I know that people who don't watch NASCAR are usually surprised to find that NASCAR draws such large attending crowds. A while back, someone bragged to me about a football game drawing some 70,000 fans. I think Kansas speedway is the only track with less than 120,000 seats.
Martinsville and Pocono (I think) are well under 100k. I know Martinsville is around 70k.
Of course, in an average weekend, there are over a dozen NFL games on Sunday, to say nothing of the approximately 50 college football games in I-A alone. This estimate accounts for bye weeks.
Even allowing for ARCA, Craftsman, IRL, etc, plus the Nextel/Busch races, I somehow think football draws many times the number of spectators in person.
BTW - there are a number of college stadiums that hold 100K + and they're full for every game.
"I know that people who don't watch NASCAR are usually surprised to find that NASCAR draws such large attending crowds. A while back, someone bragged to me about a football game drawing some 70,000 fans. I think Kansas speedway is the only track with less than 120,000 seats."
Of course there is only one big race a weekend while there can be several large football games. I doubt Nascar could come close to selling out a dozen races in one weekend.
Um, for one thing football is played on a field which is somewhat less in size than the average NASCAR race track. Plus it is really, really hard to put people on the infield as they do at car races. Most attendence figures are restricted by the number of seats, period. And last but not least, there are on any given Sat. or Sun. a LOT games being played than the usually 1 or 2 NASCAR events and the games are played in the same cites multiple times a year not just once a year. Granted, there ARE a LOT of NASCAR fans but come on, get real. It still does not compare to football, baseball or basketball in fan attendence.