Nascars Rating Struggle, Who Will Save the Day?

May 4^th is one of the biggest stock car events, the Talladega Super Speedway, the problem?  No one cares.  It’s no secret that Nascar racing has had plenty of trouble recently holding on to its audience on a weekly basis. The series suffers from both an aging fan base and the lasting effects of a deep economic recession.

Television ratings are unequivocally down in the last decade—not surprisingly, major media partners including ESPN (DIS) and TNT (TWX) won’t be airing races next year. Stadium operators have even come to the realization that fans aren’t coming back, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce seating capacity at the tracks.

You’d think the success of a popular racer like Dale Earnhardt Jr. would correlate with the success of the sport. Not so. Yes, he’s a star with a loyal following, but Nascar needs to widen its audience. Earnhardt’s triumph at this year’s Daytona 500 hasn’t engaged the casual fan—TV ratings are down to levels not seen since 1997.

Despite fluctuations in the size of the household TV audience, a set of faithful fans will continue to watch. Such fans form the “minimum” audience number, those who watch no matter what. If anything, Earnhardt represents this group, the ones who love Nascar and aren’t going away.  Will Earnhardt be the new Tiger Woods of Nascar?

To read the full article check out:  www.businessweek.com