Will NASCAR follow MLB example on start times?

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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On Tuesday night, Major League Baseball announced it was moving the start time of Wednesday's World Series Game 2 an hour earlier based on rain in the forecast. Fox adjusted its TV schedule to accommodate the change.

So when bad weather is predicted, why can’t NASCAR do the same for its events? Well, it can -- under the right circumstances.

“Every situation is unique, but we would consider altering a scheduled race start time due to weather, especially if we thought it would benefit fans,” said Steve Herbst, NASCAR senior vice president, broadcasting and production, in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. “There are a multitude of variables that would factor into such a decision that would include tracks, broadcast partners and all of our stakeholders. That said, we would be open to having those discussions on a case-by-case basis and have had initial conversations of how that could work in 2017.”

But there are some additional factors NASCAR has to deal with that other sports don’t. For example, World Series tickets do not have a time or date printed on them – NASCAR tickets have both. There isn't language about what happens in the event a start time is moved up. They do carry a disclaimer that the ticket will be valid should the event be rescheduled. Another thing to consider is NASCAR fans often travel from further away than fans for sports that have “home” events.

NASCAR has a 10-year, $8.2 billion deal with NBC, Fox and their sports networks, and TV likely plays a large role in the decision to change a start time.

Read the rest here
 
I know of at least ten people that swore off NASCAR when in 2012 instead of watching a couple laps of the Daytona 500, the rain started pouring just as the national anthem was concluding. Just a bad day all around, we were treated to hours of pre race bs(city and county commissioners getting on stage and an hour long concert, etc), yet the fox cameras were ready to go, and if they just cut out thirty minutes of that boredom, we would have been able to see a couple laps, and sure, most of us would have left disappointed, but not the anger we felt.
 
IMO with all that currently ails Nascar start times are a low priority. Also an inordinate number of fans seem to watch 3 or 4 hours of attempted track drying and talking heads on the telly anyway so I don't see this being a big issue.
 
I suggested this a year or so ago on this board, and got lit up (naw, never here). Members of the Muppet Show ranted about how this was unreasonable for fans, impossible for the networks, and absolutely absurd. Well, apparently, it isn't.
 
The TV excuse is bogus. The World Series is one of the largest sporting events of the year and brings in far more viewers than NASCAR does on a major network in primetime and they still moved it.

NASCAR just prefers the postpone. Logistically they may just see that as a better option for them.
 
The same networks doing NASCAR now were the same networks doing it from 2001-2006 when start times were frequently pushed up for rain. I'm betting ESPN had more to do with this decision to quit that policy than anything.

And the fan excuse is bull****. If they announce ahead of time that the race is starting an hour early, there's no excuse in the information age fans wouldn't be able to find out and still make it to the track. Hell, most of them are already there at 10am.
 
it tough it is often hard to read radar, esp in summer with more storms
 
Revman said:
I suggested this a year or so ago on this board, and got lit up (naw, never here). Members of the Muppet Show ranted about how this was unreasonable for fans, impossible for the networks, and absolutely absurd. Well, apparently, it isn't.
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The NFL has a flex schedule and later on in the year a match up that was supposed to be held at 1:00 PM on Sunday can be changed to 8:20 PM that night. When I used to attend races I always built in lots of flexibility as you never know what can happen to delay things. Personally I would like to see races changed from Sunday to Saturday if Sunday's weather looks awful as it would suck for the 30-50K who show up for most races but it would put a smile on 3 million people at home.
 
There's a difference between a World Series game and a "regular" NASCAR race. If I paid 7K for a World Series ticket, rest assured I would leave find any way possible to accommodate an earlier start time. If they announce an earlier race start time, there are a good number of people who will miss part of the event. I'm for going back to scheduling start times at 12PM, or the latest 1PM. That gives the most amount of time for rain issues, plus avoids people getting into the NFL games like I mentioned last week.
 
How much crap would a place like Bristol take if you have a race set for 7:45 and move it up to 4:45 because of rain? It's obvious people only go to Bristol for the night race. Move into the daytime, a big number of fans would probably get mad.
 
All I know, about 70% of the ticket holders are at the track 2 hours before the scheduled green flag, walking the grounds, tailgating, and what not. However, when a race is postponed to the next day, 50% rarely comeback, even when races are bumped from Saturday to Sunday. That is leaving at least 30% of the ticket holders eating their tickets due to postponing instead of moving up the start time. And a lot of people are satisfied simply seeing a couple laps, saying they were there, and heading home.

Rain sucks, and you'll never satisfy 100% of the ticket holders, but the MLB does the best job trying. Typically a team will let you trade tickets, or even credit your account. And early season rainouts are postponed to later in the season, so ticket holders can make plans, etc.
 
MRM said:
How much crap would a place like Bristol take if you have a race set for 7:45 and move it up to 4:45 because of rain? It's obvious people only go to Bristol for the night race. Move into the daytime, a big number of fans would probably get mad.
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Moving something up three hours and moving something up one hour are different things.

I still maintain that the Air Titan thing is the worst thing to happen for NASCAR. Now, instead of either moving something up a few minutes or postponing a race to the following day, NASCAR can run part of their races in the tiniest of windows and has even started races knowing they would only get to just past halfway (see: Phoenix last fall).

Seems this stuff where we run a few laps, sit in a rainstorm, run a few more laps, sit in rain and run another few laps, sit in the rain and call it off are becoming very common with Air Titan. Whereas, in the past, races like that were a rare occurrence (California 2008, Charlotte 2009).
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Moving something up three hours and moving something up one hour are different things.

I still maintain that the Air Titan thing is the worst thing to happen for NASCAR. Now, instead of either moving something up a few minutes or postponing a race to the following day, NASCAR can run part of their races in the tiniest of windows and has even started races knowing they would only get to just past halfway (see: Phoenix last fall).

Seems this stuff where we run a few laps, sit in a rainstorm, run a few more laps, sit in rain and run another few laps, sit in the rain and call it off are becoming very common with Air Titan. Whereas, in the past, races like that were a rare occurrence (California 2008, Charlotte 2009).
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If there is a rain delay I check in on the forum periodically to see what is happening but if I miss the race because it is run the next day or later on in the afternoon/evening it is no biggie.
 
Peoples, how hath thou so quickly forgotten the Vortex?
Start em an hour early as needed, and change all of the surrounding biometrix's!
 
Rain ties and windshield wipers FTW! :headbang:

(I SAY THIS ONLY HALF IN JEST).
 
I think those attending the race are probably in tune with the local weather (wondering how it might affect their plans) so adjusting the start shouldn't be a problem. But the networks would have a harder time adjusting but they do have a cushion with the pre-race programming. I would guess it would be a rarely used option.
 
Zerkfitting said:
I think those attending the race are probably in tune with the local weather (wondering how it might affect their plans) so adjusting the start shouldn't be a problem. But the networks would have a harder time adjusting but they do have a cushion with the pre-race programming. I would guess it would be a rarely used option.
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I'd say the stats say the opposite. When a race gets delayed TV ratings drop around 30%. But attendance seems to drop more like 80%, so clearly it's affecting the in-person fans more.
 
The only way to do this, I think, would be to make start times in a range. So the ticket would say "race begins between 12PM and 1:15PM." Fans would know that good weather would lead to the later start time and more pre-race festivities. Otherwise, it seems to be setting up a lawsuit from people who can legitimately claim that the event started before the ticketed time.
 
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