I've read on a couple other boards that Don Higgens (Crew Cheif Pro) has been trying to get this re-activated and has had a hard time getting cooperation from management.

I've also read that NHRA wants $5000 per national event to allow the broadcast. Has anyone else heard this?

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SG 596
SC 5961

Last time I talked to Don he thought he about had the deal done. Hes tryin to get it at Div races also... I hope it all wrks out.

It's not a question of cooperation. Simply put, once the money is paid the system will be back up and working. Don could easily do this to serve his customers who he sold the units to.

The iCard owner agreed to a price for the service and thereby established the cost/value. Regardless of how you feel about the NHRA, I can't think of too many companies who remain solvent by giving away things that previously had a revenue stream.

I am not in on the details including price. However, everyone I've spoken to who is close to the situation state it's simply a matter of a check being written. I hear rumours that past monies also need to be paid (and caught up) but do not know if that is fact or not.

I don't really understand the business model in the first place, but it seems to me this would be a prime opportunity for a company wanting to foster customer goodwill and positive image.

Until it goes to a subscription model, the only payback for a company (other than Higgins', who sells the iCard units) would be the warm fuzzies from the people who appreciate that someone stepped up to serve the racers and fans.

I would like you to clarify, you would like Don to pay $100 per user per event because he is/was a dealer for the Icards?

And as far as Don stepping up, he's got a pretty good reputation for trying his best to help out his customers and more

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SG 596
SC 5961

Why don't you jump on Jeg's and Summit and other companies that sell the I-Card ??
I won't be surprised when Fair and Brockmeyer come out with their own "version" of the I-Card and probably not to far in the future.

How is NHRA giving anything away? Before the I-cards came online NHRA wasn't making a cent of that technology! Explain the revenue stream?

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Shift for Brains!!!!

Would I like Don to pay? Where did that come from? I simply mentioned that he could do it to support his customers. I understand that iCard no longer sells the hardware directly since Don bought out their entire stock a while back.

My statement merely meant that since he appears to be the only supplier of the hardware these days, he would be the only company that would have a direct interest in sponsoring the signal - that any others would be doing it for a visibility or public image reason.

As of at least last year (possibly earlier) the owner of iCard was referring customers to Higgens, saying that Don had bought his entire remaining stock of hardware.

I just checked both Jeg's and Summitt's current catalogs and don't see the iCard anywhere.

I mentioned Higgins since to my knowledge he is the one only with iCard hardware and the company with the most to gain from the signal coming back on. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I have no idea if a dealer here or there might still have some pieces in stock, but from the "closeout" process I mentioned above I was operating under the premise that Higgins was the only one left.

C'mon, Joe, you've been around longer than that.

Once a technology develops, components acquire value.

A good example is gasoline. Before the internal combustion engine came into prominence, gasoline was used as a cleaning fluid and as for lice control on humans. It started out as a byproduct.

Or how about food, even? Monkfish and sharks were considered trash fish not too many years ago and were thrown back into the ocean or left to rot.

In every case, once the genie is out of the bottle (new technology or new use) it's not going back in ("worthless" or non-revenue items go back to having no value)

You still didn't answer my question; how is NHRA losing money with I-cards? NHRA didn't invest mega $$$ to produce those products, how is NHRA losing money?

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Shift for Brains!!!!

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear enough.

Previously, the owner of iCard approached NHRA and made a deal to pay them for providing the feed. That's income. The level of investment needed doesn't matter, simply that someone has determined the product has worth.

If the feed is turned on for free, you're giving something away. And, you're once again established the value.

Look at pro athletes and autographs. Distasteful as I find it, do you think there will ever be a time where no player charges for autograph sessions? Yet, once an autograph was free to all.

It's not like the system is a no-cost situation. Someone still has to set it up, maintain it, provide the server, operate the server and connection, and keep everything running. If NHRA decides to assign one of their employees to do that (assuming they have someone capable already on staff) it's a direct cost as the new duties mean someone is now doing something else.

Not only is the incoming revenue gone, but you also have an investment in hardware and employee time. Just losing the revenue takes things to zero. The rest of it generates costs.

I'm still not sure why I'm not totally understanding what you're asking. Are you thinking that the feed is just laying there, someone takes 5 seconds to flip a switch, and the broadcast happens?

I'm getting the feeling that some people are looking at me as the bad guy in this situation. Those who know me over the years know that I am far from being a Glendora cheerleader.

There was such a lack of facts regarding the issue that I thought I could help things by adding some detail. I guess that didn't happen as it appears I stirred things up.

Would I like to see the iCard back in operation? Absolutely! But after many years of working in the business, I was simply stating my opinion as to how likely it was for that to happen.

Ok I'm not too sure I really understand what is going on with the Icard, but it seams to me that with no subscription service for the consumer, once you buy an Icard there is no more income for the Icard company.
So they sold a bunch of Icards and that payed the for the feed from the NHRA for first year or so. With the NHRA charging every year for the feed and the amount of Icards being sold is tapering down now there is no money to pay the NHRA for the feed?
Sounds like someone missed business 101 and now needs to find a way to charge a yearly amount for using the Icard.
But then again what do I know.

The second year iCard was available at NHRA events, iCard tried to switch to a subscription basis, but NHRA put a stop to that and I never did figure out the business model that was supposed to generate revenue to pay for the service after that since most of the teams already had PC interface cards - and I was the guy who made sure the equipment got to all the IHRA races, hooked it up, babysat it, and tore it down, with a lot of help from Jeff Foster. We (FastNews) did the same at NHRA events for the past couple years, again with help from the NHRA technical department and from CompuLink once NHRA brought them back on board.

CompuLink played no part in developing the iCard for drag racing. iCard worked directly with NHRA to develop their CompuLink interface, using a data feed CompuLink developed specifically to feed our FastNews reporting software. The first time we really knew what they were doing was when they showed up and plugged into the data feed - causing interference with our reporting feed and the feed going to the ESPN production truck (not surprising since they developed their system in a secretive vacuum).

We (FastNews and CompuLink and the NHRA technical department) helped them as much as we could, mainly by sharing the knowledge we'd acquired over several years of working with the data stream from the CompuLink timing system whenever they asked and seemed ready to listen. Way back at the very beginning, we provided them with documentation of the datafeed format and some captured examples at the request of the NHRA technical department (remember, all this happened during a period when NHRA and CompuLink were not on the best of terms).

The reason I am going into this much detail is to give those who seem to think that FastNews and CompuLink played some part in making iCard go away a little background information on the real history of iCard and drag racing. Both organizations worked with the iCard folks to continue the service for the racers at IHRA and NHRA over the past two years. We were prepared to do so again this year, but we played no part in negotiating with either sanctioning body to authorize iCard broadcasts for the 2008 season and we are not in a position to bankroll the service. Given the absence of a continuing cash flow to pay for the service, I don't see anyone else in a position to do so either.

I have no idea who exactly is responsible for paying for the service of the I-cards. Just that there are thousands of these I-cards that were purchased including mine that are useless for the time being.

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Shift for Brains!!!!

No kidding! over $100 for the card, and I am by no means a game boy player, and that was $85!

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Go Hight!!!----4.63
Prock Rocket 2008 Style