Here's the scenerio: It's 2007. Judy Thompson has just retired after a long, glorious tenure as Manager of Lions Associated Drag Striip. The Gold Star Mothers and Harbor Commish never were able to shut down the track. It has been a difficult ride- at times, no feature cars were allowed without mufflers and a 95 db. limit. Big Willie and the Brotherhood have been there to facilitate security and maintain the neutral ground that Lions was always famous for. Your local community is the same: San Pedro, Signal Hill, Watts and those who desire to visit from Fontana and Irwindale.
You have to deal with the current economic climate: the local employment vis a vis the decline of Harvey Aluminum and the Aerospace industry. Frankie, Annette and Don Rickles are NOT going to bail you out, this time. You've got a cult following with Navy families..God Bless 'em.
You have an uneasy truce with the neighbors...only major upgrades are structural integrity of the tower/bridge and new grandstands to replace...one-for-one...the ones which wear out-courtesy, of course, from Al Davis
No corporate suites; Fortune 500 still considers the place to be "seedy". The original mission of the strip as handed down by the Lions clubs and Traffic Court officials remains- and determines your year to year operations status. Your new surface is 18 mo. old..traction considered pretty good-300ft. concrete launch. You are restricted to a 5.75ET insurance policy, provided at no cost, by the Lions Appreciation Society, a worldwide following/NPO dedicated to the lineage of the sport. Anything hotter, you gotta pay for...Look at the current sanctioning options...look at the "theater of machines" to choose from....... look at the weekly program options.....
Now, design a weekly (Weds. Sat. and Sun.) program that can pay for itself and fill as many of those 10,000 seats as possible. There are no 'wrong' answers.....if you can rebound and learn from your snafus. Are there really any cookie-cutter answers you can steal from others? Sure?
Think this over, post your imput, keep this thread going......let's see how we would steward grass-roots drag racing at the Citadel of the Sport, if it survived today........