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Where Have The Young Men Gone?

by Jim Worsley-Staff Writer
Catchfence.com
05/22/2002

Recent studies show that NASCAR TV ratings show a sharp decline of male viewers for the age group 18 to 34. A news article from the Daily Scene refers to the Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, which says, "NASCAR appears to be losing some appeal in the key demographic of males 18 to 34 years old, with the races on Fox down 22 percent in that category this year."

"Gee-Whiz Ward, what have the young boys been doing?" asked June Cleaver. Well according to the same article it’s certainly a mystery because not only has our great sport dropped, but other favorite past-times have also experienced losses in this age group as well. Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal continues to say, "The decline comes at the same time that almost every major sports property has seen ratings among young men (the audience many advertisers covet most) fall disproportionately with general household ratings."

"NASCAR's April 21 Aaron's Rent 499 at Talladega, which drew 9 percent more viewers than last year, the ratings fell 29 percent among men 18 to 34. The NHL down 38 percent among the group, the PGA Tour off 21 percent and Major League Baseball on ESPN off 30 percent. The story says that overall ratings for races on Fox are down 2 percent this season."

"So what have you boys been up to?" asks Mrs. Cleaver. Wally quickly replies "Nothing Mom, Honest!" Mrs. Cleaver turns to the other youthful offender of the family and says with a questionable tone in her voice, "Beaver?" His eyes open wide like buttons on a fireman’s parade uniform, looks at Wally real quick, then glances back to his mother and says, "Honest Mom…Nothing!"

But the fact remains that our young men are going some where so where can it be? Since all the sport groups are experiencing similar declines, I would immediately say that they’re filling up the coolers, jumping into RV’s and SUV’s and heading to the tracks. Yet each week you hear a day or two ahead of the scheduled event that there are plenty of good seats still left.

Of course, the article doesn’t refer to the NBA or its ratings so they young men could be watching basketball. I wouldn’t think it would that big of a percentage that’s heading over to the stations carrying the hoops, and if it were, most of the major networks carry this sport and I would think they would have included that in this report. Since they didn’t, we have to look elsewhere.

Ward Cleaver turns towards his wife while in a private conversation and says, "Gee June, do you think Beaver really does know what’s going on but doesn’t want to squeal on Wally?" "Oh I don’t know Ward; it’s possible I guess. Why don’t you have a talk with the Beaver and see what you can find out," said June. Ward quickly remarks, "Good idea, I’ll do just that."

In a few moments Ward is not going to find out to much from his son Theodore, and the skit I’ve just described will go unsolved. Yet, I think there could be a few reasons why this happening.

Men this age (I was there once) have a low threshold for pain, and unlike women in the same age group, males don’t deal well when it comes to the BS of the world. So with this in mind, it could very well be that men are just tired of the entire goings on in NASCAR stock-car racing. You know the excessive rule changes, the nice guy racing verses bump or be bumped, and finally the announcers who won’t go against NASCAR if there life depended on it. You know the ones, they’ll agree with NASCAR even if they are dead wrong because the governing board makes their paycheck happen for them.

If you sit down to think about it, I am sure you’ll find a dozen or so reasons as to why this happening. And my answer is yeah we can theorize all we want, and come up with some pretty ingenious reasons, too. But instead of pointing the finger at the whole bunch of them, lets see if we can get NASCAR to make it better.

The boys in the conference rooms are aware of the feedback they’ve been getting since the start of the season. Now they need to take that data and make it right. And if that means dropping the price of the tickets, or bring back the bump or be bumped philosophy, and simply tell the fans that there coolers will be OK after inspection, than NASCAR needs to do it. Otherwise, it won’t be long after that those figures become larger. And then it will be "HELLO TRAC" who is just waiting for NASCAR to trip all over themselves.

You can reach Jim Worsley by: worsley@rochester.rr.com

Reprinted with permission from Jim Worsley , Catchfence.com, for educational use only. 2002