NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship Weekend: Three takeaways
By Ted Fleming
Here are three things that stood out following the final weekend of the 2016 NASCAR season at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
3. Why are attendance and TV ratings for NASCAR plummeting?
It was one of the more compelling weekends of the 2016 NASCAR season because three champions would be crowned in each of their top touring series. Fannies should have filled the seats of the rather smallish (46,000) Homestead-Miami Speedway and eyeballs glued to their televisions from Friday through Sunday, however that was not the case.
The main event, the Ford EcoBoost 400, had great storylines like a hotshoe who had done virtually everything except win a championship (Joey Logano), another who lost out on a title because of a tiebreaker (Carl Edwards – 2011), a third trying to go back-to-back for just the 11th time (Kyle Busch) and a six-time champion attempting to tie a pair of Hall of Fame legends for the most ever (Jimmie Johnson).
So why did the Sprint Cup and NASCAR season ender lay such an egg in the stands and the ratings?
The amount of empty seats at Homestead-Miami is a trend that is happening all over the country, probably because fans can kick back and watch their big-screen TVs in the comfort of their own home for an experience that nearly duplicates the track experience. But if there is one thing that is becoming increasing alarming for NASCAR officials is the drop in ratings.
Sunday put the lid on a season of declining numbers and the EcoBoost 400 on NBC took a major hit, like a 25-percent drop from just a year ago. If there was anything to brag about, the 3.32 overnight rating was better than what ESPN did in the final year of their NASCAR contract posting a 2.92 in 2014, however, it is a kind of apples to oranges, cable versus network.
NASCAR on NBC is not going to compete against the Super Bowl, nothing can. But a more recent sporting event, Game 7 of the World Series, popped an overnight of 25.2. If NASCAR is to be taken seriously, single digits is not going to get it done, especially the low single digits.