Editorial: A successful giveaway only happens once

The big talk this week is about the Free Admission special at I-80 this Sunday. That's right - grandstand admission is free. No buy one, get one, no coupon, no card...walk in the door and sit down.

I can't think of a time when I've seen this. But these times (I wouldn't say 'desperate') call for those measures. And by that, I mean things that haven't been seen before.

Now, let's get something clear. With all apologies to my 8-and-under readers (yeah), there's no such thing as Santa Claus at Christmas and he ain't there in the summer either. Despite all the terms used for similar promotions in the past: "Fan Appreciation," "Family Appreciation," "Salute to the Fan," and whatnot, this has nothing to do with giving back to the fan. Your contributions in the past are appreciated, but your continued help in the future is even more appreciated!

These events are a tool. One that has more in common with drug dealing - the first hit's free - than it does with charity.

The goal of course is to try to hook someone onto racing who have been held back by the admission price. Hopefully removing this hurdle gives the potential fan, or the part-time fan a reason to finally go.

It's advertising and marketing pure and simple. For the expense of the die-hard's front gate money, like buying an ad, they're spending that money on trying to bring in more people. As the saying goes, it doesn't cost anything to give away an empty seat. And the more empty the seats (again, I'm not saying it's 'empty'), the less the risk.

But, this isn't a bad thing! Applied judiciously this can be an effective marketing tool. Ideally, the increased fan count gives you that captive audience that is receptive to your other promotions. It can be very effective. And, if you hook them, you have a diehard happy to pay the $8-10 to get in each week. And contrary to some people's belief, you want the promoter to make money so say...rent, taxes, repairs, purse, payroll, upgrades, etc. get paid. What a concept.

As always, though there are those who ask, "why not do this every week?" Well, read above again and you'll see why not. You don't "make it up in beer and hotdogs." C'mon - do the math. Even if you made $2 per beer, it would take 5 beers/person to make that $10 lost at the front gate up, not to mention the extra labor to sell all that extra beer. Perhaps you brought a friend, but you still need to get to drinkin', remember you started $10 in the hole. And you better hope it isn't a cold night, or you need to roll out the Starbucks cart...and even a coffee-holic like me can't drink enough lattes to make up for that.

Another reason: you devalue the show. Why go on the $10 night when the $5 night is next week? Contrary to some fans' belief, the average attendee at any track that isn't pulling in just the friends and family of the racers is only there twice a month. If you went twice a month, do you go on the two weeks at $10 or one at 10 one at 5?

No track paying its own rent can afford that. Nor can they use backgate only revenue to bring you the big shows, with the big purses. And, as the back gate becomes the source of the money, who pays? The racers. Have you seen how many more races come with 'entry fees?' With that often comes more support classes paying less and less purse for the same amount of pit fee...sound familiar?

The REAL race fan will not whine for more of these discounts, they'll pack in as many people as they can to get them coming back out each week. The sport depends on it. Think of it as a stimulus package. But like the current attempt by the government, it comes at a price. The well can't be tapped too often.

Ideally, you would have to do this kind of promotion ONCE. Because once you have the demand why do it again? Why turn away the money? In the real world, you'd run it just enough to give those on the fence a kick off it and to your track, and nothing more.

Once the demand is there, you don't need more incentive.

Want an example of what demand for a good product does? What kind of discount do loyal customers get on the new iPhone? Zero. Because they'll buy it anyway.

And is Apple running off customers? The line outside the Apple store isn't the one going out.

-Jason