And the Answer Is: Recently/A Few Times This Year... etc.  

The question was asked, "when was the last time any of us told a promoter or worker "thank you"?

I'll take "the over" that more folks on this board do say thank you to promoters/workers when the opportunity presents itself.  Others can take the under, but I don't see it that way.  Like a lot of folks here on the board, I've been known to say thanks, great show, etc., to management and ownership on many ocassions.  No need for me or anyone else to grandstand about that, it's what we/they do.

As for the comment, "if I were the main bankroll behind a track, it would be one factor influencing me", while I can respect the person making that statement, my thoughts are that a person making a statement like that has no "business" (pun unavoidable) bankrolling a track.

Sure it'd be great if everybody loves you... and pats you on the back each step of the way, but I know lots of business owners, and it never works out that way, and I don't care what kind of business you are in.  Let's stop pretending what we'd do if we bankrolled a track and at least acknowledge that the same rules of business apply to track owners as they do other businesses.  When people (customers both past and present) provide feedback positive or negative, you can either ignore it (which I wouldn't recommend), or you find the value in it to make your business better. 

You don't weep up.

You don't close your track over it.  

I see two more tracks within my 3 state reach that could eventually close at the end of this year.... and if they do, it won't be because somebody rightly or wrongly said the show wasn't good.  It will be because they were not able to provide a product that captured the necessary $'s from both competitors and fans on a consistent basis to maintain the business plan they had in place....  OR... they will close because somebody offers them mega price that meets or exceeds what they think their business & property are currently worth or will be worth.... Or it will be because of one (or more) of the other reasons that I mentioned in a post somewhere above this one.

If a owner/promoter/or "bankroller" factors in that people said hurtful things about their business as even a whiff of why they closed or sold their business/track, I'm calling bullshit.