In NASCAR, the equivalent of a ref would be the flagmen, who not only flag the start and end of the race but flag drivers with caution warnings for safety and rules enforcement. 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. 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. Auto Club Speedway's racetrack seems to be adored by every . . Not only in the business world, but in all sports as well. NASCAR blew off fan demand for picture-in-picture commercial breakssomething theyve since embracedwhile Fox Sportss indifference to fans went completely unchecked. Labor Day is in Darlington where it belongs, and Darlington is hosting two events again. That NASCAR was doomed, soon to become nothing more than a memory. Then they sharply declined in Week Two.The four XFL games in Week Two averaged 665,000 viewers, which is a 50 percent decline from the four XFL . There are still plenty of obscene profit breaks, but its far less aggravating when you can still see the action and leader board on part of the screen. Racing Ratings By Phillip Bupp on 06/23/2022. And the same is true for NASCAR. The disappointing ratings continue a downward trend in Daytona 500 viewership, which has been steadily declining since Fox scored 18.7 million viewers in 2005 with a household rating of 10.9 . 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 It may seem good on the surface, but theres more beneath that makes this concerning. On declining ratings throughout NASCAR and other sports. 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. NASCAR viewership numbers on decline for years NASCAR viewers are down 19%. Its largely forgotten now, because the sports current elimination format playoff system at least had some thought put into it. On the other hand, NASCAR will go to full-screen commercials on a regular basis which affects the way a fan can follow the race. Furthermore, their retirements are probably not the sole reason for NASCAR's viewership issues either. The sport no longer has Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jimmie Johnson, so theres an opportunity for new fan favorites to emerge, formed by on-track performance rather than sentiment. That's the lowest TV audience ever recorded for the. This is all just ultimately my opinion, but its a carefully considered one. 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. Created and Designed by, Solving NASCARs Racetrack Problem, Part 2 Happy Hour Motor Speedway, on What Caused The Decline of NASCAR? 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. The drops: 10% in one year, 19% in two years, 38% in three years, and, good golly Miss Molly, 51% since 2015, when NBC picked up the second half of the season in a giant 10-year contract, with Fox doing the first half. FONTANA, Calif. Most of NASCAR's Cup Series drivers feel like they're saying their final goodbye to a dear old friend this weekend. On Monday, the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track hosted the NASCAR Cup Series. I hope so. 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. Schedule/Results. For any fan that needs racing to be dangerous, there are still four restrictor plate races on the schedule. All Rights Reserved. The future of IndyCar seems to be brighter when it comes to younger people. The playoff system eliminates 25 or more drivers from contention with nearly a third of the season still to go. 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%. In case you werent there or dont remember, in 2004 NASCAR welcomed their new series sponsor, Nextel (now Sprint), with a new playoff system called the Chase. 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. Interestingly, it has been said that NASCAR has been getting younger (the drivers) and older (the fans) at the same time. Racing, like basketball and other sports, has seen year-to-year ratings decline. Related: NASCAR ratings on big rise compared to recent years in 2022. Ill never forget seeing Elliott Sadlers terrifying end-over-end crash at Talladega in 2003 and seeing it again in every single ad for Talladega races for the next 3-4 years. Comments Off on What Caused The Decline of NASCAR? I expect that will be a boon to NASCARs future. 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. Nepotism isnt dead in NASCAR. It would have saved a lot of time. Its possible that the most popular driver not performing well hurt the sport, given the sports fan demographic. Yes, thats actually true; read it again if you need to. It would have been nice to have heard more during the championship race from Earnhardt. 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). . The event was down 5.6% compared to last year at 4.570 million average viewers on FOX. But that in itself wasnt necessarily the crime. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Photo credit: sarahstierch on Visualhunt.com / CC BY Photo credit: PDA.PHOTO on Best Running / CC BY-ND More to the point: both sports need to be patient . But there is a big difference between changing your own spark plugs and battling your way to the front at your local speedway in hopes of catching the attention of a NASCAR car owner and calling up that same NASCAR car owner on the phone and saying two words to him: How much?. So what caused the decline of NASCAR to the point where the sport is desperately trying to remain relevant? For the first time in over a decade and a half, they seem to be headed in the right direction. We try to do is take the complex and boil it down to something that is more easily understood by the fanbase.. It could be argued that Junior was the sports last link to its tobacco-chewing, Southern past; once Jeff Gordon tore up the sport, drivers started to appear from every corner of the country. Digital and social consumption is as important now, as it's ever been; probably more important now than it's ever been, he said. Ratings were like Bible verses, an almighty Gospel preached to stakeholders on how much of NASCAR was reaching the masses. Brandon Kochkodin. . Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY I think thats some pretty solid footing.. 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). And it will be pretty hard to turn back the clock on either of those. 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.. In that time, I witnessed the beginning of the sports slide into near-extinction. What are the biggest differences between these sports? These Are The Reasons Why NASCAR Is Losing Fans, "Bootleggers"- those whoproduce anddeliver prohibited whiskey/alcohol, colorful beginnings to what is now a billion-dollar sporting event, 15 Abandoned And Forgotten NASCAR Race Tracks, 15 Rules Every NASCAR Employee Has To Follow, 10 NASCAR Drivers With The Most Wins (& How Much They Won), A New Toyota Celica Concept Shows What A Pure Toyota Sports Car Could Be Without BMW, A Modern Plymouth Road Runner Like This Could Shake Up Today's Pony Car Market, EXCLUSIVE: This Toyota 2000GT Rendering Brings An Icon Into Modern Day, The 5 Worst Ford Mustangs To Buy Used (Plus The 5 Best), 10 Used German Performance Cars We'd Buy Over An American Muscle Car Any Day. who has many relatives from the South, was merely offering his opinion. Meanwhile, NASCAR ratings . But the initial Chase, an artificial and contrived points reset, was despised by fans. 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. IndyCars race at St. Petersberg was also up from 1.219 million viewers last season. NASCAR star Bubba Wallace reacted to a chart on Twitter that showed last weekend's NASCAR race at Foxwoods Resort Casino as the top-watched sporting event of the weekend. 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. CLASH SUCCESS:NASCAR TV ratings are in, and the Clash is most-viewed since 2016. While NASCARs ratings were a record low for a second event of the season, the NTT IndyCar Series found themselves with a massive jump in ratings. But the ratings decline is hitting all of the leagues hard (including MLB, which has not embraced the movement on the field nearly as much as the WNBA, NBA, and NFL). Home Ratings NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop. If that contributed to NASCARs decline, however, that is on NASCAR. News. Most notably, Sunday was an all-time low in viewership for the second race of a NASCAR season ever. So that's a positive viewership increase of 2%. By: GP Racing. Drivers. Its safe to say this is not ideal for the sport and there should be some concern on why ratings continue to fall. The 2016 race from Homestead had 6.1 million viewers, the 2015 race had 7.643 million. 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. Compared to the fourth Xfinity race of last season, from Phoenix, ratings fell a tick (from 0.8) but viewership increased (from 1.19M). Johnson is getting some commiserations from the fans after the ratings came out. And the season will conclude at Phoenix again, a more exciting venue than Miami where the finale had been for years. 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