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Where Have All The Fans Gone?

Story and photo by Drew Hierwarter

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This week it seems the blogosphere was alive with talk about why were there empty seats at Bristol for the first time in 55 races? Many think it’s the economy keeping folks home while some others insist it’s the diminishing quality of the product.

 

In his column of Tuesday, March 23rd, veteran NASCAR writer Monte Dutton looked at several reasons why there was more room than usual in the Bristol grandstands. While he makes some of the usual points; the economy, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s slump, Jimmie Johnson winning too much, price gouging by the local motels and restaurants, the ease of seeing the race at home on TV, etc., etc. (All good, valid points by the way). Where I think he really nailed it was with his point number 6. Simply stated, there’s a large group of folks for whom NASCAR was simply a passing fad.

 

Back in the late 1990’s, a lot of people from the world of stick-and-ball sports suddenly “discovered” this new thing called NASCAR. It was loud and colorful and exciting and the drivers were interesting characters. Attendance at race tracks soared along with TV ratings.

 

But like all fads, they don’t last long and now the bubble has burst. The recent down turn in the economy hasn’t helped, but numbers were declining before that. All of those newly minted NASCAR “fans” have moved on to the next big thing and are no longer interested.

 

More than two years ago, back in December of 2007, I wrote a column that you can read here on this very topic.

 

It’s pointless for NASCAR, or anyone else for that matter, to try to bring them back. They’re gone and they’re not coming back. What NASCAR and the race teams need to do is focus on the fans they do have and give them what they want.

 

In the mean time, it’s for us, the long time, hard core, been there forever fans to continue to enjoy our favorite sport. Just look at it this way, smaller crowds may be bad news for NASCAR and the track operators. But it’s good for us. With more room in the stands you can now spread out a little. You can put your cooler on the seat next to you instead of under your legs.  

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup, Earnhardt, Nextel Cup, NASCAR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Where Have All The Fans Gone?”

  1. Nate Holman Says:
    March 24th, 2010 at 6:51 pm

    Agreed. The wine and cheese crowd has left and they ain’t coming back. We are now left with a watered down version of the sport we loved back when the 3 car still prowled the track before NASCAR became homogenized. This was done out of greed and so that new crowd wasn’t offended by NASCAR’s southern roots and it’s rough side. Rockingham was euthanized and Darlington stripped of a race including its Labor Day Southern 500. We got cookie cutter tracks to replace them and most race fans will tell they are terrible races. Heck, they even did the unimaginable and ruined Bristol. I still get chills recalling Digger’s biggest fan, ol DW, being the first one to run down and stick a fork in the old track at Bristol. Might as well been drilling through the hearts of us fans who loved it. Don’t get me started about the IROC type cars we now watch with no brand identity. Teams have merged and these superteams have all but killed the rivalries that made the story behind the races so compelling. I’m a true fan and go to 2-3 races a year but it is more for the party than the race. They can still revive it and the steps with earlier race times, relaxing penalties, and taking the wing off are all good things. Need to continue the trend by reviving the Rock, run the Southern 500 on Labor Day, kill the superteams/alliances and put a car on the track that truly differs by manufacturer. I could go on but will end at that!

  2. coolheir Says:
    March 25th, 2010 at 3:15 am

    Where have all the fans gone??? …they headed for hier warter …hee hee hee!

  3. Steve Says:
    March 25th, 2010 at 10:11 am

    Nascar spent so much time trying to get the new casual (ADHD) fans to get excited about the sport that they ticked off all their diehard fans into not watching/going to races anymore. When those ADHD fans left due to the next best thing coming along, Nascar is now left with what’s left over. The diehards they ticked off haven’t come back either.

    Their top priority needs to be fixing the product on the track. The racing is boring for a wide variety of reasons. 2 of them are the cars themselves and the points racing over winning mentality that they Chase has created.

    Nascar needs to forget about trying to appease the casual crowd and needs to try and win back its diehard fan base. If it fixes the car and gets rid of the Chase, it will go a long way to getting fans back.

    But what do I know, I’m just a Nascar fan

  4. Glenn Jostad Says:
    April 20th, 2010 at 8:15 pm

    Agreed. When you are fighting for entertainment dollar, you better make sure you have a superior product. Right now they don’t.

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