Fan's Eye View ~ Are We Dumping The "old" Fans?
2/25/2014
Jim Fitzgerald
Greetings, my friends. Another Daytona 500 has come and gone, and the silliness of special rules has come to an end. No more qualifying races, and no more drafting and pack racing for now. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the big race and is all but locked into making the Chase for the Championship. We’re back to the “real racing,” and we’re on the road to Phoenix. It is there that we will see for the first time, NASCAR’s elite division use the new “Knockout Qualifying”, which along with the new Championship format was one of the biggest process changes to take place in the off-season.
Homestead-Miami Speedway is the end of the line for the Sprint Cup Series. Have some fans reached the end of their lines with NASCAR? SCREECH! Put on the
brakes. I asked him what he meant, and he told me he feels that all
of these changes are being made to bring in the new fans, the younger fans that
will (hopefully) be the hardcore fan base for years to come. Okay, so what’s wrong with that? “Because,” he said, “while NASCAR and the
tracks are trying to get new fans in the door, they are steadily pushing the
old loyal fans off of the back porch.” His statement really got me thinking, because there is
something that is going on that has been bothering me for quite some time. There is a certain track I have been going to
for more than 20 years. I pay for my
tickets in advance, they are mailed to me ahead of time, I go to the track,
watch the race, and go through the process to get my ticket purchase plan
started for the next year. Of course,
this gets me on their mailing/email distribution lists. When I get these lists, there is usually some
sort of special “deal.” My seats are on the front stretch, just past the
start/finish line, about fifteen rows up.
The only thing I can’t see is about five seconds worth per lap of racing
on the backstretch. I pay about $XX.00
for these tickets. Not a horrible price,
I suppose. Then the “deal” comes in, and
I see where I can get a seat, general admission (which means I can sit anywhere
in that section), at the exit of turn three (where you can still see a good bit
of the track), and I get the use of a Sprint Fan Vision or a Racing Electronics
Scanner, all for the nice tight total of $XX.00-15.00, or -30.00 for those
under 14 years of age. So, wait…what? I’ve
been coming here for twenty years still paying what I do, with no perks, and
you’re going to give some fly-by perhaps one time ticket buyer a decent seat,
and a scanner or Fan Vision, all for less than I am paying? Umm, okay?
Beyond that, I camp when I go to the races. No frills here, folks. One of the guys who I camp with routinely
will buy tickets the night before the race from the ticket office of the track,
and get better seats than I have for about the same price. So, from my point of view, it appears as if I
should stop reserving my tickets and the seats I have had for years, and just
buy them when I get to the track on Sunday. No, I’m too structured for that. However, it does support my friend’s
theory. The “long-time fans” are just as
they are labeled, and probably don’t require the perks and deals that are being
used to try to get more bodies into the seats.
I am a little interested to see if these tactics work. And what about the changes in the sport? Have they been put into place to satisfy the
“bigger, brighter, better, faster, more, now!” generation, while ignoring those
who have been around and have been fans of the sport for years? It certainly feels like the sport is changing.
I know there are a lot of fans who were very put off by The Chasse when it went
into effect. Now, with this new
Elimination format, some of those fans are still not happy, but they are a
little less upset. Time will tell if these
changes are for better or worse. Rest
assured that the cost will be counted at some point. As for my friend, the connection to NASCAR he has is now
rather weak. He dislikes the Chase as
well, and is not a Jimmie Johnson fan.
In his mind, Johnson’s championships are a direct result of the
Chase. He barely watches racing anymore,
but I know he will be watching the Daytona 500, because, like some “old school”
fans, he’s glad to see the No. 3 back on the track. When I get to my race this year,
I’ll be casting an eye toward those general admission sections to see how full
they are, and if it was at the expense of the other sections of seating at the
race track. Will fans give up their
current seats to take advantage of “the deal?” Would you?
It was of the new processes in the sport that a friend and I
were speaking and while I think some of the changes may be a bit on the radical
side, perhaps they may actually be ahead of the curve. If Brian Frances wants a “Game Seven Moment,”
by golly, he’s going to get it with four drivers going head to head (to head to
head) with a title on the line at Homestead.
We then talked about the rule changes and the new qualifying format, and
it was at this time that he said, “Honestly, Jim, sometimes I feel like NASCAR
racing is leaving me behind.”