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ISC expecting difficulties with ticket sales for 2008
By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor
Thursday, April 10, 2008
International Speedway Corp. had less-than-expected admission revenues from Martinsville Speedway two weeks ago and is anticipating a challenging environment for ticket sales the rest of the season, according to comments made during a conference call with financial analysts Wednesday.
ISC’s overall prerace ticket sales are behind in the “high single-digits” from last year, ISC Chief Operating Officer John Saunders said. While ISC has changed the timing of its renewals that could affect prerace sales, Saunders said that fans also are deciding later to buy tickets.
In order to boost ticket sales, ISC has kept many of its ticket prices comparable, offering more payment plans and increasing camping areas.
“Our trends right now are down,” Saunders said. “It’s no secret what’s happened in the economy and particularly this downturn is consumer driven.
“It’s something that hasn’t happened at this level in decades.”
Saunders also said ISC might need to spend more in promotions and advertising. Even if ticket sales are slow a month before the event, it is difficult for tracks to scale back on plans because of the potential of more fans buying tickets in the days leading up to the event.
“If people are purchasing their tickets closer to race day, it’s hard for us to change our cost structure that far out,” ISC spokesman Wes Harris said. “We want to continue to have a premium experience.”
On a positive admissions note, Speedweeks was good for ISC as it not only sold out the Daytona 500 but also had more than a five percent increase in attendance for the 150-mile qualifying races and more than a 5 percent increase in combined attendance for the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series events.
As for Martinsville, ISC officials blamed the economy as well as inclement weather on race day.
ISC officials did not indicate how the California weekend fared as far as attendance, just calling the weekend “successful.”
In other news, ISC:
- spent $1 million in preparing for Kentucky Speedway’s appeal of the track’s antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and ISC;
- and has sold race entitlements for all but one Sprint Cup and two Nationwide races, compared with three Cup and two Nationwide races remaining a year ago.
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