While NASCAR Takes Stock, Racing's Popularity Wanes
Officials Say Top Concern Is 'Pushing Content'
Packed crowds, like the one Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway for the Busch Series O'Reilly Challenge, belie a continued dip in NASCAR's TV ratings.
(John Harrelson - Getty)
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Sunday, November 4, 2007
Brian France, NASCAR's third-generation chief executive, was bullish amid signs that stock-car racing's high-octane growth was sputtering last season. He dismissed a roughly 10 percent drop in TV ratings as an anomaly, laying responsibility largely on NBC, which he said failed to vigorously promote the sport in the final year of its broadcast agreement.
France was even more bold in February, predicting on the eve of the Daytona 500 that NASCAR's TV ratings would rebound in 2007. Stock-car racing was poised for great things, France said, and he enumerated several initiatives he felt would help the sport regain its momentum. Among them:
¿ Tweaks to the postseason Chase for the Nextel Cup that gave drivers more points for winning races;
¿ The debut of Toyota, the first foreign nameplate, which would make the fields more competitive;
¿ And, most importantly, an eight-year TV deal that featured the return of ESPN, which France said was poised to bring NASCAR to the casual sports fan by saturating its 17 "platforms" (including television, Web site, radio, talk shows, magazine) with stock-car races and personalities.
But with three races remaining in the season, France's rosy forecast hasn't materialized.
NASCAR's TV ratings have continued to slide. Through last weekend's race in Atlanta, NASCAR was averaging a 4.2 household rating compared with a 4.6 in 2006. And last year's average was down from the sport's all-time high of 5.3 in 2005.
Even crafty camera angles haven't been able to ignore the empty seats at many venues -- particularly the larger superspeedways where overzealous promoters built grandstands faster than demand dictated.
And if the NASCAR blogosphere is any indication, many longtime fans are chafing over many of the changes designed to attract a broader audience -- from later start times to appeal to West Coast viewers to tougher penalties for unsportsmanlike behavior.
