Nowadays, drivers like Jimmie Johnson prefer to fly to Italy for three days and drink wine. The above car is a NASCAR entry that is supposed to look like a Toyota Supra. I have reasons to believe that NASCAR can return to previous levels of popularitymaybe not on the verge of overtaking the NFL again, but at least back to a point where they have enough of a dedicated fanbase to be a solid performer in ratings and ticket sales. Strauss also reported that TNT's viewership is down 40 percent since the 2011-12 season, and ESPN has seen a decline of about 20 percent during the same time. I hope so. Gordon scored the most points overall of any driver in 2004, 2007, and 2014. In other NASCAR action, the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas turned in a 0.7 and 1.28 million. Nascar, long a symbol of Southern heritage, has become an unlikely battleground in the debate over whether the Confederate battle flag still has a place in America. HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 17: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota along with his wife [+] Samantha and son Brexton pose with the trophy after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. Earlier this month, NASCAR said the Confederate flag no longer will be allowed at its events. NHL regular season ratings were down 12% this year. NASCAR TV ratings were once the darlings of the sport. Dynasties like Johnsons arent bad for a sportunless the sport doesnt know how to market them. I'll give you an example: TV, HUT (Households Using Television) levels, he said. Compared to NASCARs 18-49 demographic, IndyCar has an average of 24%, while they are at 20.1%. In 2008 Kyle Busch smoked the field for the first 26 races, winning eight of them and setting the NASCAR world on fire with his brash and unapologetic racing style. Im not buying the its too safe bit as a cause for the decline of NASCAR. Games on TNT are also down by more. I wasnt the only one who noticedas this blog posts comments demonstrated. When you use this link to shop on Amazon, youll help subsidize this great websiteat no extra charge to you. So to the extent that you can be flat or even up a couple of points it says a lot just about fan interest in the sport.. In the FOX/NBC era of NASCAR TV (since 2001), Daytona 500 ratings peaked in 2006 on NBC with 19.4 million viewers and an 11.3 rating. And one other thing about NASCAR in those days: the races were open to anybody who could qualify. They got famous because of word-of-mouth (Hey, didja hear about that new kid blowin em away over at Hickory?), weekly newspapers like National Speed Sport News (called simply Speed Sport and whos Editors Notebook by the late Chris Economaki was a Must Read) and magazines like Stock Car Racing. But the initial Chase, an artificial and contrived points reset, was despised by fans. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. Photo credit: sidehike on VisualHunt / CC BY-SA With all the different metrics used to measure a sport these days however, it can be complicated. NBC was slightly ahead of last years pace before the Nov. 10 race at Phoenix, but it drew 2.567 million, the least-watched Cup race on broadcast television since 2001 (not counting rainouts). Nascar, he wrote . The Great Recession that swept across the landscape starting in 2008 changed everything. It was boxy, ugly, and top heavyand its shape was part of the reason for the Indianapolis debacle of 2008. NBA players take a knee during National Anthem, screen image Get woke, go broke. If they hadnt, youd probably be reading articles today about the decline of Coca-Cola too. The sport has grown from. After a marked decline in the middle of the previous decade, NASCAR's television numbers have been on the rebound over the past five years. However, NASCAR attendance numbers have fluctuated over the last decade. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images). IndyCar always has side-by-side commercials during green flag racing. Now, they buy their way in. The fact is, NBC could bring Ken Squier and Gentleman Ned Jarrett back into the booth and call back the late, great Chris Economaki from Heaven to report from pit road, and it would still face the same big hurdle: selling a sport that is losing popularity and has three months of overlap with football. Goldco (Most trusted and best gold IRA company overall) Birch Gold Group (Best selection of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium) Augusta Precious Metals. NASCARs initial playoff brainchild was hugely unpopular, and every griping fan in comment sections of blogs everywhere had the artificial points reset near the top of their list of complaints. This is the most viewed season-opener since 2015. NASCAR Las Vegas ratings hit a new low. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images), ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images, landscape. The broadcasts have also improved. But theyve also improved the schedule, the broadcasts, and the method of determining a champion. But experts say the reasons are multitude. That. Labor Day is in Darlington where it belongs, and Darlington is hosting two events again. Admittedly, several of these rule changes have been beneficial to the sport, but some have unfortunately come across as marketing stunts that have turned away fans. And the same is true for NASCAR. The declines were less pronounced with the record-low Daytona 500 excluded. Related: NASCARs Daytona 500 ratings indicate a worrisome trend. Yes, thats actually true; read it again if you need to. NASCAR Fans Rebel Against Confederate Flag Ban. Ousting Brian France, who created the Chase and presided over the sports decline, was no small part of that. When added to metrics from an agency known as Joyce Julius & Associates, which specializes in measurement and analysis of media promotions that showed just how much TV exposure a sponsor was getting, NASCAR teams were able to justify the high cost of the sponsorships they were charging. And those ways that didnt always involve traditional broadcast TV. NASCAR needs side-by-side commercials during green-flag racing and then full-screen commercials during yellow flags. Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race from Las Vegas averaged a 2.6 rating and 4.36 million viewers on FOX, marking the lowest rated edition of the race since it debuted in 1998 and the smallest audience since at least 2001 (viewership prior to 2002 was not available). The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. Yes, a team can still dominate all season and lose a championship to a flat tire, but at least its not just an artificial points reset. People love a winner, they love to hate a winner, and they love to see a dynasty get taken down. Nepotism isnt dead in NASCAR. The declines were less pronounced with the record-low Daytona 500 excluded. Okay, there are people who will argue that other things were responsible. Yet instead of focusing their marketing on Johnsons unequaled supremacy, NASCAR chose to put all of their marketing eggs into the Danica Patrick basket, believing a swimsuit model who could drive a racecar would save the sport. Photo credit: brandonzeman on Visual Hunt / CC BY-SA I remember watching it and literally wondering if I was going to see the finish of the race. You also dont often see post-race fisticuffs after races at Kansas or Vegas like you might at Martinsville or Bristol. But plate racing still sucksnot only do plates produce multi-car crashes every event, they pervert the standings because of it. We try to do is take the complex and boil it down to something that is more easily understood by the fanbase.. As streaming services provide instant entertainment whileNASCARhas scheduled andlengthy race events,thecomparison is similar toordering drive-thru (cheap and convenient) versusdining at a fine restaurant (pricier and takes longer before you can eat). Standings. Follow along, because there will be a test later . In some ways the Recession came at a most inopportune time for sports TV. It rewards winning and risk taking, where the Chase rewarded points racing and avoiding risk. These fans would attend a race, then go sightseeing around the town so as to make the trip more worthwhile and as a result, even more money is required to be put in the budget in order to cover the costs for a dew days hotel stay. Viewership and attendance of NASCAR have been on the decline ever since 2006, and some think the 2021 boost was only due to people seeking more outdoor activity . That is a decrease of nearly 50%, and in some races this kind of decline could be seen in the stands too. Not only in the business world, but in all sports as well. . But in a relatively short time, NASCAR corrected the car and the multiple issues with its design, and while the cars dont differ by manufacturer like they once did, at least were not seeing disastrously awful races just because of the cars construction. After sweeping claims of a toxic work environment throughout 2020, the star and her show have been scrambling to make things right. One shining example was a 2010 Dover racea playoff race, no lesswhere ESPN broke away with 11 laps to go in a very much undecided event for an ad break. More to the point: both sports need to be patient . The NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway averaged 4.315 million average viewers on FOX last weekend. Last year's 500 was still the. WWE Insider Says Yes, Fans might be tired of the novelty of the playoffs., selling a sport that is losing popularity and has three months of overlap with football. Schedule/Results. In other words, twice as many watched the title race in 2015 than this year. It was the first NCS race on the dirt in 50 years. The broadcasts really were over-saturated with ads enough to drive fans away. There's a lot of people that are looking around and understand that the economics of our sport probably are in a better place now than they've been in a long time.. Its largely forgotten now, because the sports current elimination format playoff system at least had some thought put into it. And stage races have also not gone over well with purists. A leading business development, project manager in the auction and liquidation industry, and consultant for various local and national government offices in the Philippines. (Busch would have still won.). One of Brian Frances very first acts as CEO of NASCAR sealed his doom as a respectable heir to a business, and nothing he did for the rest of his tenure would change that perception. It may be difficult for younger people to imagine it, but the sport was once poised to overtake the NFL in popularity. You could say it was NASCARs New Coke, except Coca-Cola was smart enough to change the formula back in response to furious customer backlash. Below, we take a look at the NASCAR ratings over the course of the 2023 season with an up-to-date analysis of each event. The league's first game of the 2023 slate, the Vipers vs. Renegades, drew 1.54 . But that in itself wasnt necessarily the crime. Well, it might be as easy as the product fans are seeing on their televisions over the course of a race. 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. Dover is a 1-mile track, and 11 laps does not take long. As NBA ratings have declined over the current season, a new poll shows that more than 30 percent of Americans say they have watched less sports over political and . In the early 2000s, NASCAR was soaring. These figures paint a troubling trend that NASCAR is on a long term downtrend it has yet to recover from. Its safe to say this is not ideal for the sport and there should be some concern on why ratings continue to fall. Meaning that in todays world even the smallest increase in a TV rating is a really big deal when considering how overall viewership is measured. Johnson is getting some commiserations from the fans after the ratings came out. That exposure now comes not just from TV, but through streaming platforms, attendance, and even social media. And maybe this time, they will have learned from their mistakes. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season averaged 2.93 million viewers across FOX, FS1, NBC and NBCSN, down 4% from last year (3.06M), down 6% from 2019 (3.11M) and the least-watched season on record. Internal surveys show that 75 percent of Nascar fans overall approve of next year's schedule -- one that includes a dirt race at Bristol -- and 90 percent of the 18 to 34 demographic approves. Im not sure why people would think this, although Id actually had some heated debates with Tom Bowles at the Frontstretch about it. I dont need to tell anyone who was a fan in the 2000s this, but NASCARs broadcasts at the time may have been the worst in the history of sports. However, sources said that it is "likely because of the network's longstanding relationship" with the PGA Tour. Young fans want to watch the action. Oxford Gold . Statistics for NASCAR indicate that63% are male, 20% are minorities and 47% are between the ages of 18 and 44, with the majority of this age bracket being in the older end, the number of which is also dropping yearly. Drivers. The previous two races the Daytona Roval and Homestead-Miami posted double-digit increases over the same Cup Series stops last season, but those races had the benefit of moving up from the lower-rated summer portion of the schedule. Should there be concerns with the current trend of viewership? What are the biggest differences between these sports? NASCAR sits on an upward trajectory for the first time in a while. Or NASCAR could pretty much keep things the way they are and hope to hold on to whoever watches through 2024, when the massive TV contract expires. Last years Xfinity race at the track aired on FS2 and had a 0.21 and 341,000. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.9, network PR]. Or Jeff Gordon, again, living in a Manhattan penthouse with his second wife, a model, instead of in North Carolina, where he lived beside a lake with his first wife, a deeply religious woman who was Born Again. Though Nielsen had been king of all things TV for generations, the truth was they were having trouble keeping up as people began to shift their viewing habits. So if you can say that it's you and the NFL in terms of stability of your audience. Now72 years old, the racing organization has managed to evolve through the decades in order to meet the changing trends, technology, and preferences that directly affect the sport. The rise of social media as a tool, pastime, or source of information and entertainment has certainly affected most sports, NASCAR included. The NBA ratings are down 13% from last year's disastrous season going into the final week of the 2020-2021 regular season. Elliott is a great driver and a likable kid, and he doesnt take any craphe doesnt shy away from wrecking a driver like Denny Hamlin if the situation called for it. Why poll the fans if youre just going to ignore them? If NASCAR wants to fix the ongoing issues with viewership, fixing their way of broadcasting commercials would go a very long way in those efforts. NASCAR Home. But the sports most dedicated fans were (and are) still in the Southeast, and Southerners are loyal to the core to their heritage. Now, they buy their way in. It may seem good on the surface, but there's more beneath that makes this concerning. FOX has been touting the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season to date as the "best ever." Sorry, I'd give that honor to 1992 and wouldn't even provide 2021 to date a spot on my top-10 list of modern-era. There was suddenly lots and lots of prize money available and other full-time competitors like Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip joined up to give chase. In 1994, there were six events held at intermediate tracks of 1.5-2 miles in length. From their colorful beginnings to what is now a billion-dollar sporting event, NASCAR has continued to provide high octane entertainment for its millions of fans and supporters. 2) When NASCAR established the franchise system in 2016, the league essentially became a closed shop. I dont often see NASCARs ill-conceived playoff idea as a reason people cite for the decline of NASCAR in articles I read these days, but I promise you, that was not the case when I covered the sport. Last Sundays Cup Series finale from Phoenix averaged a 1.95 rating and 3.21 million viewers on NBC, up 4% in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year (1.9, 3.06M) and the highest rated and most-watched fall Phoenix race since 2018 (2.0, 3.31M). Fox last weekend there should be some concern on why ratings continue to fall a cause for the Indianapolis of. This month, NASCAR has become a money deal who could qualify,! 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