As attendance dwindles NASCAR tracks continue removing seats

Fans are leaving and they ain't coming back

The removal of seats at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway came as no surprise. Both tracks had plenty of empty pockets of grandstands, and Charlotte wasn't even selling sections of its stands in 2014.

Alterations announced this week are in line with a trend of tracks removing seats. Charlotte, after removing 41,000 seats this winter, will be down to permanent seating of 89,000 in 2015, a startlingly low capacity considering its location in NASCAR's epicenter.

But it's par for the course. Atlanta is removing 17,000 seats to get down to 75,000; Dover is removing 17,500 seats to get down to 95,500; and Daytona is removing its backstretch grandstands of 46,500 next spring to go to 101,500 seats.

Other tracks on the circuit have made similar changes.

At its peak in 2007, International Speedway Corp.'s 12 major tracks had 1.1 million grandstand seats (not including suites). After the Daytona renovation, ISC will be down 30 percent to approximately 761,000 seats.

In 2013 alone, the following ISC tracks cut seats: Talladega (from 108,000 to 78,000), Richmond(91,000 to 71,000), Chicagoland (69,000 to 55,500), Michigan (84,000 to 71,000), California (81,000 to 68,000), Darlington (60,000 to 58,000) and Homestead (56,000 to 46,000). Any additional cuts likely will be revealed when its annual report comes out in January.

With the current Charlotte and Atlanta reductions, Speedway Motorsports has cut 101,000 seats (12 percent) across seven of its tracks since 2009, although it added 38,000 at Kentucky when it moved a Cup race to that track. SMI, which includes suites in its capacity estimates, cut capacity in 2013 at Atlanta (from 98,000 to 92,000), Bristol (158,000 to 153,000) and New Hampshire (96,000 to 95,000).

Dover listed 135,000 seats in 2009, so its reduction in recent years is 29 percent. At one point, it reduced 20,000 seats by replacing the current seats with wider ones for more fan comfort, a move done by many racetracks. Indianapolis and Pocono, privately owned, do not have to report their capacities, but Indianapolis also has removed seats.

Tracks obviously had too much grandstand space for a demand weakened by not just a rough economy but also decreased television ratings and a change in how fans consume live sports events. Removing seats is the smart answer.

Here's why.

Empty seats are not just a NASCAR problem; other sports teams have experienced declines. But empty seats damage NASCAR more than most sports.

Because NASCAR's economic model relies on sponsorships, empty seats aren't just lost ticket revenue. They show a lack of interest beyond those seats, and that means lost sponsorship for teams, tracks and NASCAR. Even if 75,000 or 80,000 people attend an event, a CEO sees 30,000 empty seats and has to wonder, "Why am I sponsoring a car?" or "Why are we advertising on this telecast?"

ISC officials have repeatedly said fans burned by rainouts and unable to stay an extra day have waited until the last minute to buy tickets. And if the weather forecast is bad, they don't buy. You think drivers were nervous during the Chase? You should see track presidents as they await the 10-day forecast before their race.

With so many seats, there is no urgency to buy tickets, allowing a fan to waver on the decision. Even if the weather looks good, fans might decide not to buy tickets they thought about purchasing months before.

So removing seats creates fan urgency. Buy now or the seat might not be available.

Many seats tracks are removing are between Turn 2 and Turn 4. Track officials will argue that those seats don't deliver great experiences because they are long walks to the fan zone and souvenir areas. They figure a mediocre experience results in a fan never coming back.

Tracks often can build corporate hospitality areas or high-end recreational vehicle spots (gated areas with food service) along those turns or the backstretch. It's like an outdoor suite experience.

Texas used to have 30,850 seats on its backstretch and now has 52 high-end RV spots overlooking the track that go for $15,000 for the season. That's $780,000 annually. Backstretch grandstands would have to be half-full at $26 apiece at both NASCAR events to cover that revenue, and there would need to be more to cover the additional costs of marketing and selling those seats, staffing the grandstands and concession area.

Expect tracks to experiment more with the areas where they took out seats, whether it be for hospitality or areas for events that target young adults who might want more of a festival atmosphere.

Removing seats is not in general a good sign. It means fewer people are coming to races, which means there's less interest in the sport overall or the speedways did such a poor job with amenities, infrastructure and traffic patterns that people would rather watch it on television. (FYI, 0.1 of a television rating equals 113,800 households, so even if a track has 30,000 fewer people at a race and they all watched in separate homes, it would barely be reflected in the ratings).

Cutting seats is an admission that the glorious crowds of the mid-2000s aren't going to return even though NASCAR sacked the uninspiring "car of tomorrow" and has improved racing in recent years. If track owners thought there was a short-term lull, they wouldn't be removing seats.

Their bottom lines show the glory days most likely aren't coming back. ISC's admissions revenue (for all events, not just NASCAR) plummeted from $253.7 million in 2007 to $129.8 million in 2013, a drop of 49 percent. Since 2009, SMI's dropped from $163.1 million to $106 million in 2013 (35 percent).

The numbers in 2014 show no growth. ISC saw a 0.1 percent increase in admissions revenue through August, but that includes the IndyCar race at California that was held in October in 2013. SMI saw a drop of 6 percent through September and Dover saw a drop of 8.3 percent for its two Cup weekends.

With these numbers, the tracks must get capacities to a point where they can maximize tickets and also help the sport as a whole with events that look full. Hopefully, this also means that they can increase wifi ability – fewer fans and fewer seating areas should mean fewer "no service" areas for fans wanting to use phones and other internet access devices. More at Sporting News