Carl Edwards - NASCAR's popularity savior?

FLRacingFan

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Not entirely convinced, but it's an interesting piece:

On May 4, stock car fans will be tuning in to watch the race at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR's biggest and fastest track. Too bad there probably won’t be enough of them. It’s no secret that NASCAR racing has had plenty of trouble recently holding on to its audience on a weekly basis. The series suffers from both an aging fan base and the lasting effects of a deep economic recession.

Television ratings are unequivocally down in the last decade—not surprisingly, major media partners including ESPN (DIS) and TNT (TWX) won’t be airing races next year. Stadium operators have even come to the realization that fans aren’t coming back, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce seating capacity at the tracks.

You’d think the success of a popular racer like Dale Earnhardt Jr. would correlate with the success of the sport. Not so. Yes, he’s a star with a loyal following, but NASCAR needs to widen its audience. Earnhardt’s triumph at this year’s Daytona 500 hasn’t engaged the casual fan—TV ratings are down to levels not seen since 1997.

Despite fluctuations in the size of the household TV audience, a set of faithful fans will continue to watch. Such fans form the “minimum” audience number, those who watch no matter what. If anything, Earnhardt represents this group, the ones who love NASCAR and aren’t going away.

To increase revenue and ratings, the sport needs to interest the “marginal” fans—viewers who might be interested in watching races but sometimes choose not to. They’re the ones who watched a few years ago but don’t anymore, and they aren’t necessarily Earnhardt fans. So is there a specific driver who might move the needle in terms of luring marginal fans?

Read the rest here: http://www.businessweek.com/article...ings-savior-dot-it-might-just-be-carl-edwards
 
I feel like there's a lot more that factors in a race besides who wins, like the track they're at and what day/time it is.
 
KahneFan said:
I feel like there's a lot more that factors in a race besides who wins, like the track they're at and what day/time it is.
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At the bottom of the graph it mentions that factors like that are accounted for.
 
FenderBumper said:
So Carl has more pull than Jr, who's success the study shows as having almost no impact?

I think Carl commissioned this study to try and get a better deal next year. ;)
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Earnhardt fans typically watch no matter what, all the time. I haven't heard of any casual Earnhardt fans, hence no marginal effect either way depending on his success or mediocrity.

Edwards makes routine appearances on NFL and MLB commercial breaks so he's easily be one of the most recognizable NASCAR drivers. If he's a contender it would make sense that someone who typically watches other sports would at least check in to the race broadcasts.
 
I would call BS on the chart too, but it does show Jimmie Johnson having a negative impact on ratings when he does well, and that I can believe. So if that means the rest of the chart is more credible, I guess NASCAR should keep some debris cautions and random penalties set aside for use against Denny Hamlin then. Anyway, its hard to put much faith in any of it, the impact is only 6% at the most either way. There are many other factors that have a greater impact on ratings than who is doing well at the moment.
 
I'm a fan who watches religiously every week. I think something that's hurt the ratings this year though are all of the rain delays. I think a shake up in the schedule could help that more if they would stay out west longer early in the year. In addition, lots of people are cutting the cord now too and aside from Raceview (which isn't bad), there's no way for them to watch the races.

I'd like to see a dedicated Nascar app for the Apple TV, Roku, PS3, Xbox, phones, etc. that has all of the practices, qualifying sessions, k&n races, etc. Multiple camera angles to choose from like race buddy would be cool too and maybe even allow you to listen to podcasts through the app.

The MLB app is by far the best sports app out there imo with the only negative being teams in your local market are blacked out. The app is available on virtually everything and you get to choose which broadcast feed or use Park Audio (on PS3) which is great. The quality of the picture is outstanding and you get all the news, rosters, and updates within the app. For many years, I lost interest in baseball but have become way more interested in it now since this app was released a few years ago. Nascar could gain some more interest by replicating it with their own dedicated app. Just my thoughts.
 
Ya'll keep hating on my boy Carl. I like this.

But Gordon has a negligible impact? Umm must be the age.
 
reck said:
Ya'll keep hating on my boy Carl. I like this.

But Gordon has a negligible impact? Umm must be the age.
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Why, does the world hate old guys ?? As long as they have teeth and hair they should remain popular IMO :D
 
DanicaFreak said:
check the leaderboard for dega practise
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Hahaha you're actually bragging about that? Practice is meaningless as it is. It is even more meaningless on a plate track.

Are you new? I know you had said in the past you've been to races in the 80s but you act like a total newbie. Its puzzling.
 
Ive watched races in the 80s. never been. She is showing that she is not afraid of the draft or running in packs
 
^Did that picture did anything for you? It didn't for me. :idunno:
 
i'm w/ fb on this. re-read last paragraph.
sounds like carl's agent wrote it !

"sho me tha $$ ! " ................'15 forward
 
NASCAR, TV ratings can be summed up with one word, France. No major sports entities are legitimately solely owned and directed by one person.
That's my take on the sport as a whole.
 
You'd think that Nascar would've tried to "rob" Hamlin of this win. ;)

So when ratings tank next weekend, do we blame Hamlin or Kansas?
 
So Eddie Haskell is the savior of NASCAR 'eh? He's the only one with a positive image? Malarkey I tell ya.
As far as the article goes:
The series suffers from both an aging fan base
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. They forgot to add "That feels like NASCAR has tossed them aside"
 
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