IMO, The Chase is hurting the sport, in terms of both attendance and ratings.
MRM
Team Owner
NASCAR certainly didn't buy into the theory of always leave them wanting more. Instead, they added more races, tracks added more seats thinking they'd always be filled, and TV networks flooded the airwaves with so much programming that people started getting bored with a lot of it.
CamelPowered
Jimmy Spencer Never Forgets!
- Joined
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Good to see another Spencer fan on the board! That Smokin' Joe's car had the best paint scheme ever, in my opinion.
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Pete:Team Penske
Guest
Nope. I had a collection worth over $2000 and gave it to my grandson. (mostly D.E.)
He put it away and never bothered with it. Bet he couldn't get $500. for it.
Bucky Badger
Go Kyle Go
LOL I thought it died long agoAttendance and ratings for baseball games are down. I hereby declare baseball dead.
Certain posts in this discussion defy logic.
MRM
Team Owner
Charlotte announced it's removing 42,000 seats, the ones in turn 2.
Charlie Spencer
Road courses and short tracks.
As someone else mentioned, Martinsville is a bargain. The $55 seats in turn 2 are great.
Darlington (an ISC track) offers half price for military and veterans. $50 seats in 1 and 4 are the best view. There's a Fathead of my view from Turn 1. I don't know about other tracks, but it can't hurt to ask.
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chris.press.5
Guest
The big screen made the turn 2 grandstand awful. The angle of those seats and at least half the stand itself was behind the screen.
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chris.press.5
Guest
Atlanta is removing the turn 3 grandstand. Dover is removing thousands of seats as we speak as well. Texas needs to join the list as well. Could easily remove 20-30k seats there no problem
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Pete:Team Penske
Guest
So if the tracks were built bigger to accommodate more seating and now they are removing many seats, is there any reason why they can't shorten the tracks? Nascar became most popular because of short track racing ( 1 mile and under ) so why not return?
Your thoughts????
Your thoughts????
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Cost? That would be my guess. Probably a lot cheaper to remove seating than to construct a new racing surface.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
TV ratings chart comparing NFL to other sports (via @WSJSports)
Nothing compares to the NFL..... Nothing. NASCAR does look pretty damn good compared to other televised sports though. I'm guessing that those sports are in danger then too, right?
Nothing compares to the NFL..... Nothing. NASCAR does look pretty damn good compared to other televised sports though. I'm guessing that those sports are in danger then too, right?
MRM
Team Owner
My only trip to Charlotte in 2000 and we had turn 2 seats. Couldn't see much of the front of the track.
ToyYoda
Team Owner
It stands to reason that NASCAR ratings would be higher than NBA, MLB, and NHL, as those sports are televised regionally for the most part and only have two teams competing vs. every team in the series competing as in NASCAR Sprint Cup. However, if you look at these sports' "championship" game ratings, Game 7 of the 2014 World Series drew 23.5 million viewers, 18 million tuned in for Game 5 of the NBA Finals, even Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals drew 6 million viewers. Homestead? 5.2 million.TV ratings chart comparing NFL to other sports (via@WSJSports)
Nothing compares to the NFL..... Nothing. NASCAR does look pretty damn good compared to other televised sports though. I'm guessing that those sports are in danger then too, right?
This is why I think that if this Homestead Bowl is going to be a major sporting event, NASCAR needs to treat it as such. Going up head-to-head against the NFL on Sunday afternoon is not the way to do it. Maybe have it on NBC on Saturday Night? It would still have to contend with college football, but that isn't quite as much of a powerhouse as the NFL is. They can get more viewers for this thing, they just have to go about it the right way.
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chris.press.5
Guest
You'll get more viewers on a Sunday late afternoon even if the nfl is on than a Saturday night. The other major sports championship deciding games are played against zero competition from other sports. It is what it is
Speedbowl14
Ryan Preece and short tracks
Loudon has $49 tickets in the apex of turns 3 and 4. I was five rows from the top and it was almost too high. $45 Dover tickets are a steal. They're good up to row 30 in any of the turns.
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Pete:Team Penske
Guest
When they repave these 1.5 mile tracks there could be a sufficient
saving by paving a 1/4 to 1/2 mile less.
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Pete:Team Penske
Guest
Brian must have made that chart.TV ratings chart comparing NFL to other sports (via@WSJSports)
Nothing compares to the NFL..... Nothing. NASCAR does look pretty damn good compared to other televised sports though. I'm guessing that those sports are in danger then too, right?
I think the other sports are in a steady decline and tickets prices are climbing.
We think it is a lot of money when we see a team asking 25 million for a years sponsorship and yet a pitcher in baseball with no expenses can make that.
ToyYoda
Team Owner
I don't know. Charlotte, which was the only chase race on Saturday Night and on network TV, was the second highest rated race in the chase behind only Homestead, and Homestead didn't beat it by much. I know it's hard in the fall to find a primetime spot that isn't going up against football of some sort, but I do think the Homestead race should be moved from Sunday afternoon.
HoneyBadger
I love short track racing (Taylor's Version)
The championship race was also on ESPN on cable this year while NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL have their championship games on broadcast television in primetime. The ratings for Miami plummeted when the Chase was moved off ABC and has never gotten close whereas the ratings for FOX and TNT are pretty close (down, but close) to where they were six years ago.
ESPN's coverage is great but NASCAR is much better off on NBC.
dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
When they repave these 1.5 mile tracks there could be a sufficient
T
TooSweet
Guest
I have very, very few friends that follow Nascar religiously. Some are casual fans, some just kind of watch it here and there, but only a couple are hardcore fans like myself. They have told me why:
"Cars going around in circles, borrrring" <- They aren't race fans because they just don't like racing, they didn't grow up watching it, or they haven't been to a race. Unless you have a track in your back yard, nobody wants to take a weekend off to drive more than a few hours and spend a ton of money on something they assume will be boring. I know a lot of people that started to love Nascar after experiencing a race in person.
"I can't tell which driver is which anymore." <- Since drivers have multiple primary sponsors now, casual fans think it's stupid that drivers have a different paint job each week. Not much we can do about that.
"The cars all look the same." <- This was a complaint that the Gen6 helped eliminate.
"Playoffs in racing is dumb" or "the points system is dumb." <- I agree 100%, although I know a lot of folks don't. I don't have a problem with the Chase, I just think the idea of a "one race Champ" at Homestead is a crapshoot gimmick that takes all the prestige out of the title, and I hate that wins don't count for bonus points. I also think that the lack of a weighted points system is ridiculously stupid, but I digress.
"You only see passes for the lead after a restart." <- True in some cases, thanks to aero dependency.
"It's all about the car these days, not the driver." <- Again, aero dependency.
"Too many tracks are the same." <- We could definitely use more variety IMO.
The good news is that the racing product is the best it's been in a decade, so hopefully that will help going forward. I do wish we saw more merchandise in stores and stuff like we used to. When I was a kid, my mom would let me pick out a 1:64 diecast every time we went to the grocery. The selection back then was awesome; somewhere in storage I have hundreds and hundreds of Nascar diecasts from the 90s
"Cars going around in circles, borrrring" <- They aren't race fans because they just don't like racing, they didn't grow up watching it, or they haven't been to a race. Unless you have a track in your back yard, nobody wants to take a weekend off to drive more than a few hours and spend a ton of money on something they assume will be boring. I know a lot of people that started to love Nascar after experiencing a race in person.
"I can't tell which driver is which anymore." <- Since drivers have multiple primary sponsors now, casual fans think it's stupid that drivers have a different paint job each week. Not much we can do about that.
"The cars all look the same." <- This was a complaint that the Gen6 helped eliminate.
"Playoffs in racing is dumb" or "the points system is dumb." <- I agree 100%, although I know a lot of folks don't. I don't have a problem with the Chase, I just think the idea of a "one race Champ" at Homestead is a crapshoot gimmick that takes all the prestige out of the title, and I hate that wins don't count for bonus points. I also think that the lack of a weighted points system is ridiculously stupid, but I digress.
"You only see passes for the lead after a restart." <- True in some cases, thanks to aero dependency.
"It's all about the car these days, not the driver." <- Again, aero dependency.
"Too many tracks are the same." <- We could definitely use more variety IMO.
The good news is that the racing product is the best it's been in a decade, so hopefully that will help going forward. I do wish we saw more merchandise in stores and stuff like we used to. When I was a kid, my mom would let me pick out a 1:64 diecast every time we went to the grocery. The selection back then was awesome; somewhere in storage I have hundreds and hundreds of Nascar diecasts from the 90s
ted@economy
in the interest of equal time
NASCAR has been catering to these 'near fans' for too long . Changing cars ,rules ,race times, adding stupid groundhogs, twisting itself into something almost unrecognizable to most fans . Just maybe , when those 'near fans' have left , the sport will shrink back into something more recognizable to it's hardcore fans,
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ElliottFan
Guest
Nascar has been on a gradual decline for many years. I was a fan back in 1983 so I have seen 30 years of this sport. It would take too long to explain all of the reasons why but the France mafia is mostly to blame namely Brian. I likely have traveled to my last race to watch. Used to go all of the time but nascar got too expensive for me and the best seat in the house is in front of the tv. If you have never been to a nascar race by all means go because its something to see live with your own eyes and hear the sounds of 40+ screaming race cars.