NASCAR: Brian France Says Other Sports Fighting For Younger Fans As Well

It’s a notion that has been around NASCAR for a couple of decades now and with the loss of drivers over the last three seasons it’s not going away. NASCAR needs new and younger fans but some in the sport think it’s not just a NASCAR problem.

NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France knows like many others know, NASCAR needs to attract new fans if they intend to ever get back to where they were during the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Part of attracting new fans is bringing in a younger demographic because in theory if you hook them young, they will remain with the sport as they get older. For NASCAR the issue has never been identifying the problem, instead it’s been finding a way to execute a solution.

This past weekend in Richmond was yet another example of where NASCAR is now as compared to where they were. The 60,000 seats in Richmond were nowhere close to being filled on Sunday for the Cup Series race that was won by Joey Logano. It was less than 20 years ago that those 60,000 seats were 100,000 seats and they were sold out days before the race weekend.

Prior to the race on Sunday France spoke with the media about attracting new fans. In a recent article on ESPN.com, France says that NASCAR isn’t the only sport having an issue bringing in younger fans to the table.

"We’re not isolated here. Every sport is trying to unlock the new consumption levels and fan interest by a younger demographic. Of course we love our core fan and everyone does, but every sport is thinking carefully about how to reach the millennial fan to get them excited about their sport."

While other sports might by dealing with similar issues, NASCAR is in somewhat of a box by themselves. Part of the reason for the box is that they have done far more over the last 20 years to push away their current fanbase. The other reason they find themselves in a box is that they don’t have the same advantages that sports like football, baseball and basketball have.

When you were growing up, how many of you had the chance to play youth sports? Those of you nodding to yourselves most likely had the option to play some combination of soccer, baseball, basketball or football. How many of you had the option to get into Motorsports?

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While there are opportunities for children to get into racing, those opportunities often come at a great expense to the family (often more than some of the more popular youth sports) and they are often limited to certain areas of the country. Let’s be honest, more towns are offering baseball and basketball than they are auto racing.

So while I agree that NASCAR is fighting the same battle as other sports, my hope is that they aren’t trying to fight it in the same way.