FOX's Future

HoneyBadger

HoneyBadger

I love short track racing (Taylor's Version)
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So, FOX has shelled out $2.5 billion for the MLB television contracts which include FOX Saturday Baseball and the World Series. FOX has also shelled out big money for the UFC, and has said they will pay less for the NASCAR contract in the future. They've already started discussing the future contract with FOX.

Here's what I've been told:

Moving the races to SPEED is not an option. FOX has previously said they would like to move several races from FOX to SPEED (to make room for MLB and UFC). FX will be used for UFC and, if a baseball game runs late and conflicts with NASCAR, the game will be moved to FX.

Under the terms of the existing contract, FOX, TNT and ESPN get priority and, if interested, regain the contract even if NBC Sports or CBS Sports comes in with a higher bid. As for NBC, they are prohibited from airing the IndyCar Series on NBC, all their races must be on NBC Sports Network as a result of a terrible contract IndyCar signed with ESPN to keep the Indy 500 on ABC.

It has been reported in the past that TNT was out, but I've been told TNT will try to remain in the future contract.

From what I've been told, the networks will remain the same for several years to come, that is if TNT remains.

I personally wish FOX would focus on baseball and UFC. They've already shown that UFC is a higher priority than NASCAR, even on SPEED where they've decided to air UFC programming over live NASCAR programming. FOX has shown with SPEED that they have no interest in racing and it's all about FOX's on air personalities (the Waltrips, Kenny Wallace on SPEED) than it is about the actual show itself. I'd really like to see NBC in the next contract, since FOX and ESPN have both shown they don't care about the sport and only seek to use it to advertise other FOX Sports and ESPN properties. I mean, FOX wouldn't dare treat an NFL or UFC broadcast the way they treat NASCAR.
 
NBC producers are the bastards who started all of this Studio Host bullpucky when Brian Williams (who is a longtime NASCAR fan, BTW) became the Host of the races shown on that network several years back. Now both FOX and ABC/ESPN do it too!

And what makes you think that NBC will treat NA$$CAR with any more respect than FOX does now?
 
robbybee said:
NBC producers are the bastards who started all of this Studio Host bullpucky when Brian Williams (who is a longtime NASCAR fan, BTW) became the Host of the races shown on that network several years back. Now both FOX and ABC/ESPN do it too!

And what makes you think that NBC will treat NA$$CAR with any more respect than FOX does now?
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NASCAR needs to go to Saturday races. Period. Less hotel room expense, built in rain day, etc. Then when Football starts, the networks with no Saturday games will promote the hell out of NASCAR.
 
Matthew2470 said:
I like ESPN's broadcasters the best but I like Mike Joy as well. But mostly I wish all of the broadcasters would just shut the hell up and not feel the need to tell us what we're watching.
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Its kind of their job.
 
I don't know if NBC will become a player. Since launching NBC Sports Network, very few mentions of NASCAR are on their studio highlights show. If they're not interested in highlights and news now, why would they be interested in hosting them?!
 
FenderBumper said:
NASCAR needs to go to Saturday races. Period. Less hotel room expense, built in rain day, etc. Then when Football starts, the networks with no Saturday games will promote the hell out of NASCAR.
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Hard to argue with this, they could do the Truck races on Friday nights, and do the nationwide saturday afternoon followed by the Cup race at night. Not sure what the proper schedule would be to do at tracks with no lights though.
 
StewartHaas-Gibbs Racing said:
Hard to argue with this, they could do the Truck races on Friday nights, and do the nationwide saturday afternoon followed by the Cup race at night. Not sure what the proper schedule would be to do at tracks with no lights though.
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Make them all put in lights and assist with the cost. And there aren't that many triple headers so they could make it work. Hell, run some truck races on Thursday nights. That would be awesome.
 
During the summer months it gets insanely hot in the afternoon. I hear people say all the time that they don't go to MIS anymore because they are too old (and fat IMO) to handle the heat. Every race I see medical tending to some big gal who's over heated.
 
Matthew2470 said:
During the summer months it gets insanely hot in the afternoon. I hear people say all the time that they don't go to MIS anymore because they are too old (and fat IMO) to handle the heat. Every race I see medical tending to some big gal who's over heated.
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That's the main reason I've been skipping the first Dover race. I can't stand sitting in the sun when it's hot and humid out. I'm not fat or old though :cool:
 
Matthew2470 said:
Hell, run some truck races on Thursday nights. That would be awesome.
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Especially without the fans! Seriously the truck crowds are small enough. Why put them on a night when nobody is there to see? Leading up to Bristol it seems to work. IDK about Dover, and others..... Perhaps Daytona because everyone's already there anyhow.
 
I just checked...

Dover
Kentucky
Bristol
Atlanta
Texas
Phoenix
Homestead

are the only other 3 race weekends at the same track for the rest of the year.
 
robbybee said:
NBC producers are the bastards who started all of this Studio Host bullpucky when Brian Williams (who is a longtime NASCAR fan, BTW) became the Host of the races shown on that network several years back. Now both FOX and ABC/ESPN do it too!

And what makes you think that NBC will treat NA$$CAR with any more respect than FOX does now?
Click to expand...

CBS had in studio pre-race for the 1999 Daytona 500, which was before the 1999 Pennzoil 400. And CBS used football analysts for that pre-race show.
 
Matthew2470 said:
I like ESPN's broadcasters the best but I like Mike Joy as well. But mostly I wish all of the broadcasters would just shut the hell up and not feel the need to tell us what we're watching.
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ESPN's coverage is my favorite by a mile. Allen Bestwick can keep me awake during a boring race.

I enjoy TNT's neutrality but Adam Alexander is the worst PxP announcer of all time. I'd rather have Bill Weber.

FOX is okay but the Waltrip Show has become overbearing.
 
MRM said:
I don't know if NBC will become a player. Since launching NBC Sports Network, very few mentions of NASCAR are on their studio highlights show. If they're not interested in highlights and news now, why would they be interested in hosting them?!
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I've seen the NBC Sports Network program and it's all NFL all the time. But NBC's trying to exploit the fact that cable systems are moving NFL Net to the most expensive packages and people can no longer watch NFL games and they're going to try to get all of NFL Nets games moved to NBC Sports Network. So it makes sense for them to only have NFL programming.

At the same time, NBC only moved the NASCAR race off it's scheduled channel one time in their six year package, and that was because of the war in Afghanistan. They even pre-empted NFL pre-game for NASCAR. If ESPN had a Monday night NASCAR race and Monday Night Football and a baseball game on ESPN2, you could almost guarantee you would not be seeing the race.
 
Matthew2470 said:
During the summer months it gets insanely hot in the afternoon. I hear people say all the time that they don't go to MIS anymore because they are too old (and fat IMO) to handle the heat. Every race I see medical tending to some big gal who's over heated.
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Yep, night races are logical in the summer.

I think every track should have lights, no excuses. Not being able to start a race at 5pm because it might be too dark to race within two hours should not force fans to miss the race or come back the next day IMO.

Hundreds of short tracks with nothing but a grandstand and a one room scoring towetr across the country can install lights. Why can't these tracks that have multi-million dollar facilities install lights?
 
Matthew2470 said:
During the summer months it gets insanely hot in the afternoon. I hear people say all the time that they don't go to MIS anymore because they are too old (and fat IMO) to handle the heat. Every race I see medical tending to some big gal who's over heated.
Click to expand...


The first time I went to Chicagoland, the races were Saturday and Sunday in JULY!. It was effing miserable.
The next year, the races were moved to Friday Night and Saturday Night. It was spectacular!
The following year they went back to Saturday and Sunday and, you guessed it, it was a miserable experience.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Especially without the fans! Seriously the truck crowds are small enough. Why put them on a night when nobody is there to see? Leading up to Bristol it seems to work. IDK about Dover, and others..... Perhaps Daytona because everyone's already there anyhow.
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Hard core race fans go to truck races and those people are normally at the track by then. Maybe more locals would go see the show as well.
 
FenderBumper said:
NASCAR needs to go to Saturday races. Period. Less hotel room expense, built in rain day, etc. Then when Football starts, the networks with no Saturday games will promote the hell out of NASCAR.
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NASCAR would be shooting themselves in the foot because they would kill every one of their saturday night local short tracks that follow under their sanction. Not to mention several others. Short track racing is having a hard enough time as it is staying afloat without having to compete with NASCAR every single saturday night. No more short tracks no more new drivers.
 
basscatcher89 said:
NASCAR would be shooting themselves in the foot because they would kill every one of their saturday night local short tracks that follow under their sanction. Not to mention several others. Short track racing is having a hard enough time as it is staying afloat without having to compete with NASCAR every single saturday night. No more short tracks no more new drivers.
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I have some of the same concerns. I do like the idea of night races, but it hurts the local tracks IMO.
 
basscatcher89 said:
NASCAR would be shooting themselves in the foot because they would kill every one of their saturday night local short tracks that follow under their sanction. Not to mention several others. Short track racing is having a hard enough time as it is staying afloat without having to compete with NASCAR every single saturday night. No more short tracks no more new drivers.
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WE HAVE A WINNER!!

The tracks in Connecticut run races Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. These are the lower tier racers like strickly stock 4 bangers etc. Everybody has to start somewhere. Attendence is poor, mostly family in the stands and not big car counts. Saturday night is the main event. From what I've seen I can say that whenever na$car has a Saturday night race car count and attendance suffers.

That's why I find na$cars commercials for supporting local tracks ironic.
 
basscatcher89 said:
NASCAR would be shooting themselves in the foot because they would kill every one of their saturday night local short tracks that follow under their sanction. Not to mention several others. Short track racing is having a hard enough time as it is staying afloat without having to compete with NASCAR every single saturday night. No more short tracks no more new drivers.
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I disagree. The people that go to short tracks won't stop going because NASCAR is on the TV. They'd more likely record the race and watch later.
 
Matthew2470 said:
I disagree. The people that go to short tracks won't stop going because NASCAR is on the TV. They'd more likely record the race and watch later.
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I only see this as a problem when the NASCAR race is within 100 miles of the local track. A good promoter would move his local race to Friday and offer a discount to people holding nascar tickets.
 
If they started racing at MIS on Saturday night I have no doubt that the track near me would have a big event on Sunday night featuring figure 8's. Also, I have driven by on Saturday nights when NASCAR is running and there are no less cars in the parking lot.
 
basscatcher89 said:
NASCAR would be shooting themselves in the foot because they would kill every one of their saturday night local short tracks that follow under their sanction. Not to mention several others. Short track racing is having a hard enough time as it is staying afloat without having to compete with NASCAR every single saturday night. No more short tracks no more new drivers.
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Greg said:
I have some of the same concerns. I do like the idea of night races, but it hurts the local tracks IMO.
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I disagree. I've seen Langley Speedway, South Boston Speedway, Potomac Speedway, New Jersey and countless other local tracks fill up despite being head-to-head with NASCAR television. There's only one track that I've ever been to that didn't grab a draw against NASCAR and that's a track that doesn't get a good draw on it's best day.
 
FenderBumper said:
I only see this as a problem when the NASCAR race is within 100 miles of the local track. A good promoter would move his local race to Friday and offer a discount to people holding nascar tickets.
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A good promoter can fill the stands up against NASCAR anyways.

I don't see fans at Bowman Gray not showing up because there's a race on TV. I've seen Potomac fill the stands to capacity up against the Coca-Cola 600 and Indianapolis 500 when it was raining at Potomac.

The tracks that would hurt from Saturday night NASCAR don't sell tickets anyways.
 
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