Nascar, Once a Cultural Icon, Hits the Skids; Stock-car racing's popularity declines [View all]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Wed Feb 22, 2017, 09:22 PM - Edit history (1)

For a change, here's a story that's not about *****. This was on the front page of the Wednesday print edition, but if you're looking it up at the library, it went online yesterday. It's pay per view, even when I went in through Google News. I'm going in through a Proquest account at the library.

http://search.proquest.com/nationalnewsexpanded/docview/1870269680/fulltext/948CFA42A72B4395PQ/1?accountid=xxxxx

You'll need your own account number to see the article. Ask your local public library how you can do this.

The article says that "the first big race of the new season {is} set for Sunday...." I don't follow NASCAR,* but even I know that's the Daytona 500. What I don't get is, why does NASCAR start the season with its biggest race? It's like starting a season with the World Series or the Super Bowl, and every subsequent event is of lower status. Anyone?

* According to a brief Google search, every source I saw calls it NASCAR, not Nascar. Which is to be expected, as NASCAR is an acronym for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Take it up with TWSJ.

Nascar, Once a Cultural Icon, Hits the Skids; Stock-car racing's popularity declines amid 'economics and demographics'

Stock-car racing’s popularity declines amid ‘economics and demographics’

By Tripp Mickle and Valerie Bauerlein

[e-mail]
@trippmickle

[e-mail]
@vbauerlein

Updated Feb. 21, 2017 10:14 a.m. ET

Nascar threw a bash at Kansas Speedway in October to thank Sprint Corp. for being stock-car racing’s top sponsor for 13 years. More than 800 Sprint employees received hot dogs, burgers and seats to a nail-biting race. ... One thing was missing: a new sponsor. Despite knowing for two years that Sprint was leaving, Nascar didn't announce a replacement until December, when it said energy-drink maker Monster Beverage Corp . had won naming rights to the top-tier racing circuit. ... Monster paid about $20 million, below Nascar's asking price of $35 million and nowhere close to the original goal of $100 million, according to television and racing-industry executives familiar with the new contract. A Nascar spokesman wouldn't comment.



With the first big race of the new season set for Sunday, Nascar's problems seem to have spun out of control. ... About a decade ago, the sport was a cultural icon and inspired the hit car-racing comedy movie "Talladega Nights," starring Will Ferrell. Since 2005, Nascar's television viewership is down 45%, according to an analysis of Nielsen ratings by SportsBusiness Daily, a trade publication. That is twice as large as the National Basketball Association's decline from its peak. National Football League viewership has fallen 8%, Nielsen data show.

Tracks have torn out about a fourth of their seats to look fuller but still have wide stretches of empty bleachers on race days. Nascar's fan base, largely working-class and white, is getting older overall and was hit harder by the recession than the more-affluent fan bases in other major sports. ... "There's no magic pill for this one," says Ed Rensi, a former Nascar racing-team owner who was a longtime head of U.S. operations for McDonald's Corp. "It's about economics and demographics."

Many people in the sport blame the France family, which runs Nascar and controls racetrack company International Speedway Corp. ... Long adored for turning fender-crunching races between moonshiners into the nation's richest and most popular form of motor sports, the founding family is now being criticized by drivers and team owners, who fear the Frances are incapable of reversing the fade in fan interest and retreat by sponsors.
....

Write to Tripp Mickle at [e-mail] and Valerie Bauerlein at [e-mail]