A Voice for the Fans ~ Where Have All the Fans Gone?
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I bid
you welcome gentle readers, and of course a warm welcome as well to our
assigned reader of all things NASCAR, be you human or computer. By the end of
the column, we usually have been upgraded to a human several steps up the
ladder, so let’s get on with this one.
It’s
Tuesday morning as I belly up to the keyboard, and the Martinsville overnight
ratings have just come out. I think I’ll just go back to bed. How much more
discouraging can it get? A 2.2, down 12% from last year’s 2.5… which was down
42% from 2014’s 3.8. That, gentle readers, is painful for me to read. For the
current climate in NASCAR racing, which is frigid, to be sure, the crowd at the
track looked quite good. Of course, since the numbers fell through the floor
over the past few years, NASCAR no longer published attendance figures, much as
they no longer publish monies won by drivers in any race. It’s all part of
their new “transparency” policy, I guess.
OK race
fans, I have to be missing something. As stated, the crowd at the track looked
pretty good from my living room, yet the ratings are much like the ones for a
pre-season Triple-A Baseball game. NASCAR has come through, albeit
condescendingly, with a lower downforce set-up that has improved racing,
especially at those snooze-fest 1.5-mile tracks that the sport is overrun with
today.
Racing
at Martinsville needs no help, and never has. She is a little world unto
herself, and the racing is always good… never lacking for excitement… and the
cameras seemed to do a better job of showing some of that this week, maybe
because she’s only a half-mile around. Folks, educate this scribe please? What
in the consarn cat-hair do you want? We have a race
at the best track on the circuit; the weather is cool but beautiful, with
bright sunshine all day long. Why, oh why, was no one watching?
Oh, I
know the first thing I’ll hear in the comments is that it was boring because
Kyle Busch led a lot of laps and won the race. NO! It was not boring, and
besides, how would you know? You weren’t even watching! Kyle Busch won because
he raced his a$$ off and earned it, and anyone that doesn’t like that is free
to stop reading right now. He drives for a top team, Joe Gibbs Racing, and has
a crackerjack pit crew as well. If his name were Dale Earnhardt Jr., you’d
still be applauding… oh, but you weren’t watching, so your applause would have
come later, on social media.
Gentle
readers, this is a spiel such as I haven’t written since circa 2004, and at
that time it was anyone even remotely associated with Brian Z. France that drew
my wrath. Today, that is not the case. That man will never see racing in the
same light as I do, but you… you call yourself race fans, and that title
becomes more laughable by the minute. No, I’m not implying in any way that none
of you are race fans. I’ll align myself with anyone still watching and enjoying
stock car racing, but I no longer care to be associated with the hypocrites
that walk among us.
There
is a group of folks out there that cling to the title of “race fan” as though
it were created for them alone, yet from the other side of their mouths spew words
of derision and downright hate at times for any and all things related to
racing today. That is never to be confused with racing “yesterday” or perhaps
yesteryear would be a more appropriate word. These are folks that long for what
used to be and cannot tolerate what is. They wouldn’t be happy if fed milk and
honey from a golden spoon unless a driver from the distant past were
administering the cocktail. Their greatest happiness comes from putting down
others, and Kyle Busch seems to head that list of others at the moment. That
will change; it always does, but they’ll be just as nasty and accusatory then
as they are now, just toward some other unlucky recipient.
When
Sunday’s race had ended, one of the cameras caught Kyle, alone for a moment or
two with his baby son Brexton. Unaware that anyone
was nearby with a camera, he was making googly faces for the baby and rubbing
noses. Both father and son were laughing uproariously and obviously having the
time of their lives playing with each other. Really folks, who can hate that?
Remember, NASCAR is a “family sport” and has always been billed as such.
Another
thing was caught on camera after the race. If you click right about here, you’ll be swept away to the
pages of WCNC.com where a short video awaits you, filmed by Kyle’s wife,
Samantha Busch. If more drivers treated their fans this way perhaps more of you
might be watching… or not. I realize that words from me won’t change a single
thing or convince a single one of you to turn on that TV. You feel it has
become somehow “fashionable” to be anti-racing, or more to the point,
anti-NASCAR, and vote with your TV tuner. That is fine; the choice will always
be yours; but would you do the rest of us a huge favor and stop calling
yourselves race fans?
I’ve
been told many times that my love for racing comes through clearly in my words,
and I hope more than at any other time, that is true today. This is not the article
that was in my head as I went to bed. This is what came out as I started to
type and slowly realized I was mad as that proverbial wet hen. Back in January,
long before this season even began, I wrote a column entitled “Improving the Fan Experience”, which is NASCAR speak for
telling the world they are doing it all for us, when in reality, they are doing
it for money, and we are but a necessary nuisance.
In that
column, I answered a question that was asked of me only a few days ago by
someone that respects my thoughts and opinions concerning racing, both today
and yesterday, but he had somehow missed it. This is an excerpt from that
column that pertains to the cable TV ratings and why NASCAR signed a 10-year
$8.2 Billion contract with them and then allows races to be shown on
off-channels instead of the main broadcast channels, FOX and NBC.
Something even funnier by way of an excuse, and
this is by no means only applicable to Richmond, but nationwide, is the idea
that fans are not going to the tracks because “a lot of fans are choosing to
watch it from the comfort of their own homes.” Oh, please allow an old
lady to call BS on that one and scream it from a mountain top! One has
only to follow the TV ratings to know that fans have turned away from stock car
racing in vast numbers. The fans that remain are being used in an attempt to
boost the ratings of a couple of Cable channels, FOX Sports 1 and NBCSN. While
it’s true that airing races on those channels places them where many fans can’t
even get the channel or don’t choose to pay exorbitant Cable prices for the
privilege, it has still increased the channels’ viewership to a great degree.
NBCSN is quite new in that format. It used to be VERSUS, and before that it
lived a lonely life as the Outdoor Life Network. FOX FS1 did not exist until
SPEED Channel disappeared from our TV sets, which makes it fairly easy to
understand that their ratings as cable channels had nowhere to go but up.
That’s
it in a nutshell, as they say… whoever “they” are. There is one more thing, or
maybe two, that I’d like to point out while we’re here. NASCAR on TV became a
reality with that much ballyhooed Daytona 500 on CBS way back in 1979. As it
slowly grew in popularity through the 1980s and 1990s, races were carried on
several channels… CBS kept rights to the Daytona 500 and ABC had the spring
race at Atlanta. NBC wasn’t interested in racing back then, so as new tracks
began to come on air, they were for the most part shown on ESPN, TBS and a bit
later, TNN. Races on the main channels were very few compared to those on
Cable. Remember… those were the times when everyone claimed to be a race fan,
and I never heard one of them complain about races
being on Cable. When our little back woods Cable Company in Toccoa
finally got ESPN2, I took a single red rose in a pretty vase to the gal there
that had worked so hard to get it for me. Back then, we wanted cable!
Today,
all we hear is complain, complain, and complain. It’s time to realize that
neither NASCAR nor the TV Networks are yours or mine; they are in business to
make money, as hard as that seems to swallow for many. Everything they do is
not necessarily mean or evil. This was a case of one hand helping the other.
NASCAR came out of the deal with $8.2 Billion guaranteed over a 10-year period
and the networks came away with a sure-fire way to build those budding babies
they put on the air as fledgling cable networks.
While
we’re on that subject, I hear over and over again that this or that person
can’t get FS1, yet in many cases I know for a fact that person watched SPEED
Channel religiously. Want to know a fun fact? It’s the SAME CHANNEL! When my
Cable Company learned that SPEED would be leaving, they obligingly took it off
the higher tier and put it down where it had always belonged, in my humble
opinion. When the switch came, SPEED just faded away in the distance and FS1
was born; same bat time; same bat channel. If that didn’t happen for you, then
you ought to be seeking a new Cable Company because yours is doing you wrong. Every
channel involved in showing NASCAR this year should be on your lowest tier, and
they include FS1, FOX, FS2 (no races, only side programming), NBC, NBCSN, CNBC
and USA.
Well
gentle readers, I guess that will do for defending my Pretty Little
Martinsville for now. We’re off to Texas for one of those dreaded Saturday
night races. I wonder how low the ratings will dive for that one. I have no
stake in Texas other than a couple of friends that live within driving distance.
It’s one heck of a commute from North Georgia, and a trip I won’t be making in
this lifetime, but I still can’t believe the great number of you that didn’t
watch Martinsville. That is truly heartbreaking to this old lady.
Time
now for our Classic Country Closeout and we’re starting it out today with
Johnny Paycheck singing one of his biggest hits, “Take This Job and Shove it!”
As soon
as I put that music on, I recalled having written a parity version sometime
back in 2014. Since then, I must say that most of the complaints contained
within it have been answered since this was penned. That being the case, please
consider coming back to racing. To quote Donnie Allison when asked for his
thoughts on today’s racing, “You still go on green and race to the checkers.
It’s still racing.”
C’mon,
sing along and have some fun. For my part, I wrote this when things were
different. Those things are on the mend and I hope to always be a race fan.
Won’t you join me in that?
Take
This Sport and Shove It
Take
this sport and shove it; we ain't watchin' this no
more.
Brian
done come and killed all the reasons, we was racin' for.
Those
empty seats gonna stay that way, 'cause we done slammed the door!
Take
this sport and shove it; we ain't watchin' this no
more!
Well,
I been watchin' this racing thing, nigh on sixty-five
years
All
that time it's sure been fun, but also been a lot of tears.
Watched
a lot of good men die; they didn't have to go that way.
Now
it's time for the few fans left to stand right up and say...
Take
this sport and shove it; we ain't watchin' this no
more.
Brian
done come and killed all the reasons we was racin' for.
Empty
seats gonna stay that way, 'cause we done slammed the door!
Take
this sport and shove it; we ain't watchin' this no
more!
The
President's just a "yes" man and the CEO's an ass!
How
can anyone call it racin', when the cars can't even pass?
Parades
are lots of fun to watch, on days like the 4th of July
But
fans want to see real racin', and NASCAR doesn't even try!
Take
this sport and shove it; we ain't watchin' this no
more.
Brian
done come and killed all the reasons we was racin' for.
Empty
seats gonna stay that way, 'cause we done slammed the door!
Take
this sport and shove it; we ain't watchin' this no
more!
No
more buyin' your tickets; no more watchin'
on TV
There
ain't no racin' to be had; there's nothing left to
see.
You'll
find us watching football or maybe playin' in the
pool
But
we won't be watching racin', 'cause
we're tired of playin' the fool.
(So
you can)
Take
this sport and shove it; we ain't watchin' this no
more.
Brian
done come and killed all the reasons we was racin' for.
Empty
seats gonna stay that way, 'cause we done slammed the door!
Take
this sport and shove it; we ain't watchin' this no
more!
Now,
holding to my contention that NASCAR racing and Classic Country have always
belonged together, here is a lovely video of George Jones doing “Who’s
Gonna Fill Their Shoes?”
Next up
here’s Conway Twitty with a song I’ve always loved to
cry over, “That’s My Job.” Listen to the lyrics and imagine Kyle and Brexton.
Finally,
one that I just felt like playing because I love both the song and the singer.
This is Tex Ritter offering his version of “God Bless America Again.”
And… it
is now Wednesday evening, and the entire world of Country Music is in mourning
at the loss of one of our last truly Classic singers, Merle Haggard. I have no
pretty words tonight, only tears. Merle was just a year older than I am; the
big difference was, he could sing like an angel.
The
minute I got the word that Hag had died, I knew exactly what song I would offer
as my personal lament at his loss. Here then is the beautiful “Silver Wings.”
Rest in Peace Hag. You will be missed forever, but you’ve moved on to be with
some very great company.
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay