Without knowing the fees involved (and yes, ORSCA would have to pay for the privilege), it’s impossible for me to know the break-even point, but I imagine you’d have to charge at least $10 to tap into a show like that and I can’t see it costing any less than $5,000 to produce each show. That’s a hypothetical 500 paying customers you’d need each and every time and while I see a few diehards paying one or two, maybe three times, I just don’t think there’s a wide enough audience out there willing to sit in front of a computer screen to watch a race and make it economically viable. Unless there’s enough funding for it not to matter if the experiment flops, I think ORSCA should stay away from being a broadbandcasting guinea pig. No matter how it’s sold, watching a monitor is not like watching TV—at least not yet.
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Of course, the obvious solution would be timely cable TV coverage and that’s something Fenn is hoping to realize now that major backer Year One has pledged a healthy dose of dollars to ORSCA’s upcoming season. Rumor placed the sponsorship value at close to $1 million in 2006, but Year One co-owner Kevin King told me that number is “inflated.”
Though the amount remains undisclosed, Fenn and King both confirmed they did reach agreement this fall to equally share the direction of ORSCA, but both stressed that no money actually changed hands—in other words, Fenn did not personally profit from the deal. Instead, he now has access to a Year One line of credit, meaning he can pony up reservation fees for scheduled venues and take some of the sting out of rainouts and other unavoidable or unforeseen extra expenses.
“It’s operational money,” Fenn explained. “The deal is, we do these races and after each race we all sit down with the accountants and say, ‘Okay, the race cost X amount and we took in Y amount and we either made this much money or lost this much money.’ Either way, I’m still responsible for 50 percent of what’s made or lost.”
An early tentative schedule for 2006 lists nine points-paying races, which should produce more compelling championship battles with more room for movement over the course of the season. Unfortunately, at least three venues were unconfirmed when the list of dates was released and three tracks dominate the schedule. I realize the Memphis experiment failed this year, along with Hattiesburg, MS, a year earlier, but for ORSCA to truly step up to the proverbial next level, it has to expand beyond its Carolina-Georgia-Alabama stronghold.
On the other hand, I’m confident that becoming part of NHRA, as some have suggested, would be an even worse idea. The last thing ORSCA needs is to become just another Sportsman cog in the NHRA machine—not to mention that’s the last thing NHRA wants. So let’s just forget that idea ever existed.
About a year ago I said ORSCA members were fortunate to have a guy like Fenn at the helm; not because he doesn’t make mistakes, but because he recognizes ORSCA is a work in progress. I still feel that way, but now I’m adding that they’re fortunate because I truly believe he unselfishly wants ORSCA to thrive. Need proof?
“I could have probably gone out and sold this thing to somebody, I’ve even been offered quite a lot of money for it and I could’ve taken it and been quite happy,” Fenn told me in October. “But that’s not what I wanted. It’s on the verge of being something that I’ve always dreamed it could be and I’m going to be that last dude hanging on to the mast if the ship goes down, I promise you that.” 
Race safe,
