Loudon small crowd
 

I am a very casual Nascar fan - really only watch the NH race on TV but I was struck by how thin the crowd was yesterday. Has this happened in past years? Not even sure what a ticket costs to go but seeing that I hate traffic and crowds would rather watch from home. Just curious if Nascar is fading in popularity or if this is a sign of the economy not exactly firing on all cylinders for the middle class.

Long Term Trend
 

I think it has been a long term Trend that NASCAR race attendance is declining all over the country. The traffic going into the race on Sunday was minimal a couple of hours before the race. The stands appeared to be less than half full. This is the last year that NH will have two NASCAR races. Many years ago there was a waiting list for tickets and the stands were always full.

I wouldn't feel bad if the whole deal just went away....

I used to like it and now I have no idea why. :laugh:

I would say its not even 1/2 full and thats pretty much for all but a few races. Most track block out huge bleachers with advertising covering the seats which makes it look not so empty. I had to laugh at a WMUR live report from the race on the 6 pm broadcast. The anchor says "lets go to Loudon where 90,000 fans are at the track". Nope, maybe 35,000. I believe the capacity was around 90,000 and like Loudon, almost all tracks used to pretty much sell out the year before. Huge decline.

Right instead?
 

Maybe they need to go clockwise around the track...the leader turns right, goes fast, turns right again...repeat...for a few hours...

This new generation is into Eco Friendly vehicles. Maybe they should start racing electric cars. :D

Imagine how long the race would take to finish... the pit stops would take hours while the drivers plug in the cars.:look:

Probably be more fun to watch than what they do now!:D 20 cars all going the same speed around an oval 500 times while sitting and watching in aluminum bleachers in the blazing July heat.... and they wonder why people don't go??

They already are racing "E Cars". There was an E Car race the same day on the streets of NYC.

R2B

Loudon small crowd
 

You've got it, ishoot308, but, maybe what they need is some "during lap entertainment", say, a roped off area in the infield where you can watch grass grow.

Sure beats the hell out of watching a baseball game, where you literally watch the grass grow.
I still feel and have stated before, that a large part of the dwindling crowds is the fact that all the local hotels are gouging the public by more than doubling and tripling the price of a nights stay. I have been going to at least one race per year for 25 years and used to see more license plates from out of state than NH plates. Not any more..Mass and vermont are about it now.
I'll be going to the Watkins Glenn NY race in two weeks and am only paying 65$ a night in a beautiful hotel..Oh ya and the race is already sold out. NH tourism need to get it's **** together and fix this problem.
I know racing isnt for everyone, but the more you follow it the more you see what is going on and the reason it is entertaining to millions of people.

Rant complete

Tourism is up every year, While the race is down every year. People I know that use to go in the past just don't go (or watch) any more, It has simply lost a lot of fans. As has baseball, But the money in baseball still grows, which will hurt it in the long run since it makes them reluctant to change.

I'm a car guy and always will be but I went to one race when the track was booming and sold out many years ago and I would never go back. I thought it was boring and after so many laps you can't tell who are the leaders unless you have it on radio because you can't hear a dam thing. I've been offered free tickets and it's just not for me. I would rather go to a small local short track and watch junkers race.

That doesnt explain why the numbers are less than half what they were for every race in the country.

I agree it certainly isn't just a NHMS problem. Just Google the TV ratings as well. Not as many people care as they did before and to piggyback on that, the Red Sox are in first place and their TV viewership is down 12% this year. May be a trend in sports that aren't the NFL.

NASCAR shot itself in the foot when it required racers to build cars based around the same design.

Gone are the classic battles of Chevy vs. Ford vs. Mopar.

It used to be that the cars racing at the track actually were based on the cars people could buy: not any more.

I can understand the need to change: race cars are rear wheel drive, and fewer and fewer American cars are rwd these days.

The loss of interest is not limited to NASCAR; auto racing is suffering across the board, including Indy car and Formula 1.

I used to have tickets for both races but gave them up. Like a lot of folks, I lost interest. Maybe Bob Bahre knew something we didn't when he decided to sell the track!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

The NFL is down too. http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-r...o-slump-2017-2

Politics did not help them at all last season. I and many others do not want to see protests at the bench by whiny little wanna be social justice warriors or listen to the player's opinion on anything but the game. I love the Pats and Brady but I do not want or need to hear one political comment from him. And that includes a political comment or stance I may even agree with!

Crazy good timing.The year he sold NASCAR was at its peak(2008).He sold for I believe $350 million.I was reading an artical that the guesstimated value is now abut $250 million.
Also,I've seen for more than a few years the blocking out of large sections of seats for ads so the place doesnt look so empty.I noticed at Louden that there were seats missing at turn 3-4.They removed a huge section.They used to have 101,000 seats and now they show 88,000.This peaked my curiosity and I found out that many tracks have removed 10,s of thousands of seats so the place doesnt look so empty.don't recall which but one went from around 140,000 to 100,000.In all there have been almost half,yes half a million seats removed since nascars peak in 2008!

"Excitement" Can Be Found Nearby...
 

There may be more car excitement happening soon in the Speedway's parking lot! :cool:

Scheduled for July 29th is the Tire Rack Teen Street Survival School. Sponsored by the White Mountain Chapter of the national BMW Club. Their banner:

"Teens have an 89.2% chance of being involved in a crash during the first three years of driving."

Registration is normally closed by a month in advance of such schools, but here's what the Club's BMW Foundation says:

"Saturday July 29th, 2017 8:00am - 5:00pm
Tire Rack Street Survival School
Do you want to make your teen a safer and smarter driver? This BMW Foundation sponsored event helps licensed drivers 21 years old and under learn skills beyond plain old Drivers Ed. Held in the parking lot at New Hampshire Motor Speedway New Hampshire Motor Speedway
(details)
(directions)
COST: $75"

("Tire Rack" is based in Ohio, and was well known 30 years ago, when BMW Driver's Schools caught on—accelerating the loss of interest in a "500-lap parade". Bring any car to their schools, but check their local restrictions on convertibles).

* Club Motorsport event scheduled for October.

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I still have tickets and agree attendance is way down. I remember when you could tell one manufacturer from another and root for a brand a driver or both. Having gone to Charlotte for the driving experience the cars aren't that hard to drive at speed but thats without 40 other hungry vultures out there. While I thing in theory attempting to bring costs down by rules changer to save independent teams it also watered down the events hence decline in market share. Changing rules to satisfy a few and sacrificing the majority was and still is not good for anybody especially the fans. JMHO

I've always had a love for cars and seeing them go fast. Back in the day (circa 1975), I used to occasionally bring my 440 Roadrunner to Wednesday street (grudge) night at Epping. That was a lot of fun. (Sure wish I still had THAT!) My son purchased 2 Nascar ride along groupons for a Father's Day present. I had never been to the Speedway in person and found it very impressive. Well, I had the ride of my life! It's sure one thing to watch racing on TV or even at the track but totally to different to experience it. Kinda like watching parachuting and then actually going up and jumping out of a plane. The visceral experience of hearing (and feeling) the deafening sound of the engine (should have brought ear plugs), the heat, the raw smell of fuel and uncatalyzed exhaust was such a treat to my senses. I was trying to take it all in while at the same time being rocketed down the acceleration lane and onto the track. The g-force going through the turns was amazing; it just didn't seem possible the car could corner that hard. We hit over 150 in the straights and then the impossibly hard braking took us down in seconds to about 100 into the banks. Definitely, the best father's day present I ever had! When the Andretti ride along experience returns, I would encourage any fans to give it a try. Maybe next time, I'll try driving as robmac did.

Circling The Drain
 

As others have posted, it's a nationwide trend. 15 years ago I was a season ticket holder after being waitlisted. For me it was the cookie cutter cars, fantom and competition cautions, penalties not being applied equally, those damned green/white/checkered flag finishes and now the foolish 'stage' segments.

Next year the September Race is no more in NH. It's moving to Las Vegas.