Why doesn't NASCAR get itself together in the States before it tries to become a worldwide brand? Of course the answer is always money. NASCAR's TV ratings have been down for the last couple of years. Tracks aren't selling all their tickets like they were a few short years ago. So, instead of trying to correct these trends, NASCAR says screw the U.S. let's go to Canada, Mexico, and soon to Europe. It reminds one of a traveling carnival that moves on once it has bled all the marks, suckers, and fanboys.
NASCAR has tried this global thing before. They went to Japan in the 90s, and though not officialy sanctioned, some teams went to Australia a few times back in late 70s or early 80s. Never mind that NFL Europa just folded, NASCAR thinks it can succeed where a stronger sports brand has failed. NASCAR, the rest of the world thinks that running around kicking a soccer ball back and forth for ninety minutes is entertaining. They might come see the first race or two out of curiosity, but eventually it will tank.
NASCAR has long taken it's core fans for granted. With the economy the way it is, these fans are going to want as much #### as they can get for their disposal income. It will be interesting to see if NASCAR makes an effort to get the U.S. fan back when attendence drops, or if Brian France keeps strangling the goose that laid the golden egg.
Of course there is one thing that can cure NASCAR's TV ratings and lagging attendence. That would be Dale Earnhardt Jr. doing something he hasn't done in a year and a half, winning a Cup race. The old NASCAR would make sure that Jr. ran up front and won some races. After all, what could be better for ratings than your most popular driver actually winning. It will be interesting to see which direction NASCAR takes.
Some very good points. I will add in my case as some know on here. The Nascar races have been picked up by SKY satalite and they have put most of the races on their 3rd channel and some on the extra channel. Now over here in the UK you can get the one sports channel and get the next one free and so on and each channel you get more so dose what it cost.
So I need to pay extra to get the 3 sport channels so I have that extra too to boot. around £25.00+. Now to pay that much to watch 3 to 4 races on sunday in a month. They do it for the NFL over here the live games are on channel 3 and they reair it the next day on channel 2.
You think anyone who might be intrested in finding out if they like NASCAR will pay that ? NO !
Good stuff! Why expand globally, when the two largest markets in the U.S. don't care? NYC (Staten Island track failure)? How'd that work out? California can't sell out it's races, and TV ratings are plummeting there as well.
What is this constant desire to expand? Cautionary tale: what happened when hockey decided to expand well out of it's core fan base to places like Miami, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Phoenix, Atlanta, etc. The sport's never been in worse shape! NASCAR better be careful going away from places like Rockingham and Darlington to add California and Chicago. How long 'til Chicago (and KC?) lose interest the way Cal. has?
Isn't NASCAR in perfectly good shape the way it is now? Forget about expansion and focus on improving the product you have now!!!
s2d.....Exactly. NASCAR better have a contingency plan when all the new fans go on to the next flavor-of-the-month, and all those new cookie cutter tracks aren't even half full.
I guess you can say that. Lucky a friend loans me his SKY box for the night, and I help him out on his store. He keeps wanting me to eat and drink for free to for what I do for him. I keep saying you don't realize what you are doing for me loaning the box to me. lol
Last edited by Forensic2 on February 14th at 5:26 PM.
I don't really see NASCAR being successful into venturing outside the states for more races. I think they should work a bit harder to win back the core fans in the US. ALso bringing back one or two of the short tracks in the Southeast would be one step closer to going back to its roots.
Since I live in the Chicago area, I would of course like to see them keep that race on the schedule. But there are enough 1.5 mile tracks that I would like to see some with two Cup dates give one back to a short track.
As with any business going global, there will be many failures and some limited success.
Globl expansion is usually taken on with the culture that the fans or customers have the same mind set as we do in America. That is the worst assumption any business can assume.
Other countries have different views and cultures that are contradictory to our thought processes. Untill a business can understand that, they are prone to failure and the landscape is littered with many business failures that had the wrong mindset. NASCAR is a good example but there are others.
Gerrel and jon: AMEN!!! To me, the Southern 500 should always be on Labor Day weekend, and should be marketed as one of NASCAR's "majors" along w/ Daytona, Indy, and the Coca-Cola.
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