Nascar is headed to New England and the New Hampshire Speedway but before I get to anything to do with the coming weekend I want to touch on the debacle that was Kentucky again for a moment. I really find it hard to believe that a major corporation like SMI could drop the ball so badly this past weekend. I have been hearing reports that the shuttle drivers were shaking down passengers for cash on a service that was supposed to be free! I heard storied that people who finally made it to the track were turned away because they were told there was nowhere to park yet there were people tailgating in the parking lot that didn’t even have tickets to the race. Let me get this straight ok, “Joe Fan” saves all year for his vacation. He has bought tickets to the inaugural race at the Kentucky Speedway, saved around $1800.00 above that and headed to the track. Here is a person that usually goes to two to three races a year but since the economy is in the tank still, he is only able to afford one this year. He spends an enormous amount of money on gas and hotel rooms and when he gets within 20 miles of the speedway he hits gridlock.
Does he worry yet? Not really because he is sure that Nascar and the track owners have a plan to get them all in there in a timely manner after all this is not his first time sitting in traffic outside a track. Well time goes by and it is starting to get dark, his wife has to use the bathroom and they are still sitting on the interstate. He tunes into a local radio station and picks up the MRN broadcast that is already in pre race coverage. Now he is starting to get a little upset. Don’t they know that there is an interstate highway out here that is still full of race fans trying to get into the track? Why are they getting ready to start the race? By the time this car full of people gets to the track there is nowhere to park and the parking attendant turns them away. The race is half way over as they head home madder than they have ever been before.
Three days later he hears Marcus Smith, president and CEO of Speedway Motorsports doing the apology dance and offering those fans that didn’t get into the track free tickets to another SMI track this season or free tickets to the Kentucky race next season. So let me get this straight, he wants people who were treated like the plague this past weekend to spend an enormous amount of money once again to come to one of his tracks? The question was posed to Marcus Smith on Sirius Speedway the other afternoon bringing up the fact that the NFL paid the thousands of fans that were left outside last years Super bowl, traveling expenses and lodging cost after they were left out in the cold so to speak. Mr. Smith’s only response was the ticket exchange offered. He said that he hoped that those 20,000 fans would give them another chance next year to make it up to them. Are you kidding me? This man receives a huge salary every year as a race promoter and he can’t figure out that the vast majority of these fans either are no longer Nascar fans or at the very least will NEVER come back to the Kentucky Speedway.
I know what I would be thinking after losing that kind of money, I would never come back to that track. The fact that they had to file suit against Nascar to get a race there in the first place really upsets me. You wanted it so badly and this is how you handle it? I don’t care how much you dance around this debacle; the stand there will be half empty next year. SMI owns New Hampshire Motor Speedway where Nascar is this weekend and you can bet there will be no traffic problems there. New Hampshire is another track that SMI bought then moved race dates around to get two races there. They got a race at Kentucky by taking one from Atlanta, I can’t remember where they stole a date for a second New Hampshire race, and something in the back of my mind says Rockingham.
Let me review a minute and then I will get into the weekends racing schedule tomorrow. I guess I need to shut up about it just like the radio hosts on Sirius radio are wanting us all to do. They really didn’t want to talk about it today, it seems like they just want to sweep it under the rug. The talk this season has been how the grand stands have been half full at times, ratings and the economy. Then we get a real story of mismanagement and they don’t want to talk about it. Try finding anything about it on Nascar.com’s home page today. It has been swept under the rug! SMI buys Kentucky Speedway, files suit to get a race date, presses the issue, gets the date, and then does little to nothing to handle the crowd. Is that what I am seeing here? A complete dropping of the ball? Then tries to get it swept under the rug? Ok maybe they didn’t try to sweep it under the rug but there are about 20,000 Nascar fans that just got totally ripped of with little or no financial reimbursement from SMI or Nascar.
Offering to give fans a $150 ticket to a race where they will have to spend $1200.00 to $1500.00 in travel expenses to get to is really a slap in the face. So it is ok to take their money but not ok to help them get to one of the other races after you didn’t deliver on the one they paid for? Come on Mr. Smith, you stole their money! I smell a class action lawsuit coming in the future and I hope they rip them a new one. This stinks to high heaven.
Stay safe
TW
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