YouTube Cleetus McFarland (@garrett_1320video)
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Pretty damn cool that they have this epic playground now.
Channeling my inner old man and wondering how all the hidden costs of maintaining a place that size + taxes + politics of a noise making facility work out.
wish them the best though! Sure as hell should make for great content
Channeling my inner old man and wondering how all the hidden costs of maintaining a place that size + taxes + politics of a noise making facility work out.
wish them the best though! Sure as hell should make for great content
I want to say they took all of that into consideration, but they are just youtubers, they really don't have lawyers and all that looking out for their best interests.
I have a good friend that's into racing that lives in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. Showed him this video. He owns a painting company there. So he stopped by the track this morning and talked to cleetus in person and offered to donate his services.
I watch just about every Cleetus video. Awesome channel and very interesting builds they do. They also just purchased their own track. They are living the dream in the car/truck life for sure.
Agreed. Especially after hearing them say their self-imposed safety requirement is just making sure there’s another person on site not in the car
I was not a very big fan of his channel until the Freedom Factory announcement. To me that's when it became subscription worthy. I know I'll never own a track. However, it would be the first stupid purchase I make if I ever give my SSN away to those bankers in charge of my long lost Nigerian prince cousin's estate.... Therefore I find it very interesting too see how much work it is to maintain and update a facility like that. He's giving some pretty good perspective on it, and it's extra cool to see him in there doing a lot of the grunt work himself while still maintaining his other duties. Talk about a busy guy.
People rarely understand how much work is involved in maintaining and operating a commercial facility. It's expensive and can be complicated. Add in the extra liability of racing and hooning, and it's going to cost him some serious money in insurance and attorney fees
I'm not doubting it. It's just cool to see a guy as personable as Cleetus owning, operating, and maintaining a place like that and watching him go through the ups and downs. I know he's already had a bunch of help, but I couldn't do what he's done even with all the donations and sponsors. It takes some serious hard work, a good personality, and networking skills to get where he is.
I could realistically see $700K a year in general repair and maintenance. I just did budgets for my properties, not including taxes, capital projects/depreciation, insurance, and any rent/mortgage payments, but it's around $600K for a not big office building. Granted, he's probably not going to spend what I am on cleaning, but he's probably going to spend a shit load more on exterior maintenance (lawncare, road repair, etc.) Electric for those stadium lights ain't cheap, but just general items that come up (AC repairs, fence repair, etc) and they add up quick, especially in an older facility like that where maintenance wasn't a top priority previously.
Take back out paying staff, concession workers, food costs, beer costs too.
I'm not saying it's impossible for him to be in the black, BUT many small tracks around the country have gone dark because of money issues.
Cleetus has a bit of a leg up, because he's got quite the following, and some people may travel, but how many Cleetus and Cars events do you think he can have there, and still attract that many people? It's not a huge metropolitan area. I have a hard time believing a year or two from now, locals paying $40 a pop for a dozen shows a year...maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am. But I could definitely see it becoming a money pit, and getting out of hand quick...
I'm not saying it's impossible for him to be in the black, BUT many small tracks around the country have gone dark because of money issues.
Cleetus has a bit of a leg up, because he's got quite the following, and some people may travel, but how many Cleetus and Cars events do you think he can have there, and still attract that many people? It's not a huge metropolitan area. I have a hard time believing a year or two from now, locals paying $40 a pop for a dozen shows a year...maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am. But I could definitely see it becoming a money pit, and getting out of hand quick...
His channel averages at least $200-250k per month, plus all of the other ad plugs, plus his merch, plus his other channel. I think he'll be just fine.
There are a lot of fatherless children out there that will come from across the country to his events so that shouldn't ever be a problem to fill the stands.
There are a lot of fatherless children out there that will come from across the country to his events so that shouldn't ever be a problem to fill the stands.
Based on the videos that I've watched, he's getting a lot of stuff pro bono. It seems like he's using his YouTube presence to get vendors onboard to help fix the track.
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