03:50:10am, Thursday, May 09, 2024
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MLB vs Pulling
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Registered: 08/22/2019 Posts: 84 |
So this past weekend I attended a Milwaukee Brewers game with my wife, my son, and one of his friends. For starters, I am not rally a baseball fan. If I never go to a game again, I will be fine. My son and wife did want to go and it was an outing we could all do together. But the whole time I sat there at the game, I kept wondering why an MLB game on a Sunday afternoon goes over so well and a Saturday night pull doesn't. The similarities between the 2 are closer than you would think. They both give you a show around 4 hours. They both have a bunch of down time, arguably less at a tractor pull. Both have 4 or 5 moments that really gets the crowd excited. You really don't get to meet any of the athletes/pullers. And the odds you someone being able to participate in a game is comparable to the amount of people that will be able to drive a ProStock tractor. So why did the stadium draw in 30,000 at say $60/ticket(that's what ours cost), get me to buy 4 waters at a price of $21, and nachos that cost $23? Well to start, my son wanted to go and we could do it as a family. And they tried to appeal to and include everyone. Next, they interact with the fans. They would try to get the crowd to do things like the kiss cam for couples, or dance cam and kids would try their best to get on the big screen. You also sit around the game, not just on one side. They would show a picture of the player coming to bat and post info about them. And wifi, holly crap. The amount of people using their founds was insane. So I checked and their wifi was great. And the biggest thing, the family aspect. The amount of kids with their parents was incredible. You could find 3 generations all sitting together all around. In tractor pulling, I truly feel the product isn't the biggest issue. It's the experience and the idea that you don't see the love for pulling passed down through generation after generation. My dad, my son, and I hang out all summer long going to pulls and pulling our little tractors. We love it. How do we get the experience at a pull so it becomes a sport that generation after generation wants to attend. Thanks for listening |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Registered: 09/25/2018 Posts: 78 |
You make a lot of great points in this post. MLB is much larger in a lot of ways but on a very high level not unlike what pulling is or maybe needs needs to do or could at least borrow elements from. If you think about how many little boys and girls play with trucks and tractors when they are growing up, if we could get half of those kids involved in pulling or make new fans in some form or fashion....that's a lot of children tugging at mom and dad to go to a pull. When we talk about strictly the fan aspect of pulling, the biggest thing that I see that's different is how much baseball is engrained in our youth. Think about the number of tee ball, little league, travel ball, school teams, etc. our youth have the ability to participate in. It gets them involved from an early age in huge numbers. Pulling doesn't have that (at least not on that scale). If we can get those kids hooked early (no pun intended) then maybe we can keep them as adults and that would lend to the generational aspect that you spoke of. Now we will not retain every fan as an adult but maybe we can keep a good portion of them. I think that pullers and promoters can really help with this and most already are great at it. Open pits, a free t- shirt here and there, hero cards, a kid in the seat of your ride, a picture with the driver,....all of that is a huge help. At the Monroe County Fair in Illinois this year they handed out frisbees with driver names on the back of them. If you got the class winners frisbee you got to come down on the track and meet the driver. I saw Brandon Simon put a little boy on Loud and Heavy. I would be willing to bet if you asked that kid about that today he would instantly smile and he's gonna remember that for a really long time. The kid was on cloud nine. Craig Corzine stopped as he and Ashley were pulling the mod back to the hauler to get a picture and talk with the little guy that got his frisbee. Mike McCurdy had the young man who had his frisbee on the track taking pictures with him as he accepted his 1st place 2wd check and trophy. Things like this happen all around the country all summer long and little things like that or letting a kid get on your ride for a picture can help make a fan for life. The pulling community is great about allowing things like this to happen. One thing that can really help is by putting these special moments on your individual or team social media pages. That gets shared around and shows other people the part of the sport that is not often seen. At many of the events, its not too terribly hard to tell who are maybe not full on pulling fans and I encourage all pullers, crews, promoters, photographers, and media people to try and make at least one new fan at every pull they attend in whatever small way they can. New fans are what we should all be after. It will only help our sport.
Paul Romack Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2022 01:33AM by prmack. |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Registered: 08/22/2019 Posts: 84 |
Thank you Paul. Your response is 100% what I was thinking as well. Why does my son like baseball? Because he started playing when he was young. Why does my son like pulling? Because he has been around it his whole life and started pulling himself when he was 4. My son also talks to other kids about it. Now tonight, I am driving an hour and 45 minutes to take 3 boys to the Badger State Pull in Milledgeville, IL. I am going to take them into the pits before the event so they can see these machines up close. I did this same thing with my brother-in-law a copule years ago. Prior, he had never really bean to a pull and never cared if he went. We didn't make it half way throught the pits aand he was asking all kinds of questions about all the tractors and trucks. He was amazed with the motors, the tires, the paint jobs, the technology that was involved. He couldn't believe you could feel the ground shake when they would run the 2wds. He really enjoyed the pull that night and said he would like to go again sometime. There is a reason we run garden/outlaw tractors. It's so my son can participate. He loves it. He loves seeing dad and grandpa run the same day also. I agree with you Paul that social media is very under utalized in pulling. Some people do it and do it very well. Others including myself, not great at it.
Thanks for listening, Ed Averkamp High Rollers Pulling Team on Facebook |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Paull
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Many pulls happen within miles of me, and I am on Media (social) all the time looking, and the before mentioned pulls happening many do not list,post -utilize the facebook, this Awesome site and other groups that offer free usage. Thanks Morgans. |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Registered: 08/22/2019 Posts: 84 |
Jake, 2 things.
1, I agree with you when you talk about inappropriate announcers and vehicle names. While I was announcing an event last year, I made a comment that I felt was wrong. It wasn't too bad and no one said anything to me, but I try harder to make sure what I say is appropriate. And you are correct, there was not 1 inappropriate comment made at the baseball game. 2. You said you don't think it's too late to save pulling. Do you think it needs to get worse before it gets better? I agree 100% that getting children involved or becoming fans is what we lack. I also feel there are things at our disposal that we really overlook. Take pedal pulls as an example. Alost every fair seams to have them. And there almost always outside the grandstands. They always draw a bunch of kids and mom and dad cheer them on. Every fair grounds around all seam to have a stage as well. Why not pick an class, say 8 year old's and have it where the top 5 get to pull in the pull off on stage in front of the crowd during the big tractors. You could run them run them while there prepping the track. You already have an announcer. And when I was younger, I would have loved it. The chance to pull in front of a crowd like that would have been amazing. And your investment is little to nothing extra as a promoter. Just the little things |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Registered: 03/25/2008 Posts: 2,526 |
Overall... Tractor pulling stopped trying to draw kids in years ago. Individual pullers do a great job sometimes, but the sport as a whole doesn't put much effort into attracting kids. This motorsport started taking itself too serious and too much white trash behavior is overlooked.
Case-in-point: every once in a while a pulling announcer gets roasted for saying an off-color joke (kid inappropriate) and there are tons of morons that get on here and defend the announcer and say dumb things like "kids hear worse than that at school" . Sure, but you don't hear that from an MLB announcer or they'd be fired immediately. this sport is quick to make excuses for non-kid friendly behavior. We've also had plenty of discussions about inappropriate vehicle names... names that I don't want to explain to my 6, 8, and 10 yr olds. Again, morons defend those names and say dumb things like "it's their tractor and they can name it anything they want". Again, sure they can but that doesn't mean they should use those names. Pulling has abandoned trying to draw kids in... which means pulling has abandoned it's future. Jake Morgan Owner, PULLOFF.COM Independent Pulling News This page is a free service. The cost is covered out of my pocket. It takes a great deal of time and a fair amount of money to keep this website going. Donations for: photos, classified ads, forum discussion, etc... are appreciated. Side Note: We are no longer accepting PayPal donations. They have changed their terms of service and stated they would fine PayPal users for spreading "misinformation" and "hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory". PayPal did not provide definitions for some of these vague terms. Woke corporate policies regarding "misinformation" could result in an automatic fine of $2,500 which would have been removed directly from the customer’s PayPal account. PayPal did backdown from some of their policies but quietly implemented portions of them in later terms of service. A financial institute has no right to monitor social media accounts or speech. This is unacceptable and I'll no longer do business with PayPal. |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Registered: 08/16/2021 Posts: 307 |
There are a couple key points here. The MLB certainly does a good job of getting kids engaged in the game, and keeping things entertaining for several hours. I have not been to Europe myself but several others on this site have talked about how pulling in Europe does do some of what the MLB does as far as engaging fans of all ages but specifically kids.
I do agree with the general sentiment that a lot of pullers do a great job of signing autographs, taking pictures, putting kids on their tractors. But the actual show itself definitely does not attract kids. It's hard to keep kids entertained and interested when there are 2-3 minute breaks in the action. One thing worth noting here is that overall the MLB is losing popularity and attracting less and less fans so maybe they aren't who we should model ourselves after. But I agree with the general idea of stealing some of their ideas and using it to enhance pulling. |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Registered: 09/25/2018 Posts: 78 |
Jake,
Honest opinion...do you think it's too late to turn the future of pulling around? I agree that pullers do a good job interacting with the young fans. I am wondering what the associations can do, if anything, to help draw youth into the sport. Only organization I can think of that is trying to bring youth into the sport is the Outlaws with their Young Guns program. Thoughts? Paul Romack |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Posts: 66 |
Do any other pulls do anything similar to Tomah's Full Pull Kid's Club? Kids are invited to spend Friday morning from 9:00am until showtime at the pull for a tour of the pit area, receive a free t-shirt to color, and meet drivers for autographs. Food and refreshments are provided and anyone 14 & under gets a free ticket to the Friday Afternoon show. I've been apart of the drivers that sign autographs and it's 3 hours straight of kids coming for autographs. This year there was just under 300 participants. Here's a video to give an idea of what goes on.
[www.youtube.com] - Collin Birkholz |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Registered: 03/25/2008 Posts: 2,526 |
I don't think it's too late. I do think it would take a radical shift in mindset. I don't think the organizations are capable of that at this point... they'd need some new outside blood to come in with a different mindset to truly change things. John, Kristi, Gregg, are great people but they've done this so long that its hard to look at the motorsport from a different perspective. If you asked me what could be done I wouldn't be much help either since I'm too entrenched. I've got some ideas and I can see that something is wrong, but I don't know exactly how to fix it. I think the promoters are the only ones that can make a change. I hope there's a good promoter out there that has a long-term approach and tries different things to get kids in the seats. They will most likely need to figure out what age demographic to focus on... little kids... tweens, teens... and then try to attract that group because those ages are worlds apart in their preferences. Heck, give free tickets to anyone under 16 and know that you're building a long-term fan base... or anyone with a current middle school or high school ID (and younger) free admission. Play some family friendly music they like (I'll most likely hate it or not know it but that's not the point). Give them a reason to want to come to the pull. Have giveaways tailored to them... have trivia they would know. The video that Collin posted is a perfect example. Give the kids free stuff and a reason to be there and their parents will take them to the pull and spend money on other stuff like concessions and that will make up the difference. It will also give them something to look forward to year after year. Side note to Paul: I think the Young Guns program is great but I'm more interested in getting kids in the stands right now... it's a much lower hurdle financially to get them hooked on the sport. Don't get me wrong, getting younger pullers in the seats of vehicles is great but most of the time it's dad's vehicle and dads money behind it... we need young fans right now that will eventually become dads with enough money to own a vehicle. Jake Morgan Owner, PULLOFF.COM Independent Pulling News This page is a free service. The cost is covered out of my pocket. It takes a great deal of time and a fair amount of money to keep this website going. Donations for: photos, classified ads, forum discussion, etc... are appreciated. Side Note: We are no longer accepting PayPal donations. They have changed their terms of service and stated they would fine PayPal users for spreading "misinformation" and "hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory". PayPal did not provide definitions for some of these vague terms. Woke corporate policies regarding "misinformation" could result in an automatic fine of $2,500 which would have been removed directly from the customer’s PayPal account. PayPal did backdown from some of their policies but quietly implemented portions of them in later terms of service. A financial institute has no right to monitor social media accounts or speech. This is unacceptable and I'll no longer do business with PayPal. |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Experience
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We've moved into the "experience" generation. They don't care how good your food is, they care about the experience. The entertainment venues that are thriving, realize this.
Create a better experience vs sitting on a bleacher drinking beer next to old drunk dudes watching stuff go 300 I mean 350'. Use social media. NHRA has an uptick lately, partially due to some great social media work. Folks like Clay Millican are doing wonders. Get on Netflix. I can't throw a stick in a room anymore without hitting someone that's suddenly a Formula 1 fan now that Netflix had a bunch of shows about it. 5 years ago nobody cared. By nobody I mean the Gen pop. |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Moderator Registered: 03/25/2008 Posts: 1,449 |
I couldn't agree more. Now people need to be entertained, to long between hooks means boredom for the younger generation. Take a look at a 30 second TV commercial, no one wants to be informed, they need to be entertained. Pulling needs to address what the fans want. Dick Morgan www.PULLOFF.com Independent Pulling News |
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Re: MLB vs Pulling
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Experience
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I'd also add, with NHRA, every ticket is a pit pass. Fans can get engaged and feel more like a part of the action. Again, the experience. |
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