Remember when..

DUN24

DUN24

Skeptical of the Spectacle
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So there's obviously a lot of talk about how networks are covering Motorsports, NASCAR in particular.. The networks are pissing me off as much as the next guy, it seems every one is a joke, is Marty Reid becoming MORE uninformed? Is FOX sports and ESPN's ultimate goal to troll on us? I guess that's the world we live in...

but it could be worse. Remember about 13 or 14 years ago when Speedvision-THE actual and original Motorsports network lost/couldn't afford/idk(I really don't remember) didn't have any NASCAR coverage? They'd show us a picture of victory lane and be like "yeah it was a thriller!"

It was BS!!! We had RPM tonight and that is it, other than like 6 different networks covering races.. We also didnt have as vast an Internet presence.

Just saying, has been worse.
 
NASCAR is lucky to get the exposure it gets in this day in age.

Just look at F1 and any other form of motorsport racing. It gets zero coverage outside of speed channel. I assume it will get even less now that Fox took over.
 
reck said:
NASCAR is lucky to get the exposure it gets in this day in age.

Just look at F1 and any other form of motorsport racing. It gets zero coverage outside of speed channel. I assume it will get even less now that Fox took over.
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To be fair F1 gets more coverage across the pond. I don't think that is a good comparison.
 
Jeffrey00 said:
To be fair F1 gets more coverage across the pond. I don't think that is a good comparison.
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Well it is the only comparison one could make.

What else gets shown here? Motocross is the other only form of racing that I recall that gets some love here.

NHRA Drag Racing doesn't count btw. :D
 
reck said:
Well it is the only comparison one could make.

What else gets shown here? Motocross is the other only form of racing that I recall that gets some love here.

NHRA Drag Racing doesn't count btw. :D
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Here in the North East we do get some coverage of the local stuff, Mods, some top tier late model racing, that kind of stuff. When the big boys are up at NHIS this is multiplied by 10, I'd like to see a channel devoted to all the lower tier touring series, like WoO, dirt late models, different modified series across the country, Pass, ASA, all that kind of stuff. Even if it was just on for 12 hours a day it would be cool. When Speed was a new network they had all this and I used to go into major absorb mode when I clicked on saw different series running across the country on tracks I wished I could visit. I think those days are sadly gone, but one still can dream.
 
ESPN was the only place that showed races except CBS once a year and ABC once a year. I enjoyed Speedvision when it covered an array of speed related content. SpeedTV became the default place to find race related content. Fox1 and ESPN have primarily general sports content with maybe a weekly race. I'll rely on TVRacer.com to find what I want to watch but I'm guessing a lot of racing related content will be on optional channels which leave me out. Hopefully, someday we will be able to pick and choose what channels we want to subscribe to. Until then I'll be getting info here @racing-forums for the stuff I don't see.
 
Just saying, has been worse.
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Oh, boy, is THAT an understatement. I well remember when we were lucky to get 5 minutes on Wide World of Sports. The only race really covered "back in the day" was the Indy 500.

As bad as it is in today's world, it's 1000 times better than "way back when".
 
reck said:
NHRA Drag Racing doesn't count btw. :D
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What's wrong with John Force's veneers? :tongue:

The coverage is worse in Canada but as mentioned before the Internet can help out a lot these days. Sometimes I can't get a race because it will be on a secondary channel that I don't subscribe to, but nowadays I can just log on and catch a stream more often than not.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Oh, boy, is THAT an understatement. I well remember when we were lucky to get 5 minutes on Wide World of Sports. The only race really covered "back in the day" was the Indy 500.

As bad as it is in today's world, it's 1000 times better than "way back when".
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Thats exactly how I remember it as a little kid back in the early 60's.
By the mid 80's ESPN had Benny, Bob & Ned covering it almost every week. I was very pleased with that and would think about the old days and how could people live like that with almost no racing on TV.
 
I can watch every single race in the three top NASCAR divisions every time they race. Life's good.

I can listen to NASCAR radio 24/7 and get NASCAR news at the push off a button. Life's better.

I can subscribe to reliable twitter accounts and get up to the second NASCAR news. Life's great.

On the other hand I could just sit and bitch about everything but I'll leave that to others.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I can watch every single race in the three top NASCAR divisions every time they race. Life's good.

I can listen to NASCAR radio 24/7 and get NASCAR news at the push off a button. Life's better.

I can subscribe to reliable twitter accounts and get up to the second NASCAR news. Life's great.

On the other hand I could just sit and bitch about everything but I'll leave that to others.
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Yep. Well said.
 
I've watched old races and the TV coverage was terrible. I am not sure why people think it was so great. Maybe because they tend to only show the highlights.
 
Losing racing programing..whatever it is, is a step backward. Sorry, but I am not jumping for joy and doing flip flops when a racing channel on a network gets gobbled up by a power hungry Murdock only interested in feathering his nest and the bottom line and could care less about motorsports. It is just something to have, in order to keep the other guy from getting it.
 
I am happy that we get to see a lot of good racing in the top three divisions and see no reason to go on a rant.

I do miss the old thursday night thunder open wheel coverage from the 80s and early 90s. I remember seeing Jeff Gordon running down the back straight on two wheels once, and getting to see Rich Voglers last few years was priceless.
Honestly as a person living in South Carolina that was as close as I could get to IRP, Salem, Winnchester, and their open wheel world.

I even miss the Legend cars running on Tuesday nights too, as well as the old ASA coverage and Hooters ProCup.

But I dont blame ESPN or Speed for the demise, I dont think we can capture all of the factors that stopped the coverage. If it was sustainable I think somebody would be still be doing the coverage.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I can watch every single race in the three top NASCAR divisions every time they race. Life's good.

I can listen to NASCAR radio 24/7 and get NASCAR news at the push off a button. Life's better.

I can subscribe to reliable twitter accounts and get up to the second NASCAR news. Life's great.

On the other hand I could just sit and bitch about everything but I'll leave that to others.
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Of course life is good, you're hanging out at BMS As we speak. LOL

We are seriously talking about some ridiculous first world problems. However, for the sake of pessimism, the TV coverage blows. I had no qualifying or practice reruns yesterday and it pisses me off! :)
 
FOX SPORTS has something up their sleeve going into the next new TV contract seasons...I don't know what it is obviously, but you cant pay NASCRAP the money they did for the pkg, and not have something on the back burner...With that said, I wouldn't be surprised if a deal gets done with DirectTv/Dish Network or possibly a NEW satellite co. and NASCRAP races become all PPV....
 
I watched the new show on FS1 called "Crowd Goes Wild" because I was interested in what they had to say about Nascar. When they got on the subject, you could tell not one person gave two ****s about Nascar.

BTW I wouldn't mind to have Nascar on PPV.
 
DUN24 said:
Of course life is good, you're hanging out at BMS As we speak. LOL

We are seriously talking about some ridiculous first world problems. However, for the sake of pessimism, the TV coverage blows. I had no qualifying or practice reruns yesterday and it pisses me off! :)
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nor are we getting re-runs of the race either during the week.
 
PushRodV8 said:
I watched the new show on FS1 called "Crowd Goes Wild" because I was interested in what they had to say about Nascar. When they got on the subject, you could tell not one person gave two ****s about Nascar.

BTW I wouldn't mind to have Nascar on PPV.
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Thanks for the update, I try but I can't watch very much of it. I think they are the same watching motorsports. I don't know who they are even talking about, I have ignored stick n ball for so long, and they don't know anything about Nascar, nor do they want to know anything. I hope they sell off the motorsports to something or somebody when the newness wears off and they get tired of race fans screaming at them. They have kept the basic profitable race parts, gutted the rest. I think they will be whining when the ratings take a big dump because of minimal coverage...beancounters will start squeaking..it might take a while, but I am optimistic that a motorsports channel will show up on mainline cable and satellite.
 
I ain't paying PPV prices for a Nascar race. Even if that happened it won't be for a long time with the tv rights.

I understand people not wanting to lose Nascar programming but really, the sport's only value has been in live races and niche networks are fading.. except for the big sports networks, over the last few decades, MTV has totally changed, the video game network is no longer, TNN turned into Spike etc.. A Nascar channel would be nice but it's not how the tv network landscape is evolving into.
 
PushRodV8 said:
Fans bitch about interrupted broadcasts and commercials. PPV doesn't have commercials. but a high price tag wouldn't be good.
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If PPV ever happened, I think the attendance 'problem' would be 'fixed'
 
I'd happily pay $350-400 per year for a commercial free PPV option. Add in a scanner option and multiple angles and In-car shots and I'd pay even more. Keep the network broadcasts as an option for those who choose to not pay.
 
Matthew2470 said:
I'd happily pay $350-400 per year for a commercial free PPV option. Add in a scanner option and multiple angles and In-car shots and I'd pay even more. Keep the network broadcasts as an option for those who choose to not pay.
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$400 dollars? That's twice as much as the other sports package. The reason Nascar doesn't do that is because only a minority would jump on.. Not to mention piss off the networks. With all the other sports pay packages, they have blackouts to protect tv rights. It can't work for Nascar.
 
I hope this doesn't sound condescending, or even Dr Phil, it just my two cents.

I sometimes think we want the current day Nascar to give us the impossible. And in short that would be the sacred memories of our younger days.

I would love to go back to the day when they ran 55 and 57 chevys and fords. When Chevelles, Chevy IIs, Novas, Falcons, Fairlanes, and early generation Mustangs, and Camaros ruled the day.
I would like to see modifieds in pre pinto era Coupes too (even though aside from Vintage stuff I never got to see the old coupes race).

I miss my deceased dad explaining why the winners won, and why some would probably never win. I cant tell you why I am a chevy man, my dad was and I learned from him.

Ok bringing it up to now....There just are some things that are never coming back, and there isnt always a single source to blame. I can respect someone burning out and forsaking racing, life changes and for a few today's reality will never satisfy yesterdays cravings.

I would just want to point out that we dont always have a choice, we dont have enough metal to run the former cars, and I cant bring my dad back, or the wondermint and nostalgia of my younger days.

The same is true with the business models that allow tv coverage of racing. All we can do is try to enjoy the present racing, that idea is true and inescapable for many things in life.
 
PushRodV8 said:
I watched the new show on FS1 called "Crowd Goes Wild" because I was interested in what they had to say about Nascar. When they got on the subject, you could tell not one person gave two ****s about Nascar.

BTW I wouldn't mind to have Nascar on PPV.
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They already did the ppv thing at Pocono it was a bust.
 
BOWTIE GUY said:
They were live, had the dover gang at the house to watch. I'm thinking early 90's
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You must be talking about something different that the old SETV, (Special Events Television Network), then. That was the only PPV NASCAR that I can remember. They used to do several different tracks for PPV but they were all tape delayed races.
 
Lazyking said:
$400 dollars? That's twice as much as the other sports package. The reason Nascar doesn't do that is because only a minority would jump on.. Not to mention piss off the networks. With all the other sports pay packages, they have blackouts to protect tv rights. It can't work for Nascar.
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But 36 races! It would be awesome.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
You must be talking about something different that the old SETV, (Special Events Television Network), then. That was the only PPV NASCAR that I can remember. They used to do several different tracks for PPV but they were all tape delayed races.
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did you get to delay payment?
 
NASCAR's tried PPV packages before. Not only did people not buy it, NASCAR couldn't even give HotPass away for free.

It's amusing how everyone says they'll pay to watch commercial free races but never do when afforded the opportunity.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Oh, boy, is THAT an understatement. I well remember when we were lucky to get 5 minutes on Wide World of Sports. The only race really covered "back in the day" was the Indy 500. As bad as it is in today's world, it's 1000 times better than "way back when".
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Most of you have no idea what it was like "back in the day." I mean back in the early days (e.g. Fred Flintstone) and news was scare as hens teeth unless you lived in the immediate area where the race was held. In the '50's, '60's and early '70's, I got my racing news from National Speed Sport News, a publication started by the late Chris Economaki. It had news of every jerk-water town and race track around the country. Then Grand National Scene came into being but the same delivery problem of getting race results, general information and silly season still came a week after the fact. I think what most are complaining about is their favorite racing info programs are going by the wayside and being replaced with something they care little to nothing about. Same ole, same ole. But, thank goodness, the "good old days of racing news" are gone. Now we have instant access and insight into what is taking place. Some very personal. Did you see where one driver tweeted he took a crap?
Just kidding, but you get the idea about instant access .............
 
Whizzer said:
In the '50's, '60's.........Did you see where one driver tweeted he took a crap?
Just kidding, but you get the idea about instant access .............
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Isn't that back when they would squat behind an Impala and drop logs? Now THAT was instant access for you old timers.
 
Whizzer said:
Most of you have no idea what it was like "back in the day." I mean back in the early days (e.g. Fred Flintstone) and news was scare as hens teeth unless you lived in the immediate area where the race was held. In the '50's, '60's and early '70's, I got my racing news from National Speed Sport News, a publication started by the late Chris Economaki. It had news of every jerk-water town and race track around the country. Then Grand National Scene came into being but the same delivery problem of getting race results, general information and silly season still came a week after the fact. I think what most are complaining about is their favorite racing info programs are going by the wayside and being replaced with something they care little to nothing about. Same ole, same ole. But, thank goodness, the "good old days of racing news" are gone. Now we have instant access and insight into what is taking place. Some very personal. Did you see where one driver tweeted he took a crap?
Just kidding, but you get the idea about instant access .............
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I had a subscription to Winston Cup Scene and got the news 3-4 weeks late . I had to carefully read the columns and try to find little tidbits of speculation. Pat Paterson had a news show on TV but it didn't seem to be a regular thing.. Later on , Eli Gold got got his show on TNN and things started to take off .
 
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