Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Tallmadge man dies after motorcycle crash
Man on leave from Iraq war slain in Akron
Passers-by call police over topless gardener
Soldier on leave dies after shooting near UA
Man breaks into house, flees when owner wakes up
Quinn tells Denver his foot has healed
Traffic light at off-ramp misplaced?
Slow starts might hurt Cavs' big finish
Blogs:
Akron Docs in Haiti:
Almost home
First Bell - On Education:
21st Century Skills and Akron’s new middle school
Pets:
Lost Mini Schnauzer around Cascade Valley Park
The Heldenfiles:
Fess Parker, R.I.P.
Akron Zips:
Looking back on the season
Tribe Matters:
Cleveland Browns:
Yates latest to re-sign
Balanced Ledger:
How times have changed?
Kent State Sports:
Kent State gears up for WNIT at Michigan
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs at Chicago Bulls (Green Mascot and All)
Buckeye Blogging:
Bucks High Seed – Turner High Praise
Varsity Letters:
Report: Ohio offers Olack
All Da King's Men:
ObamaCare To Reduce Premiums By 3000% ?
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Pathetic GOP Nullification Attempts
Akron Law Café:
Car Chase:
2010 CONCOURS SEASON IS UPON US
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Deals in Miami?!.
Sound Check:
Willie Nelson & Family coming to the Akron Civic Theatre May 11
See Jane Style:
Who Wore What – The Oscars
HRLite House:
Horses of Courses
Akron Gamer:
Video: Gamers expected to 'reach' for new 'Halo'
By Paul Oberjuerge
San Bernardino Sun
Published on Monday, Feb 25, 2008
FONTANA, CALIF.: Greetings, from East Hollywood.
That's where we are when we're at the Auto Club Speedway, right?
Within shouting distance of Graumann's Chinese Theatre. A red-carpet stroll from the Academy Awards.
So, here's the plan: Watch the NASCAR race in the afternoon, walk next door to the Kodak Theater and see what film wins best picture.
Pretty sure it's do-able. I think they share parking lots.
Some of you suffer under the misapprehension that the two-mile track we used to call California Speedway is located in the Inland Empire.
Actually, it's practically in Los Angeles. Santa Monica Pier is just down the street. You can see the Hollywood sign from the start-finish line.
You can feel the ocean breeze from here. Smell the salt air at night.
Or maybe that's exhaust fumes.
One of the laughable vanities of Southern California sports is the Fontana track's attempts to market itself as NASCAR's show-biz pit stop.
To hear track officials tell it, you could rub elbows with Jack Nicholson in the garage here. Bump into Angelina Jolie in the grandstand. Park next to Tom Cruise.
Apparently, they think we're that gullible.
It's the sort of positioning that probably looks great in memos to the suits at the Florida headquarters of the track's owners. ''We'll leverage Hollywood into ticket sales and media buys. We'll sell the glamor!''
Probably sounds great — the farther you are from reality.
Television images of sailboats, beaches and the Walk of Fame might fool viewers on the other side of the country. But those are people who can't begin to grasp the cultural, economic and lifestyle chasm that separates the IE and NASCAR fans from Hollywood and West L.A.
The track's disingenuous marketing probably is far more effective at alienating traditional NASCAR fans than in attracting racing newbies hoping to spot Uma Thurman and George Clooney in the stands.
The race competed with the Oscars for The Industry's attention. Guess how that one turned out.
This will be the track's eighth consecutive nonsellout. So maybe that ''Hollywood's race'' thing isn't working out.
Someone is going to have to break it to Gillian Zucker, track president. She continues to peddle the race as if it were on the corner of Hollywood and Vine.
''We continue to believe,'' she said Friday, ''that being as close as we are to the entertainment capital of the world gives us access to actors from TV and movies, or musicians, and I believe that's part of the personality of the track.''
Eventually, Zucker & Co. will realize the Hollywood campaign is a dry hole. And perhaps they will take this track back toward people who made NASCAR such a success. Wage-earning, blue-collar, middle-class — and not members of the Screen Actors Guild.
You know, like the people who fill the stands at Phoenix twice a year.
Here's a suggestion, free of charge: Turn Fontana into the bandit track. The keepin'-it-real speedway.
Instead of rolling out a red carpet, try a black one.
Everyone who rides up on a Harley-Davidson gets in free. Everyone who arrives in a pickup truck gets $5 off his tickets. Make that $10 off if you have a gun-rack in the back window.
Take a dollar per tattoo off the price of admission.
Promise free parking to anyone with a Raiders decal on their vehicle. (Parking already is free, but Raiders fans don't know that.)
Shut down that Wolfgang Puck restaurant and open a chicken-and-waffles stand. Or a Hooters. Slash the price of beer.
Talk up the racing, not the amenities. Sell the drivers who are here, not the stars who aren't.
This track runs a real risk of becoming irrelevant. Of becoming racing's latest failed grandiose SoCal experiment. (Ontario Motor Speedway came and went, three decades ago, only a few miles east of here on Interstate 10.)
Maybe it's crazy, but instead of trying to get NASCAR fans to come and hang out with starlets, how about suggesting they come hang out with other NASCAR fans?
But what do we know? We don't know the difference between a gaffer and a best boy. Nor do we know Fontana from East Hollywood.
FONTANA, CALIF.: Greetings, from East Hollywood.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
