No one offers a compelling product anymore. Baseball? The average age of their viewers is 55. Basketball is growing in small numbers because you can get it for free. Speaking of free, the opposite of that is ESPN who is losing 17,000 subs a DAY. NFL is down. NASCAR and Indy are fizzling pretty hardcore. The viewership slides are going to continue to be dramatic across the board as this nation's younger folk skip cable or cut it out of their budgets. F1 has lost 300MM viewers and South America since Todt became FIA president. That for a moment. Todt lost the sport 300 MILLION VIEWERS and an entire continent of eyeballs and he still keeps his job...that's how far the FIA have their heads up their asses. The big plans all these people have (except basketball) is to charge more for something people don't want. A bunch of luminaries, these people.
All major sports has gotten it backwards. Instead of broadcasting the sport, they're now more interested in showcasing the advertisers. In their greed (and that's all you may call it) they've gone so far off the beam on this that NFL games which used to take two hours to play, now take in excess of four hours factoring in things such as "two minute warnings", "TV time outs", "Official time outs" and other interruptions to the games such as these insipid on-field instant replays which usually end up taking fifteen or more minutes to sort out. When the NFL re-negotiated their TV contracts several years ago, the multi-billion dollar deals to the networks meant that the only way the networks could pay for these absurd contracts was to increase advertising rates, increase the amounts of ads running during games and then be allowed to increase NFL related broadcasting (hype) by 500 hours per year. Rather than discussing how to improve the quality of the games, what the NFL and host broadcasters came up with was allowing each game increased broadcast times and the discussion of other things such as adding a fourth or fifth team time-out, a "Four minute warning" in addition to the ridiculous "Two-minute warning" and other game lengthening notions sure to appease the networks but piss off fans. But, this is the mentality today. The money the sports leagues are making from their TV and sponsor contracts is completely over the top now. And, now that long time fans are walking away and millennials are only interested in their smart phones, there's going to have to be a re-think in league offices since all of their deals are tied to asses in the seats and eyeballs on the TV screen. BHW
Harvick scored his 5th win in 12 races last night at Kansas. I'm not a Harvick fan, but that's impressive. watch him lose the championship to a flat tire or something similarly stupid at Homestead also, for those keeping count: Aric Almirola scored his 5th top 10 in 12 starts in the SHR #10. In 190+ starts in the same car, Princess Sparkle Pony only had 7 top 10s.
She had that many??? Holy cappoly. I'm really impressed now! I didn't know she had that many!!! (Yes BW, this one is underhanded...)
Remind me to send Tommy Kendall a bottle of single malt. He got the name right. No one can top the name Princess Sparkle Pony !!!
I was watching some short track racin'. Packed house, every seat taken, they had to red flag so they could move people away from the fence where they didn't have room in the stands for more. They were watchin' some black smoke belchin' diesel trucks. Racing isn't dead, just those that took a certain path of pushing political bland are the ones seeing a fall off. There also seemed to be a family multi-generational spread of ages. Perhaps instead of focusing on young folks if they focused more on family the young folks would show up with the family. A new buyer for NASCAR could make it a success again if they looked at what appeals to basic human being instead of the big bland theory. Still haven't made it to a dirt track yet.
Who's watching the World 600? Or has motorsports burn-out occurred after the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race?
Yeah. After the Daytona cinquecento, I'm amazed at how uninterested myself and my racing buddies are concerning anything nascar. Their fall has been precipitous because they've had further to fall than the rest.
All of NASCAR's injuries are self-inflicted. Their ever constantly changing rules, their outright manipulation of race and championship results, etc, etc, etc. has watered down their product to the point now where it has become a harbinger of how not to run a sports/entertainment business. NASCAR is even considering using another new aero package at three of their races this year. How can they possibly expect this to work given that at the beginning of the season, they trot Brian France out to say that the rules for the season are set in stone (and usually two days later the rules are changed again) only to have this sort of nonsense play out. https://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/new-aero-package-may-be-used-in-three-cup-races-this-season-1044013/ With the cat out of the bag now that the France's are looking to sell, would sale of the series also include the ISC and their controlled tracks? How would they even put a value to this now that the series is in free fall and they've invested tens (if not hundreds) of millions into facilities such a DIS? BHW
ISC is a separate, publicly traded company so I doubt NASCAR's sale would include that. it may or may not include the France family's significant stake in ISC. If I were buying NASCAR, I would only do it with zero involvement from the France family going forward-so I would be pricing their stake in ISC in the sale, removing them from leadership and board positions, etc. However, I bet they'll figure out a way to keep their involvement and get the money anyway. As an aside, the Panoz-owned tracks (Road Atlanta and Sebring) are now owned by NASCAR Holdings and not ISC, so they should be part of a sale of NASCAR. (IMSA too).
It's over. 'Nothing to do with sanctionimg bodies or owners thereof. Interest in the automobile is waning, thus racing. Sad but true. 'Unnerstood the, ahem, upper crust (from my experience, most of which haven't a clue about the engineering...'just another status symbol...) want their toys. Like racing, and because, the good stuff for the masses are being regulated out....
Ahhhh........motorsports? If you are talking about racing, nothing was on. If you are talking about contrived parity entertainment ... did not watch. Spec, stages and parades are for the 4th of July. At least then you get a fireworks show too!
What, kind sir, is wrong with F1? I still enjoy it (not the hybrid crap but so be it) No BoP crap and they isn't 1 manu.
Everything. How much money needs to be spent on a car race? Should drivers be determined by skill sets or by the size of their wallet ? Should manufacturers dictate the terms of their participation to the sanctioning body? Does the entire yearly budget of a second world nation need to be spent every racing weekend to show a manufacturers technological advances? And last but certainly not least....how much ass does one have to kiss to cower to the demands of certain drivers? They may be good, but they ain't that good. Shall I continue? If so ....Glenfiddich on the rocks please!
F1 is the pinnacle of racing therefore it will be the most expensive, no matter what. That said, how the teams do what they do is beyond my comprehension! But, I love it . . . Back to nascar . . . I do like Watkins Glen and Daytona. After that, the races are nap inducing.
Some food for thought...http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=hinton_ed&id=3995976 My remarks remain above. Just like F1...it applies to NASCAR also. As well as other disiplines.
(A) What form of racing does not include all of that...'even Le Mans. (B) Breakfast already???!!! Okay, if you insist. Two cubes for me, please.
