How Long Before.... February 18, 2009 04:20AM
How long before tractor pulling is significantly affected by our current "economy crisis"? Or will it have an adverse affect on it at all? Wondering what some of you out there think?
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Re: How Long Before.... February 18, 2009 04:43AM
Pulling as far as fans is may not change too much. As far as local pulls some are free to watch or very low fare to get in to watch and there is alomost always BEER to help forget about you not having money to do anything else.Grinning
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Re: How Long Before.... February 18, 2009 04:53AM
so far im not paticipating in the recession....i dont think the big pulls will be affected much,most of them are a tradition for a lot of fans.thr campground at bg will probably continue to grow every year.
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Re: How Long Before.... February 18, 2009 06:43AM
As for spectators, I don't think it will be affected to much, at least at lower levels of pulling, may even see a increase of spectator involvement as some who maybe go to places like tomah or BG may not want to pay the ticket prices this year and just be satisfied seeing their more local action. How it will affect pullers remains to be seen yet, I think the part of pulling that may be hit the hardest is going to be selling the advertisers on spending their money this year. I run a more local pull, and advertisers play a big part of our show, if we can't land them this year, I guess our payout to the pullers may have to come down some for now. I just hope the pullers will understand the circumstances some pull promoters may face this year, and support the pulls so their will be pulls still to go to in the future!!
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Re: How Long Before.... February 18, 2009 01:43PM
I know that threre are a few things that I was going to do to my tractor that I will probaly hold off on for now. I am still going to do some things, but I think I'll just be happy to be pulling. Still havent sent in my ntpa membership, thinkin about just doing the per hook thing. commodity markets arent exactly setting the world on fire, cattle prices are in the tank too. Just makes me worried that we might see an eighties style farm crisis. Either way, Im going to be out blowing smoke!
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Here is a twist February 19, 2009 11:46PM
I think that we will see some effect on pullers, promoters, and fans. Pretty regularly now we are hearing of 2500, 5,000, and more being "laid off" from big companies across the country. I'm sure that if those numbers are real and aren't blown up numbers the media added a couple of extra zeros to the end, that some of those people are fans and pullers. If the don't have their normal income, they are probably going to do less traveling.

Now for the twist....

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the news that I have heard on the radio and local tv news all depict lay offs from manufacturing, construction, tansportation, and other related industries. These are the same industries that have put a roof over our heads, built the infrastructure of today's roads so that travel is possible, transported the food that we eat each and everyday to a grocery right down the road from us, and basically built the United States to where we are today. 200 years ago it would have taken months to get to California from east of the Mississippi. Today from most anywhere we can drive to an airport and be there in a matter of hours. The people that are being laid off are the people that have made that possible. These people may make anywhere from $25000 to $65000 per year. Now, with that being said...

I have not heard of a single professional ball player laid off because of the economy. You hear all of the multi-million dollar contracts for people to PLAY ball and they all still have their jobs! If the ball team owners would lay off one $50m contract player, that would keep 1000 people making $50,000.00 their jobs. Where are our priorities? Keep the country alive and growing or play ball?
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Re: Here is a twist February 20, 2009 02:03AM
That is waaaayyyyy to rational. Besides, the poor unemployed worker needs some way to forget his sorrows. JW
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Re: How Long Before.... February 18, 2009 02:25PM
At least, so far fuel prices won't be killing us!
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Re: How Long Before.... February 18, 2009 02:28PM
NYTPA has picked up events
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Re: How Long Before.... February 19, 2009 03:40PM
i was building a super farm but its on hold for now.
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Re: How Long Before.... February 20, 2009 01:02AM
I see a couple positives and negatives. Overall, I do not think pulling will be affected. Fuel prices are down- that's a good thing for pullers and fans. Farming is coming off a good year-- that's good obviously. We could see slightly fewer fans in the seats due to some fans having less discretionary income. But since "the pull" is usually a once a year deal for most towns, I don't see fans turning away. It would be a lot easier for guys (let's face it, most fans are men) to stay home from a movie or night at the bar once to save that money for next week's big pull. Casual fans may balk at paying the high price of a ticket, but die hard fans like me who travel out of town to pulls will still do that especially with the lower gas prices. HOWEVER...

There's one trend I see in Outlaws that does bother me as a fan. Higher ticket prices with fewer classes being offered by promoters. I'm glad pullers are getting a higher purse, but some of the pulls I typically go to have cut back in the classes that they offer. McCool Junction, for instance, doesn't offer the light super stock class. In Nebraska, LSS always has good numbers. That doesn't make sense to me, but I'm assuming that it got cut due to the higher purse. Someone told me that McCool Jct. is actually promoted by the Outlaws themselves, which if that is the case, then the Outlaws are to blame rather than a promoter. Nebraska State Fair is the same way. Used to be a big pull and it should offer two hooks for some classes but whoever promotes it seems to want offer keep pulls short and offer as little as they can while still getting fans to pay at the gate.
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Re: How Long Before.... February 20, 2009 10:56AM
When the goverment pays for your crops you can have a nice little right off , tractor, pulling.
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