Silly question...but...

[EmerWil]

Ok...Here's something I don't understand. ClearChannel Entertainment is the parent company of CCS, right? right.

CCE owns dozens of radio stations nationwide.  Why aren't they promoting CCS racing events, or for that matter any of the racing events that fall under CCE's ownership.  You think it would be easy if CCE passed down a bunch of ad's to the local stations and said "here..play these".

The only reason I could think that they wouldn't do that was that the spots were taking away from paying customers.  Is CCE not interested in CCS being successful?

Not a sermon, just a thought...

 ???

[CCS243]

Will,

Not a silly question at all.  Clear Channel would be glad to charge CCS for ads  :o, just as they do for any of their venues or operations, such as Nissan Pavillion, monster trucks, etc, etc.  ::)

[EmerWil]

Art,

 There must be some politics there I am not privy to.

Why they wouldn't want a subsidiary to do well i don't understand.  Why couldn't clearchannel send one of their DJ's out to do their show from Summit on a Friday .  It's all money that's coming back to CCE in the end or not as the case might be.

shrug..It just doesn't make sense.

[G 97]

Art,

 There must be some politics there I am not privy to.

Why they wouldn't want a subsidiary to do well i don't understand.  Why couldn't clearchannel send one of their DJ's out to do their show from Summit on a Friday .  It's all money that's coming back to CCE in the end or not as the case might be.

shrug..It just doesn't make sense.

Who says CCS is not doing well.  Last time I looked the grids at most races in all classes were quite full.  Here in the Midwest they even run three different regions that run about %80 of the same schedule.  A marketing plan designed to obtain more race entries while at the same time utilizing basically the same region and same race tracks.  
Clear Channel's support for CCS has very little to do with a desire to obtain spectators.  It's all about race entry fees.  From what I see the number of racers have steadily increased over the years so why would Clear Channel want to spend any money on promoting events.   I question whether they would get any additional spectators anyway, as those who are interested in motorcycle racing are in the know and are already attending the events.  

[MightyDuc Racing]

Garth...that's not true at all!  Most motorcycle enthusiasts have no idea that we are racing a certain weekend...how would they?  At my new job, there are 7 guys that ride all the time, and another few that ride occasionally.  Until I started racing, they had no idea they could go to a road race a few hours away. ;)

[tigerblade]

I agree.  Sure, the hardcore enthusiasts are going to seek out the racing on their own.  But if there are radio spots etc., you never know if it might pique the curiosity of someone who just hasn't been exposed to roadracing.  It's the same concept behind all the impulse items in the checkout lane of a grocery store.  Put the product in front of people and they just might buy something they didn't know they were in the market for.

[EmerWil]

I dunno...

maybe I think too much..maybe I am over-simplifying things but you'd think that CCE would want to do everything they could to make CCS and their other motorsport events as profitable as possible.

So what if Summit takes half the gate. If an extra 1000 people come because of the radio ads wouldn't that be worth it??

[spyderchick]

CCS races are considered a "club" event while F-USA weekends are considered spectator events, and get the benefit of some promotion. As far as the reasoning? Couldn't tell ya. Ask Kevin Elliott.

[StumpysWife]

We didn't even know CCS existed until we went to Road America's cycle fest last August just because it was a "bike thing".  We were just big fans of AMA racing and bikes in general.  Stumpy learned that this was a way for average people to get involved in racing without having to be a hardcore AMA racer--and now we are up to our neck in it!  

At that race, Stumpy talked to several CCS guys about getting started and they were all so helpful. He found his own race bike the next week and the rest is history.  

(I've heard from a CCE employee that CCS is the "redheaded stepchild of CCE"--take it however you'd like.)

[BC61]

Each business is it's own entity and has it's own accounting, projections and budgets to work with. CCE charges CCS just like any other bussiness, CCS determines if it is worth it to them to spend the cash. If CCE doesn't charge CCS they aren't making any money. The money CCS might make in spectator revenue will never be seen by CCE. CCS is club racing, if CCE was trying to make a play in the pro racing arena against the AMA then they might have an incentive.


Mightyduck, since your friends know about racing in the area, do they attend as spectators on a regular basis?

[MightyDuc Racing]

Actually, I have brought many new people to the track so far this year, and am gonna bring in a few new racers by the end of this year or the beginning of next as well.  The people at my work are planning on attending at least two of the four remaining rounds this year.

[EmerWil]

Each business is it's own entity and has it's own accounting, projections and budgets to work with. CCE charges CCS just like any other bussiness, CCS determines if it is worth it to them to spend the cash. If CCE doesn't charge CCS they aren't making any money. The money CCS might make in spectator revenue will never be seen by CCE. CCS is club racing, if CCE was trying to make a play in the pro racing arena against the AMA then they might have an incentive.


Mightyduck, since your friends know about racing in the area, do they attend as spectators on a regular basis?

BC,
      All very good points.  But what was CCE's motivation to take over CCS and the other motorsports? Take a look at CCE Motorsports Division web page:

http://www.clearchannel.com/entertainment/div_motor.php

 They talk about attendance being up xx% at a particular indoor motocross event. Of course they care about attendence and spectators. There has to be a reason that CCE bought in.  They also talk about acquiring the IHRA.  I hope that CCE didn't just 'gobble' up CCS in an effort to corner the market on certain motorsports.