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Comment: I keep being told by avid NASCAR fans that NASCAR is the #1 sport in American with more fans attending NASCAR races than attend MLB, NFL and NBA combined. I find this very hard to believe but can't find any statistical analysis anywhere.
Help!!!!! I need to prove to these idiots how wrong they are...
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
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Without looking up figures, I don't think this is true. We'd have to find out how many races there are in a year, which I'm guessing is MUCH less than the number of games MLB NFL and NBA games played in a year.
Posts: 104 | From: Peabody, MA | Registered: Sep 2005
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Shouldn't he have said the #1 sports event or series? It can't be #1 sport as it isn't a sport, but just one form of one.
Posts: 121 | From: Berkshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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That most be one huge racetrack to hold more people than all the baseball, football and basketball stdiums
Posts: 135 | From: UK | Registered: Jan 2006
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It all depends on whay you mean by "NASCAR". Most people only think of the top-level Nextel Cup Series. There is also the Busch Series, the Craftsman Truck Series plus a bunch of other regional series and NASCAR-sanctioned local tracks.
Having said all that, I still don't think adding all those together add up to more than the combined total of MLB, NFL and NBA.
Posts: 403 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: May 2002
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Mr. Furious
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
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quote:Originally posted by OptimusShr: We'd have to find out how many races there are in a year, which I'm guessing is MUCH less than the number of games MLB NFL and NBA games played in a year.
In 2005, MLB attendance was 74,385,295, and NFL attendance was 17,200,324. The NBA drew 21,521,083 in the 2005-06 season, for a total of 113,106,702 across the three sports. I don't have NASCAR attendance figures, so it should be easy enough to prove/disprove once we have that.
quote:On a per-event basis, the Winston Cup is the most popular US sports league with a per-race average of over 170,000 fans. This compares to an NFL Average of 65,349 per game, and an NHL average of about 17,000 per game. In fact, even the second tier of the NASCAR series, the Busch Grand National Division averaged over 70,000 fans.
Wikipedia puts the per-race average at 186,000, with a total of 6.7 million. However, that only counts 36 NASCAR events, probably not including Busch and truck series races.
-------------------- This has been yet another... USELESS POST. Posts: 6105 | From: Mississippi | Registered: Sep 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Mycroft: That most be one huge racetrack to hold more people than all the baseball, football and basketball stdiums
Daytona International Speedway alone has seating for 168,000 (not including the space in the infield -- estimated race attendance for the Daytona 500 is 200,000+).
According to this site (which also provided the information above), NASCAR is "the second most popular sport in terms of television ratings, boasting 75 million fans."
It doesn't say if that's an annual figure over the course of a 36-race Nextel Cup season, or all of the NASCAR series however.
quote:On a per-event basis, the Winston Cup is the most popular US sports league with a per-race average of over 170,000 fans. This compares to an NFL Average of 65,349 per game...
It's kind of apples & oranges; there's 14 or so NFL games per week compared to one [Nextel] Cup race per week. As far as TV ratings the race is always a national broadcast while most of the NFL games are regional. A more accurate comparison would be NASCAR & PGA Golf, perhaps.
Also a football stadium can only be so big until visibility becomes a problem - I doubt one could hold much over 100,000 effectively.
-------------------- No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. -Wendell L. Willkie Posts: 3833 | From: Virginia | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:It's kind of apples & oranges; there's 14 or so NFL games per week compared to one [Nextel] Cup race per week. As far as TV ratings the race is always a national broadcast while most of the NFL games are regional.
The majority of the races this year are on Fox Sports. I may be mistaken, but isn't that a cable channel? The 'big' races (usually Daytona, Talledega, and the odd road-course every once in a blue moon) are broadcast on NBC.
An aside: Didn't football get it's own pay channel recently? Or am I thinking hockey?
quote:A more accurate comparison would be NASCAR & PGA Golf, perhaps.
Which, for reasons I've never understood, always seemed to follow each other in the broadcast schedule.
quote:Originally posted by Psihala: The majority of the races this year are on Fox Sports. I may be mistaken, but isn't that a cable channel?
I believe Fox broadcasts over the air - at least they do here. BTW the NFL National Conference games are on Fox. A lot of NASCAR races are also on TNT, which is included in basic cable in many places. You're probably talking about things like the NFL package (there's MLB & NHL also, I believe) that you can subscribe to & watch any game being broadcast.
-------------------- No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. -Wendell L. Willkie Posts: 3833 | From: Virginia | Registered: Oct 2001
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QUOTE]The majority of the races this year are on Fox Sports. I may be mistaken, but isn't that a cable channel? The 'big' races (usually Daytona, Talledega, and the odd road-course every once in a blue moon) are broadcast on NBC.
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I think your confusing the FOX network which is over the air with FOX SPORTS NET. which are regional sports networks ie, FOX SPORTS NORTH, FOX SPORTS WEST, FOX SPORTS FLORIDA etc.
The fist half of the season the NEXTEL CUP races are on FOX. and the FX calbe channle. Under the current NASCAR contract which expires at the end of this season FOX and NBC rotated coverage of the Daytona 500. NBC/TNT have been carrying the second half of the season. Starting next year, FOX will cover the Daytona 500 for the length of the new deal. I think five years but I'm not sure on that. Also after this season NBC/TNT will no longer cover NASCAR. The second half of the NASCAR season will be seen on ABC/ESPN starting next year.
NASCAR is very popular not only on TV but radio as well. Even radio stations in large markets like Chicago carry the NEXTEL CUP series. We run the races on one of our stations and the last two years we did not carry the All Stare 400 from Indianapolis moter sppeedway. That NASCAR race is carried by the Indy raceing network not by MRN (MOTER RACING NETWORK) OR PRN (PREFORMANCE RACING NETWORK). It costs extra for us to carry the Indy NASCAR race. I don't remember the exact amount but it is not cheap. So we opted not to carry it the last two seasons. You should have seen the phone lines light up with complaints. This year, we're carrying the Brick Yard race and making a big deal about it. So in this case anyway, complaining to the local staion made a difference. That and my boss probably became tired of me teling him about all the complaints we were recieveing. NASCAR is pretty big right now. Will it continue to be huge? Only time will tell.
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An aside: Didn't football get it's own pay channel recently? Or am I thinking hockey? [QUOTE]
The NFL Network is a cable channle that carries NFL related programming and preseason games and will have some late regular seaon games the last part of the season starting on Thanksgiving day as part of a football trippleheader. One game on FOX, one game on NBC, and one game on The NFL network. The gamS on NFL network will be made available in the two teams local markets for an over the air staion to pick them up much like ESPN does during its football coverage.
(edited to ad comment about NBC/TNT carrying the second half of the NASCAR seaon)
Ever notice how we always fall in love? We never climb gently in to love, or step lightly in to love. If love is such a good thing than why is it described as a fall. Posts: 918 | From: La Salle Illinois USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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-------------------- Come on, come on - spin a little tighter Come on, come on - and the world's a little brighter Posts: 5595 | From: Columbus, OH : The Soccer Capital of America | Registered: Sep 2002
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I really have a hard time understanding the appeal of watching cars drive very fast in a circle without hitting or shooting at each other, or money being bet.
-------------------- NO BETTER FRIEND, NO WORSE ENEMY -- "I grok when apes learn to laugh, they'll be people." Posts: 727 | From: Southeastern Arizona | Registered: Sep 2005
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I really have a hard time understanding the appeal of watching cars drive very fast in a circle without hitting or shooting at each other, or money being bet.
At an NHRA event I went to once, one of the vendors was selling a shirts that said "Real racers drive straight to the finish line [drag-racing]. Everyone else just drives drives around in circles looking for it."
-------------------- "I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, EVIL stuff... and I want in."- Homer Simpson Posts: 2161 | From: Delaware | Registered: Aug 2005
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I really have a hard time understanding the appeal of watching cars drive very fast in a circle without hitting or shooting at each other, or money being bet.
I thought the same thing until I met the woman I am now married to. My wife's entire family are NASCAR fans so when we were at their house on Sunday afternoon the race was on so that's what I had to watch. After a full season of just watching the race and listening to the announcers and the drivers I learned that indeed there is more to NASCAR than just cars tuning left. BTW they do turn right on the two road courses. I'm now a NASCAR fan and have been for many years.
Ever notice how we always fall in love? We never climb gently in to love, or step lightly in to love. If love is such a good thing than why is it described as a fall. Posts: 918 | From: La Salle Illinois USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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Man has been racing stuff around an oval as fast as possible for what, 3,000 years now? Though it would be more exciting to do it Roman chariot style & leave the wrecks on the track for the rest of the race.
hoi 'Caution laps? Hah!' toider
-------------------- No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. -Wendell L. Willkie Posts: 3833 | From: Virginia | Registered: Oct 2001
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I really have a hard time understanding the appeal of watching cars drive very fast in a circle without hitting or shooting at each other, or money being bet.
I thought the same thing until I met the woman I am now married to. My wife's entire family are NASCAR fans so when we were at their house on Sunday afternoon the race was on so that's what I had to watch. After a full season of just watching the race and listening to the announcers and the drivers I learned that indeed there is more to NASCAR than just cars tuning left. BTW they do turn right on the two road courses. I'm now a NASCAR fan and have been for many years.
-------------------- Born Free but now I am EXPENSIVE Posts: 5 | From: Arizona | Registered: Aug 2006
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