Markin Consulting’s Fair Assessment
Last week, Markin Consulting presented an assessment of the viability of the Tennessee State Fair to the Fair Board. You can view the assessment from their website or you can view it here by clicking this link: Summary Report TSF Assessment.
The gist of the report is that for the fair to continue to be viable, the Fair Board needs to reinvent the fair as a true state fair. Right now it’s basically just the Davidson County Fair.
Another interesting item in the assessment is the revenue numbers. While revenue from the fair itself almost doubled in the 10 years from 1997 to 2007, the same cannot be said for the revenue from the speedway. In 1997, the speedway gave back almost $400,000 to the Fair Board. In 2007, the speedway accounted for a paltry $50,000.
At the end of the meeting last week, Markin said that if the track was to continue to be leased in the future, it would have to bring in more than it’s bringing in now and the track operator would need to have a good financial track record. Keep in mind that 10 years ago, Bob Harmon was running the track, and there were three major races each year, at least two of which brought in TV dollars.
But Markin is right; the track does need someone with a good financial standing, and someone who can perhaps bring in another sanctioning body to bring more interest to the track. Personally, I’d like to see an ARCA race there. I also think they had the right idea with having AMA there with the supermoto races, but alas, lack of marketing kept that event from being a success.
There will be a public meeting on May 28 at 7 pm in Wilson Hall to hear the options for the future use of the Fairgrounds. Hopefully one of those uses will be as a venue to hold motor sports.
2 Responses to “Markin Consulting’s Fair Assessment”
By Rob S on May 14, 2008
While I agree that $50,000 in revenue is not enough for the speedway to be considered worthwhile to the fair board, they need to realize that the landscape of stock car racing itself is much different than it was 10 years ago. There are several reasons for this, and I think when combined, they could account for much of the $350,000 difference in revenue.
In 1997, there were 12 Busch and Craftsman ruck races at tracks which also hosted weekly events. In 2007, there was one such race between the two series (CTS- Mansfield).
Also, in 1997, both TNN and ESPN often televised races of lower divisions (ASA, ARCA, All Pro), now only Speed shows anything beyond Nascar’s “Big 3″. Even then, those events are rarely live (with the exception of ARCA) and are usually condensed to an hour. The demise of TNN was a deathblow for ASA, and Nascar’s new TV deal in 2001 virtually eliminated any racing coverage on ESPN for the next several years.
In 1997, the ASA and All Pro series were both strong short track series and were regularly televised. Now, neither is in existence. While the new ASA and CRA have somewhat filled the void for viable short track series, neither has any sort of major television coverage, and other than fans who regularly read Late Model Digest, no one knows who a majority of the drivers are.
The way I see it, Nascar and CBS are equally responsible for killing short track racing nationwide. Nascar took premier series away from the venues that needed their draw the most. They also eliminated the All Pro series. CBS killed TNN, and the ASA by association (I’m not a dirt track expert, but I would bet that the WoO is missing TNN’s regular coverage as well). Couple these two facts with Dover Downs leaving the Fairgrounds for dead, and it is easy to see where the $350,000 went.
I don’t know that the nature of modern stock car racing will allows for any way to recoup those losses. As you said, an ARCA race would help, as would a return of the Hooter’s ProCup series, but even then there is a void. The AMA bikes could help, and the Major League of Monster Trucks could give Live Nation/Monster Jam a run for the Speed TV deal in the next few years, so it might be good to host that series. The only way for the Fairgrounds to bring in the revenue it once saw is to think outside the box. Hopefully current and future promoters and lease holders will be able to do just that.
Unfortunately I think that even if the fair board was aware of these facts, they wouldn’t care. If it is indeed all about the bottom line, I’m afraid the Fairgrounds may be in trouble
By Glen Harness on May 14, 2008
Rob, I hope you’re going to be at the meeting on the 28th. Hopefully Markin knows about the conditions you talk about here. While I certainly don’t expect the track to make as much money as it did when it had major touring series coming, $50,000 certainly seems like way too little for that facility.