Compared to NASCARs 18-49 demographic, IndyCar has an average of 24%, while they are at 20.1%. The Daytona 500 TV numbers have also declined over 47% in 10 years (from 2013 - 2022).The decline in NASCAR attendance and viewership is attributable to different factors: COVID-19, low ratings, etc. The league's first game of the 2023 slate, the Vipers vs. Renegades, drew 1.54 . It is now an elitist sport because only those who can afford to pay to play need apply. But that in itself wasnt necessarily the crime. The above car is a NASCAR entry that is supposed to look like a Toyota Supra. CLASH SUCCESS:NASCAR TV ratings are in, and the Clash is most-viewed since 2016. In other NASCAR action, the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas turned in a 0.7 and 1.28 million. 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. NBC reported Monday that its broadcast of the NASCAR Cup championship race from Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida drew an average of 3.759 million viewers, its best audience for its half of the season. 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. 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. 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). Q: You say NASCAR continues to grow and like you, . Gordon scored the most points overall of any driver in 2004, 2007, and 2014. I was critical of the Chase in plenty of columns, but I felt like I really got the point across with this one about it. And one other thing about NASCAR in those days: the races were open to anybody who could qualify. The truth was of course far from that. All four Cup Series races this season have declined from the corresponding weeks of last season, though this weeks drop was the smallest thus far. Nascar, he wrote . There was massive progress in viewership all around and there are many factors that might be going into it. Well, it might be as easy as the product fans are seeing on their televisions over the course of a race. Yes, NASCAR actually believed an artificial points reset after two thirds of the season was the move that was going to catapult them past the NFL. Anyone who was watching then could tell you that wasnt unusual at all. And then, in 1979, came flag-to-flag TV coverage of the Daytona 500 and other NASCAR Cup races. Mark Martin has the best take on the decline in NASCAR attendance, ratings Comment Leave it to one of the coolest customers ever to sit behind the wheel in NASCAR to come up with an. All that said, the unveiling of the Car of Tomorrow in 2007 certainly didnt help. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Visualhunt / CC BY-SA Feb. 25, 2023, at 5:39 p.m. Farewell, Fontana: NASCAR's Last Weekend at a Racing Gem. When you use this link to shop on Amazon, youll help subsidize this great websiteat no extra charge to you. The broadcasts have also improved. Now, they buy their way in. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY Now, they buy their way in. Jerseyball Millvilles Mike Trout and Aaron Cox, Precision Pistol Shooting For Greatness, The Power of Fun Dave Raymond, The Original Phillie Phanatic, Being Relentless The HEADstrong Foundation, Surviving Until Tuesday Sergeant Andrew Einstein. NASCAR's TV ratings began to fall; the once all-mighty numbers began to show not an increase, but a decline. Yes, sports ratings as a whole are down, but NASCAR's fall is alarming: Daytona 500 viewership from 2001 to 2009 ranged from 16 to 19 million. The cars already were mostly spec at that point, and the sport was doing just finebooming even. People rooted for car brands as well as drivers, and car companies believed in the whole win on Sunday, sell on Monday mantra. Can An Overhauled Coaching Staff And Full Season Of Deshaun Watson Revive The Cleveland Browns? 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. 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. 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. You may opt-out by. While retired drivers still are visible within the world of NASCAR acting as team managers, commentators, or guests, without the familiar presence of these stars on the track, people can, and have lost some level of interest in NASCAR. (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. We try to do is take the complex and boil it down to something that is more easily understood by the fanbase.. NASCAR Home. 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. Its a simple fact that everyone understands. The playoff system eliminates 25 or more drivers from contention with nearly a third of the season still to go. 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. 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. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY-SA, Posted in NASCAR, Sports 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. He pointed out that despite the ratings decline, NASCAR achieved a "double-digit share increase" last year. Ousting Brian France, who created the Chase and presided over the sports decline, was no small part of that. Having followed the sport in the time frame when it began, I can offer what I believe are the real reasons for the decline of NASCAR. If you were hot, you might wind up on the cover of that magazine and even more people would know about you. It took time, maybe too much time, but NASCAR is finally addressing the three biggest reasons for the decline of the sport. 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. 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. 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. Interestingly, it has been said that NASCAR has been getting younger (the drivers) and older (the fans) at the same time. HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 17: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota, celebrates after [+] 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. In 2007, an average of 16.4 million viewers tuned in to watch The Daytona 500, but by 2014 that number had fallen by more than 50% to an average of 8.3 million viewers per race. NASCAR polled fans about the idea on their website following the 2003 season, and fans overwhelmingly rejected it. NASCAR TV ratings were once the darlings of the sport. According to reports, the league saw a sharp 50% decline in viewership from week one to the next week.The 3.0 reboot is not going well. 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. Racing, like basketball and other sports, has seen year-to-year ratings decline. Im also someone who became a disenchanted former fan myself. By the measurements used today, NASCAR then is in a very good place. Flat is better than down, but 2018 was also the year the once-mighty U.S.S. The share has become an increasingly relevant metric to sports leagues in recent months, as it is a metric immune from the broader trend of viewers watching less linear television. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images). The sport has grown from. 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. Many former fans consider this state of affairs to be ridiculous. NASCAR Fans Rebel Against Confederate Flag Ban. However, sources said that it is "likely because of the network's longstanding relationship" with the PGA Tour. NASCARs 2020 champion is also its most popular driverfor the first time since 1988. 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. Men in particular were more put. They are the only one of the Big 3 Motorsports that still have this happen. And you hear more and more about this today. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.9]. Related: NASCAR ratings on big rise compared to recent years in 2022. In a piece published in the Athletic last week, Ethan Strauss reported that the ratings for network NBA broadcasts have declined by 45 percent since 2011-12. What other big American sport has ongoing action behind a commercial? And that is for the Indianapolis 500 of stock cars. . However, in recent years that growth has slowed. On declining ratings throughout NASCAR and other sports. Our share of those TVs that are tuned in is up 18%. Photo credit: royal_broil on Best Running / CC BY-SA Declining television ratings have been a near-constant part of the NASCAR conversation for years. NASCAR blew off fan demand for picture-in-picture commercial breakssomething theyve since embracedwhile Fox Sportss indifference to fans went completely unchecked. It is possible that another playoff system to sustain interest in TV programming for nine months could be introduced with a radically revamped schedule in 2021 and it is possible that NASCAR could go back to the old way and determine a champ on points over an entire season. Since this is a non-ideological blog, I wont get into the things that the NFL, NBA and MLB have recently done to drive away a significant portion of their fanbases. Its safe to say this is not ideal for the sport and there should be some concern on why ratings continue to fall. In some ways the Recession came at a most inopportune time for sports TV. 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 . . TV ratings for the Richmond race were said to be down 12% from the same race in 2015 and 44% from 2014. . They do not want to watch commercials over and over again. That's the lowest TV audience ever recorded for the. That's the first time in a decade that that has happened, Hebrst said. This is the most viewed season-opener since 2015. Jimmie Johnson was a hallmark of ruthless efficiency in his prime, winning seven titles and five in a row. NBA players take a knee during National Anthem, screen image Get woke, go broke. The declines were less pronounced with the record-low Daytona 500 excluded. UPDATE: The Daytona 500 posted only a modest decline in ratings and viewership, but that was still enough to make it one of the least-watched ever. Compared to the 2019 finale from Homestead-Miami, ratings fell 13% (from 2.2) and viewership 14% (from 3.74M). So NASCAR racing has become just like European formula-car racing and IndyCar racing in North America. It was, but even that wasnt the point. The Great Recession that swept across the landscape starting in 2008 changed everything. 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?. Not only in the business world, but in all sports as well. Many fans, especially those who might want to disparage the sport, dont understand that just because the TV numbers are down or not at the sky-high levels they once were, doesnt mean NASCAR is facing any sort of loss of popularity. Ill start with a few things that I dont believe caused the decline of NASCAR, then Ill share what I think really did. I think thats some pretty solid footing.. Related:15 Rules Every NASCAR Employee Has To Follow. Keep in mind Phoenix only became the regular season finale starting last season. This marks a 25% lift versus NASCAR's analogous share in 2018, and is the strongest showing since Fox got off to a 10.5 share start in 2016. 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. As Juniors fortunes continued to trend downward even while driving for the strongest team in the sport, his fan base became turned off. And based on what we see today, NASCAR seems to be on an upward trajectory and shows no signs of slowing down. Ill submit that this is a reason a few fans I know stopped watching 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). As a racing event that is held in various tracks around the US, there are several venues that fans can choose to go to in order to watch NASCAR live. While this already marks the third time that NASCAR has seen the average viewership go down, there is one major positive to take away from it. Covered race cars from the NASCAR Xfinity Series sit parked on pit road during a rain delay before the start . This year's Daytona 500, for example, drew 4.8 million viewers a. 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. Is PNC Park The Best Ballpark in Baseball? The Decline of NASCAR, Non-Reason #1: The Cars Are Too Spec I'll submit that this is a reason a few fans I know stopped watching the sport. He is likely to build a fan base fast. NASCAR ratings have been on the decline over the last decade as they have taken a significant drop. Most die-hard fans of NASCAR are those that have followed it the longest. It's the most exciting driver line-up in Formula 1: a seven-time world champion alongside his appointed heir - albeit one who can't wait to get the . 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. TV ratings are no longer the end all be all for NASCAR. 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. which is a 50 percent decline . The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. Photo credit: sidehike on VisualHunt / CC BY-SA By virtue of his fathers untimely passing, Dale Earnhardt Jr. instantly found himself with a larger fan base than any three drivers in NASCAR. Nielsen slowly began to develop ways to measure who was watching what, and how. 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. 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. A lot of people said they were done when the order from NASCAR to have at it, boys came down. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Furthermore, their retirements are probably not the sole reason for NASCAR's viewership issues either. 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. 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. Then they sharply declined in Week Two. Related: NASCARs NextGen car shows promise and one huge issue. It was another case of costly arrogance; as much as fans loved NASCAR, they didnt love it enough to put up with an endlessly saturated marketing campaign featuring occasional snippets of racing each week. The season ended with two flat tires. The last race at Auto Club took place in 2020 and had an average of 4.781 million viewers for the third event of the season. These are bold changes, but this variety of tracks will test drivers and teams at every level. "While it's easy to cite 'cord-cutting' as a catch-all explanation for what's going on, keep in mind, Nielsen ratings do incorporate streaming services, albeit imperfectly . 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. Last years season-opener at Barber only averaged 914 thousand viewers which is almost an extra 500 thousand. Longtime, big-name sponsors are leaving the sport while. However, the second race of the 2022 season saw a more significant drop in viewership compared to previous seasons. The #48 team should have been a gold mine. Still with me? NASCAR viewership numbers on decline for years NASCAR viewers are down 19%. 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. It was during this timethat "Bootleggers"- those whoproduce anddeliver prohibited whiskey/alcohol also had modified delivery cars that were fast enough to be able to evade, outrun and escape law enforcement should they be spotted. Photo credit: Fast Eddie Maloney on Best Running / CC BY-SA In addition, the current playoff format, while far from perfect, isnt nearly as unpalatable as the Chase was. Certain segments of fans, and media, began to cry that sky was falling. Which meant that other drivers didnt win a lot. Translation: the drivers are paying for the pleasure of racing. Formula 1 does not have a single commercial during their races on ESPN. The Xfinity Series at Indianapolis had a rating of 0.67, with 1.249 million viewers, totaling more than F1 Pocono TV Ratings July 26, 2022 Bookmark this page for NASCAR ratings as another year of racing is officially underway! There are still 11 races on intermediate tracks, but its finally moving in the right direction. (Busch would have still won.). 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. I covered NASCAR for six seasons for two excellent racing websites, Thats Racin (the Charlotte Observers racing site) and the Frontstretch. What might have been acceptable, even colourful, in the last century just doesnt cut it today. 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. 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. Tiger Woods was great for golf. . 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. As Ive said, the sport is finally addressing its venue problem. 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). Just ten years later, there were 13 such eventsnearly half the schedule. They wouldn't explain ratings declines from 2016 to 2017. The NFL only went down 9%, but please, tell me about anthem kneelers. NASCAR moved away from tracks where drivers push and shove and fight both other racecars and the track, and moved to aero-dependent speedways where engineers in the garage determined winners. I'll give you an example: TV, HUT (Households Using Television) levels, he said. (It wasnt a tough call to make, if you actually looked at her results instead of her figure.). In fact, the current car lends itself to some pretty good racing. As the son of one of the greatest racecar drivers in history, Junior also had an impossible standard to live up to. 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. Compared to the last time the Brickyard 400 was run in July (the 2017 race), Sunday's ratings were down 21 percent and viewership was off 23 percent. With 38 race weekends, NASCAR doesn't take too many in-season . Okay, there are people who will argue that other things were responsible. 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. NASCAR did (and still does) market the possibility of spectacular wrecks. No longer do young NASCAR racers start at their local tracks and work their way up. 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. As it happens, the first four official NASCAR races of 2022 are averaging a 9.73 share, which means nearly 10% of all homes that had TVs in use at the time of the broadcasts were tuned in to Fox. Dr. Jon Lewis (aka Paulsen) has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images). 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. https://t.co/Zf4L7g5im4 Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) July 10, 2018 Stats. Racing Ratings By Phillip Bupp on 06/23/2022. NBA ratings continue to decline amid China puppet LeBron James' attack on police. This was a problem that actually needed to be addressed and wasnt. OTHER VIEWS? 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. 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. 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. Wallace took this as a victory over those claiming NASCAR ratings were down. By: GP Racing. 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. Today, NASCAR has become just like all the other major racing Series in nascar ratings decline right direction base! 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