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Turning Radius: NASCAR tries to engage Millennials
NASCAR is trying to respond to the challenge faced by almost all spectator sports — how to engage Millennials.
Despite the decline in TV ratings, NASCAR has secured an estimated $8.2 billion from Fox and NBC for race broadcast rights through 2024. It also has introduced stage-based racing with playoff points and a knockout championship format that dials up the competition. Last year, coverage of the Daytona 500 garnered a 16% increase in viewership among 18-to-34 year olds.
Meanwhile, ISC has moved to capture new revenue streams by engaging fans away from the racetrack. The company is finishing a $100-million, mixed-use development across from Daytona International Speedway called One Daytona. The development features shops, restaurants, a Cobb movie theater and Fairfield Inn hotel. A six-story, 145-room Marriott Autograph Collection hotel will open later this year.
“About 60% of the crowd at the Daytona 500 comes from out of state,” explains company COO Joie Chitwood, who oversaw Daytona Rising as track president from 2010 to 2016. “They travel from over 300 miles away and stay here for four or five nights. The more we can offer them to make it a great experience, the better chance we have to get them back.”
ISC executives point out that NASCAR remains the second-most popular sport on TV after the NFL, and has more than 120 Fortune 500 companies as sponsors. ISC is profitable: In 2017, the track operator netted a $110.8-million profit on $671.4 million in revenue — a 16.5% margin.
Last year’s profit was the largest since 2008, and well above an average annual profit of $54 million from 2009 to 2016. There also are signs that fans are responding to NASCAR’s digital efforts. On average, NASCAR’s website and mobile apps had 1.7 million unique race-day visitors last year, up 7% from 2016.
“We’re investing in the sport because it makes sense,” Chitwood says. “It’s not just a sport anymore. It’s entertainment. I wouldn’t say we’re competing with the NBA or NFL. We’re competing for people’s time. The key is, do we have compelling content, great venues and great star power to attract fans? I think we do.”
In February, the 60th running of the Daytona 500 drew a third straight sellout crowd. Newly retired fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr., son of the late Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt, gave the command to start the race.
Darrell Wallace Jr., driving Richard Petty’s iconic No. 43, became the first African-American full-time driver to compete at NASCAR’s top level since Wendell Scott retired in 1971. Danica Patrick, who’ll retire this year as racing’s most successful woman driver, ended her NASCAR career with a crash and a 35th-place finish. Austin Dillon, grandson of team owner Richard Childress, won the race and made history driving No. 3, the same number Earnhardt Sr. raced under when he captured the Daytona 500 title 20 years earlier. Nearly half of the field’s 40 drivers, including Dillon, were younger than 30.
France says in most respects NASCAR is facing the same challenge as other spectator sports — the fundamental change in how young people consume all sports.
“We’re not isolated here,” France said last year at Richmond International Raceway in Virginia. “Every sport is trying to unlock the new consumption levels and fan interest by a younger demographic. Of course, we love our core fan, and everyone does, but every sport is thinking carefully about how to reach the Millennial fan to get them excited about their sport.”
