sponsors the next season to have those bragging rights.
Also the winning series should give the driver that won the race a bonus at the series banquet.
The first year the race is at a neutral track that neither series runs at (i.e. Lincoln, PA; Terre Haute, In; Oakshade, OH; Boone, IA; ect).
Each year after that the winning series gets to pick where the race is held the next year (a.k.a. home field advantage if you will - Maybe if Lucas wins they go to Lucas Oil Speedway or Tri-City and if the outlaws win it goes to Fairbury or Cedar Lake).
There would only be one or two other divisions racing that weekend (Maybe Open Wheel Modified & either Sprint Cars or some kind of street stock class).
Race Sponsors and team sponsors would love the coverage of the race if it could get to be on T.V.
There would be contingency sponsors / product sponsors.
Lap Money during the race would be $500 per lap except laps 25, 50, 75, & 100 would be $1,000.

RACE PURSES

MILLION TO WIN / $10,000 START PURSE
01. $1,000,000
02. $250,000
03. $200,000
04. $175,000
05. $150,000
06. $125,000
07. $120,000
08. $110,000
09. $105,000
10. $100,000
11. $90,000
12. $80,000
13. $70,000
14. $60,000
15. $55,000
16. $50,000
17. $45,000
18. $40,000
19. $35,000
20. $30,000
21. $25,000
22. $20,000
23. $15,000
24. $10,800
25. $10,600
26. $10,400
27. $10,200
28. $10,000
29. $10,000
30. $10,000

$1,000 tow money

$3,022,000.00 total purse plus tow money

OR

MILLION DOLLAR + TOTAL PURSE & $10,000 TO START
01. $200,000
02. $100,000
03. $90,000
04. $80,000
05. $70,000
06. $60,000
07. $50,000
08. $40,000
09. $30,000
10. $28,000
11. $26,000
12. $24,000
13. $22,000
14. $20,000
15. $19,000
16. $18,000
17. $17,000
18. $16,000
19. $15,000
20. $14,000
21. $13,000
22. $12,000
23. $11,000
24. $10,800
25. $10,600
26. $10,400
27. $10,200
28. $10,000
29. $10,000
30. $10,000

$1,000 tow money

$1,047,000.00 race purse plus tow money.

- - - - - - - - - -

JUST A THOUGHT BUT IT WOULD BE AWESOME TO SEE.

[cjp0354]

Nice idea but the money would never work out. If you sold out Eldora and charged $85 for the weekend seat your only at like 1.5 million. If you gave every car $1000 for tow, every late model in the country would be there, crates included.

It all sounds good but the money needs to be cut by about 65-70% to make it work. Especially if you go to smaller tracks that hold less than 10k people.

[cjp0354]

BTW, I love talking about this kind of stuff. I'm not bashing your idea at all. The only way I could see the purse working is to do it in the dome and sell it out. It's already an unsanctioned event. Or do a 3 weekend arena deal and make the payout what you mentioned minus the tow money.

[Waldo]

$1,047,000 total purse would work if what I was told is correct.
I was told that Eldora Speedway could hold over 20,000 people.
Alright 20,000 times $85 dollars is $1,700,000 dollars. If 20,000 people were there the track would be up $650,000 dollars just on crowd attendance. How could this Not work?

[BloomerHarvickFan]

I love the idea. Cover Bristol in dirt again. That would solve the crowd problem. You could fit plenty of people in there.
Let Bruton Smith's people promote the heck out of it. "The Battle at Bristol:King of Dirt 100"

[TNDirt]

Love the idea, the pay out would be awesome but probably not going to happen. With a race like this you could do something like the old Dixie Shootout and make it an invitational event where you have to race your way to an invite at one of the races through out the season of either series. Also I agree cover Bristol again and run it there.

[cjp0354]

$1,047,000 total purse would work if what I was told is correct.
I was told that Eldora Speedway could hold over 20,000 people.
Alright 20,000 times $85 dollars is $1,700,000 dollars. If 20,000 people were there the track would be up $650,000 dollars just on crowd attendance. How could this Not work?

Eldora has less than 18,000 seats. With the hillside you may get to the 20,000 mark. That being said you're forgetting the original post said $1,000 tow money. Well I know a lot of idiots that have no business running at Eldora, would show up for that alone. So the total purse would be much hire since that $1,047,000 did not include the tow money.

Also Eldora comes close to selling out for the World and they arent putting up that kind of money for a race. From what I was told the only way they were able to do the Million to win deal was because a huge sponsor (s) put up a lot of money.

Regardless, if you did it at Bristol like someone mentioned and you charged $60 for the weekend, you would attract a lot of fans (35,000-40,000) possibly. Then you could pay out the kind of money you are talking about.

[HoosierDirtFan]

Nice idea but the money would never work out. If you sold out Eldora and charged $85 for the weekend seat your only at like 1.5 million. If you gave every car $1000 for tow, every late model in the country would be there, crates included.

It all sounds good but the money needs to be cut by about 65-70% to make it work. Especially if you go to smaller tracks that hold less than 10k people.

BTW, I love talking about this kind of stuff. I'm not bashing your idea at all. The only way I could see the purse working is to do it in the dome and sell it out. It's already an unsanctioned event. Or do a 3 weekend arena deal and make the payout what you mentioned minus the tow money.

$1,047,000 total purse would work if what I was told is correct.
I was told that Eldora Speedway could hold over 20,000 people.
Alright 20,000 times $85 dollars is $1,700,000 dollars. If 20,000 people were there the track would be up $650,000 dollars just on crowd attendance. How could this Not work?

I love the idea. Cover Bristol in dirt again. That would solve the crowd problem. You could fit plenty of people in there.
Let Bruton Smith's people promote the heck out of it. "The Battle at Bristol:King of Dirt 100"

Love the idea, the pay out would be awesome but probably not going to happen. With a race like this you could do something like the old Dixie Shootout and make it an invitational event where you have to race your way to an invite at one of the races through out the season of either series. Also I agree cover Bristol again and run it there.

Eldora has less than 18,000 seats. With the hillside you may get to the 20,000 mark. That being said you're forgetting the original post said $1,000 tow money. Well I know a lot of idiots that have no business running at Eldora, would show up for that alone. So the total purse would be much hire since that $1,047,000 did not include the tow money.

Also Eldora comes close to selling out for the World and they arent putting up that kind of money for a race. From what I was told the only way they were able to do the Million to win deal was because a huge sponsor (s) put up a lot of money.

Regardless, if you did it at Bristol like someone mentioned and you charged $60 for the weekend, you would attract a lot of fans (35,000-40,000) possibly. Then you could pay out the kind of money you are talking about.

Well let me ask you this if some one / sponsor would post either purse in full, what track would you like to see a race of this caliber be held at (Neutral site neither series runs at the first year & any track the next year)?

[Patansplant]

Knoxville would be a great track for this kind of race.

[huskerdirt]

Nah bruh....

[BloomerHarvickFan]

Not to reiterate my same point, but Bristol works not only for capacity and attractiveness to sponsors, but also for competition. No one has an advantage. Even the guys who were around the last time they did this really wouldn't Cars have changed so much, and being a brand new track, it wouldn't race the same.

[15BTIME]

Such a great thought, The first option might be a little bit of a stretch but the second one absolutely is not. Insert Michael Rigsby and dirt on dirt online pay per views. Everyone, their mother and brother who likes dirt late-model racing would order this race for $100 and watch it from home if they were unable to attend. The place for the race is Eldora Speedway. It's the most prestigious track to win at in dirt late-model racing and this would be the most prestigious race to win. Simply make this the World 100. Definitely keep it unsanctioned. It doesn't even need to be a new race, a new date, etc. take the proven brand, which is the world 100, and do something amazing such as your idea. I understand there is a long history of raising the purse $1000 every year, and that has never been broken and people like tradition. One critical point is that the millennial generation that will ultimately be one of the deciding factors on whether the sport survives or not could care less about the tradition of raising the purse $1000 per year. No one complained when they went to a three day show with preliminary features versus time trials. In 50 years the world 100 will pay $100,000 to win if it doesn't change... in 50 years... think about that.

[vande077]

for some perspective into the feasibility.

Knoxville Nationals for Sprints has $1,000,000 total purse. 4 day event. Ticket prices start at $173 for 4 days and go up to $198 for 4 days (adult pricing). Single day tickets for the final night are right around $50 (no kids pricing on the final night either, everyone costs the same).

NASCAR Trucks paid out a little over $800,000 in purse money at Daytona in 2015 (last time they released figures) which is their largest and highest paying event for the Truck Series. The purse is paid using ticket sales, TV REVENUE (which is like 80% of the purse $$$ in NASCAR, and sponsorship $$$.

Is a $1,000,000 total purse EVENT (total purse over multiple days) for Late Models possible? Yes, but it's going to take time to build something up to that type of purse and IMO, they should do it with the World 100 weekend as it already has the history and longevity, but given the current ticket prices for that weekend, it doesn't make sense financially to do so.

Don't forget, racetracks only race a certain # of days each year, but they have operating expenses year round. So they have to bring in certain $$ amounts during the events they have in order to pay the bills during the months they have no revenue.

Retail stores are very similar in that respect. Most Retail stores (Wal-Mart, Target) run in the red from January through April, turn some slight profits in Late April through October and then make almost all their profits for the year in November and December. Racetracks run in the Red from October through the April, and if they have good weather, they might make some profit or break even during any regular type event and make almost all their profits on their big events (in this case, World, Dream and King's Royal weekends). Then they use those profits to re-invest in their business (in this case, the suites in turn 4, the building in the infield, new restrooms a few years ago, concrete replacing mud).

Even the big racetracks aren't just making $$ hand over fist, they are using what they do make in profits to make your experiences better when you attend. Same thing colleges are doing at Football Stadiums and Basketball Arenas, or Arena's in your local area are doing to attract larger acts or more people to come see acts or sporting events.

Racetracks are a business and the successful ones are being operated as businesses.

[Krooser]

What's the upside for the 'loser' sanction? I don't see any. And without their permission you can't use their name, logos, etc.

I'm the ultimate optimist when it comes to new ideas in promoting... God knows I've made money and lost money with my wacky ideas. While this might be fun to talk about it would never happen...