I'm Changing Our Events Strategy Forever

Cleetus2 McFarland
28 Apr 202408:21

Summary

TLDRThe speaker discusses the changing landscape of racing events, emphasizing that traditional races are no longer enough to draw crowds. They share their experience from the Freedom 500 event, which was a success due to its variety of attractions beyond racing, such as concerts and fireworks. The speaker reveals that for their upcoming Cletus event at the Indianapolis Raceway, they've made last-minute additions like a fireworks team and a van Prix to enhance the experience. They express a desire to see other racetrack promoters innovate and invest in creating a more engaging 'show' to fill seats and ensure the sustainability of racing events. The summary calls for a shift in mindset to prevent empty stands at future races.

Takeaways

  • 🏎️ The speaker believes that traditional racing events are no longer sufficient to draw crowds due to the ease of watching highlights and replays at home.
  • 🎉 The Freedom 500 event was a success because it incorporated concerts, fireworks, monster trucks, a van Prix, and burnouts, creating a multifaceted show that sold out.
  • 📈 The speaker has decided to enhance their own racing events by adding fireworks and a van Prix to the lineup for the upcoming Cletus event at Indy.
  • 🔥 They have also expanded the burnout pad to make the event more engaging and to give people a reason to attend beyond just the races.
  • 📲 The speaker acknowledges that people can easily watch racing events from their phones, which makes it a challenge for physical events to compete.
  • 💰 There is an emphasis on making the event worth the cost for attendees, considering the expenses of admission, food, and other potential costs.
  • 🚧 The speaker is calling for other racetrack promoters to innovate and invest in their events to prevent declining attendance and financial struggles.
  • 🚀 The brand CLE McFarland is committed to no longer doing the same thing they have been doing for the past 15 years and is looking to continuously improve their shows.
  • 🎟️ The speaker encourages people to buy tickets for the upcoming event at Luke Sol Raceway, promising a better experience than the previous year.
  • 🏆 There is a mention of a yet-to-be-determined prize for the event, indicating that there will be more than just the racing to look forward to.
  • 🌟 The speaker aspires to create an event that is not just a racing event but a show, using examples like Taylor Swift and the Savannah Bananas to illustrate the concept of reinvention and added entertainment value.

Q & A

  • What is the main topic of discussion in the transcript?

    -The main topic is the speaker's opinion on the current state of racing events and the need for innovation to attract audiences.

  • What is the event called 'Cletus' scheduled for?

    -The Cletus event is scheduled for the weekend of May 3rd and 4th.

  • What changes were made to the event at the last minute?

    -The last-minute changes included adding fireworks, bringing in a van Prix, and expanding the burnout pad to make the event more appealing.

  • Why does the speaker believe that just racing is not enough to attract people anymore?

    -The speaker believes that with the availability of high-quality entertainment and replays at home, racing events need to offer more than just the race to get people out of their houses.

  • What was the speaker's experience at the Freedom 500?

    -The speaker found the Freedom 500 to be mind-blowing, with a concert, fireworks, monster trucks, a van Prix, racing, and burnouts, which contributed to its sold-out status.

  • What is the speaker's strategy to keep people coming back to their events year after year?

    -The speaker's strategy is to continually add new elements and experiences to the events, such as concerts and fireworks, to keep them fresh and exciting.

  • Why is the speaker concerned about the future of racetracks?

    -The speaker is concerned because they believe that if racetracks do not innovate and offer more than just racing, they may struggle to fill seats and could potentially face financial difficulties.

  • What does the speaker suggest other racetrack promoters should do?

    -The speaker suggests that other racetrack promoters should invest in making their events more than just races by adding entertainment elements to create a show that is worth the audience's time and money.

  • How does the speaker plan to make the upcoming event at Luke Sol Raceway different from the previous year?

    -The speaker plans to make the event different by adding more attractions such as a concert, which was not present in the previous year.

  • What is the speaker's view on the importance of investing in the event experience?

    -The speaker views investing in the event experience as crucial for the survival and success of racing events, as it can help to prevent empty stands and financial struggles for racetracks.

  • What examples does the speaker give to illustrate the need for reinvention in entertainment?

    -The speaker cites Taylor Swift's evolving shows over 20 years and the Savannah Bananas baseball team's reinvention of baseball with entertaining antics as examples of the need for reinvention in entertainment.

Outlines

00:00

🚗 Evolution of Racing Events: Adding Entertainment Value

The speaker discusses the need for racing events to evolve beyond just the races to attract audiences. They mention their upcoming Cletus event at Indie on May 3rd and 4th, which includes a Crown Vic race and a burnout rivalry. Acknowledging that traditional racetracks are not as appealing as they once were, they share their experience at the Freedom 500, which was a sold-out event due to its diverse entertainment offerings, including concerts, fireworks, monster trucks, a van Prix, and burnouts. The speaker emphasizes the importance of providing more than just racing to get people out of their houses and into the stands. They have decided to add fireworks and a van Prix to their event, and have expanded the burnout pad to create a more enticing event. The goal is to continually improve and add new elements to each show to keep the audience engaged and coming back year after year.

05:02

💰 Investing in Entertainment to Fill the Stands

The speaker urges other racetrack promoters to invest in making their events more than just races, to ensure they can fill seats and remain financially viable. They express concern about the potential decline of racetracks due to a lack of audience engagement. The speaker's team has decided to invest in enhancing their events, aiming to create an experience that is worth the audience's time and money. They highlight the importance of offering a show that goes beyond racing, using examples like Taylor Swift's concerts and the Savannah Bananas baseball team, which have reinvented themselves to draw in crowds. The speaker is determined to move away from the traditional racing event model and create an experience that is memorable and entertaining. They also mention a star-studded driver's list for the upcoming event, indicating the level of investment they are making in the entertainment aspect of their racing events.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Cletus Event

The Cletus Event is a racing event that the speaker is organizing and discussing in the script. It is a key part of the narrative as the speaker talks about the changes and additions made to the event to attract more attendees. The event is used as an example to illustrate the need for innovation in racing events.

💡Racing Evolution

Racing Evolution refers to the changes and evolution that the speaker believes are necessary for racing events to remain appealing to the audience. The speaker suggests that simply racing is no longer sufficient to draw crowds and that events need to offer more diverse entertainment to be successful.

💡Freedom 500

The Freedom 500 is mentioned as an example of a successful racing event that incorporated additional entertainment elements such as a concert, fireworks, monster trucks, and a van Prix. This event was sold out and is used to highlight what the speaker considers a successful modern racing event that goes beyond traditional racing.

💡Van Prix

Van Prix is a type of racing event that was added to the Cletus Event at the last minute. It represents one of the new attractions that the speaker believes will help to draw a larger crowd and make the event more appealing. The addition of Van Prix to the Cletus Event is part of the strategy to transform the event into more than just a race.

💡Burnout Rival

Burnout Rival is an event that was part of the original plan for the Cletus Event. The speaker mentions plans to make the burnout pad bigger to enhance this part of the event. It is an example of how the speaker is trying to improve and expand on traditional racing event elements.

💡Fireworks

Fireworks are mentioned as one of the additional entertainment features that the speaker decided to include in the Cletus Event. They are part of the effort to make the event more than just a race and to provide a more comprehensive entertainment experience for attendees.

💡Investment in Entertainment

The speaker talks about the decision to invest money in enhancing the entertainment value of the racing events. This includes adding new features like fireworks and Van Prix, and making existing features like the burnout pad bigger. The investment is seen as necessary to compete with the ease of watching races from home and to fill seats at the events.

💡Empty Stands

Empty stands represent the problem that the speaker is trying to address through the changes made to the Cletus Event. The term is used to describe the decline in attendance at racing events, which the speaker believes is due to the lack of innovation and entertainment beyond the races themselves.

💡Racetrack Promoters

Racetrack promoters are the individuals or organizations responsible for organizing and promoting racing events. The speaker calls on these promoters to innovate and invest in their events to prevent declining attendance. The term is used to address the broader industry and encourage a shift in how racing events are presented.

💡Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is used as an example by the speaker to illustrate the success that comes from constantly evolving and reinventing one's show. The speaker compares the need for racing events to evolve in a similar way to maintain interest and fill seats, drawing a parallel between the entertainment industry and racing events.

💡Savannah Bananas

The Savannah Bananas are a baseball team known for their entertaining approach to the sport. They are mentioned as an example of how reinvention and added entertainment can attract a crowd. The speaker uses them as an inspiration for how racing events can become more than just races, turning them into a show that people will want to attend.

Highlights

The speaker believes that traditional racing events are no longer enough to attract people to leave their homes.

The Cletus event at Indie on May 3rd and 4th includes the Crown Vic race and burnout rival.

A last-minute change of plans was made to the event to make it more appealing.

The speaker attended the Freedom 500 and was inspired by the variety of entertainment offered there, including concerts and fireworks.

The event at Indie will now feature fireworks and a van Prix, in addition to the racing.

The burnout pad at the event has been made bigger to enhance the experience.

The speaker argues that racing promoters need to innovate and offer more than just racing to get people to attend.

The speaker discusses the challenges of getting people to attend racing events when they can easily watch from home.

The Cletus brand is committed to not repeating the same events and is focused on adding new elements to each show.

The speaker urges other racetrack promoters to invest in making their events better to attract spectators.

The speaker mentions that they are willing to spend money to improve the quality of their events.

The event at Luke Sol Raceway promises more than what was offered last year, aiming to provide better value for attendees.

The speaker talks about taking a year off from Bristol due to declining attendance in the second year.

The speaker emphasizes the need to make events worth the cost for families, considering the expenses involved in attending.

There is a call to action for other track owners to be brave and invest in their events to prevent empty stands.

The speaker shares a list of notable drivers who will be participating in the event, indicating a high-profile lineup.

The speaker is seeking ideas for a prize for the event, showing engagement with the audience.

The speaker compares their approach to event organizing with successful examples like Taylor Swift and the Savannah Bananas baseball team.

The overall message is a commitment to creating more than just a racing event, but an entertaining show to prevent empty stands in the future.

Transcripts

00:00

all right so guys I got a quick

00:02

interesting discussion for this

00:04

evening and uh you know this is only my

00:07

opinion so take it or leave it don't

00:10

matter to me but you know I've got our

00:13

Cletus event in Indie this weekend May

00:16

3rd and 4th we've got the Crown Vic race

00:19

Friday night we've got burnout rival

00:21

Saturday and we're all geared up ready

00:23

to go but we've we've made a last minute

00:25

change of plans the thing is is that

00:28

racetracks and racing events are what

00:32

they used to be you know they're not I

00:35

can't say they're not what they used to

00:37

be they are what they used to be like I

00:40

think that you can go to the track and

00:43

see essentially the same thing you could

00:46

have seen 15 years ago which is cool but

00:51

I think that racing itself is no longer

00:55

enough to get people out of their houses

00:59

so you know I I saw the freedom 500 for

01:03

myself which was a couple weeks ago on

01:05

my birthday at the freedom Factory and

01:08

it was mindblowing right it was amazing

01:11

we had a

01:12

concert we had fireworks we had monster

01:15

trucks we had a van Prix we had racing

01:18

we had burnouts and it was

01:21

incredible and it was sold out because

01:23

of of the show just being that awesome

01:26

and we implemented all this new stuff

01:28

and I think that's why it sold out

01:30

well Indie you know for example we've

01:34

done the same thing for the last three

01:35

years and it has been big but I was just

01:39

talking with Josh and I'm like how do we

01:41

how are we going to get people to come

01:43

back year after year after year if we're

01:45

just doing the same thing so we just

01:49

decided all right we're adding fireworks

01:51

we got our fireworks team on board we

01:54

call Jim York we're adding the van Prix

01:56

the van Prix is now coming to India

02:02

for this weekend so it it's locked in

02:05

for

02:06

Friday and then we're like let's make

02:08

the burnout pad bigger so we talked to

02:10

Indie they made the burnout pad bigger

02:13

all this stuff was not that hard to add

02:16

and I feel like boom now we have a

02:17

reason for people to look forward to

02:20

this event versus whatever just

02:23

expecting to see the same thing and I

02:25

think that's probably a more significant

02:28

issue than just my events like I was

02:32

thinking about it I like man all these

02:33

drag races I've been to they they've

02:35

been the same for the last three or four

02:38

years maybe five years and

02:41

I man I feel like it's got to just

02:45

be real close for uh for people to

02:49

decide whether they just stay home for

02:51

the day or go to the track and spend $20

02:54

to watch it in person because everything

02:57

is so easy to watch at home right now

02:59

you you can see the the highlight reels

03:02

you can see you know replays perfect

03:05

footage from Freedom plus you know

03:08

whatever which is great but for guys

03:11

like me I want people in the stands

03:13

there at the event and for racetracks

03:15

all around the country they're probably

03:16

wondering like why is it so hard to get

03:18

people in seats these days well it's

03:20

because they can get the finest

03:22

entertainment they could possibly want

03:24

right at their phone and uh the truth of

03:29

it is racing is just not enough anymore

03:31

we're doing the same a lot a lot of us a

03:34

lot of guys are doing the same thing

03:37

they were doing 15 years ago with these

03:39

tracks which for some of them it might

03:42

work just

03:43

fine but here at the CLE McFarland

03:48

brand I'm telling you that it we're

03:52

we're done with that we're not doing the

03:54

same thing anymore

03:56

like we're we're it's only up from here

03:59

we're at adding things to every single

04:01

show now once I saw the freedom 500 we

04:04

can't go back and yes we were late to

04:08

adding stuff to Indie for this weekend

04:10

it's literally this Friday and Saturday

04:12

but we did it so now when I tell you to

04:16

hit the link in the description and grab

04:18

tickets to Luke Sol Raceway for this

04:19

weekend I want you to know when you come

04:22

you are going to see much more than last

04:25

year and it's going to be better than

04:27

last year and I'm confident when I say

04:30

that and next year expect a concert and

04:33

the year after that I don't know expect

04:35

something better I don't know why but

04:37

the last three years I've been doing the

04:38

same events you know all over the

04:40

country and uh you know when you go to a

04:43

place like Bristol and it's exciting

04:45

yeah you can get a ton of people to show

04:46

up the first year but you know the

04:48

second year the crowd was definitely

04:50

lighter and that's why we're taking a

04:52

year off from Bristol but it's like I'm

04:55

realizing it it really

04:57

wasn't just that it's the fact that I

04:59

was doing the same thing so I'm not

05:02

doing that anymore and I wanted you guys

05:05

to know that so I was just thinking

05:06

about that today and I hope other

05:08

racetrack

05:09

promoters can get ahead of this before

05:11

they're like damn we don't have enough

05:13

people in the seats to pay bills CU I

05:15

don't want to see RAC tracks go down

05:17

just

05:17

because they didn't do enough to get

05:19

their Spectators there and make it worth

05:21

their dollar you

05:24

know it's just got to be worth these

05:26

people's dollar to just if you bring a

05:29

family I mean it's 80 bucks right there

05:31

at the gate plus food plus you know

05:34

whatever it may be

05:36

so I think it's just time to invest and

05:39

uh we have certainly pulled the trigger

05:41

on that so we are Full Speed Ahead

05:44

dropping cash to make these events

05:46

better and I I hope other track owners

05:49

can be brave enough too to invest

05:51

because it's going to take time to make

05:53

the events insane and then word get out

05:55

that it's like hey you can't miss this

05:58

you know you can't miss it is what I

06:00

want you guys leaving Clevon cars Indie

06:02

telling your friends for next year I

06:04

mean it cuz I mean you can come see let

06:06

me pull up the drivers list you can come

06:08

see LS George C McFarland Ty Zack and

06:13

Jack from the shop Kyle from booster

06:15

boys gray lead better from the van PRI

06:18

at the freedom 500 Brent from PFI speed

06:20

hope he doesn't fight ksr Kevin maybe

06:23

they will Kevin from ksr is racing as

06:26

well Demolition Ranch Matt Brad de

06:28

birdie Roman app wood my helicopter boy

06:31

JH diesel Justin from Heatwave visual

06:34

Jim York Jeremiah Burton from donut

06:37

Jimmy's world he freaking rebuilds

06:39

airplanes what's he doing on this list

06:41

Derek from Vice group garage it's going

06:43

to be a heater of a driver's list and

06:45

also if you have an idea for a prize I

06:47

don't have a prize yet but I'm just

06:50

saying that's what you're getting and

06:52

more now we're done with just the racing

06:56

it ain't enough and I'm here telling you

06:58

that right now

07:00

so when you come to my event you see

07:02

more than racing you see a show I'm just

07:04

saying look at Taylor Swift not trying

07:07

to compare myself to Taylor Swift she's

07:09

been at it for 20 years and now her

07:12

shows generate

07:15

billions of dollars you think she's been

07:18

doing the same thing for those 20 years

07:21

or how about a good example the Savannah

07:24

bananas I don't know if you've seen that

07:26

baseball team those guys have reinvented

07:31

baseball and I don't know a ton about it

07:33

but I've seen so many Clips these guys

07:36

are dancing on the mound doing funny

07:38

stuff during the event and theyve

07:40

probably got more people in their seats

07:43

than half the MLB teams out there so I

07:45

just I'm trying to be on that level in

07:49

racing and I think all of us promoters

07:52

should be thinking in this mindset how

07:55

do we make it not just a racing event

07:58

but a show

08:00

because I think that's the path we all

08:02

need to be on to prevent empty stands in

08:06

the near future at racing events across

08:09

the country I'm not saying it's going to

08:10

happen immediately I'm just saying let's

08:12

get ahead of it let's be on it brother

08:15

all right guys that's your thoughts with

08:17

cleer for tonight get some tickets for

08:18

Indie this weekend that's all I got to

08:20

say see you

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Verwandte Tags
Cletus EventIndie RacingConcertFireworksVan PrixBurnout RivalTrack EntertainmentRacing ShowFamily FunEvent InnovationSports Entertainment
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