Over the Summer Season we all need to work on getting spectators to events.
The last Supertourers round at Pukekohe attracted a better than average crowd. I believe this was due to the race card and the inclusion of the Truck Races to the event.
The recent Drift Shifters Event had a huge crowd even though there was an oversupply of motorsport on offer that weekend, with Thunder in the Park, Bikes at Hampton Downs for their National Championship round, and Speedway at Western Springs.
The recent Highlands GT Series and 101 meeting was down on spectators, even though they were trying to grow the event.
Below is a post I put elsewhere else some time ago which is still relevant.
For events to be viable, you need to realize that we are in the entertainment business.
Punters want to see exciting racing in fast and entertaining classes with large grid sizes, and meet both legendary and famous drivers.
The Australian Grand Prix in 2013 cost the Victorian taxpayer $60 million, but of note was that $2 million of this was attributed to Mark Webbers retirement.
The 2013 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Philip Island cost the Victorian Govt $11.27 million, and a $5 million drop in ticket sales was attributed to Casey Stoners retirement.
When legends like Jim Richards are guests at events, ticket sales go up.
I see that a recent announcement that Mad Mike will be appearing at the Highlands 101 in November will be a commercial decision by them to attract an additional sector of the spectator market.
Rumour is that Pukekohe will feature truck racing at the November NZ SuperTourer meeting, thus attracting additional spectators.
It is good to see a bit of lateral thinking going on behind the scenes for the coming season.
It would be advantageous to gain other peoples assistance with this one.
We need bums on seats this summer