Food for Thought....The Last Generation?
Stock Car Racing History
The discussion on banks forgiving loans to the NASCAR HOF seems to be a hot topic. I was browsing those comments and was glad to see that a lot of posts supported the HOF and many were hoping that a way could be found to better market the venue and increase attendance. I think the HOF is a beautiful facility that pays tribute to a host of NASCAR legends. Of course there will always be lively banter about the selection process and who should or should not be in the hall. But that's not where I'm going with this. The comments about better marketing the hall reminded of a post I read on an NHRA website. Basically it was soliciting ideas about the best ways to expand the sport of drag racing, and of course, what was wrong or right with the current ops plan for those folks. There were a multitude of ideas presented, as you can imagine. But one post really caught my attention. A fellow stated that he has a 13 year old son. Normal boy, in that he likes sports, plays football and baseball, likes music, and girls, etc. The dad is a diehard motorsports fan and stated he has taken his son to about every event that featured an internal combustion engine, lol. NASCAR races, truck and tractor pulls, and NHRA events. He said that at the last NHRA event they attended, they were watching the first round of qualifying for the nitro cars. After the first matchup, the son looks at the dad and says "Do we have to watch anymore of this?" Dad states son would much rather be at the Traxxas tent watching the R/C car stunts. He went on to state how few young people are attending live motorsports events of all genres and that we, whoever that applies to, might just be the last generation of fans for live motorsports. I think it would be easy to simply label the young man as a weirdo or throw rocks at drag racing or the NHRA. But that's not the point. I'm not taking any sort of position on this, but it did get me to thinking about our own NASCAR HOF. Spoken like the old guy that i've become, it does seem to me that young people have no interest in the legends or pioneers of any sport. Even more disturbing is, at times, a total lack of respect for the participants that built a sport. Given that, is the HOF doomed to fail, if for no other reason, that new fans simply do not care about the history of the sport and those who built it? Are our track facilities far behind? Does the "new generation" have enough interest in going to races to keep the sport afloat? Are fistacuffs after every race the only way to obtain and maintain interest in our sport? If I'm giving the impression that i'm down on youth, I am not. If live motorsports is not their thing, then that's no knock on them, as it is their prerogative. But what does it spell for our sport down the road? Thougts?
updated by @brian-hill: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM