Brrrr…istol Keeps Fans Away

If you put aside the fact that there were two rain delays, temperatures in the middle 40s, and a caution that NASCAR admits shouldn’t have been a caution at the race’s end, I’d say all 38 people in attendance at Bristol Motor Speedway got to see a pretty good show Sunday night.

Okay, so that opening sentence may sound a little harsh, but it’s pretty much what we got at Bristol.  Now to be clear, I thought the race (once it finally happened) was as good of a Bristol race as we’ve seen in a few years.  It was competitive, the speeds were fast, there were great story lines, the list goes on.  I know some fans have been critical of the track’s reconfiguration along with the new cars getting rid of the good ole “bump and run” days, but I actually really enjoyed the action on the track.  I think most fans (except for the stubborn few who will never be satisfied until we go back to racing cars driven off the lot from the 1970s) would agree.

The two biggest stories, however, are the phantom caution to end the race and the weather/crowd.

Let’s start with the caution.  If you haven’t heard yet, NASCAR says the caution was triggered by someone in the flag stand who accidentally “leaned on the switch.”  Two officials and a photographer were in the flag stand at the time.  NASCAR’s Robin Pemberton told the Associated Press the flag man saw the lights come on and then had to wave the yellow caution flag.  They admit it was a silly and stupid mistake.  Luckily, for all involved, it likely did not have an effect on the outcome.  Congrats to Carl Edwards on a nice victory.

Now to the weather and crowd.  Both were awful.  There’s no way to spin it.  Fewer than half the 160,000 seats were sold, and looking at the crowd once the race resumed at night, it looked like only half or so of those who purchased tickets bothered to show up in the 40 degree drizzle.  Most estimates I’ve seen say only about 20% of the seats had a butt in them Sunday night.  And keep in mind, this is a track that had 55, count ‘em 55, consecutive sellouts until 2010 when the numbers slowly trickled off.

To be fair, there were still more people at this race than any NBA, NHL, or MLS game, and more than what attend an average MLB game as well.  But in a 160,000 seat track that used to be sold out every time, this still clearly shows a lot of trouble.

So what’s the problem?  It can’t be the racing.  Everyone I’ve talked to, every comment and blog, and every caller on satellite radio loved the race.  It was exciting.  They were three wide at Bristol for crying out loud!  How awesome is that?!

Some have pointed to the high prices of a race in Bristol—not necessarily the tickets themselves, but to stay in Bristol for the race.  Bristol is a small market with few hotels and campgrounds to offer.  With fewer choices, these places can—and do—jack up the prices during race weekends.

But perhaps the biggest reason of all is the timing of the race.  The Bristol race used to be in April.  It was the sixth race on the schedule.  Then it got bumped up to five…now to four.  I realize it can rain anytime in Bristol, Tennessee, so moving the date of the race can’t guarantee a dry race.  But it can change things with the cold.

Middle March in Bristol, Tennessee just does not make sense.  The temperatures are too unpredictable.  People are less inclined to buy tickets in advance not knowing the weather situation.  Those who did wait, seeing the forecast called for cold temperatures and rain all week, sure as heck weren’t going to buy tickets when they could just watch all the action from the comfort of a nice warm sofa.

I realize moving a race isn’t easy and there is a whole lot of politicking and logistics in rearranging a schedule.  But unless NASCAR wants the embarrassment of cameras showing nothing but empty seats at one of their most famous tracks, they need to be working to do something.

That’s my take.  I welcome yours in the comments below.

Where is Everybody?

NASCAR Continues to Struggle Filling Seats

Anyone who’s tuned in to a NASCAR race this season has no doubt noticed the vast number of empty seats.  Tracks try to disguise it and NASCAR tries to ignore it, but the problem is still glaring.  Track owners can paint the seats to look like people and block off entire sections with advertising all they want, but the fact remains that people simply are not attending NASCAR events with the same regularity that they did in the mid-2000s.

So where is everybody?  You read 100 different blogs, and you will get 100 different answers.  Some say the reason for poor attendance at tracks like Atlanta and Charlotte are because NASCAR ticked off its base by ignoring its southern roots when it took races away from tracks like Darlington and Rockingham to expand in western states.  Others blame the new car and increase in races at “cookie-cutter” 1.5-mile tracks that simply are not as exciting.  After all, who wants to watch cars ride around in circles for four hours with limited passing and accidents?

Show Me the Numbers

I would give you attendance numbers for this season, but I can’t.  NASCAR is no longer releasing attendance numbers…probably trying to save themselves the embarrassment of having to try to explain them.  A look at this chart can give some perspective of the decline from 2007 to 2012.  According to USA Today, NASCAR’s peak in attendance actually came in 2005 when it totaled over 4.7 million fans for the 36 Sprint Cup events, an average of 129,733 fans per race. In 2012, NASCAR saw a total of 3.5 million fans buy tickets for the Sprint Cup schedule, an average of just 97,722 fans per race.

Television Ratings

What’s interesting to me is that, despite the large numbers of empty seats, television ratings are actually higher this year than the past couple of seasons.  Anyone who watched or attended last Saturday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte knows the stands were far less than half full and that the attendance was far lower than last year’s race.  That being said, the race earned a 3.4 U.S. household rating from Nielsen with 5,560,141 viewers.  Last year’s race earned a 3.2 rating with just 5,095,231 viewers.  According to the ratings reported from Nielsen and Jayski (click here for more numbers), this trend holds true for nearly all the races this season.  Fewer people may be going, but more people are watching.

While it is a positive sign that the interest is still there in terms of television viewership, it remains very troubling for the sport that more butts aren’t in the seats at tracks.  Bad attendance is bad for the sport—it’s that simple.  NASCAR has to find a way to right the ship, make races exciting again, and make fans want to do more than just casually watch from their living rooms.  That’s my take.  I welcome yours in the comments below.