FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage went on for nearly five minutes talking about the pending demise of auto racing.
Then he stopped, explained his rant as sarcasm and shared the source of his message: a lengthy 1974 Sports Illustrated article that discussed a crisis in racing traced to the decline and fall of sponsor support.
While a sluggish ecomony is again having its effect on racing and the sponsors who help fund the sport, and he like everyone is concerned about what is happening, Gossage said Wednesday that NASCAR and other forms of racing are still healthy.
“I was reading the story,” Gossage said during the track’s annual media day. “Sure, (the economy) affects us. My point, though, is I’ve read this doom and gloom all winter long, all during the offseason, and I want to be clear, it doesn’t affect us anymore than any other sport.”
A friend who is a ticket manager for an NFL team just returned from a ticketing conference with representatives from NFL, MLB, and NBA teams, along with other motorsports venues. That friend told Gossage that all of them were expecting as much as a 25-percent decline in ticket sales this year. Other than to say the person wasn’t from the Dallas Cowboys, who are preparing to open a new $1.1 billion stadium, Gossage wouldn’t say which team the friend worked for.
“It doesn’t matter what the league, who it is, everybody is expecting it,” Gossage said. “You know it’s going to happen.”
Even Gossage expects a decrease for the Samsung 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race April 5. He doesn’t know to what extent that will be, but the track is doing what it can to keep the number low.
TMS announced in December that there would be some backstretch seats sold for $20, the lowest price for a Sprint Cup race at the track that opened in 1997. Those have sold out. The rest of the backstretch tickets are $40 each, and other individual tickets range from $86 to $135.
“Tracks have done a good job with dropping ticket prices, concession stand sales, things like that. That’s huge,” said NASCAR driver Ryan Newman, who was in Texas with car owner and teammate Tony Stewart. “NASCAR is a family sport. When it’s irrational to be able to spend money as a family to go to the race track, something needs to be done.”
Free parking has always been offered at Texas, where fans can bring coolers into the race. There has also been a plan for fans to set up their own individual payment plans for tickets, and track officials are now publicizing that option.
For the April race, TMS has suspended convenience fees applied to tickets purchased online, a savings of up to $9.50 per ticket. Prices will be reduced on some of the best-selling concession items, such as barbecue sandwiches and combo meals with hamburgers or hot dogs.
“By offering these fan-friendly policies, we think we can bridge these troubled waters for fans, keep them engaged, and when the good times return to our economy, we will enjoy a full measure of support from our fans,” Gossage said.
After reading several extended passages from that 1974 article, from an issue that featured Evel Knievel on the cover, Gossage said racing today has a “huge, healthy loyal audience” and that top corporations are still very involved in the sport.
“All of us need to be concerned,” Gossage said. “But there seems to be a misconception that motorsports is hit more than other sports. … We know probably it’s going to get worse before it gets better. But the fact of life is it will get better.”
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