The Sky Is Falling

And here I am enjoying NASCAR and F1 more than I ever have with each race getting perfect ratings in my house. I must be doing it wrong.

Seriously though. the races are too long and there's too much jingoism associated with NASCAR to attract the newer sports fans. NBA and NFL stars are leading the meme economy these days. Hell, even my kid (he's nearly 14 now) who grew up going to the track with me won't watch more than just a few laps at the end of a race on TV these days. And when he does he's more focused on Snapchat or Facetime or whatever his friends are on. None of them care. But they all watch NFL and NBA intently. They follow their favorite players in social media. Just no love for racing. I tried.
 
Matthew2470 said:
And here I am enjoying NASCAR and F1 more than I ever have with each race getting perfect ratings in my house. I must be doing it wrong.

Seriously though. the races are too long and there's too much jingoism associated with NASCAR to attract the newer sports fans. NBA and NFL stars are leading the meme economy these days. Hell, even my kid (he's nearly 14 now) who grew up going to the track with me won't watch more than just a few laps at the end of a race on TV these days. And when he does he's more focused on Snapchat or Facetime or whatever his friends are on. None of them care. But they all watch NFL and NBA intently. They follow their favorite players in social media. Just no love for racing. I tried.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm still loving it.

Also, the kid may come back to it. I lost a lot of interest(but still followed) between the ages of about 17 to early 20-something myself. I like to blame Jimmie for that though ;)
 
DUN24 said:
Don't get me wrong, I'm still loving it.

Also, the kid may come back to it. I lost a lot of interest(but still followed) between the ages of about 17 to early 20-something myself. I like to blame Jimmie for that though ;)
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We are going to MIS in a couple of weeks. His idea. He wants to see Kyle Larson or Chase Elliot win.
 
The love for the automobile is not as strong with the youth these days... My perception of the kids now is "when is this car going to hurry up and drive itself so I can keep updating my twitter?..." Kids want technology, and while some may like fancy gadgets like a digital dash that has come along, there's nothing in this high octane, high speed, shake your rib cage form of entertainment for someone who can log off the social media for more than 2 minutes...

I just don't understand what will get thier attention, watching cars in circles on a TV is definitely not up their alley.
 
bigspud said:
when the big money disappears
nascar will return to its roots
and all will be fine
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Two things will happen after the money disappears,
isc, nascar, and smi file chapter 7, shuttering most, if not all the tracks.
Or, the organization is severely neutered and will resemble something that looks like the arca series.
 
You dont need to attend an nfl or nba game to feel the electricity of excitement. The broadcasts to an exellent job & the audio is superb.

Nascar on TV is lame as **** in comparison. The audio is focused on the talking heads rather than the cars, there is no real sense of speed shown, & theres a commercial every 10 laps of the race. Unless you are an established fan, you aren't gonna watch this garbage.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
You dont need to attend an nfl or nba game to feel the electricity of excitement. The broadcasts to an exellent job & the audio is superb.

Nascar on TV is lame as sh!t in comparison. The audio is focused on the talking heads rather than the cars, there is no real sense of speed shown, & theres a commercial every 10 laps of the race. Unless you are an established fan, you aren't gonna watch this garbage.
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Racing in general and hockey have the same tv problem.TV just doesn't capture the excitement of being there in person.I used to think hockey was the most boring sport ever,then went to a game and was hooked.
 
darlingtonfan said:
Racing in general and hockey have the same tv problem.TV just doesn't capture the excitement of being there in person.I used to think hockey was the most boring sport ever,then went to a game and was hooked.
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Personally I think hockey is fun to watch on TV. Im just not interested in the sport itself so I dont watch.
 
darlingtonfan said:
Racing in general and hockey have the same tv problem.TV just doesn't capture the excitement of being there in person.I used to think hockey was the most boring sport ever,then went to a game and was hooked.
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Nothing like hearing a hard check
 
I read that thing this A.M. Didn't want to drag that turd in here. So easy to parrot sewage.
 
StandOnIt said:
I read that thing this A.M. Didn't want to drag that turd in here. So easy to parrot sewage.
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Well **** my bad.

ChexOrWrex said:
You dont need to attend an nfl or nba game to feel the electricity of excitement. The broadcasts to an exellent job & the audio is superb.

Nascar on TV is lame as sh!t in comparison. The audio is focused on the talking heads rather than the cars, there is no real sense of speed shown, & theres a commercial every 10 laps of the race. Unless you are an established fan, you aren't gonna watch this garbage.
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True
 
I thinks it's
Hawaii808 said:
Maybe he's paying more attention than you realize?

The hook will get sunk deep after attending a race n person.
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He's been to probably 20 Cup races at 5 different take with me, he's met several drivers and knows quite s bit about racing but he just isn't inclined to seek out at watch a race on TV. Maybe b in a few years.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Nascar on TV is lame as sh!t in comparison. The audio is focused on the talking heads rather than the cars, there is no real sense of speed shown, & theres a commercial every 10 laps of the race. Unless you are an established fan, you aren't gonna watch this garbage.
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Yep, I agree, and with the four reasons from the article, this makes five important reasons for Nascar's decline.

But the biggest factor in the decade of decline was not mentioned... you are comparing to a fad, and that always distorts the picture. Nascar very suddenly became a cultural fad in the 1990's, and that lasted a while, and then it ended. It was a heck of a party, followed by an even worse hangover.

There is no explaining (and no predicting) fads. They come and they go. They very same suburban middle class that lived-and-died for tennis in the 1970's... flocked to country & western bars in the early 1980's... just a couple years later created the racquetball boom... which begat the Nascar Scene.

A bigger worry than a 50% decline from 2007 is a 5% decline from last year. Nascar needs to find the floor and solidify its base. Part of doing that is to get over the fad years and the fad statistics, because they do not represent a sustainable reality.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
You dont need to attend an nfl or nba game to feel the electricity of excitement. The broadcasts to an exellent job & the audio is superb.

Nascar on TV is lame as sh!t in comparison. The audio is focused on the talking heads rather than the cars, there is no real sense of speed shown, & theres a commercial every 10 laps of the race. Unless you are an established fan, you aren't gonna watch this garbage.
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I've never been to a NBA game as we don't have a team but I do go to NFL, NHL & MLB games occasionally in the Pittsburgh market. The experience/atmosphere at each of these events, like racing, is far better in person as it's much more exciting. It's simply too expensive to attend these events frequently for this fan.

NASCAR is at a huge disadvantage as a televised sport. The venue is far to massive to be able to convey everything that is taking place. All the other major sports center around the ball, puck, whatever..... There are battles all over the NASCAR track that are taking place at the same moment. We're at the mercy of the director in the truck, showing us what they think we want to see. This becomes real apparent when attending a race, listening to the FOX/NBC feed on the scanner. They are focused on what is being shown to the home viewer and extremely boring to listen to. MRN/PRN is far better to listen to as they have many people describing the action with eyes all around the track and not someone in a booth dictating a specific view of the action.

Economy was mentioned in the OP's link & also by members here. The economy plays a huge factor in my family attending a race. It's not that I don't have the vacation time. I've got the time to go to these races. It just costs too much money to get/stay there. At one point we had season tickets to Bristol, Dover, Richmond & Martinsville. Starting around 2008 we had to give up all but Martinsville because of the costs associated with attending these events. The interest/time is still there. The money isn't.
 
Matthew2470 said:
And here I am enjoying NASCAR and F1 more than I ever have with each race getting perfect ratings in my house. I must be doing it wrong.

Seriously though. the races are too long and there's too much jingoism associated with NASCAR to attract the newer sports fans. NBA and NFL stars are leading the meme economy these days. Hell, even my kid (he's nearly 14 now) who grew up going to the track with me won't watch more than just a few laps at the end of a race on TV these days. And when he does he's more focused on Snapchat or Facetime or whatever his friends are on. None of them care. But they all watch NFL and NBA intently. They follow their favorite players in social media. Just no love for racing. I tried.
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This is the first time I've encountered the phrase 'meme economy'. Googling it returned a bunch of stuff that was WAY over my head, but I barely grasp the concept of a meme in the first place.
 
ChexOrWrex said:
You dont need to attend an nfl or nba game to feel the electricity of excitement. The broadcasts to an exellent job & the audio is superb.

Nascar on TV is lame as sh!t in comparison. The audio is focused on the talking heads rather than the cars, there is no real sense of speed shown, & theres a commercial every 10 laps of the race. Unless you are an established fan, you aren't gonna watch this garbage.
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There's nothing more boring in broadcast sports than the last 5 minutes of a basketball game, pro or college. At least F1 continues to race when one team has an advantage. The trailing teams don't stop the event every five seconds to give the leader an opportunity to increase his lead, in a futile attempt to catch up. I don't watch much basketball but I've never seen that strategy work on the court.

Spencer's Law: The amount of time remaining in a basketball game is inversely proportional to the amount of time it will take to play it, such that as the game clock approaches zero, the broadcast time remaining approaches infinity.

darlingtonfan said:
Racing in general and hockey have the same tv problem.TV just doesn't capture the excitement of being there in person.I used to think hockey was the most boring sport ever,then went to a game and was hooked.
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I try hockey about once a year. It takes me about that long to forget I can't follow the puck. Once my memory is refreshed (usually less than half a period), I reach for the remote. It's similar to my problem watching F1 (I can't tell who's who), but at least hockey has some action.

LewTheShoe said:
... There is no explaining (and no predicting) fads. They come and they go. They very same suburban middle class that lived-and-died for tennis in the 1970's... flocked to country & western bars in the early 1980's... just a couple years later created the racquetball boom... which begat the Nascar Scene....
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Racketball had a boom? Man, I missed it entirely.

Please, PLEASE tell me badminton hasn't peaked; I wanna catch that wave as early as possible. I'm quite serious.

dpkimmel2001 said:
... NASCAR is at a huge disadvantage as a televised sport. The venue is far to massive to be able to convey everything that is taking place. All the other major sports center around the ball, puck, whatever..... There are battles all over the NASCAR track that are taking place at the same moment. We're at the mercy of the director in the truck, showing us what they think we want to see. This becomes real apparent when attending a race, listening to the FOX/NBC feed on the scanner. They are focused on what is being shown to the home viewer and extremely boring to listen to. MRN/PRN is far better to listen to as they have many people describing the action with eyes all around the track and not someone in a booth dictating a specific view of the action....
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I posted something similar in the Bloomberg article about watching on TV vs. live.
 
kymartin6 said:
I vote for 1,3 and 4...... he's pretty much on track there.... I never bought into the economy playing a big portion..... Folks still buy and take vacations no matter what the economy does....
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and the poor still watch TV. The clue to "WHY" is that people are not watching. I think the traditional way of counting viewers does not work any longer. Many people know what is happening because they get automated updates on their cell phones as well as Twitter.
 
kymartin6 said:
I vote for 1,3 and 4...... he's pretty much on track there.... I never bought into the economy playing a big portion..... Folks still buy and take vacations no matter what the economy does....
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You would be surprised...... The economy was crippling for young Americans, still is, and they're the ones who usually spend money to go to sporting events and stuff. NASCAR's primary demographic is usually saving up for retirement.
 
Ah the racquet ball boom, right up their with the fake rock climbing, zip lining, 5am jogging session, odd hour yoga, and kayaking fads.
 
joe h said:
Ah the racquet ball boom, right up their with the fake rock climbing, zip lining, 5am jogging session, odd hour yoga, and kayaking fads.
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Ya forgot about the pet rock fad in the mid to late 70s.
 
Reads mainly like fake news to me...another opinion piece by someone with no interest in NASCAR. Industry collaboration is at an all-time high and the racing is far from boring, and probably some of the best there's ever been. Hard to deny some economic issues and the lack of interest in automobiles though.
 
Yogisd1 said:
Today's kids don't lack interest in automobiles, just these automobiles.
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Were kids ever interested in 4-door sedans?

Maybe NASCAR has it backwards. Maybe the 4-door sedans should be the introductory national series and the trucks should be the apex. We know that's what people are buying the most.
 
I was discussing with Aiden at breakfast this AM about if he'd rather watch a race on TV or interact with his friends either in person or via electronics. He chooses electronics because he said that while he likes Larson, Elliott, Blaney, Bubba and Erik, none of them come close to replacing Jeff Gordon for him. He did say that he'd watch more if there was a rivalry between one of the young guys and a veteran. I told him about the fledgling Larson - Johnson rivalry and he said that if they start hating eachother he'd watch that. My stance on NASCAR desperately needing an intense rivalry is well documented on this forum, so this didn't surprise me. (Nothing hurt NASCAR more than when the JG vs. Dale Jr rivalry never developed)

But he still wants to go to races whenever possible. (he just wishes MIS were smaller becuase it's so difficult to follow the cars on the back stretch) So that means I will take him to some other tracks we've yet to visit (RIR and Martinsville being top of the list). I am perfectly fine with that. I get to make more memories with my son over a sport we've bonded over since he was old enough to understand what was going on and get a 2nd life as a post JG NASCAR fan. I just hope that there's something left to watch.
 
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