Gate Fees

[roadracer162]

It is difficult when the whole family comes to spectate and the gate cost cuts into the racing budget. The Florida region does provide VIP passes for each regional championship won. These are used the following year so that does save some. For the past two years I have won one championship and does provide some monetary relief. Of course it does keep me coming back.

[HotRedTurbo]

When I used to rent Putnam Park it was up to me whether or not to charge a gate fee, if I did, I had to split it with the track.  I chose to charge nothing for riders/pit crew/family and $5 for spectators.  Of course that was 10 years ago.

I like that idea, but yes...a lot has changed in 10 years.

We have mentioned a few times that "spectators" should be encouraged by a low gate fee ($5 maybe?). Not only will they bring friends for a cheap day at the track but it will translate into more sales at the concession stand for the track as well. Encouraging spectators can only benefit everyone. When a pack of riders shows up to watch on a regular basis, you can be one or two will decide "I can do that" and now you have more racers as well.

I agree!  You know how much money my family spent on food alone at PBIR...they spontaneously decided to show up to one of my races and all eight of them bought food at the concession stand. 

Amazing how people want something for nothing.
Do you know how much it costs CCS to put on a race weekend?  I'm pretty sure they aren't getting rich over there.
If you enjoy the races, $20 each is a small price to pay for a great time considering I feel like I spend $20 when I open the front door to my house these days.
Us racers pay $35 at the gate in addition to several hundred dollars in race fees, $25 for power, $100 in camping fees for the weekend so you can pay $20 to come watch us race.  That's just the entry fees but we won't talk about what it all really costs us.
Come on!  Chip in something.

Who wants something for nothing?  Me, my family, other spectators?  Listen, my suggestion isn't to change our entry fee, lower the racer gate fee....or in my opinion, hurt CCS in any way.  I truly believe that my suggestion, which I repeat, was to come up with a different spectator policy for SPECTATOR gate fees that will focus on bringing in interest for our sport and help support the racing org and racers.


Now, one big hurdle in doing that was what Woofentino pointed out.  If the track themselves are charging the gate fee, or if they are taking a large portion...well, there's really little that CCS can do.  But if that's not the case, then I just simply want to make that suggestion.  So far, I'm enjoying myself and EVERY SINGLE CCS staff member has been great!  Henry has been very welcoming, the guys at tech are so helpful when I didn't know what I was doing, the girls at registration were so helpful when I had a question on my forms...I'm very satisfied in choosing CCS as my racing org.  [size=78%] [/size]

[Cowboy 6]

Amazing how people want something for nothing.
Do you know how much it costs CCS to put on a race weekend?  I'm pretty sure they aren't getting rich over there.
If you enjoy the races, $20 each is a small price to pay for a great time considering I feel like I spend $20 when I open the front door to my house these days.
Us racers pay $35 at the gate in addition to several hundred dollars in race fees, $25 for power, $100 in camping fees for the weekend so you can pay $20 to come watch us race.  That's just the entry fees but we won't talk about what it all really costs us.
Come on!  Chip in something.

I am really confused at your post. No one is asking for "something for nothing"

Yes, I have a good idea what it costs to rent a track.

As it was mentioned before, our club racing is not a spectator event so why would anyone pay $20 or $35 to watch us no-talent hacks?

Chip in something? See above. Why should anyone feel obligated to "chip in" on your fun?

My suggestion agreed with by others is to lower the gate fee for spectators with the idea of encouraging more to come. It can become a spectator sport if it is not cost prohibitive. I am happy for you if you can crap $20 to open your front door and it is an insignificant amount to you. However, not everyone enjoys your income level. For some, $20 is a lot of money.

The bottom line is this: If you lowering the gate fee for spectators (such as a group of cyclists riding to the track to watch some racing for an hour or two and go home) will not cost the track or CCS any money. The high gate fee is keeping people out. They can only benefit from the lower fees welcoming more people in. Take the $5 or take $0. The answer is simple. At this point, CCS isn't even denting the track operational costs with their take on the spectator gate so don't worry.

[Gixxerblade]

I thought tracks charged spectators for the insurance cost and overhead. I never thought $20 was ever steep.

[Jwhite316]

$20 really isn't that steep for a whole day in my opinion.  I went to see drag racing at the route 66 dragway the other night and it was $20 to get in. 

[banzai1]

I guess they can go sit in the park. That's free.....and boring.

[roadracer162]

Another note to mention. Just because you lower the gate fee doesn't equate to the spectators purchasing more at the concession nor does it actually bring more people in. This would all be speculative of course. So the cheaper ticket has someone attend. What would you say, cut it to had the current gate price? So now you ned twice the number of spectators. Will they actually pay for concessions stuff or will they bring their own food and drinks anyway.

They are making a little on the spectators yes. another alternative is to make it free attendance and charge more for racing. Would you be willing to do that? Not bad if you are only running one or even two races. But for the folks racing nine races that could really hurt.

It's fortunate for us that florida has a $55 flat rate fee per race. The negative is it is a 9 lap GT race and a 6 lap sprint race. A 25 minute GT race is nice equating to 15 laps for me on the Ducati 800. But thats only nice for the guys participating in the GT races.