Not only in the business world, but in all sports as well. OTHER VIEWS? What we try to do is boil it down to more simple sound bites that are A: true and B: accurate, Hebrst said. NBA players take a knee during National Anthem, screen image Get woke, go broke. Longtime, big-name sponsors are leaving the sport while. Where . Men in particular were more put. 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. 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. 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That is a decrease of nearly 50%, and in some races this kind of decline could be seen in the stands too. Just because no one has been killed at the Cup level since Earnhardts death doesnt make it less so. But that in itself wasnt necessarily the crime. No longer will teams win titles by dominating speedways; driver skill will be more of a factor, as it should be. And while some ran their own cars, most were independent contractors who had their expenses paid by their car owner and then split the winnings (that division of money was usually 60-40) with said owner, who paid the bills. NASCAR was plenty defiant resisting this idea at their peakbut these days, theyre not in a position to ignore displeased fans. OK, here we go. It may seem good on the surface, but theres more beneath that makes this concerning. View 2021 Bristol tv ratings below. The truth was of course far from that. 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. There's a catch, though. The same race last year attracted 4.154 million viewers, and the 2017 race drew 4.662 million both of which had established respective viewership lows for the 36th and final race of the too-dang-long Cup season. 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. This is convenient if the city where a follower lives in has a track, but for those that live a long distance from NASCAR venues, the cost to go to watch them is gradually becoming more expensive due to the continually rising prices of fuel. In the past NASCAR has tried to educate fans who might look at ratings and think the sport is in trouble and help them understand that things arent as bad as they seem. Not all, of course, but most. With the current playoff point structure, drivers are also somewhat rewarded for strong season-long performances as wellwhile the Chase completely disregarded excellence during the season. Nepotism isnt dead in NASCAR. which is a 50 percent decline . Dover is a 1-mile track, and 11 laps does not take long. Covered race cars from the NASCAR Xfinity Series sit parked on pit road during a rain delay before the start . Im also someone who became a disenchanted former fan myself. 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. That would have a big effect on viewership overall. Last year's 500 was still the. If any single event hastened the decline of NASCAR, it was Indy 2008. However, NASCAR has been taking major strides as the on-track product is improving, the schedule is being changed, bold decisions are being made, and communication between each party is better. Anyone who was watching then could tell you that wasnt unusual at all. The Monday portion of that race averaged a 4.2 and 7.03 million, compared to a 6.2 and 10.94 million for the first 20 laps on Sunday before weather rolled in. The rise of social media as a tool, pastime, or source of information and entertainment has certainly affected most sports, NASCAR included. Making matters worse, within four years, the driver with the second largest fan base finished with the most points in a season twice, only to lose the title to a points reset. As Ive said, the sport is finally addressing its venue problem. 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. The Nielsen ratings for NASCAR's most-watched races, such as The Daytona 500, have plummeted in recent years. The. Drivers. 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. 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. The decline of NASCAR was a combination of ill-considered decisions: the implementation of a contrived playoff, poorly thought out broadcasting contracts, and departing from unique and venerable venues for dull, unexciting ones. But for whatever reason, Junior not only didnt measure up to his fathers formidable reputation, he rarely even established himself as a contender. NASCAR is clearly falling behind other motorsports in a new era of television. We all know what Im talking about. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. 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. NASCARs 2020 champion is also its most popular driverfor the first time since 1988. The Great Recession that swept across the landscape starting in 2008 changed everything. The fan base that is paying attention to our sport now than probably two or three years agopart of that is the economic model of our sport is a little bit more sounder, on solid footing; the introduction to the Next Gen car, it brings on new owners like Justin Marks and Michael Jordan, Pitbull et cetera. That. NASCAR power rankings during the 2023 season, NASCAR odds: Betting lines for each race and championship futures, NASCAR ratings on big rise compared to recent years in 2022, NASCAR standings: Cup, Xfinity, and Truck points during the 2023 season, Share up 9%, largest for Race #2 since 2017, Share up 2%, largest for Daytona 500 since 2016, Second most-watched non-points race since 2016. 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. NASCAR averaged 4.570 million viewers for Sunday afternoon's event at Auto Club Speedway. Now, they buy their way in. winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. . No longer could a late-model driver from Syracuse or Spokane get a car and a team together and show up to try to qualify for any of NASCARs races. The cars already were mostly spec at that point, and the sport was doing just finebooming even. A shot that shows the overall value sponsors receive. But it's an uphill fight for us and a lot of other sports properties. Last year, nearly 70 million unique viewers tuned in to . Certain segments of fans, and media, began to cry that sky was falling. If it did, I would really appreciate your support. It was, but even that wasnt the point. Removing the Toyota logo and Supra badge, one would be hard-pressed to identify, and in actuality, to associate with the caron what it is supposed to represent. The last race at. NASCAR scraped bottom. Their retirements are a reason for the ratings decline in 2018. The decision . Looking back over the 2021 season to date in NASCARs top tier Cup series 12 of the 32 races had ratings that were higher over last year and had more viewers; that included a six race stretch leading up to Talladega that saw a consecutive increase in viewership each week. Far from it. Its possible that the most popular driver not performing well hurt the sport, given the sports fan demographic. But more importantly, the racing isnt anywhere near as exciting at the cookie cutters, as I so eloquently explained here. Or at least to give the appearance of it. No longer tied to a box atop the TV or a diary that viewers filled out, the company started to figure out how to report who was watching on TV, on cable, and on streaming platforms. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. Its largely forgotten now, because the sports current elimination format playoff system at least had some thought put into it. It didnt help that a hugely popular driver underperformed, but that shouldnt have caused this much of a free fall. Fortunately, NASCAR is finally addressing this. But theyve also improved the schedule, the broadcasts, and the method of determining a champion. TV ratings are no longer the end all be all for NASCAR. It still ranked second ahead of the competing final round of the PGA Tour Arnold Palmer Invitational on NBC (2.4, 3.86M). As the son of one of the greatest racecar drivers in history, Junior also had an impossible standard to live up to. However, in recent years that growth has slowed. It is understandable that throughout its existence, rule changes have been implemented at NASCAR, and the reasons for such have varied from safety, technological, or as organization initiatives to provide more challenges or add excitement to the races. NASCAR vehicles evolved over the decades to become safer for the drivers and spectators, the result of which is that cars today are uniform, standardized vehicles with their bodies basically just shells on top of a chassis. Comments Off on What Caused The Decline of NASCAR? (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images). It would have saved a lot of time. Our share of those TVs that are tuned in is up 18%. NASCAR was at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend and if I was NASCAR, I would be embarrassed. Herbst, and NASCAR, are well aware that fans, and some media, still look to the ratings. Schedule/Results. https://t.co/Zf4L7g5im4 Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) July 10, 2018 In fact, Nascar could just dump it all on Netflix - which, according to one study, is responsible for half the decline of TV viewership alone. And based on what we see today, NASCAR seems to be on an upward trajectory and shows no signs of slowing down. I covered NASCAR for six seasons for two excellent racing websites, Thats Racin (the Charlotte Observers racing site) and the Frontstretch. I'm just . So NASCAR racing has become just like European formula-car racing and IndyCar racing in North America. It has been a challenge for the sport to consistently grab the attention of its audience; however, there are reasons for optimism as the 2022 season represented a step in the right direction. Thats exactly what NASCAR did when they took the Labor Day race out of Darlington and sent it to Auto Club Speedway in California. As a result, teams with more resourcessuch as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racingwon big for years. That NASCAR was doomed, soon to become nothing more than a memory. The same story goes for NASCAR as the adverts that major companies place during their televised races are a major source of income for the organization and the teams. Professional sports adapted as well, understanding, and learning, how to measure viewership and show that value to their stakeholders. I cant imagine any fan of Dale Earnhardt Sr.and there were a lot of themnot wanting to see the sport take every measure it could to keep drivers safe after Daytona 2001. You also dont often see post-race fisticuffs after races at Kansas or Vegas like you might at Martinsville or Bristol. As Juniors fortunes continued to trend downward even while driving for the strongest team in the sport, his fan base became turned off. Chase Elliott, like his 1988 champion father Bill, is from Dawsonville, Georgiathe Southeastand he has the lineage factor as the son of a well-liked champion. After two DNFs in the first two Chase events resulting from simple bad luck, just like that his title hopes were gone. Its a simple fact that everyone understands. That's the first time in a decade that that has happened, Hebrst said. As one of motorsport's most popular race series, NASCAR has a long and colorful history that dates to the US prohibition erain the 1930s. The previous days Xfinity Series finale drew a 0.6 (flat) and 1.01 million (+3%) on NBCSN and last Fridays Truck Series finale drew a 0.30 (+3%) and 473,000 (-4%) on FS1. Its certainly healthy in terms of eyeballs, Hebrst said. The NASCAR season ended on a slightly better note in the ratings, though the season could not quite measure up. Just ten years later, there were 13 such eventsnearly half the schedule. 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. The first study focused exclusively on Bristol Motor Speedway, while the second study took other NASCAR race tracks into account, and both studies found that noise levels regularly exceeded 140 decibels when the race cars were accelerating at full throttle, and that the noise levels lasted, on average, about three to four hours, the average Broadcasts, and media, still look to the ratings, though the season could not quite up... Growth has slowed that value to their stakeholders in Week One other major racing Series in the time... 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