Finding New Fans. Pulling’s Sporting Side.
Finding New Fans. Pulling’s Sporting Side.
Let’s Grow Pulling. It’s the name of our podcast. It’s the battle cry for those of us in truck and tractor pulling broadcasting and media. It is the heart of the mission of Beer Money Pulling Team. What does this phrase mean? What are the finer aspects of the goal? And quite frankly, what is the best way to do it?
Growing pulling essentially is an endeavor that is motivated and propelled with the drivers in mind. It is no secret that pulling is a hobby more so than a career. Interestingly enough, it has, in certain aspects, become a miniature economy unto itself where a small group of people can make a living. The competitors seem to keep this economy alive by fabricating, buying, and selling all the necessary high performance pieces to each other. Think of your engine builders, your chassis fabricators, your turbo companies. There is a way to make money in this sport. But, the question is, are they making enough for their performances at the track?
The phrases “increasing the purse” and “growing the sport” essentially have an equal sign between them in my opinion. So, the question is, how do we do that? Several people that know a lot about the inner workings of the sport (quite frankly that know more about the inner workings than me) have ideas and opinions on how to do this. I hear suggestions like following in the footsteps of circle track racing’s business model, as well as pursuing a higher number and a greater magnitude of sponsors. And while, I think there is a lot of truth in several of these approaches, just look at how big we were when Skoal/ Copenhagen were backing us the same time Winston was backing NASCAR (Thanks a lot Tobacco Advertising Promotion and Sponsorship ban), this specific article will concentrate on some strategies that most stand out to me based on my experiences in the sport up to this point.
I am no business man. I don’t invest in the stock market or see a financial advisor. However, it does seem common sense enough to me that the only way people in any circumstance get raises is if the larger entity that pays them has a larger budget. In other words, if pullers want to make more, we need to make sure the association they pull for is making more money. Well, what product do they sell? Pulling. Therefore, we need to attract more revenue through the fans.
One of my motivators in pulling is to change the perception of what pulling is, and to expand who we are marketing to, in an attempt to gain new fans. We should never stray from our roots as an agriculturally based enterprise. The farm is where we were born, and it is the heart of our sport. However, as farms have grown over the past fifty years, they have essentially and inversely shrunk. The concept of the family farm as it existed has all but gone extinct. Where there used to be one farmer for every two hundred acres, now there is one farmer for every two thousand acres. Long story short, this means there are less farmers. More and more youths are graduating from high school and leaving their small towns in search of a college degree. Oftentimes these folks are not returning to the small communities. If our target demographic is the same it has always been, it is evaporating.
Love it or hate it, it has been my experience that if I stray too far from my inner circle of pulling fans and participants, most people don’t know what the sport is. When I say tractor pulling, their minds go to a dead weight sled being pulled by a farm stock vehicle that was driven to the track by a farmer on his down time, and who will drive it home to feed cows later that evening. They see it as a casual activity on a very small and local level. They certainly do not see it as a national level sporting event. Those last two words are my mission. I want to identify pulling as a sporting event. Market it as a competition. Analyze it the way ESPN analyzes all of their competitive activities on Sportscenter every morning. Why? This would allow us to connect to so many people beyond the agricultural or mechanical community. All those kids running off to college who never got a chance to drive the family tractor, but who line up religiously every Saturday morning to get tickets to the football game.
You don’t have to understand what a professional football player does to prepare for his victory on Sunday to understand which team had more points. Just look at the stronghold bat and ball sports have on our community. The modern demographic probably doesn’t feel it can relate to truck and tractor pulling because they have never driven a tractor. Or they don’t know what the term cubic inch means. That’s fine. They know what the term winner means. They know what a championship is. We are a nation infatuated with competitions and sports. I think these are the folks we need to be taking to the pulls. I think we should emphasize the competition aspect. I think we should search for new fans. More fans. More revenue. Larger purses.
Once we get these new fans to the track, make sure they have a great experience. I think our cousin motorsport- Monster Jam has figured this one out. Walk up to any random person in any random setting and ask them if they have ever seen a tractor pull on tv, or even heard of the sport. The answer for seventy five percent will likely be no. Ask all those same people if they have ever seen or heard of a monster truck? Even the most culturally unrelated will say yes. In my opinion the sport of Monster Jam does a couple of things really well. They emphasize a unity of show, and they attract families. It’s amazing what a family will do, travel to, and make an event of, to bring joy to their kids. Monster Jam has a strong hold on this, and I think we would as well. I think Monster Jam also puts a large emphasis on presenting a unified show, from start to close. They prioritize the fan experience. In a way, it’s a little backwards. To ensure their drivers are taken care of, they place their primary mission on the fan experience over the driver experience. How would this correlate to pulling? In my opinion you would see little details like an attempt to eliminate sled resets. While this might frustrate drivers in certain instances, it would generate a better experience for fans, leading to a product that attracts more fans, leading to more revenue that makes its way to the pullers’ pockets.
In consensus, and to put a unified theme to the ramblings I have expressed here, we must do the best we can to bring as many fans, new fans especially to the track, and then to ensure they have the best time possible. We want new fans. We want more fans. We want repeat fans, lifelong fans, and generational fans. The flipside of this is the fan obligation. Those of us who are fans, we need to be willing to support our beloved sport. Go look at NFL tickets sometime. Well over $100.00 per ticket for even the lowliest of teams. How about attending a major concert? Exuberant prices again. And yet stadiums of 80,000 are sold out repeatedly for these events with fans happily willing to support their idols. If a local promotor decides it is in their and the association’s best interest to raise the ticket price of a pull from $20.00 to $30.00, I think we should do all we can to honor that. The money will make its way back to the driver. More money, more sport. Pulling wins.
Green Flags and Tight Chains.
Pulling is fun.
Mike Eitel
Engagement Specialist
Beer Money Pulling Team
michael.eitel.bevier@gmail.com
660.342.0206
