Regular racing schedule ideas, Ohio mail-ins and others

redlinederby Tuesday, 8/13/2013
Site manager

With the Fantasy League going on hiatus at the end of this month, I've been thinking more about a regular annual schedule for all official RLD racing, both League and mail-in. I think it's always bugged me that all the events (even ones I don't participate in) are seemingly random happenings...or maybe I just don't know any better because I don't pay enough attention.

Nonetheless, I want to start hosting more mail-ins as "official" tournaments on my Ohio track for which I can provide prizes and get sponsors involved (to get said prizes). So I jotted down what I think is a schedule I could maintain without much conflict (in theory)...all just an idea right now that would start in 2014 and coincide with the new web site updates.

March, Ohio mail-in tournament
April/May, Fantasy League Spring Series (appx 9 weeks)
July, Ohio mail-in tournament
August/September, Fantasy League Summer Series (appx 9 weeks)
October, Ohio mail-in tournament

The reasons behind this schedule are that it ends before the holidays kick in and gives me a break during the frozen months in Jan/Feb when it's more difficult for me to race. Plus it gives me some extra padding to work on site updates and fixes that come about. And in theory, this schedule would be true every year here on out so they're dates people could rely on and prepare for.

Obviously there's nothing stopping anyone from hosting other mail-in tournaments during the other months of the year so please don't see this as an attempt to squash anything. I more just need this schedule to keep myself sane but I think the consistency will be good for everyone year after year.

Although looking at current dates, I might try to host a mail-in tournament this October or November...I'll have to see if you guys already have a tournament on the books for then.

Any thoughts, complaints, suggestions?


Discussion

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model40fan 8/13/13

just let us know...

Sounds like more racing to me.......and that is a good thing.

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EconoCarl 8/13/13

Sounds like a plan, I'm on board!

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GspeedR 9/30/13

Yes, I'd certainly be "home base", ya' know?

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FOTF 9/30/13

Speaking of that--how do you go about sponsoring races?

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redlinederby 10/1/13
Site manager

That's a good question and one I still need to get down on paper. Unfortunately, as with everyone else I do, I'm inclined to over-complicate things and sponsoring is no different (I blame years of TV/radio).

I suppose at its core, sponsoring is just supporting a cause/event or whatever. Simple and done, but in my head, there are 3 levels of support:

Partnership - No goods are exchanged between parties but each promotes the other. In our case, this is like link swapping, similar to what I do with diecast clubs.

Sponsorship - When someone gives something of value to the organization that they can use for their own means. In return the party gets deeper promotion, exposure, etc. In our case, Tom's Diecast Cars is a sponsor because he provides cars that I use as prizes and he gets links and in-content marketing value.

Advertiser - Someone who gives money to have their banner/logo/link displayed on the site. Nothing fancy, usually banner ads. We don't have any advertisers on RLD right now, I try to avoid them. I'm not allergic to cash but I see more value in sponsorships.

The common thread through all of these is, of course, exposure. Regardless whether you give cash, things or just a link, you get your name in front of the audience. How and where your name gets in front of people depends on how much you offer for the opportunity.

On RLD I'm pretty loose with these definitions and everyone that offers any support gets some links, banners and other exposure. But I think it's only fair that people that offer more get more.

Soooo..........as something like a regular schedule starts to take shape, I'll be making posts and looking for sponsors/partners/advertisers so if you or someone you know would be interested, just let me know. For live racing in particular, I'm trying to get a grasp on how to better organize things so we can have more "stuff" on the line for tournaments. Bragging rights are great but getting something free is all the sweeter.

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