Belle-Clair Speedway is Cancelled for Friday Sept. 2nd

I guess my plea to use common sense fell on deaf ears. The three tracks you mentioned do not have a competing track located within a 15 minute drive, which splits the fan and car base. They are also in rural areas and do not have to compete with other forms of entertainment. They also benefit from income generated from concession sales. Belleclair does not. If you wish to examine even further, PIR also has a considerably lower payout, and if memory serves me correct, they also dropped super latemodels for about a month, earlier this summer.
 
mr. lieber, some tracks can withstand a loss on occasion.

some track cannot....they take a risk every week if they will get enough to make a profit. Belle-Clair also doesn't get concession or beer sale profit which adds up to a lot. All these other tracks you mention do. PIR is not running super late models tonight...

i just don't want to see the track close permanently. so if they have to skip a weekend or two to ensure things go well, then so be it.
 
Bottom line, agree or disagree the promoter made a decision to cancel the races. We can all say what we would do but unless we are in their shoes we do not know for sure. I wish them the best of luck next weekend as I wont be here and I hope they make it a go again next year.
 
I do not understand why BelleClair is cancelled, the Cardinals and other baseball teams play ball in this weather, also football is going on, BTHS East did not cancel, nor other teams, what is the real problem here?????
 
It's history that the track LOSES money when the weather is like this. The theory of "some money is better than none at all" does not apply. That just means the track LOSES less money but it's still a LOSS. Some tracks have better resources than others, such as beer and concession sales that B-C does not have. If you own a car and are on here complaining (for lack of a better word) about not racing, I wonder how much complaining you would do if after the races at the pay window the check was only half as much. After all if the promoter stands to LOSE money, I think it's only fair that he expect you to take a LOSS as well. Imagine how much people would be up in arms over that. King Eddy's right. The promoter should not be expected to go into a night where he KNOWS he will LOSE money. No business would do that and be alive for long. JMO.

Brian #44
 
well..if what King says is true about the profit margin on a continuing weekly basis?( and thats questionable by his own admission)....only a fool would operate a race track.......something tells me there is more money being made...at least i would hope
 
perrymab.b said:
I do not understand why BelleClair is cancelled, the Cardinals and other baseball teams play ball in this weather, also football is going on, BTHS East did not cancel, nor other teams, what is the real problem here?????
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It never ceases to amaze me that,,,,,, you can set a dead cow on some peoples lap, and they will still ask "wheres the beef?".
 
hey perry have YOU read any of the other comments on here? THEY DO NOT WANT TO TAKE A CHANCE AT LOSING MONEY!!!!!!! We was planning on racing there tonight but i respect the decsion not to have the races because there will be no one in the stands. per HEAT!!!!!! Is there really any need to take a chance and get someone hurt or deathly sick just because we want to race. I am finally glad to see a promoter think of someone else besides himself for once. I have been racing over 20 years and most of them just think about themselves and how much money they can make and here Donnie is thinking of other people and some of you get on here and slam him for that? JESUS CAN HE DO ANYTHING TO PLEASE SOME OF YOU PEOPLE? Give the guy a break and instead of always beating him up for once just say hey "maybe I don`t know everything and thats why I am not promoting a race track" and think maybe he made the right choice because in my opinion like it or not i know deep down THIS IS THE RIGHT CALL TO MAKE!

KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK DONNIE!!!!!!!!!!!
 
70 RT" kowalski " said:
well..if what King says is true about the profit margin on a continuing weekly basis?( and thats questionable by his own admission)....only a fool would operate a race track.......something tells me there is more money being made...at least i would hope
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There is alot more money to be made but when you have your hands tied on how much you can make it is kind of hard to show a profit each week. I THINK if they had the beer money and food stands money it would make more money. I know there is not alot of money to be made in racing because why else would all of these other tracks be closing down right and left?
 
Good post Rodney. I, too, think Don is doing a good job. I know he is concerned about the people that patronize the track. I just get the feeling that some people don't believe that. I merely tried to show them another reason for not racing that maybe they can relate to.

Brian #44
 
Some peoples glass is always just half empty...Mine on the other hand is ALWAYS half full!!!

Have a great holiday everyone...
 
70 RT" kowalski " said:
well..if what King says is true about the profit margin on a continuing weekly basis?( and thats questionable by his own admission)....only a fool would operate a race track.......something tells me there is more money being made...at least i would hope
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I'd be willing to make a small wager that I'm +/- 10%
 
Well according to kingeddy Belleville should have never opened. They have concession problems, they have tracks too close, they have fan trouble, and now profit troubles. Geez, it is amazing the place is open at all. Also the track is loosing money from people bringing FREE chicken. By the way, Fairbury is in the middle of town just like Belleville.
 
Twisted Shifter said:
Well according to kingeddy Belleville should have never opened. They have concession problems, they have tracks too close, they have fan trouble, and now profit troubles. Geez, it is amazing the place is open at all. Also the track is loosing money from people bringing FREE chicken. By the way, Fairbury is in the middle of town just like Belleville.
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i would much rather bring in free chicken or anything at that matter if it ment not having to support pig in a poke and there nasty over priced food. thankful after this year don will be in charge of the food.
 
I know tracks have to worry about there bottom line but racers do to. We also make a commitment when we get our sponsors to have the car at a certain track that is close enough to the sponsor so they also get there moneys worth. Next year they may think twice about sponsoring or make a downgrade to it. They understand about rainouts but the cancellations this year is one for the books. I do wish Belle-clair the best in 2012, great racing this year when you were able to.
 
Twisted Shifter said:
Well according to kingeddy Belleville should have never opened.
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Surprisingly, that is a fairly accurate statement considering the situation last year at this time. BelleClair Promotions took a huge risk in assuming the operations of a track that was in financial shambles thanks to the former regime. Had BC Promotions not stepped in, we probably would not have been racing at Belleville this year.

Returning any track to profitability is not an easy task. Donnie is attempting to do so despite all of those things you mentioned, most of which are out of his control. There was a year remaining on the Pigs in a Poke contract (they provide the concession and beer stands, as well as reap all profits from them). TCS was granted a UMP sanction for the same night of racing, thus diminishing the fan base and car count. He is also competing against Cardinals Baseball, Muni Opera, Casinos, and a host of other entertainment venues that Fairbury, which is a Rural Area, (not within 10 minutes of a major metropolitan area) does not have to deal with. So yes, it is amazing that the place is open.


I'm not sure how you figure my providing the announcer and scorers "free chicken" costs the track money. As I stated, Pigs in a Poke provides the concessions and reaps the profits. So if you think Mike and the gals would purchase a hot dog or burger from them and it would profit the track, you are sadly mistaken.


I don't know why I took the time to respond to your post. You are obviously one of the people to whom I refered to earlier, who is sitting there with a cow on your lap. I also believe that you should not leave your house without a helmet on year head.
 
Thin margins

Some people dont want to beleve there are thin margins. If that is not the case how do you explain all the track closings?

I want all of you to ask yourself this question. Would you open up your business knowing that you would suffer a big loss? I would not.

We need long term thinking and strategies from these promoters and I believe we are seeing just that. JMO



Ak
 
I'm surprised Don hasn't added a couple more nights to the schedule . With all the rain outs and heat cancellations this year. They have only rain half a season. Highland is the same way . With all those so called vacation dates and rain outs up there its another part time track this year.
 
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