2010 Indianapolis 500

[beachbum]

I read an article concerning the decline in Indy 500 ratings this year. One person commented and claimed it is "Because NASCAR is booooooooooooooooooooooooring," his spelling, not mine.

I wouldn't call racing a "niche sport". In terms of global audience Formula One is second only to soccer.

In the US, F1 is definitely a niche sport. A few years ago, the TV ratings for F1 in the US were below the IRL.

In the world of sports entertainment, I still believe racing in general is a niche. As a big race fan, it pains me to say that. But if you look at the overall ratings and interest, the popularity has been declining slowly for a long time. Sure some events still bring in good rating's numbers - Indy, the Daytona 500, but society (at least in the US) has moved form the machine and industrial age to the electronic and environmental age. It is no accident racing series are trying to portray themselves as "green" and promote the technology to suggest relevance. Even NASCAR is moving toward electronic fuel injection and "green" fuels.

The demise of racing has been talked about for decades. Read some articles from 20 years ago, and racing should have been dead by now. Racing perseveres, but has struggles to maintain the current fan base. Some racing series are almost dead or finding it hard to survive. Years ago, I raced off-road motorcycles. The series I ran had events almost every week. Now they have a handful a year due to land closures. Many local short tracks are now housing developments or shopping centers. Take away the local feeder series, and professional racing suffers.

[Mark in Oshawa]

In the US, F1 is definitely a niche sport. A few years ago, the TV ratings for F1 in the US were below the IRL.

In the world of sports entertainment, I still believe racing in general is a niche. As a big race fan, it pains me to say that. But if you look at the overall ratings and interest, the popularity has been declining slowly for a long time. Sure some events still bring in good rating's numbers - Indy, the Daytona 500, but society (at least in the US) has moved form the machine and industrial age to the electronic and environmental age. It is no accident racing series are trying to portray themselves as "green" and promote the technology to suggest relevance. Even NASCAR is moving toward electronic fuel injection and "green" fuels.

The demise of racing has been talked about for decades. Read some articles from 20 years ago, and racing should have been dead by now. Racing perseveres, but has struggles to maintain the current fan base. Some racing series are almost dead or finding it hard to survive. Years ago, I raced off-road motorcycles. The series I ran had events almost every week. Now they have a handful a year due to land closures. Many local short tracks are now housing developments or shopping centers. Take away the local feeder series, and professional racing suffers.

I think you are pessimistic a little here. Racing is a VERY large niche if it is a niche, but I will admit there is change in the industry. Tracks come and go, and have been going lately. That said, NASCAR has plateaued, I wouldn't say they have disappeared...

It is just the IRL that has lost a LOT and cant find their way back. Bob's point that the gearheads have been crapped on is very true, but it is a complex issue, and the way back will be by making a lot of incremental changes, not one large change without changing anything else.

[e2mtt]

...
The gear-heads used to be the fan base and they have been crapped on royally.

Something that has to be remembered... the gear-heads change, & there are many different kinds of them. Car culture is still huge, there are still millions of people who customize their cars, race everything from dirt oval tracks to shifter go-karts, play racing video games, restore classics, you name it.

However, if a racing series doesn't appeal to:

Fans of Formula style road course racing,
Fans of rough & tumble short track racing,
Fans of high-tech cutting edge engineering,
Fans of old fashioned back-yard engineering,
Fans of customization & ingenuity,
Fans of the local driver,
Fans of the major cars makes competing against each other,
Fans of tradition,

It probably won't have many fans, nor stay around long.

[anthonyvop]

However, if a racing series doesn't appeal to:

Fans of Formula style road course racing,
Fans of rough & tumble short track racing,
Fans of tradition,

And how do you appeal to those groups without pissing off the other?
In general fans of Formula style road racing look down on the short trackers and vice-versa.
Tradition means a lot to some people and is ancient history to others.

[Mark in Oshawa]

And how do you appeal to those groups without pissing off the other?
In general fans of Formula style road racing look down on the short trackers and vice-versa.
Tradition means a lot to some people and is ancient history to others.

They were all watching CART in the early 90's. I am a fan of all those types of racing too.....what group you going to dump me in?

[Anubis]

The Generic formula is a bigger issue than the drivers. I do agree tho, the fans want one of their own to cheer on, but you cant dumb down the world so your guys can keep up. Fans flock to races in Canada where they may have one guy in the field. Some years we had none. I think the personality of the guys at the top of the series is a lot of what you need, and if the people in marketing with the IRL cannot use people like Dix, Dario and Helio (not to mention Ms. Judd) then it isn't the fan who is not getting it, it is the marketing department.

I don't think this is exclusively an ICS issue to be honest. Look at GP2. Supposed to be the main feeder to F1, but it's virtually invisible. I'm a huge formula racing fan, but I haven't got a clue who's in GP2 at the moment, let alone how I can actually watch any of the races. For all the moaning on here, the ICS online service is pretty damn good IMO (ditto ALMS). I'd love to be able to (legally) watch GP2, WSR 3.5 and stuff like Euro3000 (or whatever it's called this week), but it's so far off radar it's ridiculous. Quite how you rectify that I don't know, as you always run the risk of marketing it to the point where you completely spoil the original message (and end up with something ghastly like Superleague). I just think in this internet age there's simply too many other distractions out there.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I don't think this is exclusively an ICS issue to be honest. Look at GP2. Supposed to be the main feeder to F1, but it's virtually invisible. I'm a huge formula racing fan, but I haven't got a clue who's in GP2 at the moment, let alone how I can actually watch any of the races. For all the moaning on here, the ICS online service is pretty damn good IMO (ditto ALMS). I'd love to be able to (legally) watch GP2, WSR 3.5 and stuff like Euro3000 (or whatever it's called this week), but it's so far off radar it's ridiculous. Quite how you rectify that I don't know, as you always run the risk of marketing it to the point where you completely spoil the original message (and end up with something ghastly like Superleague). I just think in this internet age there's simply too many other distractions out there.

Its good, and it isn't deserving to be in the same sentence as GP2 and all the Euro formulae. They are looking like they are making new changes, they seem to have new ideas. It is just going to be one tough slog....