Running 2023 Motorsports thread

There are way too many partners/combos:

• Races will be on Fox/FS1, but most practice and qualifying will be on Amazon.
• Races will be on Amazon, with practice and qualifying there.
• Races will be on TNT, with practice and qualifying on max/truTV.
• Races will be on NBC/USA, with practice and qualifying on max/truTV.

And maybe that's a successful formula. I don't know, guess it determines how you frame $ucce$$. But it feels a bit like pre-2000 NASCAR TV, with events all over the place.

 

NASCAR began its self-inflicted death of a thousand cuts more than a decade ago. This is just one more slash as long-time fans watch the sport they used to love bleed out.

 

The fact that they declined to announce the financial terms is interesting. I'm certain NASCAR still will make money but perhaps in not as many armored cars as in the past. And there's a lot of "between the lines" when it comes seeing the sheer number of races getting pawned off on cable compared to network. Yes, narrowcasting and cable cutting has changed the TV landscape. But NASCAR's huge drop in eyeballs plays just as much of a role. FS1 and USA aren't MeTV and Pluto, but dang that's a lot of "where the hell is the race being shown this week?"

This part of Phelps' quote is very telling: "Our goal was to secure long-term stability..." Really? Sounds like you're a whole lot more worried about regression than progression, especially with F1's success AND younger audience. Twenty years ago, NASCAR was comparing itself to the NFL. Now, it's hoping to hang onto its 4-5 million increasingly skewing-older fanbase.

It's also hilarious to see that all the various media outlets are "excited and thrilled" in the canned quotes. Sounds like NASA wives back in the early space program days.

 

What came out of Daytona and the Cape in the '60s was far superior to what we see today.

 

Pre-2000 NASCAR was worse. One week they’re on CBS, one week they’re on TBS, one week they’re on ESPN, one week they’re on NBC, one week they’re on TNN … mix and mash ad infinitum. At least with this package, they’re not changing up TV networks on a weekly basis.

 

If I have to tune into four channels on a weekend — FS1 for the trucks, truTV for Cup qualifying, CW for Busch and TNT for the race — it's almost as bad IMO. I know they'll all crosspromote, but still.

It's interesting NASCAR is loading up on cable this time around when you're seeing more sports programming going back OTA because of the cord-cutting.

 

$7.7 billion over 7 years, reportedly.

https://myfox8.com/sports/nascar-mo...deal-with-major-networks-streaming-platforms/

 

NASCAR really needs to cut six races off the Cup schedule. Where those come from, who knows. They missed an opportunity to do that. Even dropping a race or two would've been better and provided some more schedule flexibility.

 

Drop a "double-dipper" a year (you can rotate it around) and make that a "flex" race in some out of the box location, street, oval, road - doesn't matter. Ala Chicago.

 

Last TV deal locked in 36 races (with two exhibitions). I'm assuming this does the same.

 

Toto says Mercedes is going to run a completely new car concept in 2024 and is hoping to gain at least 2.5 seconds. Bold move by the Arrows. Who knows if it’ll backfire as spectacularly as the zero pod concept, but they have to try something.

All I know is Red Bull has had (roughly) the same dominant car since 2022 and they’ve been working on making it better for 2024 for a few months now. It’s still going to be a tall order for Merc or anyone else to close that gap, but I hope to hell they can.