Texas Motor Speedway Announces Reduced Ticket Prices, Grandstand Smoking Ban

Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage yesterday announced a number of changes at the track for the '13 season. The majority of the changes, known as the "Fan-Fueled Evolution," will go into effect immediately while others will be in place when the racing season opens April 11-13 with NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races. Changes include a new children's ticket program, adult individual ticket restructuring, unique race-related perks for season-ticket holders and a ban on smoking in the track's grandstands (TMS). Gossage announced plans to reduce ticket prices "on more than 15,000 seats for the 2013 racing season," and said that there would be "no price increases." Gossage: "We drew the biggest crowd of 2012, so it runs against the thought of how you do business with the free enterprise system. If you're selling out or doing well, you raise prices ... But the best way to show you're fan friendly is to lower your prices." In Ft. Worth, Drew Davison notes there are "approximately 8,000 tickets on the frontstretch that will be priced at $49 for the Cup races, down from $86 in 2012." Gossage said, "It's better to keep fans engaged at $49 than to lose them over $55. ... When the economy comes back around, and it will eventually, then they're still with us and we can creep those ticket prices back up." He added, "We're lowering the bottom end (frontstretch tickets) to get more people where they can see the pits and the start/finish line." Davison notes roughly 7,400 seats along the frontstretch that are closer to the start/finish line also have "been reduced from $92 to $79 for Cup races." Frontstretch tickets are "as low as $25 for Cup races" for kids 12 and under. The initiatives "came from the track's 22-person fan council" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 1/22).