http://awfulannouncing.com/fox/fox-...9-percent-from-2017-29-percent-from-2016.html
Must be because of all those drivers kneeling.
Must be because of all those drivers kneeling.
OT: NASCAR viewership way down
- Thread starter rutger80
- Start date
First of all what is a "rutger"?
Second. NASCAR killed itself with rule changes that mandated almost identical cars, changes to race formats, speed restrictions, etc.
Also as posted above a couple of big names retired. The sport is def in a downward trend.
Not sure where anti-American disrespect for the flag and our military comes into the equation. :rolleyes:
First: Are you from Knoxville?
Second: You are correct. I am not sure where anti-American disrespect for the flag and military come into the equation.
Just liberals making another desperate ploy to further their political agenda. Don’t mind them.
MEGA +1
While NASCAR has lost a lot of popular drivers, they killed the sport themselves. Here is an excellent analysis of what went wrong:
https://929thegame.radio.com/articles/nascar-dying-and-they-have-no-idea-how-save-it
-----------------------------
Just read yesterday that Lowes is pulling the plug on the 48 car sponsorship. The home-improvement giant has been in the sport since 1997 and with Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Racing since 2001. Their logo on the hood for all seven of Johnson's Championships.
It's just another indicator of how this sport, which saw explosive growth in the 90s and early 2000s, is now running on empty.
If you ask me it all started going downhill when they tried to shoehorn a playoff format into the sport.
In 2003 Matt Kenseth dominated the last Winston Cup Series winning the title by 90 points while only winning one race. Ryan Newman won eight races that year, but also wrecked out a lot. Kenseth & Roush Racing's steady top-10 finishes won the season.
The ratings dipped a bit; NASCAR panicked. Had it been Newman or Dale Jr. that took home the trophy, I'm convinced NASCAR wouldn't have tinkered with the series.
All they needed to do was to award more points for race wins. Problem solved. But in an effort to stay viable during football season they overthought it.
The next season big tobacco was out and Nextel was in as the title sponsor and a brand new format.
The Chase for The Cup featured a 10-race playoff that was eventually won by Kurt Busch. While the ratings began to plateau, the moves became more desperate.
Here's some of the contributing factors to the sport's loss of attendance, corporate sponsors and TV ratings...
From that article:
Seriously, if you're competing in a sport that is inherently dangerous, incidents like that are going to happen. That is part of the thrill at competing in those sports in the first place.
All they needed to do what install those safer barriers ASAP and not worry about the stupid/Car of Tomorrow design, which definitely hurt the quality of racing. But this article hits the nail on the head with all of those panicked points and scoring format changes. All they needed was to increase the points for winning races.
My son graduated from the RU School of Engineering this past May. He just moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to do an unpaid internship with a NASCAR team. Working for a NASCAR team has been his lifelong dream.
He was hoping to meet some RU alumni in the area - not sure if the alumni society in the region is very active.
-Scarlet Jerry
He was hoping to meet some RU alumni in the area - not sure if the alumni society in the region is very active.
-Scarlet Jerry
Imho, you guys are using the word sport way too many times.
Make fun all you want, but those drivers are in serious shape. Lots of G forces driving a car around at those speeds.
Go to a race and you'll leave with a new appreciation for NASCAR. The sights, sounds and smells during a race are overwhelming at times and just an overload of the senses. Its truly awesome.
All political nonsense aside, this is my take on NASCAR -
I was a huge, huge NASCAR fan growing up in the 90's. I watched every single race probably from about 1995 to around 2005. It was hockey, football and NASCAR for me. Here's why I stopped watching...there's many reasons and some are tough to pinpoint:
1) Big time names left the sport - Earnhardt, Gordon, Wallace, Martin, Jarrett, Waltrip. These guys were big time personalities, likeable and recognizable. All had very different personalities and had the "old school" feeling to them. Instant connection to fans.
2) Overdo-ing it with the sponsors - Yes, Nascar was always about sponsorship. But everytime you talk to a driver and they have to thank "the good people at Napa who sponsored us and gave us the best auto parts in the world" you lose a little bit of the personality of the driver who appear to just sell their souls to these sponsors. It's gotten worse over time.
3) Overdo-ing it with the paint schemes - A very recognizable car/sponsor/driver combination has dwindled to nothing. Finding your driver on the track is almost impossible now. It was Gordon, #24 Dupont rainbow colors. And here comes the #3 all black Goodwrench Chevy behind him. And there's Labonte's #5 Kellogg's Chevy. Now there's half sponsors for the season, sponsors for 1 race, 36 races and 29 different paint schemes for them.
4) Point system changes - It was a clear-cut points for a lap lead, most laps lead, and finish. That was it. No it wasn't sexy at times, but you knew what the deal was. Then there was a more win-heavy system. Now there's a playoff (which by the way just flat out doesn't work in NASCAR). It's difficult to follow and doesn't always award the season's best driver with the Cup anymore (Which btw, the cup name has changed like 5 times from Winston to Nextel to Sprint to Monster etc...)
5) Simplicity of the cars is gone - The car aspect was somewhat relatable to the average viewer when I watched. A mechanic would get in there on a pit stop and the tv commentator could kind of explain what they were doing and you sort of got it. You've at least heard the terminology. Now the cars are so incredibly complex the casual fan doesn't understand the makeup anymore.
6) Watered down personalities, millenial-esque drivers - They all kind of talk the same, look the same and are about as bland as unflavored yogurt. "fights" or disagreements seem staged. The personalities of the new driver's are just blah. Logano, Truex, Busch, Johnson. Nice guys. Boring to watch and listen to.
7) Parity - Gone are the days where a driver put it together one season and ripped off 13 wins a season. You had the guys competing for top 10's and then the bums. It's true, other sports have parity and succeed. But those are TEAMS. This is one guy. That's why it is difficult for sports that just have one guy to sustain success. Rutgers players come and go but you can always like the team. For me, when Gordon retired, I basically retired as a fan. It's like Tiger Woods in golf. You just can't replace the star power because that's what drives viewership.
8) The world we live in - You could make an argument for any sport or any activity. Time is down, money is down, prices are up. It's not a cheap trip out to the stadium anymore. It's 40 dollars to park, 20 bucks for gas, 10 for tolls, 8 dollars a beer and 10.50 for a hotdog. Sometimes its just not worth it.
I was a huge, huge NASCAR fan growing up in the 90's. I watched every single race probably from about 1995 to around 2005. It was hockey, football and NASCAR for me. Here's why I stopped watching...there's many reasons and some are tough to pinpoint:
1) Big time names left the sport - Earnhardt, Gordon, Wallace, Martin, Jarrett, Waltrip. These guys were big time personalities, likeable and recognizable. All had very different personalities and had the "old school" feeling to them. Instant connection to fans.
2) Overdo-ing it with the sponsors - Yes, Nascar was always about sponsorship. But everytime you talk to a driver and they have to thank "the good people at Napa who sponsored us and gave us the best auto parts in the world" you lose a little bit of the personality of the driver who appear to just sell their souls to these sponsors. It's gotten worse over time.
3) Overdo-ing it with the paint schemes - A very recognizable car/sponsor/driver combination has dwindled to nothing. Finding your driver on the track is almost impossible now. It was Gordon, #24 Dupont rainbow colors. And here comes the #3 all black Goodwrench Chevy behind him. And there's Labonte's #5 Kellogg's Chevy. Now there's half sponsors for the season, sponsors for 1 race, 36 races and 29 different paint schemes for them.
4) Point system changes - It was a clear-cut points for a lap lead, most laps lead, and finish. That was it. No it wasn't sexy at times, but you knew what the deal was. Then there was a more win-heavy system. Now there's a playoff (which by the way just flat out doesn't work in NASCAR). It's difficult to follow and doesn't always award the season's best driver with the Cup anymore (Which btw, the cup name has changed like 5 times from Winston to Nextel to Sprint to Monster etc...)
5) Simplicity of the cars is gone - The car aspect was somewhat relatable to the average viewer when I watched. A mechanic would get in there on a pit stop and the tv commentator could kind of explain what they were doing and you sort of got it. You've at least heard the terminology. Now the cars are so incredibly complex the casual fan doesn't understand the makeup anymore.
6) Watered down personalities, millenial-esque drivers - They all kind of talk the same, look the same and are about as bland as unflavored yogurt. "fights" or disagreements seem staged. The personalities of the new driver's are just blah. Logano, Truex, Busch, Johnson. Nice guys. Boring to watch and listen to.
7) Parity - Gone are the days where a driver put it together one season and ripped off 13 wins a season. You had the guys competing for top 10's and then the bums. It's true, other sports have parity and succeed. But those are TEAMS. This is one guy. That's why it is difficult for sports that just have one guy to sustain success. Rutgers players come and go but you can always like the team. For me, when Gordon retired, I basically retired as a fan. It's like Tiger Woods in golf. You just can't replace the star power because that's what drives viewership.
8) The world we live in - You could make an argument for any sport or any activity. Time is down, money is down, prices are up. It's not a cheap trip out to the stadium anymore. It's 40 dollars to park, 20 bucks for gas, 10 for tolls, 8 dollars a beer and 10.50 for a hotdog. Sometimes its just not worth it.
I agree with everything you said - drivers have no personalities, racing is just bland and cars suck. I think the solution is to go old school - relax the rules on engines and cars, allow guys to tinker again, increase SAFR barriers on the tracks and let these boys fly. If a guy can get his car to go 220 - 230 mph and safely win every week then so be it. Too much parity has led to today's NASCAR.
Thanks. I could make 10 more points, some rather minimal but all add to the equation. Overtime 5 times before they finish the damn race. Trying to make the cars so equal that every single race there's 40 lead changes and "exciting" finishes every time waters the product down. You don't appreciate a tight finish anymore. I'm a hockey guy and you could compare that to the shootout. A penalty shot just isn't what it used to be now. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
When you make the final lap of ever race razor close, the first 199 to 499 laps become pretty meaningless.
The first big problem that started the downfall, among the many already mentioned above, is they screwed with their incredibly loyal fan base by trying to expand outside what had been so successfull. They sell out their control of start times to TV. 1pm starts were a life style. Church, lunch and than settle in for the race. Except for the rare night starts Nascar was Sunday at 1pm in the South. Than TV takes control and its 3/4pm starts that run into Sunday dinner. Than they add Saturday night races.
For those that would drive hundreds of miles to watch several races a year getting home Sunday at a reasonable hour was now impossible. So those loyal fans walk away. Than the rule changes to cater to the new fans who never understood the long time point system.
Everything that Nascar has done in the last 15 years has pushed the loyal fans away.
For those that would drive hundreds of miles to watch several races a year getting home Sunday at a reasonable hour was now impossible. So those loyal fans walk away. Than the rule changes to cater to the new fans who never understood the long time point system.
Everything that Nascar has done in the last 15 years has pushed the loyal fans away.
It is hard for me to discuss what caused the decline in NASCAR popularity, because I don't really understand what caused the spike in popularity in the first place.
To me, the question isn't why is viewership declining. The real question is what caused the bubble. What we're seeing now is just a return to where viewership should be.
To me, the question isn't why is viewership declining. The real question is what caused the bubble. What we're seeing now is just a return to where viewership should be.
Fair enough. Just seemed like over compensating to repetitively call it a sport. I'll leave this thread to real NASCAR (sport) fans.
But it has declined past the original levels before the bubble (which was for an entire decade, so was it really a bubble?).
What people don't fully get is NASCAR isn't really all about the wins. It meant something to pick up a top 5 finish. It meant you kept close to the points lead. I remember the year Terry Labonte won the Cup he had (I believe) 1 win. Yes 1. But the guy was Mr. Consistency that year. Top 5's and 10's all season long. I thought that was awesome.
With the new points system you mine as well go all out and get like 2-3 wins and you can have DNF's the rest of the year and still make the "Playoffs." NASCAR tried to be like other sports to appeal to new fans and it backfired incredibly badly in their face. NASCAR is not football, baseball or hockey. Different drivers are better at different tracks. The playoffs have utterly cheapened the rest of the schedule making races 1-25 (or whatever) next to meaningless. Homestead Miami as the Super Bowl? Terrible. Absolutely terrible. It should mean something to be consistently good. Not horrible all year except for a couple wins and then win race #36. It's a joke. This bothers me a lot because I used to love the sport and I absolutely could care less now. I don't even understand the point of these stage races either. I'm lost.
With the new points system you mine as well go all out and get like 2-3 wins and you can have DNF's the rest of the year and still make the "Playoffs." NASCAR tried to be like other sports to appeal to new fans and it backfired incredibly badly in their face. NASCAR is not football, baseball or hockey. Different drivers are better at different tracks. The playoffs have utterly cheapened the rest of the schedule making races 1-25 (or whatever) next to meaningless. Homestead Miami as the Super Bowl? Terrible. Absolutely terrible. It should mean something to be consistently good. Not horrible all year except for a couple wins and then win race #36. It's a joke. This bothers me a lot because I used to love the sport and I absolutely could care less now. I don't even understand the point of these stage races either. I'm lost.
The article I posted above got it right, all they needed to do was increase the points for a win, problem solved. As per 2003, if you win 1/3 of the races in a season, you should win the championship. That is a unique example of the problem with the original point system, but it is what started all of the format changes.
^Great point, but I would argue that driver's would approach the races differently and of course the outcomes would be different. But your point is valid regardless. The Cup is an absolute joke now. Such a shame.
I've been to the Coca-Cola 600 (not sure what it is called now). Walking along the fence with the cars going so fast is pretty cool. However, most of the sights and smells were vomit inducing.
Good question.
I looked at ratings for Daytona and Talladega, and both are at all-time lows in 2018.
For example, the average number of viewers for Daytona in the 1980s was 11.2MM, in the 1990s it was 12.6MM. In the 2000s it was 17.3MM, spiking over 19MM in 2006. Since 2010, viewership for Daytona is back down to 12.7MM, and 11.0MM since 2014. This is comparable to the low average of 10.8 from 1985-1990. (2018 is 9.3MM.)
So this may just be the pendulum swinging from the mid-2000's high. Or maybe there is some truth to the theory that NASCAR alienated their core fanbase as they courted new fans in the mid-2000's. If the trend continues downward, I'd lean toward the alienation theory.
If you are looking for specific events that caused loss of fans, those events would have occurred between the 2008 and 2009 Daytona, and/or between the 2013 and 2014 Daytona. (Though the 2014 signal, like the 2018 signal, might just be that those Daytona races were up against the Winter Olympics.)
Good info. It's not just viewers, track attendance has plummeted as well:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-07-28/4-reasons-for-nascar-s-big-skid
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