Atlanta and California to Swap?

[pb]

Evidently a swap of fall dates between California and Atlanta could be in the offing. Having conceeded that Darlington is not coming back for Labor Day, this would be a step in the right direction.

[430]

Sounds like a good idea but California only needs 1 date anyway.

[thehairpin]

Sounds like a good idea but California only needs 1 date anyway.

Exactly, run one race at Fontana, 2 at Loudon (the northeast has big cities, NASCAR must keep the fans there happy), and 2 at Vegas

[430]

Another problem right now for Vegas and Cali is that the races are back to back and if Vegas gets a second date someday thats 6 races in the southwest market.

[Brickyard500]

NASCAR should drop a race from California, move Atlanta to the labor day date, swap California & Las Vegas' dates & move Sonoma to Atlanta's old chase spot & have another road course fill Sonoma's old date (Montreal)

[LorenzoBandini]

Sounds like a good idea but California only needs 1 date anyway.

Same with Atlanta. They should take a date away from each track.

[SamC]

California is not working as a two-date venue.

Los Angeles and Atlanta are universally regarded as the two worst live gate sports markets in the country, in all sports.

Running in LA, a non NFL market where college football is followed mostly by alumni, in October and in Atlanta, an NFL market where college football is followed by "average Joes" who did not attened the schools in question, before the NFL season and in the Labor Day weekend where big college teams geneally don't play the Middle Tennessee States and Troys of the world, is obviously a step in the right direction.

Relative to the respective tracks, California is a the very edge of the LA metro. Its 60 miles from downtown. That is hardly even LA. Phoenix is a big city, surrounded by sand. If you look at a map, it has the same population pattern as an island, there is nothing else there. Las Vegas is a vacation destination, but the powers that be only want to subsidize a race during the non-football time of the year, because the availablity of legal sports books keep the place moving during the football season. That means a second date would be in the summer.

[crsfulk]

California is not working as a two-date venue.

Los Angeles and Atlanta are universally regarded as the two worst live gate sports markets in the country, in all sports.

Running in LA, a non NFL market where college football is followed mostly by alumni, in October and in Atlanta, an NFL market where college football is followed by "average Joes" who did not attened the schools in question, before the NFL season and in the Labor Day weekend where big college teams geneally don't play the Middle Tennessee States and Troys of the world, is obviously a step in the right direction.

Relative to the respective tracks, California is a the very edge of the LA metro. Its 60 miles from downtown. That is hardly even LA. Phoenix is a big city, surrounded by sand. If you look at a map, it has the same population pattern as an island, there is nothing else there. Las Vegas is a vacation destination, but the powers that be only want to subsidize a race during the non-football time of the year, because the availablity of legal sports books keep the place moving during the football season. That means a second date would be in the summer.

Yeah, right!! It is a little warm in the summer for a race!

[LorenzoBandini]

Yeah, right!! It is a little warm in the summer for a race!

They have lights at LVMS for that.

[Marvin Panch]

But you have to consider the three-hour time difference for television.

There's no way FOX or ESPN/ABC is going to let you run a scheduled three-hour race that starts any later than 8 p.m. on the East Coast. So you're stuck in the same situation as the Labor Day California race -- starting the thing in the heat of the late afternoon, with the sun in the drivers' eyes for a couple of hours.

The only other answer is to run the race early, say at 10 a.m. local time, to beat the heat. But then you've got the logistical nightmare of trying to get your support staff in place to get everybody parked and in the track that early.

Today may be the exception, because NASCAR needs to get this race in. Even then, I'm hearing 7 p.m. as the absolute drop-dead time for the green flag.

And the forecast isn't looking promising for that.

[Ann Dretti]

If Vegas gets a second date it'll be the third weekend in September to coincide with the truck race thats been there for years.

[LorenzoBandini]

If Vegas gets a second date it'll be the third weekend in September to coincide with the truck race thats been there for years.

Do you REALLY think the Cup series schedules their races to coincide with the Truck series races?

[Ann Dretti]

Do you REALLY think the Cup series schedules their races to coincide with the Truck series races?

They would for this one, Friday night trucks, Sat nationwide, Sunday Cup. 2009 may have quite a few schedule changes.

[silva33]

Disagree that Atlanta needs only one date. Count the filled seats and you will see that there is plenty of demand. The south is NASCAR's home and no more dates should be taken from southern cities.