Fixing Attendance

Play it.

“The song's lyrics describe the mysterious disappearance of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Bill Barilko. Barilko scored the Stanley Cup clinching goal for the Leafs over Montreal Canadiens in the 1951 cup finals. Four months and five days later, Barilko departed on a fishing trip in a small, single-engine airplane with friend and dentist, Henry Hudson. The plane disappeared between Rupert House and Timmins, Ontario, leaving no trace of Barilko or Hudson.

Eleven years later, on June 7, 1962, helicopter pilot Ron Boyd discovered the plane wreckage roughly 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Cochrane, Ontario (about 35 miles off-course). Barilko was finally buried in his home town of Timmins, the same year that the Maple Leafs won their next Stanley Cup.

The song's lyrics also reference the World War II style U.S. Army Air Corps, or U.S. Air Force officer's cap, mentioned in the song's title. The fifty mission cap was a cloth cap with visor issued to U.S. Army officers in World War II that developed a particular crush from the headphones that the bomber crews wore.”
 
BobbyFord said:
What does a 50 mission WW2 cap have to do with hockey? (Serious question, not trying to be a smart ass.)
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Downie had one ... presumably a family heirloom.

“In the song “Fifty Mission Cap,” Gord Downie talks about learning this story from a hockey card tucked up in his 50 mission cap.”

“I stole it from a hockey card”
 
aunty dive said:
Downie had one ... presumably a family heirloom.

“In the song “Fifty Mission Cap,” Gord Downie talks about learning this story from a hockey card tucked up in his 50 mission cap.”

“I stole it from a hockey card”
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Didn’t see you posted the vid. I was on YouTube :D
 
aunty dive said:
Gord Downie passed away ... and a little bit of Bill Barilko went with him. Very sad.
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The passing has been covered in sites like Sportsnet.ca and it makes me wish that Terry Fox had been alive during the time of social media.
 
^^ Much cleaner.

If you don’t know the band, you have some good listening ahead. Downie was a great song-writer / story-teller.
 
BobbyFord said:
What does a 50 mission WW2 cap have to do with hockey? (Serious question, not trying to be a smart ass.)
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People were questioning why Gord's passing was being discussed on sports sites but most people didn't seem to mind.
 
Have concerts before the race or during the weekend. IMS had a great idea but bad execution. The concert ticket should have included a race ticket. Have Drake, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z or Lady Gaga perform at the 500. Int might draw new viewers and fans but Daytona has a package that get you close to the stage. Get people to spend money. Saturday night after the Xfinity race make it a big party. Have dj's, artists, celebs perform on the track by turn 1. You can probably get 5k on the track and another 10k in the stands. Charge $50 and it includes a ticket to the xfinity race or get temporary stands and have them sit on the backstretch for the 500. For the casual fans you could have tv's. a lounge with sofas, nice bar an snacks. Charge them $85 for the 500 and a ticket to the concert.
 
ladyspartan16 said:
I can't make y'all see the point and I'm done talking to a brick wall.
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Not everyone here is a brick wall, you are making a valid point.

I want to add something to your point, or play devils advocate if you will on your point that you have made.

I agree that NASCAR drivers hanging with and where the "A-Listers" hang out could do a lot of good for NASCAR and bring in some new fans, but, the problem I see is a repeat of the bubble bursting that is the reason for this thread. It would just be people jumping on a bandwagon if you will and sticking around for the short term till something else comes along.
 
rowdy3 said:
Have concerts before the race or during the weekend. IMS had a great idea but bad execution. The concert ticket should have included a race ticket. Have Drake, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z or Lady Gaga perform at the 500. Int might draw new viewers and fans but Daytona has a package that get you close to the stage. Get people to spend money. Saturday night after the Xfinity race make it a big party. Have dj's, artists, celebs perform on the track by turn 1. You can probably get 5k on the track and another 10k in the stands. Charge $50 and it includes a ticket to the xfinity race or get temporary stands and have them sit on the backstretch for the 500. For the casual fans you could have tv's. a lounge with sofas, nice bar an snacks. Charge them $85 for the 500 and a ticket to the concert.
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Pass.

NASCAR tried the whole two hour pre-race concert/show thing in the mid-2000s and it didn't work. I want to see racing, not some talentless hack lip sync'ing garbage that teenagers listen to. I miss how ESPN did it in the 90s. The broadcast would start as the cars rolled off pit lane. NASCAR isn't dying because of some diversity crisis, typical SJW dross. NASCAR is dying because their product today is garbage compared to what it was in the 90s and early 2000s when the sport saw dramatic growth.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
LOLZ.

I'm just an average consumer of pop culture at best and I not only know who Drake is, I have two of his songs on my Samsung Galaxy.
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The closest I come to consuming pop culture is 'Big Bang'. Any other influences weren't consumed; at best, they were absorbed by osmosis.

Mind you, none of my comments are my opinions of the people LS16 named. I don't know enough about most of them to have formed opinions.
 
jws926 said:
Not everyone here is a brick wall, you are making a valid point.

I want to add something to your point, or play devils advocate if you will on your point that you have made.

I agree that NASCAR drivers hanging with and where the "A-Listers" hang out could do a lot of good for NASCAR and bring in some new fans, but, the problem I see is a repeat of the bubble bursting that is the reason for this thread. It would just be people jumping on a bandwagon if you will and sticking around for the short term till something else comes along.
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Another thing, I don’t believe NASCAR drivers are the same type of people that are the usual A listers caught up in scandals and making the front page of the local supermarket tabloid rag.
 
rowdy3 said:
Have concerts before the race or during the weekend. IMS had a great idea but bad execution. The concert ticket should have included a race ticket. Have Drake, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z or Lady Gaga perform at the 500. Int might draw new viewers and fans but Daytona has a package that get you close to the stage. Get people to spend money. Saturday night after the Xfinity race make it a big party. Have dj's, artists, celebs perform on the track by turn 1. You can probably get 5k on the track and another 10k in the stands. Charge $50 and it includes a ticket to the xfinity race or get temporary stands and have them sit on the backstretch for the 500. For the casual fans you could have tv's. a lounge with sofas, nice bar an snacks. Charge them $85 for the 500 and a ticket to the concert.
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While a concert wouldn't motivate me to attend a race, I notice the acts tracks book tend to be older ones. I doubt ISC could afford Swift or Gaga for Daytona, but they could find bands or singers with appeal to a younger audience.
 
rowdy3 said:
Have concerts before the race or during the weekend. IMS had a great idea but bad execution. The concert ticket should have included a race ticket. Have Chris Stapleton, George Strait, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alan Jackson or Cole Swindell perform at the 500. Int might draw new viewers and fans but Daytona has a package that get you close to the stage. Get people to spend money. Saturday night after the Xfinity race make it a big party. Have dj's, artists, celebs perform on the track by turn 1. You can probably get 5k on the track and another 10k in the stands. Charge $50 and it includes a ticket to the xfinity race or get temporary stands and have them sit on the backstretch for the 500. For the casual fans you could have tv's. a lounge with sofas, nice bar an snacks. Charge them $85 for the 500 and a ticket to the concert.
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Fixed that.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
See, that's exactly what I meant. NASCAR isn't going to draw new fans with those acts.
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Well and besides that musical acts cost $$$$$ which is another expense a track must cover. But since we are discussing musical acts before a race and paying these people isn’t an issue, I wouldn’t go the pop/rap route. Country artists all the way, I mean I would venture to say that’s most of your fan base, or what’s left of it.
 
ladyspartan16 said:
If I was scrolling through my twitter TL and saw Drake standing next to Bubba Wallace I (after I wake up from passing out) I'm gonna find out why. Oh.... Drake's company is sponsoring a race for him? Drake is gonna be at the race? Well let me get my coins together to go or at least buy whatever ridiculously priced merchandise is going to come from it.

I have a 13 year old nephew WHO worships the ground Kevin Durant walks on. I bet if Kevin Durant were to say he was a NASCAR fan my nephew would become a fan.
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That sounds like you're going because of who else will be there, not because of the racing or who's on the track. If Wonder Bread was sponsoring Bubba, would you still attend?
ladyspartan16 said:
You're missing the whole point. I was talking about why NASCAR drivers aren't getting attention and why the sport is dying. Because young and upcoming drivers aren't branding themselves.... yes Dale Jr and Jeff Gordon are well known, but guess what? Back in the day they were busting their asses going to all the going to all the events they possibly could and branding themselves. They were in music videos, being mentioned in hit songs, their shirts and colors were being worn by some famous celebs because they were networking with these people. They are now retiring and taking all their hard work with them. Instead of NASCAR telling the next generation of drivers to get up off their asses and go out there and get it done on and off the track, NASCAR is whining and b!tching about being left behind and not understanding why.

A list celebs matter so why isn't Ryan Blaney hanging out with some hot young starlets? Why isn't Bubba Wallace making business moves with other black atheletes (Cam Newton lives right in Charlotte bruh)? Why isn't Chase Elliott hobknobbing with the daughters of some conservative billionaires with good connections? Is Alex Bowman too busy to go to Coachella or Made In America after the race is over on Sundays?

These are all things Dale Jr did. And guess what? He didn't even have the ease of Social Media to do it for him.....
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Tying this in to my first sentence, it sounds like a lot of people weren't watching because of the racing, they were watching because other people were hanging out with the drivers. That only builds short term popularity. When Drake or Kevin Durant or the people who went to the opening of Copper River move on, they take those temporary 'fans' with them. That's not building a permanent fan base, that's riding the crest of a fad.

Dale Jr. wasn't pushed into social events by NASCAR; he went because he enjoyed them. Maybe those younger drivers aren't superficial enough to date people they're not interested in purely for business reasons. That's a different profession, one much older than auto racing.

What's 'Made in America'? Googling it gets me results about keeping manufacturing in the country and buying the same.
 
Ya know, I think there's more to be gained by leveraging famous celebs AS drivers. Don't just record a ride-along with a celeb grand marshal for the pre-race show. Stage some pro-am events like Long Beach, or IMSA's GP Daytona class. Doesn't Beiber have a reputation as a lead foot? Patrick Dempsey ran IMSA for several years. Heck, do a six-week reality series with an elimination format, a la 'Dancing with the Stars' but with Helio and Michael as judges and celebs as contestants.

Did anybody know Paul Newman was also an actor?
 
I will be the first to admit that I just don't see the value or importance of a lot of the things millennials want but I am an old person so I am not supposed to. Millennials are customers and it would be wise for companies to listen to them and give them what they want or risk being shunned by them.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I think @ladyspartan16's point is that none of today's drivers transcend sports and even pop culture in a way that they're known to an average consumer the way athletes in other sports are.

I can go to the grocery store right now and drop some of the names spartan mentioned and the person I'm talking to would know who they are. Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lawrence, Serena Williams, Cam Newton, Lebron, Steph Curry... everyone knows these names. Hell, Taylor Swift releases one music video and it breaks the internet.

The only household names in NASCAR right now are Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and both of them are on their way out.

Bubba Wallace could be a household name, but it doesn't look like anyone's willing to bring him into Cup.
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I agree, but that doesn't mean pop culture visibility is a necessity for NASCAR to be successful. It does require defining success in terms that recognize the boom of the '90s and '00s was unsustainable. The sport was going to lose some portion of those short-term spectators (not true fans) regardless of what cars looked like, or what tracks were run, or what points system was used.
 
Many of the problems companies have today is because they tried to appease
flighty customers and turned off their regular shoppers. Nascar under Brian just did the same thing. Why?? Because he forgot that racing is a culture and there are not a lot of chess people interested. Brian also is a football fan and because football is popular he wanted to make racing the same. Racing is a culture and has it's own following trying to change it will only cost them the fans they have.
 
There's another culture reference. Darned if I know what defines it today. While I'm in my late 50s, white, and a veteran, I doubt a bird-watching network administrator with a B.S. in business admin fits the traditional stereotype. I suspect the perception of a 'NASCAR culture' is based on the fans of the pre-boom days. There are definitely more women, kids, and non-whites in the stands today than I first saw at Rockingham in 1995.
 
ClintBowyerPunk.jpg


going for the A List
 
I think many NASCAR fans became fans simply because someone close to them was already a fan. Whether it's your parents, siblings, friends, etc. I became a fan at a young age because my dad and brother watched it. My wife never watched it until she met me, now she's hooked. I got one of my best friends to finally become a fan once he went to a race and actually gave it a chance.

The easiest way to attract new fans is through your current fans. My point is that NASCAR has done a good job of pissing off their hardcore audience to the point where many lost interest over the past decade. The less fans you have, the harder it becomes to gain new ones.
 
2 Sweet said:
I think many NASCAR fans became fans simply because someone close to them was already a fan. Whether it's your parents, siblings, friends, etc. I became a fan at a young age because my dad and brother watched it. My wife never watched it until she met me, now she's hooked. I got one of my best friends to finally become a fan once he went to a race and actually gave it a chance.

The easiest way to attract new fans is through your current fans. My point is that NASCAR has done a good job of pissing off their hardcore audience to the point where many lost interest over the past decade. The less fans you have, the harder it becomes to gain new ones.
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Words of wisdom as there is no better way to become acclimated with something than through the recommendation of a friend. I didn't know which end of a golf club to hold until a couple of friends persuaded me to give it a try and even though I am not very good at it I like it.

If something is recommended by a person you trust and you know they will help you understand and answer questions along the way you are so much more likely to at least look at it. I never had anyone available to help me when I was a kid so I had to figure it out for myself which helped me learn hockey and football but it was also difficult. It would have been better for me to have had the help.
 
If y
AndyMarquisLive said:
Just curse words, no music??

Again, I'm a casual consumer of pop culture at best and I like Drake.
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If you like Drake ,fine . Listen to Started from the bottom or 1 to 100 / the catch up you'll see what I mean. Not anything I want my wife and children exposed to much less pay to see. Nascar and F1 both need to fix the racing. Do that and fans will come
 
Nascar isn't alone it seems.

Live sports is not attracting new, younger viewers
To understand what's happening with NFL ratings we really don't have to look much further than simple demographics -- the aging of the U.S. population -- and the change in viewing behavior from older groups to younger groups.
Magna Global recently released its 2017 U.S. Sports Report. According to Radio + Television Business Report (RBR.com) the age of live sports viewers is scewing older. Much older. Today the average NFL viewer is at least 50. Similar to tennis, and college basketball and football. That's second only to baseball at 57 - which was 50 as recently as 2000. But no sport is immune. NHL viewers are now typically 49. They were 33 in 2000. As simple arithmetic shows, the same folks are watching hockey but few new viewers are being attracted. Based on recent trends, Magna projects viewership for the Sochi Olympics and 2018 World Cup will both decline. Fox had its worst NFL viewership since 2008, and ESPN had its worst since 2005. The NBA had some of its lowest rated games ever on network television last year.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamha...ployees-demographics-and-trends/#1bc917da4efc
 
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