NASCAR - Television Ratings Thread

Bob said:
I fear this will be the ultimate undoing. I have a son, 15 yoa who has been to many NASCAR events, one Indy event, and several local short track dirt races with me and my friends. He has one friend who is into racing. One kid. His father is a wrench and the kid grew up around grease so he likes it but not even as much as my son. I recall years ago when I was a kid everybody had a dirt bike lunchbox or a car-related hat or jacket or what have you. Those days are gone. Kids (late teens and 20's now) want to be Ubered everywhere. Gone is the kid who poured every dollar he had into his car and I knew many of them. The times they are a changin'.
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The youth of today don't value a vehicle like the generations of the past did. One-upsmanship is now done with what cell phone you are carrying, not the vehicle you are driving.
 
from sportsmediawatch.com

NASCAR Darlington Ratings Hit New Low
NASCAR ratings continue to freefall, and the roughest part of the schedule is still to come.

Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Southern 500 from Darlington earned a 1.5 rating and 2.66 million viewers on NBCSN, down 17% in ratings and 14% in viewership from last year (1.8, 3.10M) and down 46% and 43% respectively from 2016 on the NBC broadcast network (2.8, 4.64M).

Brad Keselowski‘s win was the lowest rated and least-watched race at Darlington since at least 1999, including the 400-mile race that was discontinued in 2004.

It was also the lowest rated and least-watched Labor Day weekend race over the same span.

Darlington continued a brutal season for NASCAR. Excluding rainouts, it was the 20th of 23 Cup Series races this season to post a double-digit decline in ratings and viewership.
 
Obviously the play off championship is not garnering the interest they hoped. Maybe time has come to admit that and go back to a full season championship battle. They can keep the stages, that should keep them up on the wheel.
 
Switchback said:
Obviously the play off championship is not garnering the interest they hoped. Maybe time has come to admit that and go back to a full season championship battle. They can keep the stages, that should keep them up on the wheel.
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I'd be OK with it. But I'm not sure a full season championship should be 36 races. More like 32-34.
 
The weather is wreaking havoc with the entire weekend anyway, but let it sink in that NASCAR took what was the most watched race of the last six months of the season in 2017 (bigger audience than July Daytona, bigger than October Talladega, bigger than Homestead finale) and moved it:

1. Later in the season, always a guarantee of lower TV ratings.

2. Opposite NFL opening Sunday, when the race on this weekend has been a Saturday race for decades.

3. Back to cable from broadcast.

Its almost like they were trying to kill it.
 
The weather is terrible in July in Indy. Though it really should be a Saturday afternoon race in the future.
 
gnomesayin said:
The weather is wreaking havoc with the entire weekend anyway, but let it sink in that NASCAR took what was the most watched race of the last six months of the season in 2017 (bigger audience than July Daytona, bigger than October Talladega, bigger than Homestead finale) and moved it:

1. Later in the season, always a guarantee of lower TV ratings.

2. Opposite NFL opening Sunday, when the race on this weekend has been a Saturday race for decades.

3. Back to cable from broadcast.

Its almost like they were trying to kill it.
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Yep. I've been saying for about 10 years that NASCAR should stop signing with broadcasters that want to compete with the NFL. It would be far better to race on Saturdays and compete with college football.
 
I think the real sign with the ratings and attendance will be next season when there's no excuse of any driver retirements, and presumably no points changes.
 
AuzGrams said:
I think the real sign with the ratings and attendance will be next season when there's no excuse of any driver retirements, and presumably no points changes.
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Hopefully no retirements or points changes... still have a ways to go.
 
Candace66 said:
I'm not surprised...who the heck thought it was a good idea to schedule a race weekend in Las Vegas in summer ?! I live here and I knew as soon as the date was announced that I wasn't going. :eek:
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It was -50 here in Canada and I went to Daytona where it was 91 on race day.
Have to admit the bar after the race had A/C :D
 
Candace66 said:
I'm not surprised...who the heck thought it was a good idea to schedule a race weekend in Las Vegas in summer ?! I live here and I knew as soon as the date was announced that I wasn't going. :eek:
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As I stated when someone else bought up the temp. - The Jacksonville Jags had no trouble selling out their stadium on the same day with a very similar temp. So does that mean that football fans are in better shape, younger, and can tolerate sitting in the heat better than NASCAR fans? Who knows.
 
Towmater said:
As I stated when someone else bought up the temp. - The Jacksonville Jags had no trouble selling out their stadium on the same day with a very similar temp. So does that mean that football fans are in better shape, younger, and can tolerate sitting in the heat better than NASCAR fans? Who knows.
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Eh. Jax is a good team this year and it was New England.
 
Yet Las Vegas has the strictest no coolers / no outside alcohol policy on the schedule. I thought this was supposed to be a big help with attracting fans who want to attend races but don't want to be around drunks. What went wrong?

Are we still on that kick? Maybe not. Now it's time to banter about which sport's fans are fitter.
 
The wrong comparisons are being made IMO. The Las Vegas race came from New Hampshire. LVMS put on a barn burner of a race. It was a great way to kick off the playoff, from burnouts on The Strip all the way through the checkered flag. It was a better playoff event than I can remember at Loudon.

Now it is the job of New Hampshire Motor Speedway to make their one remaining Cup race into a "Big Event," as some other tracks have done when dropping from two races each year to one.
 
LewTheShoe said:
The wrong comparisons are being made IMO. The Las Vegas race came from New Hampshire. LVMS put on a barn burner of a race. It was a great way to kick off the playoff, from burnouts on The Strip all the way through the checkered flag. It was a better playoff event than I can remember at Loudon.

Now it is the job of New Hampshire Motor Speedway to make their one remaining Cup race into a "Big Event," as some other tracks have done when dropping from two races each year to one.
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Looks like the track & the fans care more about the Mod 250 + Pinty's + K&N Race, looks better than the Cup show.

I wish I was joking, but it looks like it's true.
 
AuzGrams said:
Eh. Jax is a good team this year and it was New England.
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That's funny right there. Your post sums up the fan base, the issues facing NASCAR, and the naysayers about NASCAR's issues. Why? The football game was a regular season game in week two and the NASCAR race was a PLAYOFF race. Guess it was just too hot for one set of fans to go to the event and the other set of fans didn't feel that was a limitation on their afternoon. Maybe the excitement level had something to do with it too? LMAO.
 
Why would anyone with a serious interest cite "PLAYOFF race" as though that is a meaningful factor? NASCAR's playoffs have never attracted increased interest. The bulk of playoffs races are the least watched of the year, and always have been. This shows no sign of changing.

The NFL has a much larger fanbase than NASCAR. Now that's settled, maybe we can talk about NASCAR In a racing context.
 
gnomesayin said:
Why would anyone with a serious interest cite "PLAYOFF race" as though that is a meaningful factor? NASCAR's playoffs have never attracted increased interest. The bulk of playoffs races are the least watched of the year, and always have been. This shows no sign of changing.

The NFL has a much larger fanbase than NASCAR. Now that's settled, maybe we can talk about NASCAR In a racing context.
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Exactly. Agree with you on this one.

NFL is also only 16 games long, so every game is a lot more meaningful. Which is another point to NASCAR, where they've oversatured their product in NXS and Cup 4-6 weeks too long.
 
Towmater said:
As I stated when someone else bought up the temp. - The Jacksonville Jags had no trouble selling out their stadium on the same day with a very similar temp. So does that mean that football fans are in better shape, younger, and can tolerate sitting in the heat better than NASCAR fans? Who knows.
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Nope, I am a fan of both. there is no comparison in the amount of "action" between football and racing. The action serves as a distraction to anything uncomfortable, in this case the heat. Same goes with the cold, I would not hesitate going to a football game in 32 degree weather. It is actually quite easy to stay warm during the game because of the action. But at a NASCAR race I would freeze my butt off...actually did at Atlanta once.
 
AuzGrams said:
Exactly. Agree with you on this one.

NFL is also only 16 games long, so every game is a lot more meaningful. Which is another point to NASCAR, where they've oversatured their product in NXS and Cup 4-6 weeks too long.
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It would appear that we have gotten several posts (in this thread) that seem to be saying the same thing or inferring the same thing. By that, I mean, that NASCAR is no longer a major sport in the US or can't be compared to a nationally recognized/followed sport like football/stick and ball sport. Perfect! In less than 2 decades NASCAR went from a nationally recognized sport that was rivaling the NFL in popularity (at least in attendance) to what we have now. Attendance and ratings that keep cratering. To not find that troubling is saddening and perplexing at the same time.

It appears that NASCAR's fan base has conceded or jumped ship in those same 2 decades.
 
Don't know if this is related or not, but I have been reading in NFL forums that people have stopped going to game because the tailgating rules have been updated to basically prevent people from tailgating. Not sure if this is at every stadium or just a few, but I know NASCAR had a big crack down on tailgating a while ago and it didn't seem to help the situation. I wonder if this is that big of an issue for both? I will see if I can find articles about it, but like I said it was just in NFL forums that I saw this, so small sample.
 
LouieLouie said:
Don't know if this is related or not, but I have been reading in NFL forums that people have stopped going to game because the tailgating rules have been updated to basically prevent people from tailgating. Not sure if this is at every stadium or just a few, but I know NASCAR had a big crack down on tailgating a while ago and it didn't seem to help the situation. I wonder if this is that big of an issue for both? I will see if I can find articles about it, but like I said it was just in NFL forums that I saw this, so small sample.
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The Bills are allowing law enforcement to step in a stop their fan base from destroying tables. Sound like a good way to save on trips to the emergency room to me.

BTW, the cost of attending an NFL game might have more to do with the lack of sales. NASCAR or the NASCAR (cough, cough) press keeps reminding us of how great a deal a NASCAR race is and yet the attendance levels keeps falling further into the toilet. You don't think it was the evil tailgating rules that have caused it? Hmmm, I wonder why those same NASCAR fans that didn't want to attend the race don't watch it on TV? You'd think the ratings would be up in the race markets if that was the case. Perplexing.
 
FenderBumper said:
Yep. I've been saying for about 10 years that NASCAR should stop signing with broadcasters that want to compete with the NFL. It would be far better to race on Saturdays and compete with college football.
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I disagree. College football is bigger in the southeast than pro football. SEC and ACC are Kings, every other sport is potatoes.
 
FenderBumper said:
Yep. I've been saying for about 10 years that NASCAR should stop signing with broadcasters that want to compete with the NFL. It would be far better to race on Saturdays and compete with college football.
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Wouldn't stand a chance in Ohio, Michigan and Alabama
 
DIDIT said:
Wouldn't stand a chance in Ohio, Michigan and Alabama
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We're going to get the answer to that this Saturday night when Richmond takes on college football, especially when Richmond is no longer a race that decides who makes the "playoffs".
 
Serious questions:

Why should fans worry about ratings and attendance?
  • Are there concerns that NASCAR is going to get cancelled from TV?
  • Are there concerns that tracks are going to close?
  • Are there concerns about more teams shutting down?
  • Are there concerns that big league stock car racing is going to cease to exist?
 
Matthew2470 said:
Serious questions:

Why should fans worry about ratings and attendance?
  • Are there concerns that NASCAR is going to get cancelled from TV?
  • Are there concerns that tracks are going to close?
  • Are there concerns about more teams shutting down?
  • Are there concerns that big league stock car racing is going to cease to exist?
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Yep
 
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