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How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:29 am
by SpacemanSpiff
Keep in mind, the southeastern US has been a NASCAR hotbed for, well, ever since there has been a NASCAR.
The local track here in Richmond has two races a year, and had sellouts for as long as I could remember. The track capacity had been expanded to over 112,000, and all the seats were full as recently as a decade ago.
Of course, for a variety of reasons, folks stopped coming to a few races in droves. Richmond, between tearing down stands and tarping others, reduced their seating capacity to 60,000.
So, when I flipped to the race on TV (was primarily watching hockey), I kept thinking "where are the crowds?" Mind you, the weather was warm (about 90 degrees) and humid, but otherwise good. I thought it looked like there were 30,000 in the stands.
It seems like I wasn't the only one that noticed:
http://www.richmond.com/sports/auto-rac ... 0cb89.html
A thrilling day of side-by-side racing came down to the final laps, with several big-name drivers jockeying for a victory that ultimately went to Joey Logano.
The only thing missing was the crowd.
A race that drew a sold-out grandstand of 112,029 just a decade ago mustered perhaps a quarter of that during Sunday’s running. NASCAR doesn’t release attendance figures, but the venue, which has been trimmed to around 60,000 seats, was half-full at its peak and far emptier when Logano crossed the finish line.
Obviously, the post-2007 economy hasn't helped, nor have ticket prices. Nor is NASCAR alone in attendance issues (I've seen pictures from a local start-up indoor football team and it looks like there are more people on the field than in the stands; scarier still, I've seen pictures from other teams in their league and they look worse.) The aging out of the top stars and non-development of the next generation of star drivers hasn't helped either.
But this just blew me away. I think RIR had 20 or 30 years (two races a year) of sellouts, and now this.
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:43 am
by Bob Juch
Yesterday some of us did the Mensa CultureQuest, a trivia contest. One of the questions was, "Who sponsors the NASCAR Sprint Series for 2017?" None of us had a clue.
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:56 am
by silverscreenselect
Two things: personalities and rules.
People loved going to the races to root for or against particular drivers, but the ones with distinctive personalities have left the sport (Tony Stewart last year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaving this year) and too many of the rest of them are just too bland. Plus, they keep changing the rules for the championship every year, pretty much the way the old BCS used to, and this year it's incredibly complicated (points are awarded for the various segments of the race; it's like giving a football team points for winning each quarter).
Plus, they took races away from venues that sold out every year to spread the sport to other "hotbeds" of NASCAR like Kansas and Chicago. Atlanta and Darlington went from two races to one, and they took the Labor Day race away from Darlington (a tradition) and the season finale away from Atlanta.
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:59 am
by silverscreenselect
silverscreenselect wrote:Two things: personalities and rules.
People loved going to the races to root for or against particular drivers, but the ones with distinctive personalities have left the sport (Tony Stewart last year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaving this year) and too many of the rest of them are just too bland. Plus, they keep changing the rules for the championship every year, pretty much the way the old BCS used to, and this year it's incredibly complicated (points are awarded for the various segments of the race; it's like giving a football team points for winning each quarter).
Plus, they took races away from venues that sold out every year to spread the sport to other "hotbeds" of NASCAR like Kansas and Chicago. Atlanta and Darlington went from two races to one, and they took the Labor Day race away from Darlington (a tradition; at least they wised up and brought it back to Labor Day Saturday night last year) and the season finale away from Atlanta.
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 12:11 pm
by Appa23
silverscreenselect wrote:
Plus, they took races away from venues that sold out every year to spread the sport to other "hotbeds" of NASCAR like Kansas and Chicago. Atlanta and Darlington went from two races to one, and they took the Labor Day race away from Darlington (a tradition) and the season finale away from Atlanta.
It is good that you recognize that the Kansas Speedway is a "hotbed" for motor sports.
Over 80,000 people bought season passes to a 5-race package: the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 on July 5; the Indy Racing League IndyCar
Series event; Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series Aventis Racing for Kids 100 on July 6; NASCAR Busch Series Mr. Goodcents 300 on Oct. 4; and NASCAR Winston
Cup Series event on Oct. 5.
Unlike those other "hotbeds", Kansas Speedway still is drawing well over 100,000 for NASCAR. That whole area of development is huge in Kansas City area (Sporting KC plays next door).
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 1:22 pm
by TheConfessor
Appa23 wrote:silverscreenselect wrote:
Plus, they took races away from venues that sold out every year to spread the sport to other "hotbeds" of NASCAR like Kansas and Chicago. Atlanta and Darlington went from two races to one, and they took the Labor Day race away from Darlington (a tradition) and the season finale away from Atlanta.
It is good that you recognize that the Kansas Speedway is a "hotbed" for motor sports.
Over 80,000 people bought season passes to a 5-race package: the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 on July 5; the Indy Racing League IndyCar
Series event; Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series Aventis Racing for Kids 100 on July 6; NASCAR Busch Series Mr. Goodcents 300 on Oct. 4; and NASCAR Winston
Cup Series event on Oct. 5.
Unlike those other "hotbeds", Kansas Speedway still is drawing well over 100,000 for NASCAR. That whole area of development is huge in Kansas City area (Sporting KC plays next door).
And yet, apparently you still don't know who sponsors the former "Winston Cup" series. I saw it recently and it was news to me. The title sponsor hasn't been Winston since 2003.
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 1:49 pm
by triviawayne
Appa23 wrote:silverscreenselect wrote:
Plus, they took races away from venues that sold out every year to spread the sport to other "hotbeds" of NASCAR like Kansas and Chicago. Atlanta and Darlington went from two races to one, and they took the Labor Day race away from Darlington (a tradition) and the season finale away from Atlanta.
It is good that you recognize that the Kansas Speedway is a "hotbed" for motor sports.
Over 80,000 people bought season passes to a 5-race package: the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 on July 5; the Indy Racing League IndyCar
Series event; Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series Aventis Racing for Kids 100 on July 6; NASCAR Busch Series Mr. Goodcents 300 on Oct. 4; and NASCAR Winston
Cup Series event on Oct. 5.
Unlike those other "hotbeds", Kansas Speedway still is drawing well over 100,000 for NASCAR. That whole area of development is huge in Kansas City area (Sporting KC plays next door).
huh???? where are you getting this info????
This is some old stuff; It's the Camping World Truck Series, The IRL no longer exists, neither does the INfiniti Pro Series; it's the xfinity series and Winston Cup was three sponsors ago (nextel, sprint, monster)
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 2:16 pm
by Appa23
triviawayne wrote:Appa23 wrote:silverscreenselect wrote:
Plus, they took races away from venues that sold out every year to spread the sport to other "hotbeds" of NASCAR like Kansas and Chicago. Atlanta and Darlington went from two races to one, and they took the Labor Day race away from Darlington (a tradition) and the season finale away from Atlanta.
It is good that you recognize that the Kansas Speedway is a "hotbed" for motor sports.
Over 80,000 people bought season passes to a 5-race package: the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 on July 5; the Indy Racing League IndyCar
Series event; Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series Aventis Racing for Kids 100 on July 6; NASCAR Busch Series Mr. Goodcents 300 on Oct. 4; and NASCAR Winston
Cup Series event on Oct. 5.
Unlike those other "hotbeds", Kansas Speedway still is drawing well over 100,000 for NASCAR. That whole area of development is huge in Kansas City area (Sporting KC plays next door).
huh???? where are you getting this info????
This is some old stuff; It's the Camping World Truck Series, The IRL no longer exists, neither does the INfiniti Pro Series; it's the xfinity series and Winston Cup was three sponsors ago (nextel, sprint, monster)
Neverm,ind. I didn't look at date (obviously) when I did a quick search. When I am in KC and there is a race, the crowds still seem large (driving by or on tv news).
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 3:16 pm
by SpacemanSpiff
Another article from the local paper. Some of it's repetitious, but much isn't. It gives the historical context of how long the place had sold out until a decade ago.
http://www.richmond.com/sports/auto-rac ... 676c2.html
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 7:11 pm
by lilclyde54
While it certainly isn't the only factor causing Nascar to lose fans, a certain segment of former fans feel like Nascar forgot it's roots. Some of those long-time people from the Southeast felt disenfranchised and ditched the whole thing. I know that is true around here.
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 7:51 pm
by jaybee
A part of it could be ticket prices. Those $35 to $45 tickets are in the not so great sections. A more average price appears to be in the $110 to $145 range. Toss in parking costs, food and maybe a beer or two and your average family outing the see the race is going to set you back well past $500. That's a pretty pricy event. More so when you can see a lot more from the comfort of your family room.
Re: How far has NASCAR fallen?
Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 8:58 pm
by SpacemanSpiff
jaybee wrote:A part of it could be ticket prices. Those $35 to $45 tickets are in the not so great sections. A more average price appears to be in the $110 to $145 range. Toss in parking costs, food and maybe a beer or two and your average family outing the see the race is going to set you back well past $500. That's a pretty pricy event. More so when you can see a lot more from the comfort of your family room.
One big issue - and it's not unique to NASCAR - is hotel prices for nonlocals. Often, they are jacked up to three times normal rates, and often require a three night minimum.