Here on my first visit to Chicagoland Speedway, I've noticed that the facility truly is a modern racing venue.
The infield is laid out well, the infield access tunnel is more than large enough for the biggest vehicles, the grandstands have excellent sight lines and the fan area with the souvenir trailers is plenty wide enough -- all of these are a direct result of the intelligent planning of the speedway when it was first started in 1999.
Those factors, combined with the addition of lights in 2008, have allowed Saturday night's LifeLock 400 to reach sellout status again after falling off in 2007. Or, as the track claims, all 75,000 grandstand "Track Packs" have sold out, allowing the speedway's "2008 Racing Season" to be sold out.
It's a big deal for NASCAR to sellout a racing venue in a geographic area that the sport is relatively new to, and for that track officials should be commended for working the Chicago market to get their seats sold.
But in NASCAR, staying at the status quo has never worked -- from the promoters in the press box to the drivers in the garage, which leaves me to wonder if Chicagoland officials are selling themselves short with both ticket policy and grandstand policy.
In order to buy tickets at Chicagoland, you have to buy the "Track Pack" that gives you admission to five races -- including the Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup Series, the IndyCar Series, the ARCA Series, and the IRL Indy Pro Series. These races are spread across two race weekends, and the track packs range in price $195 to $260.
On paper, it's not a bad deal with each race costing $39 to attend. But in reality, the package has to be eliminating another group of NASCAR fans or curious potential fans that would like to check out NASCAR racing without a binding commitment.
Of all the places to do implement this policy, Chicago seems like the least favorable candidate. Sure, sell fans in Bristol a full-season ticket, but in a market that NASCAR wants to draw new fans from, why not offer them a chance to experience racing in a fan-friendly manner? Could there not be 20,000 to 30,000 more seats sold at $70 for a single race?
Potentially, the NASCAR fans that are used to buying a ticket for a single race are also being kept away from Joliet because of the policy the speedway implements in the grandstand that came as a big shock to me.
Simply, no fan is allowed to bring a cooler of any sorts into the speedway. Aside from those with a medical condition, fans aren't allowed to bring in any beverages or food into the speedway, therefore subjecting them to the prices of the concession stands. Right there, the price of visiting the speedway just jumped $15-30/person.
This policy just frankly doesn't make sense, and when it was implemented when the track opened, officials at the speedway simply stated the policy was just mirroring the facility's sister track -- the Route 66 Dragway.
With the limitations placed on what fans can bring and what it takes for them to obtain admission, it sets a standard that doesn't sound like a fun place to visit. The racing may be good, but Chicagoland Speedway has to be missing out on more dollars than it knows of by imposing such restrictions on fans.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-15-2008 @ 9:39AM
Lori Sanders said...
I cannot tell you how excited I was when I read your blog this week concerning the races over the weekend. We are avid race fans and in addition to going to Chicagoland every year we also attend numerous other races throughout the states. This year we had our worst experience ever at the track. It started on Thursday night. We knew going out there that there might be a cancellation due to rain, however we braved it anyways. We waited in a very long line to get tickets for qualifying because they only had four windows open. Finally when we got up front we realized the rain was coming in however instead of letting the fans know they opened more ticket counters - which I'm assuming was done so that they could get more people in, knowing it would be canceled. You may ask how do you know this wasn't just coincidence? Because as soon as we were in the track they were already pulling cars in and canceled qualifying. On Saturday we were one of the people that lined up early to get a good place to tailgate. When we arrived the police directed us to a line that was started and told us to wait in that line, that they would be letting those people in first. After three hours of waiting, that wasn't the case at ten o'clock. So even though we waited and should have been approximately 10th in line we ended up further down because they were letting others in first. The parking itself was just a mess. We were told to park one place, got out of our cars and starting setting up only to have a woman come screaming at us telling we can't park there. We explained that the other girl told us to park here and she said well you don't listen to her you listen to me. Okay and we were supposed to know this how? What a welcome to the track. Agreeing with you, I think it’s ridiculous that we cannot bring our own cooler in. Especially considering that the beverages are not easily accessible to patrons. For instance, upstairs there was one main bar area in the middle and then one at each end. On Friday night Budweiser was available in the middle. After standing in the long line on Saturday night it was discovered that in order to get Budweiser you had to go down to either end. If you wanted Coors light you had to go downstairs. On both nights they had run out of food, which considering the prices was probably a blessing. As we sat and watched the race I almost fell over when I saw a girl walking around selling small bags of M&Ms for $3.00! If you were able to get a beer or two it was almost a catastrophe because going to the bathroom was an event all in it itself. The men’s bathroom line was over 45 minutes. So we paid for the entire track pass and having to go to the bathroom twice, missed over 1.5 hours of the only race I really wanted to see.
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7-15-2008 @ 1:10PM
matt said...
hey lori...
i was there the whole weekend as well minus pole day (thank god)
on friday night's nationwide race my buddy and i toured the pits and got pictures and went to our seats for the race. the 20 seat bench had us completely smashed together and the heat and humidity was no help!
however...for the cup race we went to the pits. we walked out of the pit area, but still in the infield, where they allow smoking and there were a bunch of people with beers. (there's no alcohol allowed in the pits). turns out there's a store and a couple vendors of food and drink way back by turn 3. we walked the whole infield and found that u could get right up to the infield fence anywhere along the track besides the frontstretch because of pit road. there was a boatload of "real estate" all along it that was wide open due to the fact that most people were atop their RV's. the bonuses are....
clean portapotties with little to no lines!
little to no lines for food and drink!
(while ur in line...ur still right there in view of the race)
no sweaty fat people to smush u for several hours!
great pictures lol
it was so much better that from now on i will order the cheapest seats and pit passes and never even sit down in the grandstands.
food for thought....
ohh and ur right....NOBODY had a clue in the parking lots.
it was utter chaos.
hope u make it back next year and have a better time.
p.s. with every pitpass ordered...u get a complimentary pole day ticket.
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