NASCAR Nascence or NASCAR Nosedive?
"Nascence": (n) the beginning or coming into being of something (Encarta World English Dictionary)
Two columns appeared in the last couple of days that were very interesting. The first, by Dustin Long in the Virginian-Pilot on May 11, dealt with the dominance of Hendrick Motorsports. It seems that Hendrick's drivers, as well as teams supplied by Hendricks (read Tony Stewart's shop and Phoenix Racing) have been driving away from the competition. In fact, according to Long, 67% of the top five finishes have been teams using Hendrick equipment. Except for a couple of wins by Roush-Fenway and Gibbs, nobody seems to be able to keep up. Long closes his article with "Just about anybody driving a Hendrick's car is having fun this year"-except those who want to see more racing.
And, in an article in scenedaily.com/news on May 11, NASCAR is studying the reasons for the drop-off in television viewership of NASCAR races-reportedly just over an 11 percent drop from last year at this time (and last year's viewership was down from previous years). What was interesting was the number of comments following the story (117 when I read the article!). Most were explaining the dropoff by complaining about Fox coverage, confusing times for starting races, not racing on Sundays, and the Car of Today being too "generic". Some of those providing comments simply said the racing was BORING!
As much as NASCAR can continue to say that the economy has impacted attendance negatively, there is simply no plausible explanation that those not able to afford to attend a race can't simply turn on the television. So, to answer my headline above, there simply is nothing to suggest a NASCENCE ("undergoing the process of being [re]born"). And that's the view from here. Jon
P.S.: Further proof? I gave up my season tickets to RIR!
Comments
It appears to me there are three issues for Nascars television decline.In no certain order:
(1) Races that are boring as well as too long for today's lifestyle.
(2) Increasingly the coverage of Nascar resembles that of professional wrestling.
(3) A general decline in the infatuation with the automobile, and a lack of relevance of the COT.
Of course that's only my opinion.
Russ Edwards
Posted by: Russ Edwards | May 13, 2009 12:44 PM
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Posted by: Pat | May 15, 2009 8:51 PM
I am a life long racing fan and Nascar was one of the most exciting forms of the sport. The rivalrys, personalities and differences in race cars made for lots of fun.I have seasons tickets to Bristol for 10 years , which we travel 2000 miles round trip .(The ticket price has almost doubled in those 10yrs .)But so much has changed in nascar almost a gutting of the stuff that made me a fan all those years ago , that this will be my last visit to Bristol . The economy , and the change in the track has bin the last straw. I hope the sport survives but it needs to have a near death experience to get back to a real racing series that draws fans and not takes them for granted ..
Posted by: Eddy | May 15, 2009 9:15 PM
As usual, an over-simplification of the reasons for lower attendance and viewership. It's a combination of things that led to the drop. First off NASCAR had a big surge in popularity at the beginning of the decade. This was further fueled by the death of Dale Sr. That wave has since passed and all the bandwagon jumpers are remembering why they didn't watch racing to begin with. NASCAR marketing has finally reached critical mass and fans are tired of the way coporate America has oversaturated the sport. Yeah we all realize those sponsors make the sport go, but beat us over the head with it and we'll get tired and move on.
Posted by: Boondog | May 16, 2009 12:43 AM
I hope that good ideas to flourish and grow
Posted by: car 2 us directory | July 17, 2009 11:30 AM
I was a huge NASCAR fan. But with the cars becoming less and less stock cars and more and more pure racing machines I lost interest.
NASCAR has turned it's back on tradition and a lot of what made the venue an attraction. Why did we abandon North Wilkesboro? Rockingham? Why does NASCAR seem only interested in huge markets with boring superspeedways when the short tracks offer a better show? I do miss the excitement of years gone by.
Posted by: Dave | August 6, 2009 3:40 AM
One problem is that NASCAR and it's track operators have not gone out of their way to cater to their core long term fans. They have instead focused on new fans and new revenue models instead of dancing with the one that brought them. Now the new fans are leaving as NASCAR was just the dish of the day, and core fans feel alienated. Track owner Bruton Smith once proposed a TV blackout when races were not selling out. Fan comments were not kind. You can read them here: http://racingwin.com/nascar-tv-blackouts/
Posted by: Greg | December 19, 2009 5:14 PM