Monday, March 2, 2009

Hey NASCAR... What Happens in Vegas... Should Happen MORE In Vegas!

Just a week after another low fan turnout in California, Las Vegas proved it has a NASCAR crowd by a reported SELL OUT of 140,000.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that actually more filled seats than Daytona?  Or at least within 10% of the Daytona crowd?

So, this fan-slash-marketing guy has to ask the question...

HEY NASCAR... Why continue to put on your annual coronation banquet in New York City where it is OUT OF TOUCH with fans?

The Country Music Awards left their home in Nashville for ONE YEAR to give NYC a try and realized NYC didn't care... they went back to Nashville.

My sister works on 5th Avenue and every year I ask her if there's any buzz about the awards and her response is always, "Oh.. is that this week?".  And oh, by the way, she's actually a bit of a fan... the kind who would probably be a bigger one if she was invited regularly.

Yeah... New York City is great... All the ad agencies are there and a lot of your clients... but how about making it time to make the awards ceremony accessible to FANS and not just those sponsors, team members, owners, and all their wives who live off money that only exists because fans support the sport?

Take the awards show out of a banquet hall... put it in an entertainment venue... invite fans to listen to announcers, drivers, bands, see some cool performance shows...  And let someone from OUTSIDE of NASCAR produce it.  How about Dick Clark Productions?  You might actually end up with a program that's fit for TV that more than just NASCAR fans might tune in for!  And who knows... maybe someone tuning in for the entertainment portion might actually turn into a NASCAR fan while you're at it!  

Wouldn't that be a change!