Steve- Seems that in every form of organized racing on the planet, the successful ones have car-count, and close racing. It will take a bit more work to understand if close racing brought the entry numbers up, or a quality promoter made that happen, or something else influenced the success? We can agree that so many contributing factors lead to the diminished entries. Heck, auto shop classes in high school are almost non-existent in urban circles, and kids working on farms that gained mechanical aptitude are few & far between as well. Parents are both working, sometimes it's easier to buy them a video game so the kids can entertain themselves, and for pennies on the dollar when compared to karting.
My point, growth in karting is relative to a bazillion other options available to those who finance a trip to the track. Large organizations (including F1 & NASCAR) are feeling the pinch of diminished ticket sales. A PR friend that worked on 1 Daytona blvd shared two years ago just how concerned that organization is regarding the fall-off in attendance & viewership. Fresh ideas, safety, organization, along with affordability are key to bringing more into any sport available to kids. Close racing will pull some veteran karters out of retirement, then others are wanting to belong to a quality environment. All new products have a life cycle, the downside is that some businesses will lose market share as products like the 206 emerges, negatively impacting their cash-flow. I'm excited about grids of 35 like we had yesterday in Davis CA. Now, it's up to people like you & I regarding how we manage this bubble that leads to retention.