SNOHOMISH, Wash. — Antron Brown qualified his remark, saying it was only his opinion.
But the three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion who next season becomes an independent team owner made a salient point in the discussion about how to grow the sport.
“This is my personal opinion,” he prefaced. “Our sport has always been focused on ‘How do we save money?’ If you go to any other form of sport, they’re always talking about ‘How do we bring more money in to raise the level of our sport?’ And that’s where we need to be at. That’s the mindset we all need to have.
“You can’t do it cheaper when everything costs more. How do you do something cheaper if everything costs more? You can’t,” Brown said.
Some of the escalating expenses of the drag-racing industry simply are beyond the sanctioning body’s control. The keepers of the sport have no control of the price of fuel that gets the race-car haulers and motorhomes down the road — airline fares, hotel rates, rental-car fees and food.
Yet, what Brown and other racers hear is: “We’ll give less this. We’ll give less that.”
One key exception might be a discussion about paring back the schedule from 23 or 24 races as in pre-pandemic years. That might solve some problems, even though it surely would involve parting with some traditions. And, of course, every track operator thinks that’s a great idea, unless his venue is on the list for consideration.
In general, though, Brown said, “You can’t give less.”
So, in a sense, Brown is like the successful candy merchant: Always put less than the customer asks for on the scale, then keep adding the candy in small increments. That way the customer feels like he or he is getting more of the delicious goodies. That’s better than seeing the candy-store owner continue to take more and more out of the bag to meet the order.
“You’ve got to give them (fans) more in a shorter amount of time,” Brown said. “That’s the way the world is now. People don’t want to sit at a show for five hours. They want to be at a show for an hour and a half to two hours and be, you know, bezonkered, like, ‘Wow! Look what I just saw!’ And they want to leave. So how do you give them all that? To do that, it costs more money. You have to have more equipment or more people. Everything takes more.
“My train of thought,” he said, “is, ‘We’ll go out and get the right amount of partners so you can compete at the right level.”
Unlike Formula 1 or NASCAR, NHRA doesn’t have a lucrative television contract. NHRA pays FOX for its broadcast time. And it doesn’t have revenue-sharing, not in the traditional sense. So it will need to be more creative to find fresh income sources, and so will teams and drivers.
The happy news is that NHRA is in the process of pursuing additional revenue streams and the sanctioning body has a lot of assets it can use.
NHRA officials announced in mid-May that they have entered a licensing partnership with GameMill Entertainment to create original video games inspired by the classic designs of the sport and the fast-paced thrills of the current Camping World Drag Racing Series. The first, so-far-untitled project is in development for a range of video-game systems.
Andy Koehler, senior vice-president of business development and licensing for GameMill Entertainment, said, “From Pro Stock to Top Fuel classes and the fan-favorite, wheel-standing Super Stock class, get ready for heart-pounding action as you rocket over 330 mph in the fastest three-and-a-half seconds of your life. NHRA gaming is back.”
The game is expected to be available sometime by the end of summer 2022.
And that new partnership is the latest for the NHRA licensing program, which continues to expand the franchise with new lifestyle and entertainment products, including apparel, accessories, automotive tools, and home and garage décor.
NHRA also is back in business with Mattel and its Hot Wheels brand, another way to reel in the younger generation — with an updated spin on the toys that preoccupied kids in the 1960s with “The Snake” and “Mongoose” craze.
With the Jr. Dragster program allowing kids as young as 5 years old to race, that’s a demographic NHRA wisely is courting and building relationships with, in an effort to preserve the 70-year-old sport that still embraces its pioneers.
With a beefed-up social-media presence, including a steady increase in You Tube postings, NHRA executives understand that the organization has a whole new frontier to conquer — and monetize.