So what has changed? Well, stock car racing is no longer presented as a down-home southeastern sport; it’s as if one could hear Horace Greeley saying, “Go west young man, go west!” So westward we went, to the new super palaces of racing that sprung up as if they were as free as the prize in your Cracker Jack box. Everywhere you looked, from the tracks to the television, it was all about the “show”, but take a close look toward whom that show was geared.
The networks currently holding the big-bucks contracts are FOX and ABC/ESPN, with a six-pack of TNT for variety, but if you close your eyes, you’d swear that some of the races were being brought to you on MTV. Somewhere, someone in a suit decided that stock car racing should be presented in a manner that was attractive to more young people, and seasoned fans began muting their TVs and reaching for their radios; of course, some were just reaching for a fishing pole or a garden trowel and leaving the TV off completely.
“Oh”, said NASCAR, “but look at how many seats we’re filling at all the pretty new tracks.” Yes, for the moment, there were jeans sitting in those seats, but according to plan, those jeans were no longer being worn by Billy Bob and Betty Jo. Remember, we were informed, when Derrike Cope showed up with a sponsor named redneck.com that the word “Redneck” does not promote the "proper image."
Only a couple of weeks ago, the "General Lee" had been booked, along with its new owner, pro-golfer Bubba Watson, for an appearance at the race in Phoenix, but was not allowed to do so because it too promoted the wrong image. Still, Wilson purchased the car, famous for its starring role in Dukes of Hazzard TV show, at the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale AZ only weeks before, and we all watched it sell on SPEED-TV, racing subsidiary of FOX. Good enough for Prime Time, but not good enough for NASCAR?
The overwhelming majority of those over-priced seats were being filled at first by people with "Today" names like Madison, Ashley, Trey or Jamie; after all, they fit the “image.” Now, hold your fire; it is not my intention to pick on or alienate the younger generation. Given enough time, you will be where I am and the cycle will continue ad infinitum. The point that I’m making is that those younguns were raised in the economy of the day, where most purchases tend to be made at discount stores big enough to house the population of Rhode Island. Shopping has become a game, and to win the game, you have to find and purchase, the cheapest item in every category. Brand loyalty? What’s that?
If you were a company intent on getting the most bang for your advertising buck, you might find a pastime aimed solely at the youth movement not to your liking, especially if your product is of high quality and not readily available in the giant “Marts.”
In the past few years, we’ve seen an alarming number of large corporations take their leave of NASCAR’s Cup division in favor of some other marketing strategy. Gone from the hoods are names such as UPS, Crown Royal, Sirius Satellite Radio, DeWalt Tools, Harrah’s Casinos, CITGO, Grainger, Exide Batteries and of course, AT&T, Verizon and Alltel (for reasons of sponsor conflict with the current Series Sponsor.)
Is it possible that those companies, along with many others that have moved on, saw something in their bottom lines that warned them this particular form of advertising was no longer working the way that it used to? Have the changes in the targeted demographics contributed to the decline in interested sponsors because there is no longer sufficient return to justify the expenditure?
It goes without saying that the cost of the sport in any context has skyrocketed to a point that even long-time sponsors have been forced to cut back to part-time or Associate sponsorship. That can be attributed in part to the "economy", but much of the blame has to be shared by promotion of "the show."
I think it’s just possible that the “show” has run afoul of that old “Law of unintended consequences.” While NASCAR and Sprint were busy dressing up the sport and striving to polish its “image”, they succeeded not only in driving away many of the old-school fans, but many of the high dollar sponsors as well. That couldn't work forever folks, so today we see an ever-increasing number of empty seats in those once sold out palaces of racing.
This past weekend was a perfect example. It was Bristol. BRISTOL! And the empty spaces in the stands were enough to astound any fan with a memory. These were seats that used to be left to heirs in wills. Seriously!
The decline has been gradual, and has been continually denied... or covered up by deceptive comparisons to only the past year and not the prosperous times that went before. Last year, there was a beautification program at several tracks that included widening the seats... for greater fan comfort, of course. Really? It couldn't have been to lend the appearance of more folks than were actually attending, could it?
And those fannies that aren't in the seats now, whose fannies are they? Why, the folks with names like Trey and Jamie, whose fast-paced generation soon grew tired of sitting still and moved on to whatever the next big interest of youth might be, along with the older folks that simply grew weary of changes made for the sake of change alone and moved on with a life away from the tracks. Not much in the way of brand loyalty to be found in either one of those camps, and that's not a good thing for any sport.
I am not an economist, but I believe I possess more than a modicum of something called common sense and have the ability to apply basic logic and follow it to a conclusion. No one will argue the fact that within NASCAR, it is all about the money, and that no doubt applies to sponsors as well as the big brass in Daytona. Just follow the money trail folks.
If sponsors and their corporate pencil pushers have figured out that the bottom line is dropping and no longer justifies the massive advertising budgets demanded in NASCAR, they are going to rescind that sponsorship, and in many cases have already done so. It’s not just the economy, as some suggest; it’s the bottom line. If the fans do not support the sponsors, then there is little reason for the sponsors to support the sport.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress...
As stated in the beginning, this old NASCAR fan has always been an avid fan of “Classic Country” music also (Didn’t ya just know that!) and many years ago, Hank Snow recorded a song whose lyrics might well describe the situation that now prevails. The song was originally about a love affair, but it’s not much of a stretch to apply the logic to NASCAR racing today.
“Warning signs are flashing by us but we pay no heed;
‘Stead of slowing down the pace, we keep picking up the speed.
Disaster’s gettin’ closer every time we meet,
Goin’ 90 miles an hour down a dead end street.”
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