The Attendance Thread

Stu Jameson said:
the three nippled girl wearing Earnhardt Sr colors.
. I never saw her anywhere near the stands.Only in the infield.:)
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I can’t speak of what goes on today but in the past there was always a high concentration of drunk and stupid people at a Nascar race infield.
 
Larsonfan1995 said:
Not a bad crowd at Atlanta, looks to be about double what they had last year but there was a threat of rain last year
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Yes it was a nice crowd I thought. Definitely way better than last year when it was under threat of rain. I would guestimate about 75% full. Last year was clearly less than 50%.
 
It's just tough to get a lot of people to go out to an outdoor event in large venues nowadays. You see the declines in baseball and football as well. Doesn't stop me from enjoying the races (or the football and baseball games too). We will probably continue to see the trend towards just making the venues smaller, with fewer seats, just like we see in the ball sports. Jerry Jones built they monstrosity of a stadium in Dallas a few years ago to suit his ego. But honestly, I think that may be the last really big venue like that we ever see.
 
People will still show up en masse to outdoor activities if it is something they find worthwhile. Every NFL team averaged over 60k per game last year except 5. Some football crazies go shirtless for games played in sub freezing temps!

Some MLB teams draw poorly but even a small market team like Pittsburgh had about 1.5 million fans attend games last year. That is probably more than all points paying cup races.

I guarantee you that people will come to Nascar races if they feel it is worth the time and money.
 
IanMcVittie said:
People will still show up en masse to outdoor activities if it is something they find worthwhile. Every NFL team averaged over 60k per game last year except 5. Some football crazies go shirtless for games played in sub freezing temps!

Some MLB teams draw poorly but even a small market team like Pittsburgh had about 1.5 million fans attend games last year. That is probably more than all points paying cup races.

I guarantee you that people will come to Nascar races if they feel it is worth the time and money.
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Yes people will come. People do come. Just not as many as before. And that is a consistent trend across racing, football and baseball.

I think peoepe are just softer than they used to be. You gotta make things easier for them in order to get them out from in front of their HD televisions in their air-conditioned living rooms. Make it where there is more comfort, less walking, less exposure to the elements, etc.
 
Looks like Texas took some more seats away. There's a gap between the grandstand and the speedway club in turn 1. It looks like they took seats under the speedway club and added a bar/social area.
 
Jeff Turner said:
Yes people will come. People do come. Just not as many as before. And that is a consistent trend across racing, football and baseball.

I think peoepe are just softer than they used to be. You gotta make things easier for them in order to get them out from in front of their HD televisions in their air-conditioned living rooms. Make it where there is more comfort, less walking, less exposure to the elements, etc.
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I think if anything it’s the price to attend events. Best thing about growing up in Toledo OH was how cheap AAA baseball and MAC school college games were. Being in Columbus you should see Ohio State tickets, $80 is a nose bleed seat against Indiana
 
rowdy3 said:
Looks like Texas took some more seats away. There's a gap between the grandstand and the speedway club in turn 1. It looks like they took seats under the speedway club and added a bar/social area.
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A lot of the tracks never seem to remove enough seats as there are always empties. From what I have read a lot of common areas and RV parking spots are not heavily used either.
 
kyle18fan said:
About 5 thousand showed up for the Nationwide at Texas ! so sad that folks don't go to those races
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How will the series survive when Kyle can't run in anymore races? There may be negative 500 people at the races.o_O
 
Yeah I won’t lie Kyle Busch has kinda ruined the lower series for me. I have no interest in a top driver dominating these minor leaguers in lesser equipment
 
My guess is there was still 15K tickets sold, however that was lower than previous years. I still don't see how tracks like Nashville, Memphis, IRP, and another standalone like Portland or wherever couldn't outsell a race like a Texas companion event.

I mean really, once Kyle's limit is up and Cup drivers are shut out, why not watch an Xfinity race or Truck race for cheap? Tickets for both series are cheap as hell usually on StubHub compared to Cup.
 
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AuzGrams said:
My guess is there was still 15K tickets sold, however that was lower than previous years. I still don't see how tracks like Nashville, Memphis, IRP, and another standalone like Portland or wherever couldn't outsell a race like a Texas companion event.

I mean really, once Kyle's limit is up and Cup drivers are shut out, why not watch an Xfinity race or Truck race for cheap? Tickets for both series are cheap as hell usually on StubHub compared to Cup.
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I agree however I do not agree that these minor league series should be heavy on the short tracks as most do. While exciting you need to prepare these guys for the large tracks and high speeds of Cup racing as it is so vastly different
 
Mispeedway15 said:
I think if anything it’s the price to attend events. Best thing about growing up in Toledo OH was how cheap AAA baseball and MAC school college games were. Being in Columbus you should see Ohio State tickets, $80 is a nose bleed seat against Indiana
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Yes, price is definitely a factor in this, as it is in all things in a capitalistic society. But we have to remember - for Cup Series races the price has not really increased during this current 10+ year decline in attendance. If anything it's gotten cheaper with all the ticket specials they offer, especially at the SMI tracks. I can get a Cup Series ticket in the best seats for around $100 (same or less as 10 years ago), and I can get a ticket for each of my kids right next to that one for only $10 each - that's a steal in my opinion.
 
Jeff Turner said:
Yes, price is definitely a factor in this, as it is in all things in a capitalistic society. But we have to remember - for Cup Series races the price has not really increased during this current 10+ year decline in attendance. If anything it's gotten cheaper with all the ticket specials they offer, especially at the SMI tracks. I can get a Cup Series ticket in the best seats for around $100 (same or less as 10 years ago), and I can get a ticket for each of my kids right next to that one for only $10 each - that's a steal in my opinion.
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I had no idea that if an adult got tickets to a cup race kids only paid 10 bucks. It is certainly a great idea in theory but for all practical purposes it ain’t working.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Idk why they haven't right-sized this place yet. They boasted in their press release about the 2020 schedule earlier this week they still have capacity of 190,000...but what for? Not sure how that overhead is worth it.
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I read once that Eddie Gossage kept all those seats because he challenges himself to sell out like he once did. But even 60k looks bad in a grandstand that can fit 3 times that.
 
Jeff Gluck‏Verified account @jeff_gluck
Jeff Gluck Retweeted gary arsenault

My take is Texas hasn’t removed seats like most of the other tracks. It still has 133,000 seats. This crowd might be as much or more more than Martinsville or Phoenix, but those tracks have way smaller capacities.

gary arsenault @gary01453
Replying to @jeff_gluck
Hearing the stands are looking very empty today what's your take Jeff?
3:40 PM - 31 Mar 2019
 
FLRacingFan said:
Idk why they haven't right-sized this place yet. They boasted in their press release about the 2020 schedule earlier this week they still have capacity of 190,000...but what for? Not sure how that overhead is worth it.
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Wasn't the original "dream" to have something like 300k to rival Indy? Texas had a ridiculous capacity from the start which over time clearly hasn't helped.

Charlotte has a similar front straight setup but no where near the capacity anymore. I have to believe that Texas simply has more rows and extends further at this point? Charlotte topped out around 185k iic. That turn turn 2 grandstand/suite setup a few years back was massive....
 
Crowd from Joey's pit during the stop during stage one.



Crowd across from Blaney's pit at lap 61

 
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Towmater said:
The crowd shots are depressing. Yikes!
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Next week's Bristol race is going to be another major reality check when it comes to visuals. They didn't sell tickets for the turns so what people are there will be concentrated on the straights.

I'm going to pretend it's like this and all the empty seats in the turns don't exist. This pic has be right around 1990; no 3rd tier on the back straight but seats in the turns.
aerial.jpg
 
Imagine that there's a race happening in a racing series you're interested in, and what you're doing is scouring Twitter not for details about the race, but for photos of crowd shots with empty seats.

Imagine there's a race you're not interested in, and you're doing that.

Either way, it's quite a fetish.
 
Yeah, Texas hasn't downsized. I imagine there was 50k-60k out of the 112,000+ seats. Not like it wasn't like this last year either..
 
gnomesayin said:
Imagine that there's a race happening in a racing series you're interested in, and what you're doing is scouring Twitter not for details about the race, but for photos of crowd shots with empty seats.

Imagine there's a race you're not interested in, and you're doing that.

Either way, it's quite a fetish.
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Nostalgia is a hell of a drug
 
gnomesayin said:
Imagine that there's a race happening in a racing series you're interested in, and what you're doing is scouring Twitter not for details about the race, but for photos of crowd shots with empty seats.

Imagine there's a race you're not interested in, and you're doing that.

Either way, it's quite a fetish.
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Are those scouring twitter during the race the same that claim they don’t watch anymore? I didn’t even pay attention to attendance for today till I just clicked on this area. I will say wow, looks jarring. But it didn’t ruin my viewing of today’s race, I was more focused on the actual racing going on at the time.
 
You guys make it sound like noticing the crowd...err, lack of it, watching the race, commenting/posting on the forum, and looking at the Penske and Hendrick Motorsports twitter feeds are really hard to do. Seriously, I only added one thing more than many of you did during the race. I looked at the twitter feed of 2 teams. I didn't find doing that extra bit of multitasking that demanding.
 
Towmater said:
You guys make it sound like noticing the crowd...err, lack of it, watching the race, commenting/posting on the forum, and looking at the Penske and Hendrick Motorsports twitter feeds are really hard to do. Seriously, I only added one thing more than many of you did during the race. I looked at the twitter feed of 2 teams. I didn't find doing that extra bit of multitasking that demanding.
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Make sure you let skoalianpunkatomicbanditmcventie know about the empty seats. I'm sure he'll be shocked, but it will make his day.
 
If he comes into the forum and clicks on the thread he can read about it. Just like you did. However, if you feel the need to let him know then message him.
 
Ummm, that cuts both ways for all those who sit on this or that side of chatting about attendance.
 
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