Talley, Yo!

After reading Rich McKay’s article Cooler
ban revs up race fans in the Orlando Sentinel in which McKay had
interviewed David Talley, the current spokesman for for International Speedway
Corporation (ISC – Nasdaq/NM: ISCA; OTC Bulletin Board: ISCB), I found myself
doing what has become a regular habit when it comes to NASCAR racing these days
– shaking my head and rolling my eyes.

McKay quoted Talley: "’We’ve been
getting a lot of calls and letters, from people saying we’ve banned everything
from beer to radio headsets. That’s not true . . . I’ll point my finger at
Daytona Bob for the rumors.’"

Something tells me that Talley has not
bothered to read any Robert E. "Daytona Bob" Hoehne’s messages on the Yahoo!.com
club site. There is not one single message penned by Hoehne that mentions the
banning of beer, radio headsets, cameras, rain capes, or any other thing that
falls within Talley’s "everything" comment.

Matter of fact, the October 11, 2001,
press release from Talladega Superspeedway, which may or may not have been
written by Talley, contained a number of, well, misstated facts although the
language did specify that fans could bring in "one bag that is no larger
than 6-inches X 6-inches X 12-inches. A bag is defined as ‘a container of
flexible material, such as paper, plastic or leather that is used for carrying
or storing items.’ Any items that have been allowed in the past – whether it be
food, beverage, binoculars, a camera or a scanner – will be permissible to pass
through admission gates at Talladega Superspeedway." By the way, none of
this applied to those spectators who watched from the infield. Go figure.

After a quick
how-to-attach-your-camera/scanner lesson, the press release went on to state
". . . ISC’s concession company (Americrown Service Corporation) has
reviewed its menu and has reduced prices on beer, beverages, candy and other
snacks – some by as much as 50 percent."

The price for a 16-ounce "King of
Beers" was reduced from its former $4.50 to $4.00. Hey, what a deal, huh!
Don’t know about anyone else, but the local 7-11 has a stocked fridge section
with an entire six-pack of 16-ouncers for just under $5.00.

According to the ISC cooler ban
announcement in September, Americrown was adding a 16-ounce soda to the fare
with a price tag of $2.00 – or $1.00 less than the 22-ounce size that was
formerly the only cup o’ soda available. Now, in an effort to be totally fair, a
bag of chips was to be reduced 50% — from $2.00 to $1.00. Never mind that same
bag of chips might cost, oh, $0.50 most other places. By the way, no mention of
any filling food items such as burgers, subs or pizza.

From the majority of notes I’ve received
from fans who attended the EASports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, they were
hard pressed to find the "some" items that were reduced at all. Fans
report that a hamburger cost $4.00, and so did a bottle of water (though ISC
stated the price would be reduced from $3.00 to $2.00 for a 20-ounce bottle) or
a cup of soda.

If you have any doubt about the close
relationship between ISC and NASCAR, an October 17 press release from ISC
announced that "Bill France, Chairman and CEO of International Speedway
Corporation (ISC) and NASCAR has been named International Entrepreneur of the
Year by the University of Missouri – Kansas City’s Henry W. Bloch School of
Business and Public Administration." Still think the entities are
unrelated?

A quick glance at ISC’s third quarter
results shows "Food, beverage, and merchandise income" for the three
months ended 8/31/01 totaled $20,631,000 while "Food, beverage, and
merchandise expenses" for the same period totaled $11,369,000. Will be
interesting to see how the reduced concession prices affects the fourth quarter
results for these line items.

As Americans first, and NASCAR fans
second, it goes without repeating that the events of September 11 irrevocably
changed our lives. Forever. In addition, NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing
changed forever on February 18, 2001, for a multitude of fans. Forever.

Many comments received via e-mail show
that the perception is ISC/NASCAR truly believes fans are dumb as a rock. That
they will believe, and hang on, every word sent forth from Daytona Beach. When
any given spokesperson’s words start to fall on deaf ears, another spokesperson
takes front stage with different words that all mean the same thing.

When the President of the United States
stresses that Americans should go on with their lives as normal as possible,
ISC’s Talley makes the statement that "(w)e know we’re asking the fans to
sacrifice something, but the world isn’t as safe as it used to be."

I would like to suggest to Talley and the
other honchos down South that maybe they would like to head up I-95 to
Washington, D.C., where the anthrax threat is very real, and work alongside
thousands of Americans such as myself sorting mail or riding Metro every single
day. How about working in New York City, where smoke still rises from what was
the World Trade Center and workers still risk their lives locating victims and
cleaning up the rubble.

All across this Nation, people are in the
position of possible terrorist acts, and the October 29 announcement from
Attorney General John Ashcroft warning of a "credible" threat over the
next week of terrorist activity makes continuing to live our lives seem more
difficult.

The question begs: why can’t a company
that has been named to Forbes Magazines’ 200 best small companies list allow a
50-plus year tradition of carrying in 14-inch coolers, as always. It’s a
tradition that’s as much as part of NASCAR history as the Talladega
Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway.

Probably has something to do with extra
expenses for security personnel, and that would affect the bottom profit line
since ISC owns the majority of race tracks.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone,
anyone, at the Florida headquarters would stop counting the money and/or being a
talking head for one moment and actually "feel" what thousands of race
fans do. There are MANY who just don’t care to spend hundreds of dollars to
attend one weekend of racing . . . and a many, many more who just aren’t wasting
their breath or their time putting their emotions into words.

Of course, none of this is the fault of
either NASCAR or ISC – it’s always someone else.