If there are two things that all racers can agree on, it’s putting more money in their pocket and seeing their motorsport grow. Truth is, it’s really hard to make both of those things happen at the same time, and it requires a delicate balance of stakeholder interests to even stand a chance.
There are three main stakeholders in growing your sport: the racers, the tracks, and the series. Each stand to benefit from the growth of your motorsport, and each is required to provide service to do so. Imbalance between these stakeholders can prevent the growth of your sport.
We’re the racers. What next?
It’s important to understand where our circle of control starts and ends. Pretty consistently, I hear “our tracks should do this…” and “our series should do that…” but very seldom do I hear what we, as racers, have direct control over. Let me tell you, that approach won’t change anything. It hasn’t yet. It never will. Racers need to be the solution, not the problem, or this will never work.
As you’re reading or listening to the rest of the blog post, think in terms of “I.” If you find yourself thinking about a deficit in your series, ask yourself “what can I do to fill that gap?” If your first thought is about what a track is doing wrong, ask yourself “How can I make this better?” You can’t control what they do, but you can find solutions to make it better for yourself, for your fans, and for your partners.
But racing is expensive. How does money come into play?
Let’s pretend your motorsport is a bucket and there are three people standing around it. There are three, crisp $5 bills in the bucket. The first person represents the tracks in your circuit. They take one of the $5 bills out of the bucket and use it to upgrade their facility, paint signs, put fuel in the heavy equipment, and advertise your race. After the race, they put $5 back in the bucket in the form of additional racer payouts and a fee to the series.
The second person represents the series, and they take $5 out of the bucket, too. They use their $5 to pay their staff, host a website, pay for a livestream, print programs, and advertise your races. After the race, they put $5 back in the bucket in the form of race payouts, and year-end-championship money.
You win a race, and you get to take the last $5 bill out of the bucket. You use it to fix your racecar after the last race and for fuel and food for the next race. After the race, you put $5 back in the bucket in the form of registration fees, camping fees, and wristbands for the next event.
The bucket has $15 in it, again.
Now let’s tip this bucket a little. Racers are displeased with the high expenses and low payouts. I know, this sounds completely fictional so bear with me (::sarcasm::). They request higher payouts from the series and free wristbands from the track. The racer takes $6 from the bucket and only puts $4 back in. The series puts in $6 to cover the higher payouts, and they take $5 out for their normal expenses. They’re taking a loss this year, so they cut the livestream budget. That means only the pros are getting TV time this year. The track still has to put $5 in the bucket, too, but they didn’t have quite as much income this year, since they gave away free wristbands, and they only have $4 left to take out of the bucket. The tracks have to cut their budget, too, so this year they cut advertising, and there’s a 15% decrease in attendance.
The bucket has $15 in it, again, but at what cost. Your motorsport hasn’t grown at all, and now, it’s even less desirable to sponsors and fans. They can’t watch sportsman racing on the livestream, and 15% fewer people even know your race is happening.
Let’s tip the bucket the other way, now. This time, instead of going into the bucket for the extra $2 they got in the prior example, the racer steps away from the bucket and waves down a snazzy gal in a business suit. She likes what she sees. She’s got customers who relate to the driver and would buy more widgets from her if the driver was a representative for them. She gives the racer $5 to partner with her to get more sales. The racer needs a little more space to activate the product, so they buy two pit sites this year. They put the business lady’s $5 bill in the bucket for their normal expenses and only have to shell out $1 of their own money for the extra pit site.
There are $16 in the bucket.
We can’t grow our motorsports without putting more money in the bucket. And we can’t get more money from a bucket that only has $15 in it. The answer is in seeking funds from outside of our bucket. Find creative ways to reach new audiences. Bring new sponsors into your sport. Collaborate with the other stakeholders instead of working against them. We’re all working towards growing our bucket.