Fans are ready to attend live sports again. Just check out ticket response for TMS race.
Texas Motor Speedway’s website crashed within the first hour of announcing that fans would be allowed to attend next month’s NASCAR race.
That’s certainly one indication of how ready fans are to attend live sports again as far as track president Eddie Gossage is concerned. TMS announced last week that fans would be able to attend the NASCAR Cup race, the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, on Sunday, July 19.
It’s the state’s first signature sporting event to allow fans since the sports world shut down in mid-March amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve gotten very positive feedback so far,” Gossage said. “You don’t want to see your website crash, but they’re back online now. I’d say 85% of folks who had already purchased tickets that we’ve heard from so far want to be here on July 19. That’s an extremely positive response.”
NASCAR will run Xfinity Series and truck series races on July 18, too, but those races remain closed to the public. Gossage said that is to ensure the Cup race can be held with fans.
If a fan or worker at Saturday’s race were to test positive for coronavirus, Sunday’s race would be shut down.
“Obviously we don’t want that. The focus is going to be the Cup race,” Gossage said. “People generally are understanding about it. In a perfect world, everyone would be there on Saturday as well as Sunday, but that just can’t happen. Not this time.”
As far as how many fans will attend the July 19 race, it remains to be determined. A number of factors could play a part such as where the number of positive cases are at that time, or the blistering Texas heat keeping folks at home.
The state of Texas is allowing outdoor venues to seat up to 50% capacity, which would be approximately 62,500 at TMS.
However, Gossage said, the track does not expect to have 62,500 attend. Yes, the early feedback has been positive and hundreds of new tickets were sold on Friday, the first day the track announced fans could attend, but Gossage doesn’t see an attendance number close to 60,000.
“We won’t go over 62,500 obviously,” Gossage said. “That seems like a very high number. The good news is that I think we’ll be able to accommodate just about anyone who wants to be here. I really don’t know what the final number will be. We’ll see where we wind up.”
Gossage said the track is taking a number of proactive measures to ensure as safe of an environment as possible for fans next month. Among the steps:
▪ More sanitization areas throughout the track.
▪ TMS staffers will be wearing masks and fans are strongly encouraged to do the same. However, Gossage said they can’t be the “COVID-19 police” and force fans to wear masks unless the state or Denton County mandate it between now and the race.
▪ The track has reassigned seats for social distancing measures, something that Gossage said has been smoother than anticipated. Said Gossage: “I haven’t heard anybody really complain about that. They understand. We’re not trying to move you from your seat near the start/ finish line to Turn 1. We’re just having to move you here or there to make sure there’s distance between parties.”
▪ No coolers will be allowed. Instead, fans must bring everything in a clear bag (no bigger than 14” by 14” by 14”) so a staff member does not have to open it and go through items. Gossage said this measure has received the most backlash, saying: “I’ve been telling folks, this is just a one-time deal. We want you to be able to bring your coolers in, but this is how it has to be for this race.”
“We just want everyone to be as safe as possible and do the right thing,” Gossage said. “We don’t want to see anyone get sick. All of these are steps along the way to do things properly and as best we can.”
The July 19 race is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Tickets are available through the track’s website with the lowest-priced starting at $69 for adults and $10 for children.
