NBA players take a knee during National Anthem, screen image Get woke, go broke. 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. (It wasnt a tough call to make, if you actually looked at her results instead of her figure.). who has many relatives from the South, was merely offering his opinion. The last race at. It was the first NCS race on the dirt in 50 years. which is a 50 percent decline . Related: NASCARs NextGen car shows promise and one huge issue. Photo credit: Darryl W. Moran Photography on Visual Hunt / CC BY-ND Nowadays, drivers like Jimmie Johnson prefer to fly to Italy for three days and drink wine. 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. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. As the son of one of the greatest racecar drivers in history, Junior also had an impossible standard to live up to. Racing, like basketball and other sports, has seen year-to-year ratings decline. Created and Designed by, Solving NASCARs Racetrack Problem, Part 2 Happy Hour Motor Speedway, on What Caused The Decline of NASCAR? While viewership was down overall, it should be noted that the share the percentage of homes tuned to the race in the average minute out of the total number of homes using televisions increased 8% from last year and 11% from 2019. Its not so much that the points reset NASCAR introduced in 2004 was a monumentally stupid idea. All Rights Reserved. Ousting Brian France, who created the Chase and presided over the sports decline, was no small part of that. Along with that came an all-important metric: the Nielsen ratings. 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. 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. 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. There's a catch, though. Not all, of course, but most. In the late '90s and the early 2000s, NASCAR saw an unprecedented growth in popularity and TV ratings. 4 million viewers in. They shut down the polls and went ahead with it anyway. Karlo watched a lot of Mcgyver back in the 90's and grew up trying to be a Mr. fixit/jack of all trades. I'll give you an example: TV, HUT (Households Using Television) levels, he said. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Visualhunt / CC BY-SA The . And the same is true for NASCAR. Keep in mind Phoenix only became the regular season finale starting last season. And I said all that without even bringing up that profoundly irritating cartoon gopher. Ratings fell 19% and viewership 21% from last year, when it was the second race of the season (3.2, 5.50M). 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. 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. This brought even more attention and money to the sport and school was soon out. Photo credit: sidehike on Visual hunt / CC BY-SA The decision . Home Ratings NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop. In addition, the current playoff format, while far from perfect, isnt nearly as unpalatable as the Chase was. The 2019 season was run as regularly scheduled as well. So that's a positive viewership increase of 2%. It's no secret that NASCAR is experiencing a variety of issues related to its popularity, despite a slight recent uptick in TV ratings. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Visualhunt / CC BY-SA If you want to attribute the decline of NASCAR to arrogant leadership, look no further than that single act. But it was a never ending source of irritation to see five laps of racing followed by a several minute commercial break, which was then followed by another minute of a wide angle shot of the venue and This race is being brought to you by .. Kyle Busch, NASCARs black hat, won his second title. News. So NASCAR racing has become just like European formula-car racing and IndyCar racing in North America. I'm just . 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. 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. 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. Overall, it is another positive and negative week. The USFL also had a bigger decline from Week 1 to Week 2, dropping about 57% from 1.57 million. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images). But theyve also improved the schedule, the broadcasts, and the method of determining a champion. Speaking of disrespecting your fan base, how about needlessly putting an end to a beloved 54-year tradition? 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. The event was down 5.6% compared to last year at 4.570 million average viewers on FOX. 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. 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. The erosion is even more pronounced when you . Overall, NASCAR brought in 114.231 million average viewers throughout the entire 2022 season which marks its. With all the different metrics used to measure a sport these days however, it can be complicated. 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. . 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. Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, Geoff Bodine, Rusty Wallace and Trevor Boys were among several dozen drivers whose names soon became familiar, if not famous. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY-SA, Posted in NASCAR, Sports If they hadnt, youd probably be reading articles today about the decline of Coca-Cola too. Please email the author at nmcdonald@thestar.ca, Copyright 2023 | Powered by CityMediaInc.com, Happy Birthday, GM Canada, and thanks for the (many) ride(s), Racing Roundup: Great Grand Prix in Austin, despite actions by stewards; Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame induction video; Alonso wont drive in IndyCar in 2019 or ever. It took quite a few years of longtime fans bitching about that, but NASCAR did finally move the Labor Day Southern 500 back to Darlington. On declining ratings throughout NASCAR and other sports. For NASCAR it meant fewer butts in seats at tracks, and fewer sponsors willing to part with what little revenue they were earning. Gordon scored the most points overall of any driver in 2004, 2007, and 2014. What are the biggest differences between these sports? In other words, twice as many watched the title race in 2015 than this year. 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. Flat is better than down, but 2018 was also the year the once-mighty U.S.S. In some ways the Recession came at a most inopportune time for sports TV. Why poll the fans if youre just going to ignore them? Gordon wasnt the only driver who turned in a spectacular season-long performance only to have it nullified. LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 14: (L-R) Brian Herbst, NASCAR managing director, broadcasting, Scott Warfield, NASCAR managing director, social and digital content, Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Team Penske Ford Fusion, Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer and Laura Froelich, Twitter global head of sports partnerships, pose for a photo after NASCAR announces plans to live-stream in-car cameras on Twitter for the 2018 season on March 14, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. 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. And you hear more and more about this today. 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. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images), ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images, landscape. 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. Goldco (Most trusted and best gold IRA company overall) Birch Gold Group (Best selection of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium) Augusta Precious Metals. 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. Formula 1 and IndyCar are on the rise while NASCAR is slowly declining on a weekly and yearly basis. In 2019, that number had dropped to just 2.92 million. Their retirements are a reason for the ratings decline in 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. 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. Ill submit that this is a reason a few fans I know stopped watching the sport. NASCAR scraped bottom. 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%. After two DNFs in the first two Chase events resulting from simple bad luck, just like that his title hopes were gone. He pointed out that despite the ratings decline, NASCAR achieved a "double-digit share increase" last year. 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. The cars already were mostly spec at that point, and the sport was doing just finebooming even. The sport has grown from. 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. 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 . IndyCar always has side-by-side commercials during green flag racing. 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. 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). Dynasties like Johnsons arent bad for a sportunless the sport doesnt know how to market them. Even though the Confederate battle flag was banned within Talledega Speedway on Sunday, outside the track, the initials "PC" stood for "publicly Confederate.". It was boxy, ugly, and top heavyand its shape was part of the reason for the Indianapolis debacle of 2008. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.9]. 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. 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. 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. 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. ), and a race at the concrete venue of Nashville for the first time. Anyone who was watching then could tell you that wasnt unusual at all. So what caused the decline of NASCAR to the point where the sport is desperately trying to remain relevant? Most notably, Sunday was an all-time low in viewership for the second race of a NASCAR season ever. There are still 11 races on intermediate tracks, but its finally moving in the right direction. Games on TNT are also down by more. In todays world TV ratings arent the big deal they once were nor the only thing that matters. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.9, network PR]. Related:15 Rules Every NASCAR Employee Has To Follow. Or at least to give the appearance of it. Stats. Nothing against Jimmie Johnson for winning titles with the rules as written, but he only managed that feat twice. The XFL, owned by actor Dwayne Johnson, is struggling to retain its viewers. NASCAR teams get creative with sponsors following dip in ratings, attendance Rick Hendrick is seeking a new sponsor for Jimmie Johnson amid the departure of Lowe's. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images Schedule/Results. 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. Drivers. So here are three actual reasons for the decline of NASCAR. 2019, that number had dropped to just 2.92 million more and more about this.. Wasnt the only thing that matters second race of a NASCAR season ever that... Reasons for the second race of a NASCAR season ever was watching then tell... 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