Posted on 03/04/2015 6:16:54 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK, March 4 (Reuters) - NASCAR calls it "right-sizing" but others see it as sign that something is terribly wrong with America's most popular motor sport as thousands of seats are being removed from tracks across the United States.
The sprawling Charlotte Motor Speedway, which once drew a crowd of 167,000, is removing 41,000 seats while tracks in Dover and Atlanta will chop capacity by at least 17,000.
"Right-sizing is the term," NASCAR's Chief Operating Officer Brent Dewar told Reuters after addressing the Sport Business Summit in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday. "It is what you are seeing in all sports properties is the transformation of making the fan experience greater."
With TV ratings on a steady decline the sight of empty seats has served as a glaring reminder of the problems facing NASCAR as the series tries to recapture the glory days of the 1990s.
But Dewar maintains that downsizing is not so much a sign of trouble but a sign of the times reflecting the race experience fans demand and the way they consume sports.
"What you are seeing at a lot of the tracks is widening of the seats, additional suite access, venues that allow a better fan experience," said Dewar. "It is not just going to the race; it is more than the race.
"That is the story you are seeing at many of the tracks, football stadiums and baseball parks. The fan expectation today going to a sports venue is changing."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Maybe they can install some of them removed seats on 'em.. or auction them off.
Thanks for all the rides, now sit down and Let's Go Racin'!!
Front wheel drive family sedans killed NASCAR. That and the end of big time bootlegging.
Nope Restrictor plates did
Unintentionally funny.
Costs are too high. You can’t even look at a picture of a seat for less than $50 at Michigan Speedway.
Personally I’ve always thought they should build up a big dirt berm along the backstretch and charge a flat $20 to sit on the grass.
NASCAR no longer represents “Stock Cars”.
Long gone are the days when your car looked like the one on the track, Thunderbird vs. Camaro SS vs. Impala, etc.
No they are just expensive “formula” cars, and there is no real attachment to them.
Why aren’t they racing mini vans or Priuses? Wouldn’t that be more PC?
Commercialism and political correctness is why I stopped watching.
Washington's 1984 "Newspeak" has finally surfaced at mainline Amurika.
10 years ago, we bought tickets to Dover regardless of whether we were going because we dared not be moved to waiting list which was many years. Nowadays, they cant give away enough tickets to fill the tracks
The day I stopped following NASCAR was the day they said “if you’re not on the lead lap you can’t pit on the first lap of a caution”
After that...it was never the same.
Daytona used to go green flag at 12:00 sharp....now I don’t even recognize it. It certainly isn’t a race.
They can remove my seats after November 2015. NASCAR has become less fan friendly every year over the past 5 or 6 years. Now they’ve done away with the driver souvenir haulers. The bucks not the folks are now number one. During the November PIR race, the drivers stay up in Vegas all week selling car parts at the convention up there. They only come to the inconvenient PIR when they are needed on the track. I really wish I hadn’t purchased my season tickets for this year. I’ll watch it on TV from now on. There is no reason to go to the track anymore. Just my two cents.
NASCAR lost me when they went with the “official” car profile template. Every car has an identical profile with nearly identical engines and drive trains. The only difference in the cars is the name plate for advertising.
It’s no longer manufacturers competing, it’s become a staged spectacle.
N ational
A ssociation of
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A utomobile
R acing my hairy patootie.
I’d rather watch swamp buggy racing. Those good ole boys do it right! Of course, once Speed Channel was bought by the Earnharts, real racing went away.
I haven’t seen F1, autocross, gymkhana, World Rallye, or anything other than NASCAR and/or suicidal motorcyclists on that channel in years.
“I’ve always thought they should build up a big dirt berm along the backstretch and charge a flat $20 to sit on the grass.”
At several tracks now, that “Big dirt berm along the backstretch” is called Millionaires Row, for the big expensive RV’s, and they charge $1,000 to sit on the grass.
I gave up on NASCAR in the early 80s with pretty much all sports. As a 70s kid, NASCAR races were actually kind of enjoyable.
I got to go to race in Charlotte as a teen. The only one I went to.
Dirt Track was something I went to some in the 80s. A couple of dad’s friends were doing really well. One an ace driver and the other a super ace mechanic. At times I wouldn’t mind going to a dirt track event. If I can ever talk the spouse on a hundred mile trek on a Friday evening, maybe. No luck in the past few years.
There is the Charlotte Auto Fair which some have said a lot about and I may just try to go this year. I love old cars in general.
When Dale Sr. died, the sport started to die also.
Then hey could sell all of the seats and pieces of the track for antiques because no one would go!
I’ve noticed in the last four or five seasons that NASCAR attendance has really dropped off. The stands used to be pretty much full, now I see thousands of empty seats. Motor sports in general seem to be in decline. The Indy 500 isn’t half of what it used to be, and sports car racing is now almost invisible.
Michelle Obama likes this term, she may suggest schools use the term ‘Right Sizing’ to describe their revamped lunch trays.
Brian France is an idiot. His daddy and granddaddy are rolling over in their graves.
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