NASCAR tracks continue removing seats amid declining ticket sales

Dover Crowd has dwindled considerably

Track officials are calling it a renovation, but fans and drivers say it's more a lesson in supply and demand. Charlotte Motor Speedway is the latest NASCAR track to remove seats, which has caused questions about the direction of the sport.

NASCAR experienced a boom in the late 1990s that carried the sport into the new millennium.

"I think we lived high on the horse there for a while. Everything was going good and growing and growing," said NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Fans were filling the stands, causing race tracks to add more seats. Charlotte added 26,000 seats in 1997 and another 11,000 seats in 1998.

"What the tracks did is what we all get caught in to – the demand was there so they keep trying to fill, fill, fill. Finally, they over-filled," said NASCAR hall of famer Richard Petty.

Now, every single one of those seats is in the process of being removed. Charlotte Motor Speedway began demolition of its turn-two grand stand in December. The project will reduce capacity at the track by 41,000, and Charlotte isn't alone. Atlanta and Dover will each removed at least 17,000 seats.

"In the case of some of these places, they can't sell the seat. They are taking the seat away because they can't sell it. They can't get anyone to buy that ticket," Earnhardt Jr. said.

NASCAR stopped requiring its tracks to release attendance numbers in 2013. But no numbers were needed to look at the grand stand at turn two during the 2005 race. It was completely filled with fans. In 2014, those same stands were empty. Instead, the track used the seats for giant ads and a big flag.

"If you watch TV, you can obviously see there is no one sitting in those seats anymore," said NASCAR fan Robbie Brown.

You won't see Robbie Brown in a seat in Charlotte. He's been a serious fan of the sport since 1976. He still goes to races, but he enjoys the more traditional smaller tracks

"Until racing gets better at the larger tracks, I don't see me going to a Charlotte or any track like that any time soon. Martinsville? Most definitely. Richmond? Absolutely," he said.

Brown says some fans he knows stopped buying tickets when big tracks took more of a priority and smaller tracks like Rockingham lost race dates. The old-school fans don't have as much interest in a sport that is now more about engineering and equipment than down and dirty racing

"You go to the races you like to see beating and banging going on, and NASCAR has gotten away from that," Brown said. ‘When you buy a ticket to a sporting event, you expect to be entertained."

The changes to the sport are just one of the theories for the decline in ticket sales. The economy of 2008 didn't help either. It's a new reality that tracks like Charlotte have come to terms with, and that's what led to the decision to remove seats for good.

"Like you have seen us over our 50 years with changes that we've made to the speedway, this is just the next step in how we are right sizing our facility with a lot of things we are seeing in sports venues across the country and trying to position ourselves for where we want to be for the future," said Scott Cooper, vice president of communications for the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"Eventually, the balloon popped and we are having to reset. There's a new normal," Earnhardt Jr. said.

Making up for a drop in ticket sales with TV money, NASCAR has a new television deal which began Sunday with Daytona and is worth $8.2 billion. The race tracks get 65 percent of the revenue from that deal, which will not expire until 2025. WRALSportsFan