Phil -
Is Memphis region prepared to lose between $5,000-$10,000 in the name of trying to building a worker base?
I know there's probably not many people from NE who would travel to Memphis for a race and vice versa, but there probably are people in MO who would go to either place. However, I can practically garauntee there will be ZERO people willing to travel to Omaha one weekend, and Memphis the next.
From my perspective, adding these two races is going to thin the field both at MAM and Memphis, and create a big heaping loss on the Memphis Region cash flow statement for the month. I have thought about your question of how to attract workers, and my answer is that we have to have a STRONG racing program that puts on a good show in order to make it fun and worthwhile for workers to volunteer their time and money. I have worked corners in the past, and the "races" with only a handful of cars which is hardly anything more than a lapping parade is not fun. But back when SM had 25+ car fields, that was a lot of fun to be on the corners, and if every race was like that, i'd be a lot more willing to do it again.
There are only a certain number of people racing in this part of the country, and especially these days there is only a certain amount of money to be had by the regions. If we keep adding events, we're only slicing the pie into smaller pieces, and that's not good for anyone.
I think adding more events to MiDiv's schedule is the worst thing we can possibly do for the health of both the racing and worker programs.