Quote:
Originally Posted by Curtis
I'm not disputing anything else in your post, but NASCAR and the European Grand Prix systems have been in retrenchment mode for a couple of years now and will continue so into this year. Certainly the general economy has had some effect, and the specific depression in the automobile industry even more, but I suspect that NASCAR simply expanded beyond the point its business model could sustain while Grand Prix and Indy Car have passed their peaks of fan interest. They also all got too expensive. Locally, though, stock car (dirt track) racing is as popular as ever, and still growing in northern New York.
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Perhaps. But I think Nascar has more serious problems than just over-expanding. Certainly the difficulties of the auto industry have had a major impact, and the general corporate downturn has as well. Steve McCormick's racing blog
Economy Squeezes NASCAR Teamsof Dec. 18 put it this way ....
"The economic crunch is definitely affecting NASCAR. Sponsors have pulled out of the sport as they tighten their budgets leaving some of the smaller teams struggling to prepare for the 2009 season. With just over two months until the 2009 Daytona 500 NASCAR faces the very real possibility of
life without Petty Enterprises. Petty can't find a sponsor for either of their teams including the legendary #43 currently driven by Bobby Labonte. Petty isn't the only team hit hard. A quick look at
Jayski's layoff count shows that since the end of the season almost 600 people have been laid off from NASCAR teams. It's not just the small teams cutting as Earnhardt, Childress, Roush and Gibbs are all making cuts as a result of the economy."
I agree that Grand Prix racing has been trying to cut back for a couple of years, as costs have just gotten totally ridiculous. Indy car racing I don't think ever recovered from splitting into two competing series. My original example mentioned Nascar only as being a direct impact of the economy, so I don't disagree with most of your post.
Jeepers, is it really only a couple of weeks to pitchers & catchers reporting? Where has the winter gone??