The Five "stake holders" in the sport

Published August 08, 2014 01:25PM, by Dick MorganViewed: 2471 times

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I have been thinking about the “stake holders” in Truck and Tractor pulling I have come to the conclusion after talking to several people that there are really five different “stake holders” in the sport.

For the first part of this opinion article I will be posting the first three of the “stake holders” .

I am going to list in the reverse order of their importance to the sport.

1; The Fan is the guy or gal that buys a ticket to attend the sport.

2; The Corporate Sponsors who pay the have their products advertised at the pull

3; The Promoters, the people that put on the pull.

4; will be posted Monday

5; will be posted Monday


The Fan; Unfortunately the sport of Truck and Tractor pulling really does not have a very strong corp of die hard pulling fans. While I realize this runs contrary to popular opinion I believe that the sport has not done very well in fostering a real fan base for the sport. Most pulling fans are either friends of a puller or they have a vehicle that they do or did pull at one time. Most fans in actuality only go to one or maybe two pulls a year. They come to the Saturday pull at the county fair.

To prove my point the next time you are sitting in the stands at a pull ask the person next to what class is now pulling, what engine size, weight and and who is leading the class and I dare say that you will get a confused look and maybe a a rather disjointed answer. Then ask them who their favorite NASCAR drive is and they will be able to tell you not only where that person is in the current points race, but also who is in first place and by how many points. This would not be so bad that they are a NASCAR fan if you where at a NASCAR race, however you’re at a tractor pull!
The sport does a poor job of promoting itself, the announcers, the Promoter and the Sanctioning Bodies need to do a better job of letting the fan know that pulling is a points based motorsport with several different classes that makeup the sport. Pulling needs to do a better job of getting and keeping the fan informed.

Next on the list is the Corporate Sponsors. While I realize that any money that does come into the sport is a good thing, the reality is that Corporate Sponsors come and go on a 3 to 5 year cycle. And the other harsh reality is that a portion of the money that the Corporate Sponsors bring to the sport goes to the Sanctioning Bodies and the pullers never see any of it. While I also realize that it takes money by the Sanctioning Bodies to do their work the Corporate Sponsors in the big picture are also a very small part of the sport.

The Promoters to me are one of the more interesting “stake holders” in the makeup of the sport. They can usually be put in one of three categorizes. The first is the county fair Promoter, they view the sport as something they've been doing for 50 years and they really don't have much knowledge or interest in the overall show. For them it's a venue to get people onto the fair grounds. Not that they are not a valued part of the sport, yet they are removed from the sport in the fact that they usually do no more than one show a year.

Now the second group of Promoters are current or former national pullers that have decided to put on a show of their own. They will enviably run a show with a mod class, a truck class and one or two hooded tractor classes. This second type of promoter generally does a great of running their shows. They understand what makes a good show.

Then there is the group that does the mega shows and these Promoters are in a class of their own, not only do they understand what the Pullers want but they also know full well what the Fans, and Sponsors want. These are the shows that all the pullers strive for, these are the shows that carry the less known events, the events that can't-don't pay as much. These mega pulls are the pullers Super Bowl and World Series wrapped up one, with huge crowds, great announcing and world class competition. The mega promoter by and large operates independent of the Sanctioning Bodies.

I will post the 4th and 5th "stake holders" Monday

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Dick Morgan

www.PULLOFF.com
Independent Pulling News



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2014 03:44AM by Jake Morgan.

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