April 11th, 2011 
Journo If you were watching the race on TV Saturday night, it looked like Texas Motor Speedway had a really great crowd. In fact, the Speedway reported a crowd of 168,400. That’s nearly one and a half times the capacity of Cowboys Stadium. A heck of crowd – if it stood up to scrutiny.
The grandstands at Texas can hold 122,377. Total infield capacity is 53,000. So if the grandstands were completely full (which they weren’t) that means there would have had to have been 46,023 in the infield (which there wasn’t).
I think we all can agree that 168,400 is a little unbelievable and that Eddie Gossage and to be fair, most tracks, have a knack for fiction when it comes to attendance figures. Still I have to hand it to the track, to SMI, and even to ISC because they have been doing a fantastic job this season distributing crowds throughout the grandstands – whether on purpose or accidental.
Take this weekend – on TV the main and backstretch grandstands looked nearly full from end to end. The reality is, on the frontstretch there were holes here and there, especially down low, at the ends and up high under the suites. And the backstretch was spotty. The same was true at California and to a lesser extent at Martinsville.
A recent innovation for the tracks has been finding unutilized grandstands and covering them with sponsor signage – a new addition at California this year. Charlotte Motor Speedway used to have seating that extended up under the suites in the turn two grandstand – no more.
The truth is, I don’t think any of this is bad (other than the exaggeration of attendance numbers). Most of the tracks on the Cup circuit were ridiculously overbuilt – and tracks throughout have been tearing down grandstands in recent years. Even with smaller than capacity crowds, these tracks have attendance that far exceed their nearest sporting competitor on any given week.
The crowds have been better this season, and these moves lesson the story and issue of attendance. I think anything that gets people more focused on the racing and less focused on the periphery issues is an OK thing.
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Good read on the distribution of the fans, although I thought Martinsville was the worst of the bunch so far.
But no matter. Dont you find it curious that tracks are tearing out seats? After all they are, probably, bought and paid for. One would think that it would be cheaper to cover them in case you need them later. Either there is a great market for used seats, or there is another economic reason. Do I smell tax break, for capital improvements?
Just wondering.
This is something that I noticed too. Texas was far from sold out. I was at Martinsville last week, and they were touting “widened seats”. Which probably means they reduced the number of seats sold. I liked it because I didn’t feel packed in like a sardine. Once the race started the track looked mostly filled, but it was far from a sell out. Interesting that tracks are cutting back on seats, wasn’t that the reason they built so many cookie cutters because they could pack more seats around the joint.
With the exception of Bristol, it appears that the crowds at Cup races are heading back up. But as the saying goes, “there are plenty of good seats still available.” Which means fans who have been away for a while now have an opportunity to score good seats to one of the races, and probably at less than face value.
You would figure a place like Texas in a huge metro area with plenty of race fans in that immediate area could draw a nice crowd. Gas prices have got to be killing places like Bristol, Martinsville, and potentially Talladega this weekend.
They are removing seats so its easier for them to sell out. And maybe rightfully so, since some of these places have way too many seats to begin with.
And since we all know that in Nascar’s world selling out 100,000 seats out of 100,000 capacity is much different than selling 100,000 seats in a 150,000 seat capacity. Better to be a sellout than have 50,000 empty seats covered with a banner.
If you too a good look at the backstraight grandstands in slow motion there were plenty of empty seats there. And the one good blimp shot before sundown showed that neither the backstraight not frontstraight seating was full. Even after the sun went down, there was a blue band clearly visible across the frontstraight seating which means lots of empty seats for it to be that visible. I don’t think it was anywhere near 168,400. 100,000 maybe.
Is there an infield pricing list anywhere on how much the spots for rent are for all the major tracks? I also wonder average ticket price for Texas too. Would be cool to guesstimate total sales per weekend. It must be something like $5-10+ Million.
Russ Edwards: Its marketing. Many of those seat areas aren’t big enough or are in a strange place to replace with advertising. And indeed- it looks bad when you’re not full.
The NASCAR media and fans really need to get a reality check on the attendance, it will be rare to see a sell out crowd at any Cup Series race in this economy. People simply just can’t afford to go especially to Bristol, unless you live within a few hours of the track. But I have found that attendance this year has been good over all including TMS and Martinsville. But Bristol was the worse and that is somewhat due to really high hotel rooms cost, those are $300-$600 per night. And partly due to the track re-config.
But other than that, attention has been better than expected. And I agree, I give these tracks a tip of the hat, they are packing them in and widening the seats is good too.
Yes, the crowds at a Nascar race are more than at an NFL game. However, there are several games every weekend…not just one. If you total ALL the fans attending NFL (or MLB) games each weekend, I think that football out draws Nascar.
My guess for attendance count is they are counting everyone on the property, just not the grandstands and infield. This would include the parking lot attendants, concessions staff, et al.
The big mistake the tracks made was narrowing the seats in the first place. I really don’t care how many fans are there as long as I can see it on TV. I believe other fans are like me and just can’t afford to go right now.
The stands looked full to me. Texas is located in a big market, has a great reputation & no one has messed with the track surface (like Bristol). Whenever a re pave in due, extra care must be taken to preserve (or improve) the racing.
I have attended the Texas night race & I highly recommend it.
Why is this even a story? You don’t hear reports on how empty arenas are for pro basketball or ballfields for pro baseball. You guys cant report on the sport for watching the stands! Maybe the tracks should stop giving you media credentials and make you buy tickets to the races. By the way, you math failed to include the 200 plus suites Texas has. That track was full but who cares? What happened on the track?