The state of the sport of NASCAR racing? ISC execs weigh in on things for Wall Streeters

  A ragged season, with ups and downs...and questions. What does Wall Street think about NASCAR racing? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   And the top line – revenue in -- is still pretty weak, which has executives cutting stuff right and left, on the way down to the bottom line.
   ISC officials haven't yet offered 'guidance' yet for 2011 and what they predict the sport will do. They say the 'real wildcard' is what happens to consumer confidence and how the unemployment picture goes. The middle class, NASCAR's traditional target audience, is the big question mark.
   However, whatever happens eventually to improve the crowds in the stands, one of the big questions right now is TV:
   Pointedly, NASCAR's TV ratings for the past year or so, particularly for the opening three races of the championship chase, have been down. Loudon was a 2.3., Dover a 2.4, and Kansas a 2.3 – all down from last year's ratings by about 25 percent.
   The sport would certainly like to be on stronger footing when it starts negotiating the next TV contract, in about a year or so.
   ISC's John Saunders, a key figure in Daytona and now interim boss at Chicagoland Speedway too, that key track just outside the Windy City, concedes this season NASCAR slipped on the way out of the gate, with that pothole in the Daytona 500, when it already had stiff competition from the Olympics and World Cup.
   "But there are some good things to point to as well," Saunders says. "The Sprint Cup series was the number one or the number two sport on television for 20 of the event weekends."
  
  

  The Daytona 500 had a great finish, and some good action....but that two-hour break for pothole repairs put the sport in a hole right at the start of the season (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   NASCAR's current major TV partners are Fox/Speed, ABC/ESPN and Turner/TNT.
   The ESPN component has been oddly off in ratings this year, and even company officials are curious as to why. The rival NFL is hot on the tube, in contrast.
   Fox executives have complained about NASCAR losing as much as 30 percent of the 18-34 male demographic. But NASCAR is of course prime content for Fox' Speed channel.
   NASCAR, through its Charlotte-based Media Group, has been working a number of other angles too, on Showtime, HBO, BET and the Discovery Channel, to try to recapture some of those 18-to-34s.
   ISC pulled in some $62 million during the third quarter from its current TV deals.
   So why exactly are NASCAR's TV ratings so markedly down from two or three years ago?
   Saunders: "The number of changes made last year -- such as start times, double-file restarts -- are going to take time to resonate with the fans.
   "NASCAR has invested significantly in their NASCAR media group to challenge this issue. And we don't have all of the data as to why the 18 to 34 demo is off. But I can assure you that they are well-positioned, and they are digging into it deeply....It is a key focus of NASCAR."

   But admissions revenues for the period were down, because of lower attendance. And corporate hospitality – in those big white tents at each track – continues to be down too.
   Ticket prices for Cup races at ICS tracks were cut a little more than 10 percent, to try to spur larger crowds. Those cuts were most prominent for the two Cup events at Michigan International Speedway, in June and August; that Detroit-area track is in what ISC calls "the highly-challenged Michigan market." With those cuts, ISC says it was able to keep attendance at those two events about on par with last year.
   To save more money, the ISC has dropped all Indy-car events for 2011, a move which is still being debated, considering rival promoter Speedway Motorsports is still running Indy-car events and it pushing to take the Indy-car tour finale to Las Vegas next fall. The finale has played at the ISC's Homestead-Miami track.
    
    

    Major league pothole repairs: $20 million repave for Daytona International Speedway. Week 14. (Photo: Daytona)
    

    A key indicator of how well things are going, typically, is advance ticket sales – the retention rate. And ISC says Cup sales were down about 14 percent for the quarter, about down about 15 percent for the year.
    Saunders said "our retention rate -- which is the total number of tickets purchased during the entire renewal and sales cycle for an event that were also purchased by the same accountholder during any sale cycle for the same event in the previous year -- is roughly at the same level as last year, in the low 50 percent range."
    However, on the positive side, Saunders said corporate sponsorship "remains robust, with continued demand for our events from corporate America."
    He says ISC sold "our entire available inventory" for 2010 for Cup, Nationwide and Indy-car races. "For 2011 we have six entitlements either open or not announced for the 21 Sprint Cup events, and six entitlements either open or not yet announced for the 15 Nationwide events."
   And the pricing? "We are experiencing encouraging sign in pricing with our corporate partners," Saunders said. "Illustrative of this is that our NASCAR race entitlements have maintained their value year-over-year."

  Kevin Harvick had the car to beat here in the spring at California's Auto Club Speedway, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. But he says he beat himself, tagging the wall while impatiently chasing Jimmie Johnson. Will a Johnson-Harvick rematch attract a big crowd at this 92,000-seat arena? This is one of the key markets for NASCAR, and yet things have been off lately. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)