Should sports affect gas prices?

Which means it's more expensive. It's something like 100-plus octane.

Indy racing uses ethanol. NASCAR (finally) switched to unleaded a few years ago.

 

No, because the only reason races were shortened in the early 1970s was because there was a gas shortage.

There is no shortage today. You can still get all of the gas you want. It just costs a hell of a lot more.

Now, what you might see at a lot of small, local tracks is less cars running. Most haulers, especially for the bigger classes like late models and sprint cars, run on diesel, which is extremely expensive. Some teams might not be able to afford to travel to certain tracks.

 

Some leagues in Michigan are breaking up in favor of smaller, more-local divisions. One of the reasons is because of high gas prices.

 

AP did a pretty good story about that a couple weeks ago. In short, it said NASCAR, IRL, and the other major circuits aren't really affected because of their sponsorship deals. In NASCAR, for example, Sunoco provides all of the gas for races and testing as part of its deal. Where it was pinching people was on the smaller circuits, the dirt tracks, etc. When you're racing for even a couple thousand, paying $6 or $7 a gallon for racing fuel is going to cut into your budget a good bit.

 

Dr. J is on the case!


Personally, I think they should tone down modified, jv and varsity. Freshman sports should be cut out. Join the JV and sack up.

Okay, that sounds really harsh. But we're not living in happy times people.

 

In my state, Mississippi, the state high school association cut back on the maximum number of games starting next year, mainly because of fuel costs. The association's director was quoted as saying one school district spent $70,000 on fuel last year. They took three or four playing dates away in everything but football, which stayed the same because it's a moneymaker.
Of course, like one coach at a big school pointed out, if they really want to save money they can stop taking the band to road football games. The football team takes three buses, cheerleaders get one, and the band takes 10.

 

farmerj: If the non-league games in Alaska and Hawaii are no longer, then what would the Hawaii and Alaska schools do for non-league games?

 

OK, you're a mimosa ...

as to the topic at hand, I remember my local rec department telling us there would be no all-star baseball because the travel was too expensive. This was mid-70s during the gas shortage, and back then, at least in my state, the only travel ball was all-stars at the end of the rec season.

I was thinking about this today after reading the $10 a gallon thread, wondering if I could make it so I didn't have to drive anywhere, and I concluded that if I could move across the street from my kids' school (we live six miles away from it now) I could probably do it. Then, I started pondering how far-reaching that is. I mean, if gas is $10 a gallon, my son's karate lessons probably go away, as do my daughter's activities as a cheerleader. I wonder how many small business like that karate studio would simply go under because all their clients decided just getting there was not worth the expense of driving. I know my world would get a lot bigger, because I'd be riding a bike instead of driving.

We have a local school district that has already prohibited its sports teams from traveling out of state to compete. In sports like soccer, track and wrestling, that really cuts out some significant chances for quality competition here.

Not to threadjack, but to me the other interesting thing about that $10 prediction is that it won't happen all at once. We're kind of like the frog in the pot. It will increase incrementally until we wake up one morning and realize we're screwed.

 

Other teams on the West Coast?

I know this could easily water down the competition for a while. But would it be worth it?

 

Kids sports around here now have one-day regular season tournaments, where teams play 2 or 3 or even 4 games over a day. So, instead of Team A driving to Team B a couple times a year, Team A and B travel on a Saturday to Team C and they all play two games, and vice versa the next Saturday.
Parents seem to like it, less traveling.