G2 Radios presents The Waterford Speedbowl Message Board

Sid i believe the speedbowl did give tickets away on a few radio stations but they did not give away tickets like warren and myself are talking about... i mean my god even NHMS gives hundreds of tickets away to the local NH radio stations which most of them sell for charity at roughly $25.00 a piece and a track such as NHMS that could sell the tickets for the $100.00 face value and knows they will sell takes more of a hit then the speedbowl would have putting people in the stands for free... lets face it if they give tickets away the seats will be full and you make money off concessions and programs where as if you keep things the way they are the seats will remain empty and concession sales down.
Come on bowl give away 500 or so tickets to get the people in the gate then they will come back.


Still find it extremely interesting of how this entire time we have been discussing this not a single BOD member has chimed in and offered their thoughts or opinions on the whole deal... i have to keep asking myself do they really wanna help the bowl or are they happy with the way it is?

Dude - do ya not remember when they had the "town nights" last year - when if you lived in Waterford and had a Wtfd ID, you got in for free, etc. I think they had it for a few towns last year.... that's the equivalent to giving away tickets - and in a more original promotion. Not the only way they can do it, but the effort is there and I'm quite positive they're be more of those type of promotional things this year...

Comparing what NHMS does to the Speedbowl is a bit of a stretch, don't ya think??? They have major corporate sponsors, televised events, etc... totally different animal. They have more large-scale resources then the Speedbowl does. It's not about giving away 500 tickets, it's about making sure the free tickets get to new potential supporters. If it's not done the right way, 500 free tix could go to the 500 people already there every week - what good does that do??? All's I'm saying is there more to it than the simplicity that some of the ideas in this thread suggest, that's all...

Maybe I just see things from a different perspective... I dunno. I wasn't on the BOD long, but I was there long enough to know that these suggestions just aren't as simple as you guys may think they are, and some things will take longer than others to make better... for varying reasons. I don't think the 'bowl is perfect, and there's still alot I hope will be better, but to suggest the 'bowl crew is resting on their laurels and content with the state of the track now is a stretch. I deal with them enough in my vault stuff to know for a fact that just isn't true...

I'd rather have a Speedbowl that takes some years to get back to where it once was...
... then no Speedbowl at all!

Oh... And I'd hope the BOD has better things to do than reply to our ramblings. I'd prefer they just let us know what's up through their own website. but that's just me....

sid at this rate it will take decades to "rebuild" what only took years to destroy and i believe they did town nights for waterford and norwich big frigin deal 2 towns and if i remember the town thing that was a total flop and goes agianst what u said of paying patrons taking advantage of it instead of paying and i never once heard an advertisement for the town things on any radio stations... i am really getting sick of all these support the bowl edit saying the speedbowl is doing everything possible to better the place come on people open your eyes and wipe the brown off your noses there is so much more that could easily be done to help the bowl they just dont wanna listen to anyone they constantly say they are looking for people to help or looking for suggestions and if you try and give constructive criticism or a suggestion and your not a part of the inner circle or the "BOD CLICK" your suggestion isnt good enough and is swept under the table i will not let this rest until im given a GOOD excuse why giving away tickets will not help fill the seats and be profitable in the long run. Maybe get a real businessman on the BOD instead of a buncha crackerjack box ones they have now. They have to have a fanbase before they can worry about building on it.

easy CM with the name callng

They have to have a fanbase before they can worry about building on it.

I agree with that statement but ftc756 you got to remember that somethings will never change and I hope they will. Sid and fellas. Why doesnt anybody listen? How does it take a long time to call up radio stations to give away tickets? I remember my rookie season in 06 was one of the best years Waterford had for people in the stands.

Sid also you can compare Waterford to NHMS on a smaller scale obviously. Maybe NHMS gives out 100 tickets and Waterford gives out 50. Like FTC said you need a fanbase inorder to build on one.

well, think I'm done talking with you one this one...

good luck with your miserableness!

did anyone go to the Maratta car show? stop by the booth? just looking for a show of hands?

shadow i wasnt able to make the show i wanted to but had other prior obligations... and i also want to appologize for my name calling outburst i just get slightly heated when people try to have a constructive conversation and someone else has to butt in and point out all the stuff that is wrong with what your trying to propose... in my opinion if you think the bowl is a successful place then why stop the people who are tossing around ideas of how to better it, not like we are trying to hurt the place....
i mean just because you win the track championship in 2009 does that mean your not gonna try and make the car better for 2010??

It's gotten to the point over the last few years a pass here, a deal for a town here isn't the fix IMO.

I know it would take ALOT of nerve but at some point I would think of just opening the gates.

I'm guessing WnW has had really good consession nights due to the crowd and I'd hope someone at least looked at the figures of WnW consession sales vs a regular nights gate and this might be the only reason they just don't let fans in for free a few times a year.

It's not only having a fan base, you need to force feed your fan base. You have to sell things by letting your customer touch it, you could tell him about it until you are blue in the face in print and radio ads but it's not going to make anyone buy it if they don't know what it is. When you attach free to it....

If the people do not come even with this, weekly racing isn't relevant in SE CT anymore. (the speedbowl is going to be the first state track to take the hit because of it's location and 1/3rd the fanbase area is ocean.) Weekly racing is slowly becoming a competitor based sport and is no longer a spectator based sport all over the country. Changing the focus to the back gate and taking what you get in the front gate is happening everywhere.

If people come, you still have interested people it's just they can't afford to come, don't think the pricing is fair for the show they get, didn't know what that dirt parking lot on rt 85 was ever used for and so on.

There are a few bigtime short tracks that have tried free admission with some races and they filled the place. They also had lines 10 deep at the concession all day long. If nothing else, people now have an idea what goes on there and if you get 1 in 10 people back once it's a start.

A local sports bar/rest in Southington just tried this approach. Free hamburger day. Not samples, I mean they gave away the burgers they offer on the menu. The place was FULL for 12 hours. They made more money that day then if they sold the burgers outright on a regular day. They are also banking on selling people their product in the future if they liked it.

Sid, as i said...we know some of those passes will end up in the worng hands. Who really cares? At this point getting 50 regulars in for free isn't going to kill you either.

At some point there has to come a real try at a fix and not a small promotion. Not only is it hard to sell sponsorship for the racetrack it's also going to get harder for anyone to get sponsors on racecars. If you are looking at sponsoring someone and aren't really involved in the sport are you going to use any amount of your advertising budget to reach 500 people in the stands every week?

Was that TD Homers? They have GREAT burgers.

I did, told Tom to tell Terry to run a 4cyl truck division on Wednesday nights.