Posted on 03/22/2006 11:54:47 AM PST by colonel mosby
There's no disputing NASCAR's phenomenal growth in recent years. The sport sprouted from it's Southeastern roots and opened tracks in Kansas City, Chicago, and California. Fortune 500 companies lined up to sponsor cars and drivers. Networks paid $4.5 billion for a TV contract. Officials say the fan base is 75 million.
But, in its race to claim a place beside other professional sports in a world of glitz and glitter, NASCAR is jeopardizing the grass roots fan base that helped build it.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
I think Michigan was originally a Penske-owned track, and has grown in recent years when it was bought by International Speedway Corporation.
Your words, not mine. The facts are that most NASCAR drivers and NHL players are white, and most NBA players are black. A majority of NFL players are black. I do not have any problem with this situation. I do have a problem with the MSM and left wing activists pressuring the white dominated sports to become more diverse, while not doing so in the case of black dominated sports.
Hollywood destroys everything it touches.
Real NASCAR was back when the cars were genuine factory production sheet metal that were turned into race cars by guys sponsored by South-Eastern car dealerships. Racing promoters used to have to pay second-rate local racers to fill out the field, telling them to run way down on the apron and let the big names do the real racing.
They used real production engines, and cheating was rampant. Fans could see the winning car in a race on Sunday and go to a Ford/Mercury or Chrysler dealership on Monday and buy the civilian model of the car.
Nowadays, I don't know what the hell NASCAR is. Identical cars that never existed on any showroom floor regardless of manufacturer, SB2 engine blocks, emerging Formula One-style technology that will never make it to your family sedan, race scientists, mega sponsors, Ivy-league mathematicians and engineers on the team payroll, and flyovers of the Air National Guard's F-16s before the race. Pretty soon, some Emo band will be singing our national anthem while liberal comedian Jon Stewart says 'Gentlepersons, start your engines!'.
Modern NASCAR sucks. Local dirt track racing is 1000 times better.
No, but I will say this.
If a young Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Kasey Kayne were both competing for the same driving job today, Kayne would get the job every time.
Sponsors want polish and clean cut good looks, not grit and grime.
NASCAR is all La-La land now.
It was Penske owned but it was undergoing steady growth for the entire time he owned it.
But if the new fans come in large enough droves to make the revenue grow then they'll be happy. It's all about chasing the dollars, so long as the fans they gain equate to more revenue than the fans they lose it's all good.
I don't think so.
The Atlanta Metropolitan area is 4.1 million people. If that can't fill the stands, and it hasn't been lately, something is very very wrong with what NASCAR has been doing.
Thirty years ago, when these cities were half or less their current size, they sold out the same arenas.
So9
"Well, heck. They stopped giving out cartons of cigarettes."
The loss of RJR's marketing expertise and knowledge of the NASCAR fan base, to Nextel's "edgy" brand marketing is having more of an impact than anyone is willing to admit.
I have the exact same sentiments about hockey. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more serious hockey fan than me down here in the U.S., and yet I haven't bought a ticket to an NHL game in more than ten years.
I'd prefer drivers who look like they could actually work on the car if they had to.
How's the revenue picture? If they're making more money not selling out in Atlanta than they were selling out in Atlanta then there's nothing wrong. 3N not so rabid fans is better for the bottom line than N rabid fans.
I thought it was bought by ISC when it went bankrupt under Penske.
Maybe in the short term, but catering to casual fans is the death knell of almost any sport. Look what has happened to so many new sports franchises in any number of cities across the country. They attract large crowds for a year or two, but once the novelty wears off these casual fans lose interest, and these sports teams then have to compete with other forms of entertainment that have nothing to do with sports (prime-time television, movie theaters, etc.).
Well, they have had the biggest budget in Formula 1 for the past several years and have ZERO wins for their efforts. NASCAR is a little better homulgated so they will do okay.
I am sure revenues are up for now, but I think a lot of it is a fad like middle aged executives buying $50,000.00 choppers or disco in the 70s.
If they alienate their core audience, then when the fad dies, so do they.
SO9
It will force Ford/Chevy/Dodge to get better. Just the way capitalism is supposed to work. BTW isn't Dodge a foreign company, since it's owned by Mercedes? Never understood why people still refer to the Big 3. It's down to the Big 2.
Will Toyota use Japanese or American drivers? I would guess the driver and pit crew have a lot to do with a car's success on the track.
Penske bought it out of bankrupcy but I can't see that it's why he sold it.
I found a history page for the place.
http://www.mispeedway.com/track/History.jsp
THE PENSKE ERA
That’s when another visionary – entrepreneur and racer Roger Penske – picked up on LoPatin’s dream.
In 1973 – when the oil crisis and rising gas prices threatened all of racing – Penske envisioned turning MIS into a premier motorsports facility. After purchasing the deed to Michigan International Speedway off the Lenawee County courthouse steps for an estimated $2 million, Penske went right to work to improve the speedway to his standards. He invested millions of dollars on one capital improvement project after another with a goal of making Michigan International Speedway one of the best superspeedways in the world.
During Penske’s ownership, the grandstands were expanded from 25,000 to over 125,000 seats, and numerous buildings were added to the property, including three garages, 28 pit terrace suites, an administration building, two ticket offices, a maintenance building, a warehouse, a sign shop, an entertainment shop, a Competition Tire building, and a Motorsports International building.
For over 25 years, Penske invested in Michigan International Speedway, long after the track’s reputation was everything – and more – than he imagined it could be. He even added two racing-related businesses on the Speedway grounds – CompTire and Motorsports International. Penske later rebuilt Nazareth Speedway in Pennsylvania using the same formula s he did for Michigan – resurrecting a track out of bankruptcy. In 1997, Penske took his speedways and racing-related businesses public, forming Penske Motorsports, Inc. That same year the company built California Speedway and purchased 45 percent of Homestead-Miami Speedway. In 1998 it added North Carolina Speedway to its portfolio.
The natural state of things is to atrophy over time.
See ya all at Bristol...
Well, some of ya anyway. ;-)
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