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Avoiding The Summertime Rainouts
by BJ Cavin
As all stock car racing fans know, rain and racing do not mix. Tradition is the
reason rather than necessity, but stock car racing currently comes to a halt when
nature chooses to dampen the track. For asphalt and concrete tracks there is
always the hope of drying the surface and going racing after some delays, but for
the dirt tracks a good shower usually sends everyone home. And we all know that
rain is as much a part of life in Florida as is the sun, and rain will usually become
an issue for race tracks all over the state every season when the summer storms
begin rising on the sea breezes.
True race fans rarely allow a little weather to keep them from the track on the
weekends, but the not so hard core fans may not be so apt to endure a little
wetness in order to see some racing. That combined with high humidity and rising
temperatures, works to thin the crowds at many local race tracks each summer,
especially in the hottest months of July and August. Another effect the summer
weather has at the track is in concession sales. While the sales of soft drinks
might rise, the sale of foods and such drops as it is not conducive to eating when
you are hot and sweaty. In both cases the tracks lose profits when the fans stay
home, go to a movie, or come to the track and sip on a soft drink or a beer instead
of buying the burger and fries for each member of the family.
Rain, and a rainout of a night's planned events, is bad enough. Anytime that a
track is forced to cancel or postpone events it hurts the profit margin. But the
worst case scenario is when the rain materializes late after preparations for the
night's events have already begun. In those cases rain checks must be issued to
fans, pit crews, and drivers, and that take a chunk out of the gate proceeds at the
next event. In addition, any food that is already prepped is usually lost because it
cannot be held for a week and reused, so there are more losses there. And finally,
there are the losses caused by expenses such as the employees who are there
and working and have to be paid for their time, when virtually no money was
generated with which to pay them. It is for these reasons that no tracks choose to
issue any rain checks after heat races are completed and many are quicker to call
off events before they can even get started. A rush to judgement on the weather
could be driven more by a fear of losing more profits than an attempt to save crews
and fans a wasted trip to the track.
The stock car racing community in Florida has become quite adept at dealing with
the weather woes that our climate brings, but that does not make it any less
frustrating when events are being delayed, postponed, or outright canceled,
several weekends every summer. So in response to this some tracks began
running what is sometimes referred to as a "split season." Under such schedules
the racing season is begun in January or February and will run through late June
or early July. Then there is a break of a month or two before racing resumes
(either as a separate season or a continuation of the earlier season) until
sometime around Thanksgiving or even into December. Mild winter weather in
Florida makes this possible, and it gives the Florida tracks a much longer window
during the calendar year within which to schedule events and therefore make more
profits. Some tracks have adopted this type of schedule, or some variation of it,
and found success. Others found that the fans and drivers were less inclined to
adapt to a new routine. Currently one can find tracks that run a continuous season
and a split season in Florida, so the jury seems to still be out on which is the better
method. But it cannot be denied that attendance at the track and concession sales
will slump as the heat and humidity rises, and one answer to that is refusing to fight
Mother Nature.
The weather pattern over Florida this season has featured heavy storms covering
most of the state on a daily basis. While it is normally a matter of one or two tracks
in the state suffering rainouts once or twice in a season, it has become a matter of
multiple tracks suffering repeated rainouts week after week, and everything from
the tracks to the drivers to traveling racing series, are feeling the loss of income.
This is a very frustrating situation for promoters because rained out events need to
be rescheduled, but the rains keep coming and more dates keep falling victim to
the weather. And with the repeated rainouts even the fans and drivers are finding
other things to do instead of going to the track and dealing with the weather. Will it
rain or will the storms miss the track? Will the track call off the night's events or
attempt to get them in? It amounts to an inability to make solid plans and quite a
bit of inconvenience, and that has caused some to find other things to do where
they can at least not have to grapple with whatever nature decides to do.
Not that long ago I watched Ocala Speedway owner and promoter Michael Peters
look up from a radar image on his computer screen and loudly proclaim that, "...we
will NOT do this next season!" Was he serious about that? Could Ocala
Speedway be going to a split season to avoid the summer weather hassles?
Maybe that was a heaping helping of frustration talking when Peters said that, or
maybe he was serious. Time will tell, but if he is like some other promoters in
Florida time might make it all go away. Once the weather calms down in the waning
months of the season it is easy to forget about all of the hassles and frustrations
that were experienced when the weather was threatening your every plan and
contract, and putting a dent in your wallet as well. Many promoters have shouted
the same proclamation only to schedule racing throughout the summer for the
following season.
And when the frustration of rescheduling and money loss is not there to numb the
fear of changing things, promoters tend to think about how their drivers and fans
may react to their traditional racing schedule being rearranged. One might think
that drivers and fans might appreciate the break, but it is quite hard to gauge
reactions to such things without actually putting new policies into effect. That
means change, and promoters are usually afraid of change, especially if that
change might hit them in the pocketbook. But losses are losses, whether they
come from bad weather in the summer or a unwillingness to adapt to a new
schedule for racing, and the weather in the summer of 2007 is reminding
promoters that there is another option out there.
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