Sunday, March 16, 2008
Sports
Revving up the ratings
NASCAR, ESPN roaring back into pole position—for now
CREDIT: Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Jeff Gordon (No. 24) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) go nose-to-nose at the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway last weekend.
By Fulton Shelley
ESPN’s foray back into the world of stock-car racing hit some speed bumps last season. In fact, the 2007 NASCAR season-long ratings for Sunday Cup broadcasts took a corner panel hit, with an 18 percent drop from the record-high year of 2005. But barely a month into the new season, early indications are that 2008 could be a bounce-back year for the sport and the worldwide leader, as well. It’s still early, however, and the season is long.
The 5.6 overnight rating for the recently completed Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway marked a 19 percent jump from 4.7 for the same event the year before. Of course, it must be noted that the increase came due to a change in dates, as last year’s spring race at AMS aired on the first Sunday on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Still, the 2008 NASCAR season has been hitting on mostly all cylinders: The recent race from Las Vegas Motor Speedway drew a 7.1 final Nielsen rating, the highest non-Daytona 500 rating in two years.
That race was watched by more fans than several other marquee sporting events, including the 2008 Sugar Bowl featuring the Georgia Bulldogs (7.0), the 2007 NBA Finals with Cleveland superstar LeBron James (6.2) and the 2008 NFL Pro Bowl (6.3). The ratings indicate the percentage of U.S. households tuned into the games or races. Including the events at Daytona, only the rain-delayed race from California didn’t see an increase in ratings this year. And while those races were viewed on Fox, the news of increased viewership sits well with James Shiftan, an ESPN producer for the Nationwide Series and a pit producer for Sprint Cup telecasts.
“Nothing’s going to be like sitting out there in the stands with the noise and the smell,” Shiftan tells The Sunday Paper in one of ESPN’s production trucks a day before the Atlanta Nationwide race. “But I would go to any sporting event live versus watching it on TV, except for NASCAR. With all our camera angles, the technology and especially the HD [high definition], we give the fans so much more on TV that they can’t get at the track.’’
NASCAR VS. THE NFL
NASCAR experienced record growth during the first half of the decade. But like the TV ratings, attendance at tracks has dwindled in recent years. Tracks don’t release attendance information, but fewer than half the Cup races were sellouts last year. And while there were an estimated 100,000-plus fans at AMS recently, the Kobalt Tools 500 was not a sellout. But don’t be confused: NASCAR is not in catastrophic downfall by any means. Its fan base remains large, and it’s still a prime outlet for companies targeting the stock-car racing demographic.
And oh, yeah, NASCAR remains the second-highest-rated regular-season sport on television, behind only the NFL. Unfortunately for the racers, the two seasons go head-to-head on autumn Sundays, and pro football always comes out on top.
“I like both sports and I watch a lot of NASCAR,’’ says Nick Gherty, a 28-year-old race fan who lives in Sandy Springs. “I would’ve gone to [the Atlanta race] if I didn’t have to be somewhere else. I watched it, though, and have seen some of every race this year. But honestly, when it comes to football and racing, it’s no contest. I got to have my football.’’
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
From 1981 to 2000, ESPN televised 262 NASCAR Cup races, and is fairly credited with helping enhance the sport’s popularity. Then, after spending more than half this decade in the pits, ESPN got back into the race game last year with a lot of fanfare—and a lot of criticism, too. Visitors to forums and blogs complained of too much technology, too many commercials and lots of bad announcing. Even drivers, most notably Tony Stewart, complained of the network’s coverage and interviewing practices.
“Yeah, it gets a little too confusing when they keep bopping around,” Gherty says of ESPN’s coverage. “But sometimes it’s pretty cool. It’s not why I watch a race. I watch a race to see [Dale] Earnhardt [Jr.].’’
Shiftan was one of 150-plus ESPN personnel at AMS to help produce the recent race activities, including the Nationwide Series event. This year, ESPN will televise all 35 Nationwide races and the final 17 Sprint Cup events. Many of these workers are very passionate about the sport and their work, and there is a level of personal sacrifice involved, considering NASCAR’s long and grueling travel schedule.
These guys lay video and audio cables over two-plus miles at some tracks. They monitor crew radios and operate robotic and handheld cameras. They fluidly coordinate the action taking place on dozens of monitors inside a small fleet of production trucks, filled with organized but quick decision-making crews of directors, producers and such operating large production boards, like out of a scene from “Futureworld.”
“I think back in 1981 at that first race, there may have been no more than five cameras,’’ Shiftan says. “Now there’s up to 60 cameras, all in HD. Last year we were the first to have HD cameras on board [the cars]. There is so much more technology from just a few years ago, it’s incredible.’’
Technology such as the ESPN Dish Tech Center, a million-dollar traveling studio that enables tech analyst Tim Brewer to illustrate pretty much everything that happens on the track with the aid of cutaway cars and other display race car elements.
“We want the race fan sitting in his living room watching on his 62-inch plasma screen television to have the best seat in the house,’’ Shiftan says. “This is the hardest sport to produce, but the passion for the sport these guys have is the biggest, I feel, in sports, and that’s what makes it work.’’ SP