Posted on 05/16/2012 6:44:20 AM PDT by Texas Eagle
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has been considered America’s fastest growing sport, quickly becoming a national phenomenon. But a new economic study shows even NASCAR’s powerful engines haven’t been able to keep up with the Obama-era economy.
The study, from the pro-market think tank Public Notice and Race Fans 4 Freedom, finds that the economic downturn of the last several years has directly affected how NASCAR fans watch and enjoy their sport. Since 2009, race attendance per year has fallen below 4 million people, and the number has been declining severely as the unemployment rate has skyrocketed. The cost of attending—with higher gas prices, less disposable income, and diminished financial security—has increased.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
For 55 dollars we got seats we had to be shoe-horned into. 10 dollar hamburgers. 7 dollar hotdogs. 4 dollar bottles of water.
And don't even get me started with NASCAR's increasing associations with green technology, ethanol, etc.
And then there's the sucky announcers who apparently don't even watch the race. There can be white-knuckle 4-wide racing for the lead and those idiots are talking about something that happened ten laps ago or some other worthless piece of information.
Whew! It feels good to get that off my chest.
Oh, and for you search Nazis, I did a search so keep it to yourself if somebody else already posted this story.
They went overboard trying to “mainstream” NASCAR.
On the other hand, most entertainment is hurting in the Obama “recovery”; the NY Giants went through a 30 year waiting list for season tickets in 6 months.
You forgot about the stupid “Car of Tomorrow”. Who wants to watch a race where all of the cars are identical except for the paint and decals. They don’t resemble any production car, they’re boxy and ugly. Why would a win by any manufacturer make me want to got out and buy one of their cars?
Dang! Beat me to it. :)
Individuality: you used to be able to tell at a glance what make of automobile was on the track. For instance, a Ford looked like a Ford, and resembled the street version of the same make. You could look at the cars and say "that's an Impala" or "That's a Thunderbird".
Now, I suppose in the interest of fairness, the cars on the track are all the same shape, with distinctions between makes painted on. Without the logo on the hood, you can't tell a Chevy from a Ford from a Toyota...
Mike
One of the few parts of the mainstream economy 0bama hasn’t destroyed are gun, ammo and 2nd amendment related. The prepper industry has flourished as well.
Does NASCAR even remember what “stock car” actually means?
HA! You mean The Car Of Yesterday. Idiotic air dams in the front that drivers used to flatten other drivers' tires. A rear wing that drivers couldn't see through.
Plus, now the damn things are set up so the rear tires stick out farther than the front tires so the cars look like crabs rolling down the straightaways.
What do the drivers even do anymore? Sudoku puzzles?
Bring back the 1986 Monte Carlo, Thunderbird, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs. As boxy as those cars looked, at least they had personality.
Yeah, yeah. I know those cars aren't even produced anymore.
Well, the Monte Carlo may still be in production. I'm not sure.
There's the rub. I read a story last month that Humpy Wheeler was trying to raise 40 million bucks from NASCAR fans to pay for the 'RATS' convention in Charlotte. WT....? It would seem that Humpy would know NASCAR fans a hell of a let better than that after all of his years of running Charlotte. What a maroon.
Lots of male drivers have their seats for the same reason. That guy who owns Danica's Nationwide ride, for one.
At least some good has come from all this, then.
In fairness, the number of people who would today buy a V-8, RWD, stick shift family car is probably less than 2% of the total market. (although you and I certainly would).
At the same time, the number of fans who would buy tickets to watch 4-cylinder cars with auto and FWD race around 'Dega is if anything much smaller.
So it's no surprise that the relationship between NASCAR and the showroom is effectively zero.
Yep, the mid-'80s were good for NASCAR and for the manufacturers. The decades-old "Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday" plan rolled more than a few Monte Carlos, Regals and T-Birds off of the showroom floors. That is no longer the case.
IMHO, though, NASCAR's zenith occurred between 1965 and 1970, that era of the Holman-Moody prepped Fords and the winged Mopars. I used to love watching the brief video summaries of the races on Wide World of Sports.
Bump drafting HAS ruined NASCAR.
How could they use production cars these days? They are unibody, front-wheel-drive 4- or 6-cylinder appliances these days.
The 2013 car should restore a bit of indivduality. But NASCAR (at least on some tracks) is primarily about the skill of the driver. The engineers and crew chief are still important, but not like in drag racing.
NASCAR has been trying too hard to appeal to people who look down their noses at the sport. In doing so, they are alienating many of the true fans of the sport. The cars are boring, the races are vanilla, and there are only a handful of drivers with equipment that can actually win. I too have gone from traveling a couple times per year to see races to only watching them on TV if I have nothing better to do.
But if you take a look over at IRL, it looks like it is being run by the same jokers that have Little League kids going to bat dressed like hockey players.
True, but...if government didn't drive up the cost of such vehicles, and the price of fuel, they might still be popular.
Thanks to CAFE and environuts, people are driving around in tiny, dangerous cars.
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