Gossage gives his take from Texas

From his perch in Fort Worth, where he has run Texas Motor Speedway since its inception in 1996, track President Eddie Gossage has earned a reputation for being one of the sport’s more eclectic personalities. In between Duck Commander 500 media activities before this Saturday’s race, Gossage recently spoke with SportsBusiness Journal staff writer Adam Stern about some of the top issues affecting his industry.

“There just is a sense within the industry that things are better now than they’ve been in a long, long time.” EDDIE GOSSAGE Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

■ Does Daytona International Speedway’s recently completed renovation add pressure to TMS?

GOSSAGE: Daytona Rising is important because many people go to Daytona and it was a speedway that was sorely in need of improvement. It was lagging horribly far behind, and people would go there thinking, “Everybody’s like this.” So this was a great thing to see happen. As far as the pressure, we feel like we’ve got everything here from condos to a private club to the

Texas Motor Speedway fans watching highlights on Big Hoss TV will see spots for the track’s new craft beer, No Limits Checkered Past (below). Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

world’s biggest TV, we’ve got all the parking on our ground, more fan parking than Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. We’ve invested a lot in the venue, and I don’t know [if] there’s anything where I would sit here and say, “Well, we really need to step up our game there.” It’s a nice thing; we have nine similar gates that are sponsored and have been since ’97. Theirs are quite impressive, and, trust me, I took notes and photos [when in Daytona recently], because it is cool. … [Daytona and track owner International

Photo by: TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Speedway Corp.] took it to another level, and that’s worth copying, so you never know.

■ What are you looking for from NASCAR’s new title sponsor?

GOSSAGE: You’ve got to look at categories where there’s not a lot of competition. A Coke/Pepsi conflict — those kind of conflicts are going to be issues for everybody, and we even kind of saw that with Sprint and AT&T. We’re all going to work together and hopefully avoid those kind of conflicts. But if we can get something in tech, that’s one that’s pretty much open for everybody.

■ How is the market for NASCAR races right now?

GOSSAGE: It’s a tough balance. Several years ago, we lowered our ticket prices to be more competitive, and we haven’t raised them. When you look at a race fan, it’s not the race ticket; you can bring your own cooler in, so it’s not concession prices; it’s the hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, airplanes and rental cars. We have no control over them, but those are the things that affect the attendance and impact on the fans. … We’re just slightly up [in ticket sales for the Duck Commander 500] — just slightly, nothing to beat your chest about — but that’s better than flat and better than down. I think everybody is kind of seeing that; there just is a sense within the industry that things are better now than they’ve been in a long, long time.

■ Why did TMS unveil its own craft beer, No Limits Checkered Past, with a local brewer?

GOSSAGE: Craft beer skews younger, so that’s a good thing. We also have an ability where, if you were starting a brand of beer in this market, we have a tremendous advantage because we may have Checkered Past pole day, or we might have the Checkered Past 500 some day. We don’t have to pay to be on Big Hoss TV, so we have ways to promote our brand that others don’t, so it’s very affordable for us. … We don’t really enjoy any support from the major brewers; they’re involved with cars and just kind of turn their backs on the tracks and the fans. … We sell MillerCoors products, Anheuser-Busch products and others, and we’ll continue to do that, but I’ve got a little problem with the beer companies doing business with the teams but not doing business with the venues that actually are selling their beer. It kind of seems counterproductive, but that does open up the door for us to do something creative like this.