As some of you may have seen on social media or read about it on the thread on IndianaOpenWheel.com, Daugherty Speedway in Boswell, Indiana recently announced that it will no longer allow any streaming of live video at their facility during races.
This includes any new apps found on most smartphones including Periscope or any kind of social media app that supports video chat such as Facebook that can be used to live stream video to other devices. Any person(s) caught live streaming will be removed from the track and banned for the remainder of the season.
It seems there are two schools of thought when it comes to this rule: the first being that it is absurd, the other is that it diminishes the product in some way and lets fans stay at home and watch rather than pay money to attend the races.
Personally for me, knowing someone is going to live stream from the track has never kept me from attending a race and quite honestly I think I am in the majority when it comes to that type of thinking.
You cannot reproduce the experience of being at the track in person by watching coverage through images taken on a cellphone. To me there is nothing better than being showered by clay, the smells, seeing all those fans you often see traveling from track to track around the state and dirt sprinkles in your beer.
That said, by someone live streaming a race on their cellular device, how much money is a track losing in sales on tickets at the gate? I understand the track is theirs and they can do as they please, but the only people that would be watching a race through a live stream via cellphone probably was not going to attend in the first place in my opinion.
To me, people who would do so are the casual fans, fans with an illness or a sick child at home, or someone just too far away. As a matter of fact I have seen drivers from the NHRA, ARCA and NASCAR inquire as to if someone was "periscoping" a race from a certain track before.
So in conclusion, our vote is that tracks that have outlawed live streaming might be overreacting. But again, it is the owners track to do as he or she pleases and I will not hold that against them. Whether someone is live streaming or not, we'll be at the races. We'll see you there.
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