CCS/ASRA cuts payouts again this year

Started by ahastings, December 03, 2009, 03:54:32 PM

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ahastings

the new license mailer is out and  CCS/ASRA has cut purses again. this has been the trend for about the last 5 years now that I know of, not just since the economy has gone sour. I remember back when Fusa had good payouts and used to draw lots of national riders. I wonder if they are cutting expenses in the wrong areas. Maybe cutting payouts causes smaller grids. I know it has an effect on what I will race. Maybe deeper payouts would encourage more people to sign up. So CCS you cut purses and less people sign up, so you cut purses more and even less people sign up, cutting purses is obviously not working.
Arnie
A&M Motorsports
Mid-Atlantic VP Fuel Vendor

Xian_13

I really don't see why they bother cutting the purses.
Using the methods they are ready have in place, not to pay... seem to work just fine.

XIII
CCS/ASRA Midwest #140
Secondary Highway & Swift Molly's Motor Circus
facebook.com/SwiftMolly
Michelin • STT

XFACTOR

Quote from: Xian_13 on December 03, 2009, 05:14:22 PM
I really don't see why they bother cutting the purses.
Using the methods they are ready have in place, not to pay... seem to work just fine.

XIII
LOL       

ahastings

Quote from: Xian_13 on December 03, 2009, 05:14:22 PM
I really don't see why they bother cutting the purses.
Using the methods they are ready have in place, not to pay... seem to work just fine.

XIII
I do have to say they have paid me every time except one and they are working on that now.
Arnie
A&M Motorsports
Mid-Atlantic VP Fuel Vendor

Mouse

Well Dang.
That reminds me..... thanks for helping me setup that XTRM account X.  I still have money sitting out on that card.
Chris Blake
CCS #129

sasrocks

#5
yea the economy has nothing to do with smaller grids. Its all the size of the purse. The fact that CCS lost Motosport as a title sponsor might also have had something to do with it...

ahastings

I didnt say it had nothing to do with it, but I have been racing with ccs now since 2003 and the purses have been cut almost every year since then, this is not something new since the economy has dropped. then we get the midatlantic region races spread all the way down to cmp and daytona and not using 2 of the races at njmp right in our region. I will not be trying to defend my #1 plate this year with that ridiculous of a region and it is not because of the economy as my job has not changed it is because of the changes in CCS
Arnie
A&M Motorsports
Mid-Atlantic VP Fuel Vendor

Ducmarc

you know CART and IRL merged cuz they did not have enough cars AFL and NFL merged for more teams . maybe we need to think about CCS and WERA  then throw in AHRMA for the vintage guys and the grids would be full again.   Na just keep things like they are and we will make rasins not wine

truckstop

Quote from: Ducmarc on December 03, 2009, 09:29:46 PM
you know CART and IRL merged cuz they did not have enough cars AFL and NFL merged for more teams . maybe we need to think about CCS and WERA  then throw in AHRMA for the vintage guys and the grids would be full again.   Na just keep things like they are and we will make rasins not wine

WERA has vintage classes, leave AHRMA out of it.

Super Dave

In perspective, 2003 had rockin' purses with the FUSA series.  That was good money.  That was Clear Channel Entertainment era, and there were some promises made by manufacturers that never came through that year.  I believe that CCE's CCS took it in the butt on that.  Yes, purses have dropped since then. 

As for merging?  Can't see it happening. 
Super Dave

CCS

It is funny you say smaller purses dropped entries...Unlimited GP had the $1000 to $1040 per class payout from the 1990's to 2008 and the entries kept dropping (from a 20 bike average in 1999 to a 9 bike average over those years). We even tried qualifying to raise the entries and they just kept dropping. Even when we paid to tenth in Unlimited GP more than half the time we didn't have 10 riders in the class the last two seasons meaning CCS paid out sometimes double what was paid in entry fees. (It took an average of 13 entries per class to make the $1040 it paid. Let's not even bring up CCS Sportbike where we never averaged 10 entries anyway.) GT entries went this way too before we cut those purses but after several seasons we've actually seen the GT numbers increasing the last two years.

There is a point unfortunately where you have to look at the bigger picture. Do you disappoint 8 to 10 riders a weekend who are running Unlimited GP by dropping the purse, or do you benefit the other 175 riders by not raising entry or gate fees. In this case, we decided the needs of the many outweight the wants of the few.

Super Dave is right, FUSA/CCS/Clear Channel took a $2,500,000 hit in that first season, then $1,000,000 the second year all the way to 2005 when it only lost $125,000 and they pulled the plug. The big factory teams never showed, unless you consider the Hooters Suzuki a big factory team, and that meant no spectators to defray the costs. That Series was doomed from the start unfortunately.

I'd love to continue this, but I do not have the time to go over the entire 9 years since Becki sold CCS to Pace/SFX/Clear Channel and all the things we went through.

Please believe me when I say we are doing everything we can to keep this series going. With that being said, we appreciate all the support we've gotten from Y'all over the year.

Thank you all.
Kevin Elliott
Director of Operations-CCS/ASRA
Fort Worth, TX
817-246-1127

Super Dave

I'm with Kevin, obviously because he has data...

But, yes, I fully remember when we had the Sportbike program at the club level, with a purse even, and, even though it had a real purse, it didn't attract a whole lot of rider entries.  It attracted me as I have always been on a tighter budget, and I wanted and needed the opportunity for money coming back in.  Similarly, in 2006 with ULGP qualifying and a purse and my health and bike problems that year, often, ULGP was the only class I was entering.  I wasn't winning, but I could get something back.  And, again, there didn't seem to be the number of riders that I would expect for a head to head opportunity to take even a little bit of money home. 

Renting a race track will also put one through a few things too.  As the markets collapsed starting in probably around May of 2001, then 9/11, insurance rates went up dramatically following that.  Sure, CCS is able to buy in "bulk" with an opportunity for some efficiency on their part that they pass on in the form of some consistency in entry fees over time, but each year for me renting was harder and harder to figure out what to do to keep prices reasonable. 

Super Dave