But experts say the reasons are multitude. Nothing against Jimmie Johnson for winning titles with the rules as written, but he only managed that feat twice. In other NASCAR action, the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas turned in a 0.7 and 1.28 million. And abuse and manipulation of that system. For any fan that needs racing to be dangerous, there are still four restrictor plate races on the schedule. 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. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.9, network PR]. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images). The Yankees were always good for baseball. And while 2020 has been anything but usual especially in the sports world, NASCAR was the one sport that didnt suffer a significant ratings drop. That's the first time in a decade that that has happened, Hebrst said. 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. Created and Designed by, Solving NASCARs Racetrack Problem, Part 2 Happy Hour Motor Speedway, on What Caused The Decline of NASCAR? . Top Speed offers daily industry news and reviews on cars, trucks, and motorcycles. This year's NCAA tournament ratings were down 11%. The fan backlash was loud and intense. Or at least to give the appearance of it. Its safe to say this is not ideal for the sport and there should be some concern on why ratings continue to fall. If they hadnt, youd probably be reading articles today about the decline of Coca-Cola too. But more importantly, the racing isnt anywhere near as exciting at the cookie cutters, as I so eloquently explained here. 2) When NASCAR established the franchise system in 2016, the league essentially became a closed shop. NASCAR made an absurd amount of money with their television contracts in the 2000s, but that ultimately cost them a sizable chunk of the audience when networks were forced to make it worth their while. We try to do is take the complex and boil it down to something that is more easily understood by the fanbase.. The NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway topped all forms of motorsports last weekend, with a 2.05 rating, 3.373 million viewers. They shut down the polls and went ahead with it anyway. However, NASCAR attendance numbers have fluctuated over the last decade. In the early 2000s, NASCAR was soaring. Ousting Brian France, who created the Chase and presided over the sports decline, was no small part of that. Follow along, because there will be a test later . by both sides, angered fans but they were particularly angry at NASCAR, which onceelevated Jeff Gordon to the Chase field when he hadnt qualified for it. Meanwhile, NASCAR ratings . Related:15 Rules Every NASCAR Employee Has To Follow. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. But that in itself wasnt necessarily the crime. For NASCAR, there are plenty of reasons for the decline in viewership, which we will discuss below. The television ratings for sports in 2020 reflect the poll results and the frustration many feel toward the constant sloganeering and political pandering. You also dont often see post-race fisticuffs after races at Kansas or Vegas like you might at Martinsville or Bristol. There are still 11 races on intermediate tracks, but its finally moving in the right direction. The Patriots domination was great for the NFL. It may be difficult for younger people to imagine it, but the sport was once poised to overtake the NFL in popularity. NASCAR needs side-by-side commercials during green-flag racing and then full-screen commercials during yellow flags. Statistics for NASCAR indicate that 63% 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. It was, but even that wasnt the point. Its possible that the most popular driver not performing well hurt the sport, given the sports fan demographic. Now, they buy their way in. The cars already were mostly spec at that point, and the sport was doing just finebooming even. This brought even more attention and money to the sport and school was soon out. Lack of manufacturer identity may have been a reason some hardcore fans left the sport in the early 1990s, but that doesnt seem to me to be a valid reason for the sports popularity plunge since 2005. What other big American sport has ongoing action behind a commercial? I'll give you an example: TV, HUT (Households Using Television) levels, he said. Professional sports adapted as well, understanding, and learning, how to measure viewership and show that value to their stakeholders. However, these deals may be stopping the brand from adapting to consumers' changing viewing habits. Im not sure why people would think this, although Id actually had some heated debates with Tom Bowles at the Frontstretch about it. However, sources said that it is "likely because of the network's longstanding relationship" with the PGA Tour. Thirty-five percent of participants said they were now watching less sports due to political and social messaging, whereas only 11 percent said they now watch more. 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. Its not often noticed, but it was definitely noticed by Jeff Gordon fans: had NASCAR not implemented the Chase, the driver of the iconic #24 could have been the one standing aside Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty today with seven titles, instead of his protg Jimmie Johnson. Sunday, when the big-league Monster Energy Series took the green flag, it was better but there were still an awful lot of empty seats. I wonder why Truck Series and Xfinity viewership(even from 2019) is up but Cup Series viewership is down. We all know what Im talking about. 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. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. A leading business development, project manager in the auction and liquidation industry, and consultant for various local and national government offices in the Philippines. It may seem good on the surface, but there's more beneath that makes this concerning. So NASCAR racing has become just like European formula-car racing and IndyCar racing in North America. The event was down 5.6% compared to last year at 4.570 million average viewers on FOX. In NASCARs pre-1990s heyday, when it was still very much a regional sport, manufacturer identity was a big thing. It was a successful year as the sport averaged over three million average viewers per race. NASCAR was at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend and if I was NASCAR, I would be embarrassed. I hope so. Drivers. The presidential and general elections, which need to be held no later than June 18, come at a tough time for Erdogan who has seen a decline in his ratings because of skyrocketing inflation. This includes the total viewership, the percentage being up or down compared to last year, and extra information that can range from unfortunate circumstances for television coverage to the household share. Its a simple fact that everyone understands. Can An Overhauled Coaching Staff And Full Season Of Deshaun Watson Revive The Cleveland Browns? 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. Its not so much that the points reset NASCAR introduced in 2004 was a monumentally stupid idea. Viewership for the 2019 Phoenix race was 22% lower than in 2018. As things progressed, some of those garage mechanics started to win enough money on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons that they gave up their day jobs to become full-time racers guys like Lee Petty and his son Richard (who raced as Dick Petty, originally), David Pearson, Bobby and Donnie Allison, Buddy Baker and Benny Parsons. The addition of retired driver and fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. beefed up NBCs product in 2018, but four people in the broadcast booth are too many voices. 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. Home Ratings NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop. . Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY Digital and social consumption is as important now, as it's ever been; probably more important now than it's ever been, he said. You may opt-out by. Auto Club Speedway's racetrack seems to be adored by every . 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). 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. Those numbers of course, dont tell the entire story. Why poll the fans if youre just going to ignore them? The one thing, though, that all those racing drivers had in common Petty, Pearson, Parsons, Bodine, Waltrip, Earnhardt, Wallace and the rest is that they all started racing on local tracks and created reputations for themselves as hard chargers who were winners. Okay, there are people who will argue that other things were responsible. OTHER VIEWS? In 2014 the average viewership for Cup Series races was 5.3 million. Longtime, big-name sponsors are leaving the sport while. The six-race consecutive increase in viewership prior to Talladega is something that everyone can understand and helps reinforce just how healthy NASCAR is. Even before the recent political turmoil in the sport, NASCAR was hemorrhaging fans and supporters, with viewership numbers dropping every event. The declines were less pronounced with the record-low Daytona 500 excluded. That marks a 10% decline compared to the year-ago 87.1 million viewers, and a 16% drop compared to the analogous period during the 2018-19 campaign. The coverage goes through the entire event. 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. When you think of the venues that have showcased the most memorable events in the sports history, Daytona, Darlington, and Bristol often come to mind. No longer do young NASCAR racers start at their local tracks and work their way up. Three of the four drivers in the championship race were also in the 2018 race, and three of the four drivers were in Toyotas. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images), ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images, landscape. which is a 50 percent decline . The playoff system eliminates 25 or more drivers from contention with nearly a third of the season still to go. They are included along with social media engagement, streaming, and the like. Which is any sports property, essentially professional sports league, that is about a million viewers or higher on a per event basis or the most stable property in terms of viewership over the course of the last two years, it's possible that we'll be able to be the most stable tier one sports property in terms of sports viewership over the course of those three years, (though) the NFL is off to a very good start. When combined, it shows that NASCAR is in a pretty good place. (It did.) Bowlesy thinks there needs to be an element of risk for racing to be exciting; I dont tune in to races to see a car potentially fly into a catch fence and injure spectators. Based on the overnight rating for the circuit's marquee event, that chatter won't be ending. Labor Day is in Darlington where it belongs, and Darlington is hosting two events again. You couldnt entirely blame NASCAR for no longer holding events in places like North Wilkesboro or Rockingham or even Darlington, which lost a race on the schedule for several years. Go back another year, and 22% of the live-same-day audience has disappeared, which translates to a net loss of 21.3 million TV viewers per night. A lot of people said they were done when the order from NASCAR to have at it, boys came down. However, in recent years that growth has slowed. but the mainstream media claiming the political/social justice shift in sports has nothing to do with the decline in viewership are whistling past the graveyard. 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. And it will be pretty hard to turn back the clock on either of those. They are the only one of the Big 3 Motorsports that still have this happen. For the first time in over a decade and a half, they seem to be headed in the right direction. Wallace took this as a victory over those claiming NASCAR ratings were down. . Flat is better than down, but 2018 was also the year the once-mighty U.S.S. There were often timesand Im not exaggerating thiswhen a viewer would see maybe five laps of racing, a two-minute break, and then just two more laps of racing before another break. The decision . What might have been acceptable, even colourful, in the last century just doesnt cut it today. The NBA ratings are down 13% from last year's disastrous season going into the final week of the 2020-2021 regular season. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on VisualHunt.com / CC BY-SA And the season will conclude at Phoenix again, a more exciting venue than Miami where the finale had been for years. Its largely forgotten now, because the sports current elimination format playoff system at least had some thought put into it. The NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway averaged 4.315 million average viewers on FOX last weekend. or Disney plus; there's more competition for those eyeballs then there's ever been. Comments Off on What Caused The Decline of NASCAR? And we wont get into the murdering of the English language that goes on week after week, ad nauseum. News. NASCARs viewership continues to fall after the ratings for last weekends race at Auto Club Speedway were released on Tuesday morning. The crowd sold out it's 30% capacity soon after the event was . The top of the mountain in NASCAR circles back then was known as the Grand National Division but in 1971, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., then-manufacturer of Winston cigarettes, contracted with NASCAR to become title sponsor and the Winston Cup Series (to be known thereafter as simply Cup, regardless of subsequent sponsorships) was born,. (Just in case you were wondering, Fox is unlikely to name a replacement for Darrell Waltrip if he is replaced, that is though we should find out more next month. So 16% drop in terms of total TV consumption of those TVs that are actually tuned in over the last two years, NASCAR shares up 18%. For instance: The non-stop promotion of Danica Patrick, as if she was the Second Coming (she wasnt), turned off a lot of fans. Unless you are a die-hard fan of the sport, people would rather watch condensed snippets of the race or read the highlights instead of actually spending time watching or subscribing to NASCAR real-time races. IndyCar always has side-by-side commercials during green flag racing. In response to its rapidly growing popularity nationwide, NASCAR moved away from the Southeast fans who brought the sport to the dance, and began holding races in places like Vegas, Chicago and Los Angeles. Photo credit: PresidenBertho on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-SA 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. TV ratings for the Richmond race were said to be down 12% from the same race in 2015 and 44% from 2014. . NASCAR moved the Brickyard 400 to September . This isnt to say that the initial Car of Tomorrow wasnt a disasterit wasbut at the time, fans were plenty vocal about safety after the loss of the sports biggest icon. 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.. Though fewer fans were able to attend in person, with the improvements in internet bandwidth, and the rise of more and more cable channels, some were finding other ways to digest their favorite sports. IndyCars race at St. Petersberg was also up from 1.219 million viewers last season. Fox sees 12% decline over last year's ratings: Fox and FS1 for its package of 15 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this season averaged 4.9 million viewers, down 12% from 5.6 million last . The move of the Labor Day race to California was part of an ongoing trend. Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, Geoff Bodine, Rusty Wallace and Trevor Boys were among several dozen drivers whose names soon became familiar, if not famous. Kyle Busch, NASCARs black hat, won his second title. After two DNFs in the first two Chase events resulting from simple bad luck, just like that his title hopes were gone. NASCAR's viewership for the first half of the 2022 season is the highest since 2017. Schedule/Results. But plate racing still sucksnot only do plates produce multi-car crashes every event, they pervert the standings because of it. He pointed out that despite the ratings decline, NASCAR achieved a "double-digit share increase" last year. NASCARs popularity is down and the ratings reflect it. But it's an uphill fight for us and a lot of other sports properties. Feb 25, 2023, 2:33 AM. It rewards winning and risk taking, where the Chase rewarded points racing and avoiding risk. Keep in mind Phoenix only became the regular season finale starting last season. That isnt insignificant when it comes to explaining the decline of NASCAR. Which might explain why, despite the denials, the people who are descendants of Big Bill France, the man who started it all, are quietly shopping the company around and hoping to get out while the goings good. Yes, thats actually true; read it again if you need to. Q: You say NASCAR continues to grow and like you, . As Juniors fortunes continued to trend downward even while driving for the strongest team in the sport, his fan base became turned off. NASCAR still attempts to do the best it can when it comes to getting the word out. Karlo watched a lot of Mcgyver back in the 90's and grew up trying to be a Mr. fixit/jack of all trades. A shot that shows the overall value sponsors receive. NASCAR scraped bottom. It would have saved a lot of time. The rise of social media as a tool, pastime, or source of information and entertainment has certainly affected most sports, NASCAR included. This article looks at several of the reasons why NASCAR is losing fans. Just because no one has been killed at the Cup level since Earnhardts death doesnt make it less so. When not at work, Karlo spends his time at home, with family, either being the cook or fixit guy in his house. NASCAR was plenty defiant resisting this idea at their peakbut these days, theyre not in a position to ignore displeased fans. Now, NASCAR might say, Well, 3.759 million for a race in November, even if it is half as much as four years ago, is more than 0.000 viewers for no race. And ratings are slightly better overall when you include the Fox half, which is better than another plunge, as in 2018. Where . Not only in the business world, but in all sports as well. If that contributed to NASCARs decline, however, that is on NASCAR. At the start of the 21st Century NASCAR TV ratings, meant everything. A Former Reporters Thoughts, fly into a catch fence and injure spectators, I really got the point across with this one, that profoundly irritating cartoon gopher, baseball exploded in popularity after the opening of Camden Yards, that didnt suffer a significant ratings drop, Professional Cornhole Beyond The Parking Lot, Staying Green ex-Patriots Champion Jarvis Green, Terry Kath 1946-1978: The Heart of Chicago. Anyone who was watching then could tell you that wasnt unusual at all. Next years championship race will be held in Phoenix, and even though the 2020 race should draw a packed house of 42,000, or 7,000 more than the estimated crowd at Homestead, fans have said they dont like the racing at Phoenix as much. NHL regular season ratings were down 12% this year. In other words, twice as many watched the title race in 2015 than this year. 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. Yes, all of those factors might have contributed to the decline of interest in NASCAR, But, in the end, I think the franchise system and the ride-buying are what did NASCAR in. In todays media world they are now just a small part of what is used to measure the popularity of the sport. Fox reported a modest 2% increase in viewership of comparable Cup race from 2018 to 2019, but it needs to be noted that Foxs part of the schedule does not collide with NFL and college football, which NASCAR fans also enjoy watching. Compared to last years fourth race of the season, Phoenix, ratings fell a tick (from 2.7) and viewership 5% (from 4.58M). In fact, the current car lends itself to some pretty good racing. Earlier this month, NASCAR said the Confederate flag no longer will be allowed at its events. It was the first time in a while where we didn't have a decline on NBC. 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.. Overall, NASCAR brought in 114.231 million average viewers throughout the entire 2022 season which marks its best since the 2018 season (120.454 million average viewers). Along with that came an all-important metric: the Nielsen ratings. Brian Herbst is the senior vice president for media and productions for NASCAR. Unfortunately, the rising number and lengths of these commercials have become a source of frustration for their fans. But for whatever reason, Junior not only didnt measure up to his fathers formidable reputation, he rarely even established himself as a contender. 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. (It wasnt a tough call to make, if you actually looked at her results instead of her figure.). U.S. NBA Social Justice Poll. Translation: the drivers are paying for the pleasure of racing. NASCAR Ratings Down: Decline All Season for Fox McCord Roberts June 5, 2009 Last week's Dover race marked the 16th consecutive week of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing on television that saw a major. As a result, teams with more resourcessuch as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racingwon big for years. The social saga continues: Ellen DeGeneres' once-lauded daytime talk show has now lost more viewers than most programs will see in a lifetime.. It's been a whirlwind couple of years for DeGeneres and her fans. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images), 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. Be dangerous, there are plenty of reasons for the Richmond race were said to be headed the... Four restrictor plate races on the schedule during yellow flags poll results and the ratings decline, NASCAR said Confederate... More easily understood by the fanbase it rewards winning and risk taking, where the Chase and presided the... Formula-Car racing and IndyCar racing in North America trying to be down 12 % this year, theyre not a... Results and the sport, given the sports decline, was no small part of what is used measure. 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