Denny Hamlin Demands Amendment from NASCAR after Exposing Massive Roadblock for Hooked Chicago Fans

The first-of-its-kind Chicago Street Race was one of the more anticipated races in this year’s schedule. The NASCAR community witnessed a historic night on Sunday and Shane van Gisbergen winning it in his debut is the icing on the cake. But not everyone could make it to the venue to witness it live. Despite managing to find a significant fanbase in the city, one of the reasons why people loathed the event was the money one had to pay to get a ticket to Grant Park.

Despite protests and heavy backlash from Chicago’s repulsive residents, NASCAR turned its vision into a reality. But to entice the public, the tickets needed a fair price. Starting from $269, it has held back a lot of fans from attending the race. Denny Hamlin has taken notice of this issue and urged NASCAR to help the fans by making races more affordable to watch live.

Denny Hamlin calls out NASCAR for high ticket costs for Chicago Street Race

The ticket prices for the Chicago Street Race were well above $200, which made the public a bit sketchy about attending the race. Although many people were strongly interested in attending it, the price gap was a huge factor in demotivating them. Addressing the same, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver says,

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“I think, you know, making it a little bit more affordable would be a good change for next year. I know it was super expensive, and we’re trying something different there with a big hospitality down the front stretch. But yeah, we are trying something new and I thought it was a huge success. I really look forward to the opportunity to come back next year,” said Hamlin, acknowledging the potential of the race in the foreseeable future.

Hamlin then goes on to show his admiration for the mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson. Applauding his sense of humor, Denny says, ” I thought the mayor was very funny during our drivers meeting. He seemed like a good guy from what I know, you know, listened to the guy talk for ten seconds. But it seemed like they were excited to have us there. They really were and definitely hope that we’re able to keep this going for the next two years.”

If NASCAR handles this issue and reduces ticket prices by a fair margin, there is a possibility of a significant increase in turnout. Although people did turn up in great numbers at Grant Park, optimizing the costs seems only right.

The revenue expectations from the Street Race

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There has been a lot of controversy around organizing the race, especially around the issues of traffic diversion, crime rates, and road closures, among many more. But the City Council and NASCAR had other plans as well. Trying to devise a revenue model that can recover the expenditure for the race and, at the same time, create a profit for all parties involved can be a tough task. President of the Chicago Street Race Course, Julie Giese had previously estimated that 100,000 tickets will be sold out for the weekend.

The agreement between NASCAR and the city authority allotted $2 for every ticket sold for the event, which eventually would amass around $200,000 for the city on top of a fee of $500,000 that was paid upfront.

The mayor at the time of agreement Lori Lightfoot, agreed to the speculated fee, and was surprised considering one of the annual shows in the city- Lollapalooza is charged a whopping $750,000 for their event.

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Some more revenue-generating operations were also included in the event, including merchandise and beverage sales that would contribute 15% of their sales. Overall, the expected cost of conducting the race was estimated to be around $113 million. What remains to be seen is whether the numbers that represent the profit from the race and its branch operations can exceed the tall mark of $113 million.