NASCAR: Tangled Web Of Tracks & Broadcasters Are Hurting The Sport
As a NASCAR fan looking on from the outside, fixing some of the ails that have plagued the sport seems easy. A closer look at the tangled web of stakeholders shines light on why it seems they cannot get out of their own way.
There have been a couple of recurring themes that have plagued NASCAR the last several years, empty seats and declining television ratings. There has been much banter about rearranging the schedule and the removal of seats a several venues. That is all like shuffling seats on the Titanic. There are simple real changes that everyone agrees upon but just can’t happen in todays NASCAR
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Lets start with the empty seats, the easiest of the issues to fix. Stop going to tracks that do not sell out both dates, do not go to tracks every year that cannot sell out one. Supply and demand, simple right? Wait a minute, NASCAR has its publicly traded side International Speedway Corp.. They own and operate 13 tracks that host 20 Sprint Cup dates. So any dates removed will directly affect NASCAR’s bottom line. Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports owns another 8 tracks and 13 Sprint Cup dates. Bruton Smith has threatened litigation every time NASCAR threatens to pull a date because it would go back to an ISC owned track. The classic monopoly situation. So schedule reduction is not possible.
What has NASCAR’s answer to the dwindling attendance been? Remove seats or cover them with advertising. To their credit they have worked hard in reworking the schedule to try and get the best dates possible for each of the tracks, but too many dates are just too many dates. Introducing new tracks to the schedule would help, but NASCAR just signed 5 year sanctioning deals with 23 facilities all but eliminating any hope of any new venues.
Lets look into Television ratings. This is a very touchy subject because all the facts work against NASCAR. When NASCAR’s TV ratings began to decline in 2007 they signed a new broadcasting rights deals with FOX, ABC/ESPN and TNT. In 2014 races on ESPN on average received between a 2.3-3.2 rating, with its ABC races always above a 3.0 up to 4.7. While on network television Fox garnered 3.3-5.5 ratings for their Sprint Cup Races. The races on Fox or ABC represented more than a full ratings point increase versus a cable outlet.
With that in mind what did NASCAR do with its latest TV package? They allowed more races on even more obscure television networks, the new Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network. Both channels deep in you additional sports package. Fox Sports 1 even having the distinction of taking over SPEED Network, a transaction that disenfranchised some NASCAR fans. Both Fox and NBC were hoping to bring attention to their new sports nets by hopefully bringing the 4-5 million viewers that ESPN and TNT were getting.
Every race on NBCSN was down more that 10% from the year before for the same race. The Bristol Night Race and fall Richmond fell 34% and 38% respectively. Those are two of the most anticipated races of the season! The season on FS1 saw the same results with the Martinsville spring race having a massive 36% (2.4 vs 3.8) drop in viewership! Both FS1 and NBCSN did have NASCAR as their most watched events on those nets. In comparison while the ratings for most races on Fox and NBC were mixed or slightly lower, some actually posted higher ratings (Las Vegas, Darlington, Kansas) year to year.
Why would NASCAR do this? NBC and FOX paid a premium to put those races on the fledgling nets knowing they were going to rate poorly in comparison. NASCAR has never turned away from a dollar more even if it is harmful to its sport. It has constantly signed deals with companies to be “official products of NASCAR” taking sponsors from teams or limiting teams ability to promote their own sponsorship. Often excluding team sponsors from being allowed to have a presence at the track in conflict with NASCAR sponsors.
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At what point does NASCAR stand up for its sport and take less money to be on major network TV every Sunday? It is a fight for eyeballs and NASCAR did not even hear the bell. When will they realize that sometimes less is more and cut the schedule down? Create a demand for tickets and viewers to watch races. The answers are simple, but the actions are complicated and woven in a web of money that NASCAR does not want to give up, no matter what the consequences.