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Yes, the media attending 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida to cover the 49th Annual Snowball Derby will have some rules they must agree too in order to cover the event, but try as anyone may, preventing the thousands of fans and team participants will not stop from making this event being noticed on social media.
No, there is nothing wrong with that. Why? Just think of the buzz the next five days will create leading up the milestone 50th Annual event next December. Five days of free advertising from the masses of people is not a bad thing. In just less than two hours into haulers parking on Wednesday, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram are already filling up with different people’s take of what they are seeing with this great event, and you know what, that is a good thing. My friends at Speed51.com will do an awesome job of providing coverage as the official media source for the event, but at the same time, those postings on social media could help them with the latest news and insights to their audience as well. It is a win-win for everyone involved this weekend. Of course, some are going to say that Speed51.com having the rights to be the number one is not fair to other media members covering the event, but hey they earned that right as they have helped this event grow in the last 15 years. (Please read my previous blog on my additional thoughts on this.) What will be fun over the next five days is watching not just the media’s perspective of this but teams and fans view of this event. Take a look at the entry list and follow drivers on different social media platforms. It is a guarantee you will find a nice variety of thoughts of the event. Some will be hilarious and some may show the raw emotion that comes out of this event. Those who are attending the event, social media could be your pit road reporter. While many will say this race needs to be televised live on television, many will have to just give up on that complaint this year and enjoy the pay-per-view broadcast from 51 and the social media updates from the many attending and participating in the 49th annual event. A few things to remember about social media, it’s about engagement to your already established audience. Events like this could help drivers, teams, tracks and series gain more followers. Again, this is a good thing overall for short track racing, it helps create visibility and interest. Re-tweeting on Twitter, sharing on Facebook, etc. also helps the overall landscape of short track racing as you are sharing your personal interest of not only this event, but the sport overall to your friends and family. The 49th Annual Snowball Derby could be one of the most visible short track racing events on social media and it could be a big payoff overall for asphalt short track racing, especially with the number of participants coming from all over the United States and Canada. Also factor in the international exposure from our military members who were based at one time in the great Pensacola area and became familiar with 5 Flags Speedway. While short track racing may not see a payoff today, it is a great building tool for the future of our sport. Social media is allowing the different character of the participants to show, it is allowing engagement with each other, and sharing things with our fellow followers will create new interest. For those reasons, this could be a good week to show the power of social media in asphalt short track racing as a benefit and not a headache.
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Just a few hours prior to the green flag to the final race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season finale, NASCAR’s Chairman/CEO Brian France met with the media for a brief press conference.
Not sure if Mr. France was ill or just plain nervous with his constant wiping sweat off his brow and nose, but he appeared that he wanted to get this over and done with as quickly as possible, even cutting off Bob Pockrass and Dustin Long from their questions. My personal thought from the overall press conference was that this didn’t need to come across as a “me versus them” atmosphere, which it did appear in my eyes. The initial thought that came through my head was that if he was more available throughout the year to the media, rather than a few times during the year, the atmosphere may be different. Instead, we saw the media being aware they have a limited amount of time with him and tried to get many things answered from him. As I reviewed the transcripts from the press conference, there were a few things that stood out from it. First, was about Daniel Suarez winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series Championship, which Mr. France commented about this being a victory for the Drive for Diversity program. “I would tell you, without the Drive for Diversity program, with certainty, Daniel Suarez is not in NASCAR,” France said. “We’re very pleased with that program.” The question now comes is this, who is the next D4D driver in the pipeline ready to be the next Daniel Suarez? I don’t think many will argue that Suarez earned his way to that championship. He had victories in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and in the NASCAR Mexico Series and recently won his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. He beat Kyle Busch at Michigan to earn his first XFINITY victory and had to win the race at Homestead to secure the title. But like professional wrestler Goldberg says, “Who’s next?” Where is the NASCAR Media machine to promote and showcase the next up and coming talent? Why isn’t NASCAR Hometracks being used as a constant vehicle of promoting the local and regional talent on almost a daily basis? The talent starts at the local NASCAR Hometracks and with the efforts made to promote the top three series, an equal effort needs to be done to find that next driver like Suarez. When I worked for ASA Racing from 2009-13, one of my duties was to stay in constant contact with the Member Track promoters and PR reps reminding them that we want to share their stories. Whether it’s a feature on a local driver, community involvement, special race event, etc. the sanctioning body had their website and media resources available to help them get the word out. Local names became national names, especially around the time of deciding a national champion. Mr. France was asked about the decline in attendance. “Attendance has been fine,” France exclaimed. “We’ve come off weather issues like we did at Phoenix a year ago. We don’t have Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt. Needless to say, there’s going to be a little impact there.” Yes, weather is always a factor with attendance. Just ask your local short track promoter on race day if they see rain in the forecast. But, to say there is a little impact because Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt isn’t there makes me scratch my head. Jimmie Johnson was there and was going for a seventh title and look at the reaction from the crowd when jumped out of his car on the frontstretch. I may be wrong, but this almost appears as if someone was looking at the sport from a myopic point of view, from the outside looking in, not from being in the trenches, sitting in the suite surrounded by “Yes” people and not sitting in the stands with the fans. If you listen to the Sirius-XM NASCAR channel, you constantly hear that when a driver retires, the fans go and seek a new driver to follow. The fans don’t go away because a driver retired, they go away for many different reasons from interest, economy and more. Some will go away because of the politics and negative talk on social media and message board platforms available today. They don’t have the time to deal with the BS they read or listen. France’s reason, in my view, are the same excuses you hear from lazy promoters who just feel that we have a track and people magically should come like in “Field of Dreams.” The need to build interest and excitement are some interests and excitement is part of the evolution of “The Chase” format we see today. Last weekend had three series titles come down to literally the last lap. They have something going, now the key is to build from that going forward, especially to capturing the young fans. I found this quote interesting when France was talking about ratings being down. “I want to tell you a little something. I watched the other day, as an example, I’m a sports fan, so I watched the Duke Blue Devils game, after they had played, in like a six- or seven-minute recap of the game. It was pretty good,” France explained. “Maybe it was a little longer than that. I didn’t watch the game on TV, but I watched it fairly intense with my laptop.” Does this mean that we will soon see a NASCAR television app on our Apple TV, Roku, Google Chromcast, and other devices like these? If not, may not be a bad idea to start and be transparent with those numbers to the media. How many viewers subscribe to the channel? How many view the website? “I would tell you some other leagues that have 30% drop-offs, they didn’t lose 30% of their audience from one moment to the next, that audience is just sliding and consuming in some different ways,” France said. “Our digital consumption is off the charts.” In my opinion, he is right. Today’s society is going from a watching television during primetime to watching on Hulu or Netflix when the consumer has their own time to watch it whenever they want to watch it. But when he was asked if NASCAR is ahead of the game in all of this, his answer left a question mark. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. They been working on their things, too. I think there’s a lot of changes going on. A lot of changes in entertainment period, right?” France admitted. “Prime time is very different then it was ten years ago, five years ago. You’ve got Netflix as an example. You’ve got all kinds of things that are changing in the media world. “The interest level, sports in general, is still the best of anything that’s available as it was five or ten years ago. Maybe it’s changing world, but it’s still the best. We’re in there in a significant way.” This, my friends, may be the root of the entire problem that NASCAR is facing today. They are not keeping up with the pace of the ever changing technology and if they don’t this is a big area that will draw fans away from the sport. When the leader of the company says “I don’t know” and “I don’t think so. They been working on things,” this is where we need to look carefully at the leadership and advice the leader is receiving from their advisors. Want an example of how they are behind? NASCAR introduced their first official iPhone app on September 13, 2012 in a joint venture with Turner Sports. (Click here for announcement) On August 26, 2011, the ASA Racing app was introduced for both the iPhone and Android phones (Click here for announcement). As far as I recall, it was the first app out from any sanctioning body. Something to this day that I take personal pride in creating on my own. It wasn’t that difficult to do.
(Disclaimer: This blog was not asked to be written by anyone at Speed51.com. While I do have a friendly relationship with the website, I do not work exclusively with them and haven’t for 1.5 years. The opinion is my own and not that of Speed51.com)
There is a lot of complaining on social media regarding the media rules set forth in regards to the Snowball Derby. Many are complaining that it is ethically not fair or just plain wrong. This is my take as someone who has worked three Snowball Derby’s where I not only worked under Speed51.com, but also with the track itself in organizing their victory lane activities. First, Speed51.com is entering their 16th consecutive year as the official media partner of the Snowball Derby. They replaced the previous media partner which was…oh wait…sorry…they were the first one. Prior to 2001, this race was pretty much a regional race that got some local attention, race reports in racing newspapers and magazines, and if time permitted a highlight package on TNN’s Raceday. Tim Bryant, Promoter of Five Flags Speedway, saw Bob Dillner’s vision of what he wanted Speed51.com to be, that is a website that focused on asphalt short track racing. They both agreed that in order for this goal to be accomplished, they needed to have a signature event each year. That signature event became the Snowball Derby. Over the last 15 years, both sides have stayed loyal to each other and have built up this event from a regional presence to a national presence. Their partnership has benefited both sides. Speed51.com has evolved this event through their Trackside Now, live play-by-play blogging updates, to a live internet radio broadcast, then a few years ago being the outlet to provide the first ever live television style coverage of prestigious short track Super Late Model race. Can anyone disagree or deny this? Both sides, the tracks and Speed51.com, has seen benefits. The track now has a national audience and more interest, to the point to where they are selling tickets at a much faster pace, camping space is selling faster, and they have been successful at getting financial help from the county department of tourism because of the economic impact the Derby brings into the area. Speed51.com, along with being an original short track media site that includes a wide variety of interests that includes a news website, live PPV broadcasts, driver public relations, and more. They have maintained their position and continue to be a strong website to this day. The partnership between Five Flags Speedway and Speed51.com in regards to the Snowball Derby has been so successful, that Speed51.com has been granted some special privileges for the event. Some of those privileges are the ones that many are complaining about on social media today. Some are saying that Five Flags Speedway is hurting themselves by restricting media from doing live play-by-play social media updates and some in the media are saying, well if that is the case, we aren’t going to cover the event. Umm…where was this reaction in the last 15 years? The online comments like this isn’t making the track do an about face. Their recent amendment to their media policy was simply done because they are falling in line with what is in the NCAA digital media guidelines to their tournaments. Hey…wait a second. Doesn’t the partnership that 51 and Five Flags Speedway almost sounds like the same thing that CBS/TBS has with the NCAA for their basketball tournament and other sport partnerships? Oh wait, my bad you are going to tell me that these aren’t the same thing. Moneywise no, but how the process came to be where it is at today…yes. Both worked together on stepping up the event and now we have the success. You don’t see ESPN courtside for the tourney games, but they cover it and do under those NCAA guidelines. I honestly have to laugh when some reporters who cover NASCAR Sprint Cup events chime in on social media with their thoughts about the policy. Why are you even commenting? You are not adjusting your travel schedule to hurry from the Sprint Cup banquet in Las Vegas to catch a flight to Pensacola, Florida to cover it on that Sunday morning. And even if the banquet was a different week, is your outlet sending you to cover it? If the race was that important to those reporters, be a lot reporters coming in to Pensacola on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. In fact, may warrant a chartered flight. Take away your personal feelings of the people from either side involved in this event. Who they are, how they operate or how they are towards you isn’t a factor for you to complain online. The fact is, their partnership in the last 15 years have brought them to where they are today. Neither side owes you anything. But they are more than welcome to grant you a credential, as long as you are a legit media outlet, to come and cover the Derby and provide your unique insight to the event. They do appreciate the audience you will bring to the event. But, as far as any live play-by-play blogging, video, radio etc. Speed51.com has earned that privilege to be the only ones to do it. They are coming in with a 15-year record to back that up. This is not about ethics or moral media reasons. This is about two parties working together on making an event what it is today. If anything, you have to appreciate their efforts and the benefit it has become for short track racing. If you are a diehard short track fan, you simply have to respect their decision and thank them for what we see at their event every year. Your negative comments and threats of not going, isn’t going to change their business model. It’s working for them and they have the proof to back it up. By the way…I asked on a Facebook post what other short track events have media restrictions? A few hours later…no response. Their guidelines isn't hurting short track racing overall. Other promoters could use your help and should keep their mind open. Snowball Derby is a unique thing unto itself.
The tide took a 180-degree turn when word got out about the media policy for the Snowball Derby among those in racing on social media. The famous knee-jerk reactions were loud and clearer than people’s thoughts about the recent Presidential election.
It simply took one tweet about this part of the media policy for the 49th Annual event. “No media member is allowed to post any lap-by-lap descriptions during the entirety of Snowball Derby week on any account and/or credentialed media outlet. The credentialed media person agrees not to Tweet, Facebook or perform any other form of social media or website update any less than 15 minutes apart. The 15-minute regulation applies to the person and not the form by which an entry is made. (i.e. – credentialed media member cannot post to Twitter at 12:00pm and Facebook at 12:10). 15 minutes must transpire before an entry of any kind is made by the media member, whether credentialed or not.” Right away, people were calling out Five Flags Speedway, Speed51.com and Bob Dillner about this policy. Many felt that this was 51’s way to control that they can be the only one to do anything live at the event, it is unfair, it’s not right, etc. Some have even said they won’t attend the event as a fan and some in the media simply said they will not cover it. The main issue has to do with play-by-play type blogging along with using live video sources like Periscope, Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Without hesitation, the knee-jerk reaction is that they can’t do any social media updating whatsoever. That is not true. All they are asking for the credentialed media to do is not provide a lap-by-lap twitter update of the races. The obvious reason is because Speed51.com has the exclusive broadcast and media rights for the Derby…for the 16th year in a row. For full disclosure, I am friends with Speed51.com and do provide stories to them from time to time. I do not have an exclusive affiliation with them. Instead of going on and sharing my thoughts on social media, I thought it would be best to see how this is looked at in other sport entities, and it didn’t take long. In regards to live video, did you know that last month the NFL instituted a new league policy that from kickoff to an hour after the game, NFL teams can no longer post their own video on social media? It could result in fines up to $100,000. They can only re-post NFL-owned videos on Twitter and use Snapchat. They also cannot live stream games or plays. The reason for the fines was because teams were violating existing rules. When it comes to live play-by-play blogging, one easy find was the NCAA Digital Media policy which reads… “A credentialed media member may blog or provide updates via social media during any NCAA championship event, provided that such posts do not produce in any form a “real-time” description of the event (i.e., any simulation or display of any kind that replicates or constitutes play-by-play of a material portion of an event, other than periodic updates of scores, statistics or other brief descriptions of the event) as determined by the NCAA in its sole discretion. If the NCAA deems that the credentialed media member is producing a real-time description of the contest, the NCAA reserves all actions against the credentialed media member, including but not limited to the revocation of the credential.” (http://www.ncaa.com/content/digital-rights-overview) Maybe the wording that the NCAA uses may be better suited for what they are trying to achieve at the Snowball Derby. This has been passed along to them and they have revised their guidelines. (http://speed51.com/five-flags-speedway-further-redefines-snowball-derby-media-policy/) The next question is why these entities feel like they have to limit media people from doing play-by-play blogging, tweeting, etc. The answer is simple, they have a product they are trying to protect, a product that someone bought the rights too in order to have this agreement that they are the ones allowed to do anything that is considered live, up to the minute communication. Those involved with those rights get what their agreement means, and why they need to make this as part of their policy. Let’s take a look at NASCAR. Both MRN/PRN have the radio broadcast rights while NBC/FOX has the television rights for various NASCAR events. It would not be a surprise if they are concerned about media members doing live lap-by-lap blogging, streaming or tweeting without permission from them or NASCAR. They have invested millions into having those rights. As a business, their hope for a return on their investment (ROI) is to profit off of what they purchased, I.E. selling advertising because of those exclusive rights. The NCAA is very strict especially during the March Madness basketball tournament time. Your local television station cannot show immediate highlights while the game is going on or for a certain time after the game. That is because the television stations that own the rights, want to be the only one to air those broadcasts. Yes, there is an argument to be made when it comes to the short track level. Passionate reporters/bloggers feel that by them doing live blogging or streaming, they feel they are doing what they can to help promote a short track event or track. They feel that they are trying to provide a service, but get upset when that service they want to provide turned down. They immediately go on social media and bash the decision by saying things like they don’t want our coverage and this is why short track racing is failing. Again, yes, this could be a part of the reason we are seeing a decline in some aspects of short track racing. But, there has yet to be a guaranteed proof that live play-by-play blogging has helped or hurt our sport. No one can officially say that because this person or entity did lap-by-lap blogging kept so many fans at home rather than paying an admission ticket. At the same time, that blogger cannot definitely say that all of their 8,000 or so Twitter followers watched every lap-by-lap tweet. What must be realized by all is that with today’s economy, return on investment is the number one thing in business and they must see positive results from it. Why are sponsors pulling out of this sport? It’s because they are not seeing a return on their investment. A short track driver told me a while back that he when the economy was good, he could go to a local grocery store and the store owner would be more than happy to give him some money in return for advertising on his car. When the economy got tough, that store owner told the driver as much as he likes him, money is tight and if he isn’t seeing an ROI on the sponsorship, they can’t continue to sponsor the team. Sadly, many are saying that they are seeing a bad trend in racing. That trend is just give me money and I will see you next year for another check. There is no teamwork through that sponsorship cycle to work together in ensuring that there is an ROI for the sponsor. There are no business-to-business planning from either side to make the most of what is available to them. Driver appearances, car appearances, sponsor business-to-business campaigns (I.E. television manufacturer working with a hotel chain to get their televisions in their hotels), and more are not happening, especially in the short track world. It’s only the give me money and I will put your logo on my car or billboard at my track/series plan…nothing else. The smart promoters and teams are doing more with their sponsors to prove that they are doing what they can for each side to see an ROI in their partnership. Some in the media are in the same mindset. You give me a credential and I will cover your race…the way I want to cover it and not respect how you would like to have it covered. This egotistical attitude that some in the media pour out on social media or in their columns doesn’t help the sport. It sinks to a lower level. You know what, promoters are starting to recognize this and are starting to “drain the swamp” themselves. This is about respect on all sides. This is about finding ways for all sides to be successful and find a way to where each side finds a positive return on their investment into this sport. We all need to take a step back and stop to understand why a track/series and other sport entities make decisions like what we are seeing with the Snowball Derby. Their reason isn’t to piss people off, it’s a business decision for those who have invested in their event. As a member of the media, it is a privilege, not a right, to be given a credential to cover it and we simply need to respect their wishes and together find ways for all sides to be successful. While they may not want you to do lap-by-lap tweeting, but your service during the event may still be something to enhance it for those in attendance, watching the pay-per-view, or just looking for periodic updates. There is a win-win in this for everyone. Just take some time to think about that versus jumping on social media and screaming at the top of the mountain.
Back in September, I covered the Chicagoland Speedway Cup weekend for Speed Sport News. During that weekend I had a chance to sit down with Ryan Sieg and Jeremy Clements to talk about their race teams and either making the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase or just missing out. You can read the article below as it appears in the issue.
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Let’s Call It for What It Is11/3/2016
When discussion about the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards is on the table, time after time, the talk surrounding the discussion focuses on the series being development ones with drivers who don’t hang around. It also focuses on the fact that drivers only compete for a season or two.
Well…it’s the truth. Let’s call a spade a spade and not argue these points. Each series have a valuable place to young aspiring drivers who want to elevate to the NASCAR Sprint Car Series someday. The NASCAR K&N Pro Series has its East and West divisions which give drivers a great opportunity to race in full-size cars that give something similar to the feel in the upper levels. But they race mostly on one-mile or less ovals and some good road course experience. The ARCA Racing Series could be looked as being a step between K&N and Trucks to give drivers experience competing on bigger ovals including Daytona and Talladega. In fact, racers looking at running a Truck or XFINITY car at Daytona in February need to prove themselves in the ARCA 200-mile event first. There are typical complaints that rich kids are buying these rides for the opportunity. But, when you walk any garages, you will see a variety of teams with different incomes competing at each event. Yes, there are also a few veterans that come back year after year, and compete all season long to make K&N and ARCA strong series. Sadly, the K&N Pro West Series recently lost one of those stable veterans, Jack Sellers who left us at the age of 72. ARCA has famous names like Frank Kimmel, Tom Hessert, Josh Williams and others who compete throughout the year. If there is one thing that is consistent in each of the series, it’s car owners who provide rides. On the K&N side, there is H Scott Motorsports with Justin Marks, Jefferson Pitts Racing, Bill McNally Racing and more. ARCA has Venturini Motorsports, Cunningham Motorsports, Mason Mitchell Motorsports, etc. Another complaint about the revolving door of drivers is that it’s tough for a promoter to advertise with drivers who relate with drivers they recognize within a series. They also could say it’s tough for fans to follow a driver year after year. Many would compare this with what they see today in various Super Late Model series across the country, with veteran drivers who compete on a weekly basis. For example, in the Midwest, many grew up with Trickle, Shear, Detjens, Ziegler, and more. Today’s SLM scene will have a Sauter, Fredrickson, Pollard, Grill, Wilson, and more. As much as we would like a series identity to be about drivers who compete in it, maybe it’s time we simply acknowledge the honest truth that these series are what they are, a development series. The marketing needs to focus on that fact. The advance promotion should be about stars of tomorrow racing at a facility close to fans’ homes. These are drivers who someday, you may see race on television every Sunday. This is an opportunity to watch these drivers develop before your eyes and provide memories that you saw them race before they made it big. The good thing about these two series is that you have drivers who are hungry for a victory and championship as they try to enhance their resume for future plans. At the same time, no matter if it’s a pay for play ride or someone who is coming with their own team, they are on an even playing field with the rules in place by each series. If they can’t prove themselves in either of them, their stock could go way down and may be stuck racing Super Late Models for the rest of their career. Both the K&N Pro Series and ARCA Racing Series have a dual purpose, be a place for drivers to develop and provide great racing for the fans. Each series has a great resume of drivers who have competed in their series. Appreciate their purpose and continue to support them when they come to a track near you. Who knows…the driver you see and meet at events might be the next superstar in auto racing. That is something a promoter can use for future promotions and fans can relish looking at a hero card from a development race series. This website is privately owned and updated by me. Any donations would be greatly appreciated to help maintain and make improvements. Thank you.
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