LVMS top tickets to cost more

Tuesday, May 4, 1999 | 10:21 a.m.

Racing fans who are receiving their ticket renewal order forms for the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway are being faced with a good news/bad news proposition.

The good news is that the majority of the ticket prices in the less desirable Section 4 are being reduced by an average of $7 for next year's race.

The bad news is that the majority of tickets in Sections 1 through 3 are being increased by an average of $12 -- and there will be fewer of the lower-priced seats available.

LVMS general manager Chris Powell said the new pricing structure was implemented after Speedway officials surveyed fans' sight lines from each of the 48 rows in the 107,000-seat facility.

"In the past, it seems the previous ownership had set pricing based on the color of the seats and the color of the seats was determined by just making it all equal," Powell said.

The Speedway was designed with the lower third of the seats, the first 16 rows in the grandstands, colored red, the middle third colored white and the top third colored blue, and priced accordingly.

"It looked real good, but when we went out and looked at the different angles, we didn't think it was fair to the guy who was sitting in a section and the guy who was sitting one row behind him was paying a higher rate and having pretty much the same sight line," Powell said.

Under the new pricing configuration, the lower 10 rows (colored red) will be the least expensive seats, rows 11-27 (white) will be intermediately priced and rows 28-48 (blue) will be the most expensive seats.

Tickets in Section 2 at the start/finish line that were priced at $110 (blue), $80 (white) and $60 (red) for this year's race are being raised to $130, $95 and $75, respectively, for the next year's race.

Tickets in Sections 1 and 3 will remain $110 in the blue rows but will increase $5 to $85 in the white rows and $65 in the red rows.

One problem fans holding tickets in the red rows will find is that there will be fewer of those seats available in 2000. In other words, a person holding a ticket this year in Section 1 or 3, row 16 will pay $85 rather than $60 for next year's race.

One of the reasons there will be fewer lower-priced red rows, according to Powell, is that the sight lines from those seats are expected to improve by next year's race.

Powell said officials from Speedway Motorsports Inc., which purchased the track last December, are considering either removing the top floor or completely leveling the two-story infield media center building which impedes the view of the back stretch for fans sitting in the lower portion of the grandstand.

"There is a possibility that the media center building won't obstruct the view from the lower seats in 2000 and beyond," Powell said. "That way, if you go and sit on row 11 on the front stretch, you can see the back stretch if that building is not there."

Powell was quick to point out that not all seats in all sections are being raised. Tickets in the blue rows in Section 4 (turns 3 and 4) are being lowered from $110 to $100 each. Tickets in the white rows will remain at $80 while tickets in the red rows will be lowered from $60 to $55.

"We found out (this) year that people don't like Section 4 as much as they like Section 2," he said. "It is our policy not to charge the guy sitting in the Section 4 blue seats as much money as we would a guy at the start/finish line. I think people will understand that."

Powell reiterated that the Speedway will give fans who were incorrectly shifted to different seats this year top priority to renew the seats they had for the inaugural 1998 race.