Motorsports – Word of the year: Value

While enjoying my holiday away from school, I’ve had some precious time to reflect on my experience in Orlando at the Motor Sport Business Forum. Among almost every session, I found the distinguished panels to keep repeating one word: VALUE.

I want to a share a few memorable anecdotes.

Eddie Gossage, President of Texas Motor Speedway, was asked a question about what his track has done to ease the burden on fans at the track. According to focus groups conducted in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the ability to bring a cooler into the racetrack and free parking are two amenities that set TMS apart from any other sporting option in the region. Contrast that to the new Texas Stadium, home of Jerry Jones’s Dallas Cowboys where it costs $75 just to park a single vehicle!

While some perceive the series to be struggling, IRL President, Terry Angstadt was able to shed a lot of light on American open-wheel racing, which I know far less about. Clothing company IZOD originally began a relationship with IndyCar as an Official Apparel sponsor in 2009. It has since embraced the diversity that IndyCar represents (having a driver lineup far more diverse, with many competitive foreign and female drivers), and wanted to increase involvement. Starting in 2010, the IRL has changed its name to the IZOD IndyCar Series. It will kick off 2010 with a third race outside of the US, on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in addition to races held in Toronto and Japan.

NHRA President, Tom Compton, spoke about the objective of delivering value to four main constituents. First, the fan – through delivering high quality entertainment. Second, the sponsors – using the sport as a vehicle to sell products, services, or promote awareness. Third, the tracks – holding their events provides income, and long-term stability for the series. Last, the competitors – by maintaining the prestige of the series to provide satisfaction and an income.

Susan Lute, from Canadian Tire, title sponsor of NASCAR Canada, laid out four strong points for when a company searches to activate their sponsorship. First, objectives for your plan must be defined. Deviating from those objectives can cause you to lose sight and miss your point. Second, move from “I think,” to “I know.” Third, a company’s goal should invest in a marketing message that reaches 100% of your intended target. Last, this would apply for any working relationship, being excited about working together helps both parties succeed.

To conclude, Eddie Gossage and TMS have worked to increase the value for fans by keeping a little bit of cash in fans wallets. The IZOD IndyCar Series has a more diverse culture, which has attracted new partners. NHRA has outlined who they serve, and strive to meet their goal. Canadian Tire, has outlined their strategy which not only increases value (sales) for the company, but experiences a mutually beneficial relationship working with NASCAR Canada.

These just a few pieces of information I was able to pick up while attending the Motor Sport Business Forum. I hope you find it interesting. Please, feel free to ask questions or leave comments. I look forward to responding to your thoughts and writing more over the next few weeks.

As always, follow me on Twitter, connect via LinkedIn, or email kylecedington@gmail.com.

In-race Social Media Interaction

Every year I look forward to watching the four restrictor plate races at Talladega and Daytona. The unpredictability, tense and tight 30 car packs, create a must watch event. After the wild finish at Talladega in the spring, when Carl Edwards attempted to block Brad Keselowski, and left Edward airborne and in the fence, NASCAR has implemented a number of changes.

A. First and foremost, the speedway raised and improved the catchfence, for fans safety. There were a few minor injuries after the spring race when debris from Edwards car hit the fence. 
B. NASCAR made a change to the size of the restrictor plate carburetor, reducing the power to keep the top speed below 200 miles per hour.
C. This final change is one that is somewhat controversial. Due to the design of the cars, when two line up bumper to bumper, the aerodynamics create such an effect that the two cars can pull away from the pack of cars. [It was truly exciting to see the strategy work when the two cars become one and charge through the field.] So after final practice on Friday, NASCAR made a change stating that cars need "daylight" between them and can no longer push bumper to bumper through the corners. 


Needless to say the style of racing has changed today, as I'm watching the race. Many have been upset from drivers to fans with the mid-weekend change. While I'm a little sad to see the change made, I do realize that it was made to keep the competitors safe; I figured I'd check to see if there was any activity on the NASCAR Facebook page. The following quotes are from some opinionated fans posting on the NASCAR Facebook wall during the middle of the race.


"Nascar isn’t saying anything now to em, hmmm, maybe [NASCAR President] Mike [Helton] got his head out of his ass!"
"Looks like a IRL race""Finally a little bit of excitement, ok Nascar time for you to step in with your warnings, its getting to crazy.""Come NASCAR, REALLY? This race sucks! I'm so pissed that's about as nice as I can be right now!""Did nascar ok this 3 wide?""there more excitment on this board then on the tv""It's bad when right now I am watching the Cleveland Browns more than the race"

While the middle of the race was a little boring, the end is sure to be gratifying. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to he race. Enjoy

Is NASCAR Opening Up?

Often considered the sport most heavily dictated by executives, NASCAR may be opening up a bit. If so, it is only a small estimate. NASCAR is at least providing an easy avenue for which to interact and communicate with fans.

Starting last week, NASCAR is going 2.0! One of my favorite blogs to read, The Daily Planet, released an article last week, discussing how NASCAR officials have expanded their offerings on the web to MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook (You will find each of the NASCAR pages linked). In addition to the article, I also obviously noted the signage on the NASCAR.com homepage (which is operated by Turner-Sports) touting the new and enhanced community features.

The development that seemed of the greatest importance, noted by The Daily Planet, was the MySpace page. Last time I used MySpace was in high school, and I deactivated my account. Instead, I am on Twitter following the official NASCAR account, in addition to the tweets posted from NASCAR_com.
Since I started studying the social media phenomena, the main idea is that everything revolves around relationships. Considered a fan friendly sport, NASCAR seems to be providing an easier, more direct line of communication for fans. After all, we the fans are what make the sport go round, or at least what I'm supposed to believe.

The first topic of conversation I noticed on the Facebook, Twitter, and NASCAR.com home page was the topic of a shift to more two-day events. For you non-NASCAR followers, the average race weekend consists of arriving at the track Thursday night, qualifying on Friday, and practice Saturday, before the race on Sunday. The thought is to condense the weekend by practicing and qualifying on Saturday and go racing on Sunday. Logistically, a two-day weekend would work wonders for a team's financial burden of travel and hotel accommodations.

My opinion aside (although I’m not opposed), the various sites lead fans to places like the Community on NASCAR.com or direct Twitter followers to comment on the Facebook page, to leave opinions and thoughts. On Tuesday, the Facebook page had 145 comments. As of Friday evening, I saw more than 560! What a great way to easily, and relatively effortlessly gain voluntary opinions.

Knowing that the stakeholders besides fans, like track-holding companies, team owners, etc, will have a greater influence over any major decisions, NASCAR has proved that they are willing to make changes to please fans and generate better competition (i.e. Double-File Restarts). Plus, any way that owners can save more money to help the cars go faster, should have support in the garage area.

Of all these advances with the social media and the sport I love, I have a couple concerns/thoughts:

1.      People take the opportunity to speak with some authority and intelligence (yes I’m aware of the NASCAR stereotypes)

2.      NASCAR continues to learn and grow with the social media trend, and establish stronger relationships

3.      Hire me! I’ll help do it!

That’s my time for the evening. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, or take any other ideas to blog about in the future.

How do you watch your sports?

I think it is fair to say that the advances of social media has really changed many aspects of our lives. Not only do we have the ability to notify everyone (who subscribes) on Twitter, what we are doing at any particular moment, we cam share images via Flickr, or share our opinions on a blog, recently, social media has recently made its way on to my television during sporting events - NASCAR specifically.

I've always been biased towards the NASCAR on FOX coverage, because I grew up a fan of Darrell Waltrip. Also, I can't get enough of the veteran commentator, Mike Joy, lead pit reporter, Dr. Dick Berggren, and number crunching-guru of the garage-tech Larry McReynolds.

However, Kyle Petty, since stepping out of the car and into the booth, he has proved he is all about the fans. Using his Twitter account, before, during, and after the race, Kyle is always tweeting something unique going on. He also responds to questions from fans during races.

One particular moment I recall during the July race at Daytona, there were a number of wrecks. Television viewers are accustomed to getting interviews with drivers after they fall out of contention. Petty stated that he was getting lots of questions about why no drivers were being interviewed after falling out. His response was that all the teams/drivers/crews were busy repairing cars or were back out on the track, and unavailble for comments.

I can recall a number of times during races I've watched where the commentator fail to connect to the fans parts of the current storylines. Twitter, and Kyle Petty have helped bridge that gap.

In addition to the race itself, Michael Waltrip, a driver/panelist, on weekly re-cap show, This Week In NASCAR (TWIN), occasionally invites viewers to Twitter along with him during the broadcast of the show on the SPEED Channel.

It only makes me think that it won't be long before more sports commentators will take the time to learn Twitter, and utilize it during broadcasts for a more interactive experience. More-so than any single "mailbag" or trivia question has ever done.

How do you feel about making televised sporting events more interactive? I think there will be an increased quality of coverage, by letting fans ask pertinent questions, but also, not let it consume the commentators task at hand calling the game.