Facebook "Live", Hurting Our Sport?

[Cardirt0]

The Young today go there on there phone...being there is not as big a thing.. They Love it today .. Then LOVE something else the next Day..

[CIRF]

Bingo. It's free advertisement. The only way it's a problem is if the product sucks. That's what keeps people away.

In some cases you are absolutely correct, in others you aren't.

I personally know of at least 3 or 4 instances just this season of more than one friend telling me, " not going to spend the money when I can watch it on Periscope for free" when asked if they are going to attend a race that night.

Free advertisement is a very good thing. Watching the A-main on a pirated signal in lieu of actually attending, not so good.

[powerslide]

I can agree it might hurt a little. But if the track is putting on good races it will draw fans in. I went to one track last night that is about a hour away, two day show and it was a dust bowl and not much passing, i will be washing dirt from my crevices for a week. I just watched a couple "live" videos from another track thats about 30min away that a TRACK WORKER posted, much more passing a little less dust and likely to attend that place next time. I've watched a lot of FALS videos and planning a trip because of them all. Live or youtube or DOD it doesn't matter. If people are cheap or broke they aren't going anyway.

[Nasty55]

I use DoD to catch up on the national races around the nation. It's normally a Sunday morning deal for to see what went on. I attend races every weekly.

As far as this live thing goes. A person has to use a wifi or their own personal phone data to play these races live. I've yet to see a whole race night live. Unless it's a person related to the race track in someway, I don't see any one person playing a whole night of racing live over facebook, talk about racking up data, which would lead to a enormous phone bill.

You are 100% spot on Zack id much rather attend the track than watch it live on the tv or computer myself for free because number one I have no use for a thief!! and anyone who streams it live thats not paying the track or promoter for the rights to do so is a fukn thief in my eyes!! And yes they would have an enormous cell bill if they had to use their own data rather than a wifi connection at the track.... Hopefully sometime before racing season is over Zack we might be able to meet up at a track here somewhere in Ohio my friend but it all depends if my health holds up for me..

[KAOS]

The Rumleys do it, I even saw that Owens did it for the Clash at the Mag. So I guess they are all Thieves in Nastys Book If you are a track and you want to stop it you might as well do it yourself with better quality and monetize it by selling ads on it just like billboards at the track. IMO I have never seen one that was all that great to keep my attention.

[Clayton_Wetter]

didn't someone want the dream to be on live stream or some free streaming just saying

Just you!!!

[genericracefan]

Not working for NASCAR. Their races are on live every weekend and LIVE at the track attendance just keeps getting smaller and smaller. That blows the theory of exposure helps.

[KAOS]

Yeah because TV never helped NASCAR become popular...oh wait..... it did!

[genericracefan]

Yeah because TV never helped NASCAR become popular...oh wait..... it did!

If that was the case the stands would have been packed after HAT was on TV.

[FourDeepInTheFluff]

I am one of those that have broadcasted on FB live. I got the idea while we were in Indianapolis for Indy 500 week. Had only tested once prior to that. I was able to keep my family and friends back home who WERE NOT going to attend these events up to date. They couldn't really keep up with much because of a (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)ty resolution from a camera phone and I didn't zoom in often. Sometimes I did, but not much.

At our local track I was able to broadcast a race for a drivers wife who was not in attendance, a car owner who was not able to be there, a driver and car owner in California, Christopher Bell watched checking on his Keith Kunz teammates, one gentleman that is in Georgia and was not going to come to our local track in Arkansas but is impressed with it and making plans to attend an event we have later on. I am able to keep family members up to date on drivers while they are on assignment from the military.

I have gained some great friends I probably otherwise wouldn't have. Was able to get free t-shirts offered to me (which I paid for btw) by allowing a car owner to watch his driver while he was out of town. Have also been offered a chance to sit in a seat of a midget sometime, that's really cool.

I have noticed that roughly 25-30% of my live viewers are actually people at the track, in the pits, wanting to see what's going on while working on the their car. I did witness on driver watching my feed while in the staging lane unable to see the track.

I have yet to see someone watch my feed live that refused to go to the track due to me doing it live. But what I have noticed is people watching and gaining interest in my travels to different tracks, people using it as a tool, sharing it amongst their friends in many other states gaining interest from them, I have seen two drivers facebook live in car while they were racing. One may have been periscope.

What I have not seen is racetracks find a way to use it their advantage. What I have seen is people finding a way to get their video out to a social media crowd that won't go to DoD to watch a video cause they don't care, but they DO CARE what I am doing I'm Saturday night. $0 have been lost by me broadcasting to people that weren't going to be there anyway. But if even ONE person on my friends list who has never been before goes, then that's a profit.

I'll continue to do my part, and hope to see racetracks try to use it to their advantage before the condemn it. I may soon try to incorporate a pit walk, interviews, and behind the scenes look as well.

Did I mention I had one promoter offer me free admission to his track to do Facebook Live all night.

[CIRF]

Well, maybe we're the rare exception to the rule but we know of at least 3 tracks on 3 separate occasions that lost at least 2 potential spectators because they were pretty sure they could watch the A-main for free, and they did.

All of the speculation as to how the exposure will be a benefit to the promoters and sanctions is just that, speculation. The cases I sight are real and not speculative.

[FourDeepInTheFluff]

CIRF, I made my post to share my own experience. Not to claim yours as false. I don't know such and can only take your word, as that is all you can do with mine.

I will clarify that I do not broadcast the whole event. Usually a few heat races, and two of the 5 features. One is always the headline class. I'd say given time a gain of 5 and loss of 2 is still a gain of +3.

As far as speculation, all business decisions at one point was made out of speculation. Social Media is new, and is growing at a rapid rate. Soon all businesses will have to figure out how to accept it and embrace it because they will not fight it.

I can see where it is/can be a problem. I also see where the old saying "try it before you knock it" come into play. A few of our local track personalities have a couple of designated nights they do like a Q&A session, discuss happenings from their perspective. Its pretty entertaining. Again, I would like to see tracks make an attempt to embrace it before they shut it down.

[DirtWv77]

Been very interesting to read everyones opinion of the subject. I'll give my 2 cents on the is matter and I don't mean to disagree with anyone because there's been some good points posted thus far. Basically what spurred me to create this thread was the fact that I have noticed a startling trend of folks getting on their social media site and posting "anyone doing live video?" or when someone posts updates/pictures, an almost instant flock of people ask for their individual to post "live" video. I believe that rather these folks were likely to attend or not, it is not right for individuals to basically pirate the footage from a race on a real time basis to those especially without the permission of the track. With the heat of the summer upon us and many folks on vacation, things get rather tough for promoters in the latter part of the summer and I believe that the facebook "live" feature is going to start a slippery slope that could potentially hurt attendance and eventually create an added appeal to stay home and still watch the races. - I understand the point of promoting and generating new audiences for a track, but the pirating of a paid event or "show" (which is what racing ultimately is) does not allow for that to happen in a productive manner. I do however believe that tracks could use "live" to their advantage but you must walk a fine line as unfortunately we live in a society of opportunists and free loaders who will take a good thing and ruin it... (just like social media itself).I hope this trend doesn't continue but I know in my area (West Virginia/ Ohio) there's certainly a large number of people who are looking for live footage each and every weekend and are the same people who I know have spent many of nights in the grandstands, which only continues a downward trend.

[zyoung25]

You are 100% spot on Zack id much rather attend the track than watch it live on the tv or computer myself for free because number one I have no use for a thief!! and anyone who streams it live thats not paying the track or promoter for the rights to do so is a fukn thief in my eyes!! And yes they would have an enormous cell bill if they had to use their own data rather than a wifi connection at the track.... Hopefully sometime before racing season is over Zack we might be able to meet up at a track here somewhere in Ohio my friend but it all depends if my health holds up for me..

I tried to pm ya back, and it says your box is full Mr Nasty lol.

[20fan]

Up in Michigan Races on the web as been broadcasting the races at crystal for years. The promoter loves it, because it has been free advertisement and the place is packed every Saturday and they have full fields in all the divisions.