NASCAR pricing itself out of market

UPDATE In this weeks AutoWeek Al Pearce writes: "Television ratings are headed through the basement. Thousands and thousands of fans show up each weekend dressed as empty seats. NASCAR has backed off plans to build speedways in New York and Seattle and reportedly is having second thoughts about Denver. It's suddenly chic for message boards and bloggers to examine the flattening out, if not the total bottoming out, of Nextel Cup racing."

04/14/07 Chris Economaki is without question a legend in the world of motorsports journalism in America. The 87 year old is the founder and publisher of National Speed Sport News and remains active in the world of motorsports.

He was in attendance at the Canadian Motorsports Expo held at the Toronto Congress Center this week and told Norris McDonald of the Toronto Star that the reason for the decline in attendance and TV ratings in NASCAR is simple; it’s starting to price out the very fans it serves.

“I think NASCAR has gone too far," Economaki said. “They're overwhelming the public. They have activities on Friday, activities on Saturday and activities on Sunday and all of it takes up a lot of time and it costs a lot of money to attend. The cost of flying to the location and having a hotel room and everything is a staggering price for the customer.

"Their philosophy is that the guy's in town anyway and what's he going to do? So we'll have something for him. But the cost to do a weekend of NASCAR racing today is staggering for the fan. So attendance is falling off and television audiences are coming down: it's too much.

"This announcement (last week in Washington state) that there's not going to be a track in the Pacific Northwest … I think they recognize that the bloom is off the pumpkin." Cupscene.com