NASCAR roundtable on economic welfare of sport (cont'd)

SBJ: How did the talks between ESPN and SPEED start?

Nickell: It was NASCAR talking to both of us, and we got in a room and said, "Where can we start?" What's a level we can both execute -- that got us going.

Sobieski: Just learning more about what's important to each other. Where can we give a little and work together?

Nickell: The fans are the connection point. They're watching NASCAR on SPEED, they're watching on ESPN, it's all interconnected.

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I think everybody in the sport realizes that if you gain casual fans at the expense of losing your core, what have you gained?

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MICHAEL BURCH

Wheeler: If you had somebody in the middle who could walk in and start asking questions and looking for ideas, almost like a third party, it'd be great for the sport. Then it's up to the leaders to take it and run with it. When you think of everybody who's in the sport, all of the teams, the drivers, the tracks, the growth potential would be unstoppable.

Burch: We're seeing that on more of a one-off basis where tracks talk to TV to find out how to get more fans to the track and then once they're at the track, how to watch more events on TV. It's not a coordinated effort, but it comes up on an ad hoc basis. It's just where we are as a sport. People are looking around and saying, "Hey, you've got this asset, we've got that asset, how do we add one and one and make three?" In the five years I've been involved, it's happening more and more. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, this is a chance to do something we haven't seen.

Sobieski: Seeing the success SPEED had working with Charlotte [Lowe's Motor Speedway] and NASCAR and Sprint on the All-Star race generated the same kind of discussion with us about the Chase. We had SMI, ISC [International Speedway Corp.], Sprint, NASCAR, ESPN, Octagon, all in a room to see how we could take the next step with that property. We have a long way to go, but just to begin to have that conversation with everyone in the room was a good start.

Wheeler: Look at the meeting Brian [France] held in New York last December where he got literally everybody in a room. It's hard to argue that's not yielded some really big positives. "Where's the sport going? What does everybody think?" The sport is much better off because of that.

SBJ: The theme of "Returning to the Roots" came out of that. How has that message gone over?

Burch: We've been all for it. In interacting with fans directly, we've heard all the criticisms about the sport reaching out to new fans, which you have to do to build your business. But what's happened to the core fans? To see the [advertising] spot NASCAR has been running, it touches your passion. Look at what the facilities are doing: "How do we get the rates down, how do we get that three-day minimum removed?" We know once they come, they get a favorite driver, they buy a souvenir, they get involved emotionally, it becomes part of their lifestyle. I think everybody in the sport realizes that if you gain casual fans at the expense of losing your core, what have you gained?

Brooks: It's reminded us all that what the core fans want is to talk about racing, talk about the rivalries. We had gotten away from that. Racing is why we're all here. It remains the strongest competition in the world for our sport. It was healthy for us to focus on that.

Sobieski: The top 20 percent of the most avid fans do 80 percent of the viewing for us. We've seen key male demos in 35-54 up across the board for us: 8 percent on ABC, 7 percent on ESPN, 12 percent on Nationwide. Seventy-five percent of that increase alone comes from those top fans. We've seen that the collective focus back on the most passionate fans has impacted the ratings.

Dyer: I think it was right on target. A lot about this sport is how it makes the fan feel, what kind of identity and attachment they have to the sport. We all talk about the fan loyalty and it's true. I was around college sports for years and like that, there's more of a lifestyle affinity with NASCAR than any other sport. Over the last 10 years, we did a lot of searching: "Where can we grow? What kind of identity do we want to have?" I think the ultimate conclusion was that we're pretty good where we are with mainstream America and let's not run away from that image. You know what, there's a lot more folks from Main Street than any other street. Those are the people who go to the races and consume eight to 10 hours of media. I think it's very healthy to get back to the roots and celebrate the history. The Hall of Fame is going to open in a year and a half, and it'll be an opportunity for whole generations of people to touch it and feel it, and that's going to be good for the sport.

Hall of Fame
• Opening scheduled for Spring 2010 (Continued)