Adelaide 500: With spectator numbers dwindling, is the humble car race a dying art? - Sensationalist Headlines

[t]http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/9074722-3x2-940x627.jpg[/t] [t]https://d3spxwpngnho1k.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/UpdatesLiveADL2017.jpg[/t] [quote=ABC News][b]The State Government is putting a lot of faith in Robbie Williams.[/b] The English singer-songwriter and superstar entertainer is the headline act at this week's Adelaide 500 and it is hoped he will bring back the people who deserted the event last year. How many didn't bother attending? Plenty. In 2017, the attendance at the four-day event was the lowest since 2004, down almost 20,000 people on the 2016 figure. The gate on the final day was the lowest since 2002. This was not a good sign for a government that has committed $9.6 million to the event over the next four years. [b]So, is car racing a dying art?[/b] In Adelaide, it's certainly a dwindling one. "What you have ... is a shrinking demographic and we've noticed this over the past few years," Sport Minister Leon Bignell said. But he believes it's more about attracting new people to the event. "If we just keep going after the same audience, it's going to be diminishing returns in terms of the number of people who come to the race." ... [b]Television numbers still strong despite event falls[/b] Despite the decline in the Adelaide attendance last year, Supercars general manager of corporate affairs, Cole Hitchcock, will not entertain the thought that there is a finite audience for the championship. Mr Hitchcock said total attendance across the 15-event Supercars season was up 3.1 per cent in 2017 compared with 2016. "We are growing our audience but in different areas," he explained. "There might well be fewer at the track but it doesn't mean there are less people viewing the sport, it's just they're consuming it in different ways." The average ratings across free-to-air and pay TV grew in the same period by 16 per cent.[/quote] Read the rest of the article at [url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-01/sa-govt-hopes-robbie-williams-will-drag-spectators-to-v8-race/9485118[/url] I don’t think that motorsport is dying, less than that people are viewing it in different ways. It would kind of suck to physically go to an event, sit in the hot sun while being surrounded by bogans, and have the cars zoom around only once every two minutes. If you can even see them that is, because the safety barriers on the sides of the track are so high. Watching it live on TV lets you view all of the action at all times, including in-car footage. Literally the only thing that American motorsport gets right is having the cars race around in stadiums, so they are always in view as opposed to having to wait two minutes for the cars to come back around again.

Robbie Williams being there will probably cause this year to have even lower attendence

It doesn't help that to the outside observer most televised motorsports are overregulated and too homogeneous.

I really don't see the appeal of having a pop star at a motor race. British Touring Cars has seen a resurgence over the past 10 years by providing a consistently competitive on-track product, with a great selection of support races throughout the entire day. I haven't been to a race in quite a few years due to travel costs, but I've been to 3 different circuits, one that I've been to about 6 or 7 times. The Saturday is focused on the main series' qualifying, but you have races throughout the day as well. The Sunday is full racing from about 9am to 5pm, with the BTCC races spread throughout the day. Point is, you get full value for money for a race weekend. Side-events like concerts or whatever just sounds gimmicky to me. Support races are what make the event worthwhile, IMO. It's a racing event, you go to see racing. If support races are hard to field, then there needs to be a look at the reason why. BTCC had struggles in the early 2000s fielding cars when regulations made running costs too high, but the change in regulations in the past decade has made it so that this year the grid is already almost maxed out. The support races helped make up for weak grids in the main event, because you still got to see more cars. I don't know what Supercars' situation is like, but from what I know there's only 2 feeder series and maybe GT or Formula 4 turns up at a few rounds. If they can get Formula Thunder 5000 on board, that'd help a lot, since it's a potent but vastly different series to Supercars. I started following IndyCar last year and from what I understand the struggles of getting fans to oval races is that the oval tracks are usually in the middle of nowhere and there's only a limited possibility for support races to go along with it. I don't know how easy it is to get to a Supercars' street race, but if it's a nightmare to travel to, couple that with few support races and you're not going to incentivise fans to go there. Maybe that's an unfair parallel, but I think in order to get fans to go to these events, they need to be affordable and worthwhile.

I for one hate the Clipsal 500. No parking, noise you can hear from literally 20km away in the hills, bogans in areas you would never see them. If it dies or moves Melbourne then good. However I have another theory as to why the lack of numbers but more people at home watching it. Adelaide does not have enough space to fit everyone in. We already have the Fringe and Womad on at the same time, people flock from all over the county for those, so all the hotels are booked for that and none of the rural folk can come down for the Clipsal.

[QUOTE=CMB Unit 01;53167901]I really don't see the appeal of having a pop star at a motor race. British Touring Cars has seen a resurgence over the past 10 years by providing a consistently competitive on-track product, with a great selection of support races throughout the entire day. I haven't been to a race in quite a few years due to travel costs, but I've been to 3 different circuits, one that I've been to about 6 or 7 times. The Saturday is focused on the main series' qualifying, but you have races throughout the day as well. The Sunday is full racing from about 9am to 5pm, with the BTCC races spread throughout the day. Point is, you get full value for money for a race weekend. Side-events like concerts or whatever just sounds gimmicky to me. Support races are what make the event worthwhile, IMO. It's a racing event, you go to see racing. If support races are hard to field, then there needs to be a look at the reason why. BTCC had struggles in the early 2000s fielding cars when regulations made running costs too high, but the change in regulations in the past decade has made it so that this year the grid is already almost maxed out. The support races helped make up for weak grids in the main event, because you still got to see more cars. I don't know what Supercars' situation is like, but from what I know there's only 2 feeder series and maybe GT or Formula 4 turns up at a few rounds. If they can get Formula Thunder 5000 on board, that'd help a lot, since it's a potent but vastly different series to Supercars. I started following IndyCar last year and from what I understand the struggles of getting fans to oval races is that the oval tracks are usually in the middle of nowhere and there's only a limited possibility for support races to go along with it. I don't know how easy it is to get to a Supercars' street race, but if it's a nightmare to travel to, couple that with few support races and you're not going to incentivise fans to go there. Maybe that's an unfair parallel, but I think in order to get fans to go to these events, they need to be affordable and worthwhile.[/QUOTE] The Supercars has lots of support categories. Of course there’s Super2 which are just retired Supercars from past years. But off of the top of my head I can think of: - Toyota 86 series - Porsche Carrera cup - Formula 4 - Group 3J Improved Production - Touring Car Masters (sports and touring cars from the 60’s and 70’s) - SuperUtes (used to be V8 Utes comprised of Ford Falcon Utes and Holden Utes, now the cars are turbodiesels such as the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger etc) - Aussie Racing Cars (tiny, stylised cars with motorbike engines) - And I distinctly remember at Adelaide last year that they set up jumps throughout the track, and had Stadium Super Trucks racing - Probably heaps more that I missed Point is, Supercars already has all of those supporting categories, and has had them for many years. So maybe in an attempt to boost crowd numbers and attract different kinds of spectators, they are trying to bring in people like Robbie Williams to do concerts. [editline]1st March 2018[/editline] [QUOTE=Grenadiac;53167830]It doesn't help that to the outside observer most televised motorsports are overregulated and too homogeneous.[/QUOTE] It’s either that, or they don’t get televised at all; Group A was already on its deathbed for years before the FIA finally cancelled it. Less regulation might sound more exciting, but when the only cars that were winning were the Sierra Cosworth and R32 GT-R, fans, sponsors and the media began to lose interest.

[QUOTE=Grenadiac;53167830]It doesn't help that to the outside observer most televised motorsports are over regulated and too homogeneous.[/QUOTE] Spot on. This plus the over-commercialized feel of motorsports these days contributes greatly to people losing interest. It's just a victim of the times really, things can't be as gun-ho as they were 30 or 40 years ago, so it's just lacking some of that wild fun attitude about it. My dad and I used to go to the gold coast indy 300 / GC 600 every year, and every year it was crazy (in a good way) - lots of people partying and having a wild time, everywhere you turn ladies just throwing their tops away and flashing everyone, and it was just about the most Australian, simple and enjoyable (and REMARKABLY friendly) thing you could hope to find centered around a bunch of big V8's racing around a track. We went the last couple of years but it's just become to buttoned down, commercialized and boring. If you do ANYTHING outside of the most basic norms (ie those lovely ladies having a BAREly good time), the police will shut you down or take you away. Everything has become an excuse to sell something, some product or label or whatever, and the attendance has dropped staggeringly. Saturday is normally the huge day and we had trouble bumping INTO people, it was depressing. Parked not even 1km from the event and walked through half empty streets. People just don't give a shit any more. This probably all sounds really weird to an outsider who hasn't spent a lot of their life experiencing these events, but it really has all changed and it's not as enjoyable as it used to be, same thing with Bathurst and the Ipswitch races really. I would have figured that with more and more vehicles on the road being these hybrids and 4 cylinder vacuum cleaner buzz boxes and environmentally friendly family movers, that events like these would see an INCREASE of people looking to watch some big old V8's roar around... but sadly, it's the total opposite. I think they're turned off by the commercialization of it all.

Bring back Group B - driving through spectators at 80 on a dirt road was part of the sport, not an accident. :v:

V8 Supercars isn't as good as it once was. It was fun to watch two Aussie legends, the commodore and the Falcon competing but now they're accompanied with Nissan, Mercedes and Volvo. Even more so that Aussie Ford and Holden is properly dead.

[QUOTE=Araknid;53168604]V8 Supercars isn't as good as it once was. It was fun to watch two Aussie legends, the commodore and the Falcon competing but now they're accompanied with Nissan, Mercedes and Volvo. Even more so that Aussie Ford and Holden is properly dead.[/QUOTE] lol I see what you’re saying but you’re so far behind the times. They aren’t called the V8 Supercars anymore, and Mercedes and Volvo jumped ship literally years ago. But I disagree with what you’re saying anyways, because they added variety eg the Volvos having flatplane V8s while the others had crossplane V8s.

[QUOTE=BF;53168700]. They aren’t called the V8 Supercars anymore[/QUOTE] Part of why no one gives a damn about it You have to remember that a massive part of their fanbase is V8, Falcunt and commonwhore loving bogans

To be honest OP already nails the problem for me. I love cars. I'd love to see cool racey vroomvroom cars in person. But fuck off if you think i'll pay out my ass to sit on a hot bleacher to see some cars fly past a few times with minutes of nothing in between.

if you guys ever go to a endurance race i highly recommend the garage tours during the night. much cooler but dont stand in front of the pit crew, they will push you out of the way if you slow down their pit stop. also from this years Daytona race attendance was up im p sure from last year.

[QUOTE=Grenadiac;53168485]Bring back Group B - driving through spectators at 80 on a dirt road was part of the sport, not an accident. :v:[/QUOTE] Today's WRC cars are faster and safer than Group B. Although I love the idea of being that close to the cars I'm sure that's just a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Spectator splatterings aside, something seems a lot more raw and exciting about Group B than a lot of what's going on today. Maybe it's the inherent unsafety of the cars themselves, with primitive suspension systems and full mechanical steering and shit. I dunno. Modern rally drivers are obviously incredibly talented and the cars are amazing but Group B has a sort of mysticism and an edge that I can't pin down. Could just be the a e s t h e t i c, I suppose.