In my recent RACER opinion piece, readers challenged me to get specific about the reasons supporting my view on motorsports’ future. That article also promoted some disagreement with my thoughts. As I rarely avoid a good argument, I wanted to go deeper into issues surrounding the fan experience and the challenges in growing and energizing a fan audience.

Many of us remember a simpler time in the motorsports business. Specific figures dominated the world of racing promotion: Bill France, Jr., Tony Hulman, Jr., Bruton Smith, Wally Parks, and Humpy Wheeler come to mind. There was no talk of brands, demographics, or audience surveys. These promoters simply knew how to fill grandstands because they were intuitive, savvy, and aggressive businesspersons.

Today, we sometimes have to do things differently because the world has changed. Audiences have too many choices with too little time to spend on things like motorsports. Millennials and Gen Z simply don’t spend their time and money like Gen X and Boomers did. Sanctioning bodies and race tracks market differently because they operate in a different world than France, Hulman, and Smith.

Nevertheless, even though we may market differently in 2021 versus 2001, motorsports must be mindful of the most important rule of audience growth: the best way to build an audience is through addition, not substitution. Auto racing has an older and more male audience than other sports. The industry must build on this base, and not abandon it. In the pursuit of a younger and diverse fan base, the sport should honor those who support it today and welcome all others in the future.

The Four Key Questions

Every form of entertainment and sport would love to put a wheel into motorsports. A dollar spent to attend a sports car race could be spent on golf, tennis, football, Netflix, vacations, etc. Motorsports has a valuable audience, but that audience has eroded over the past decade or so. In light of this challenge, the motorsports industry must address the following four questions to grow and energize its audience in this era of intense competition.

Does the product fit the fan’s lifestyle?

Professional sports must appeal to a fan’s lifestyle. The fan chooses what sports format, timing, and location appeal to them. American short-track racing remains popular because it delivers the right entertainment on a good night for the right price point for its fan base. However, three-hour races, a long drive to a superspeedway, and a lack of event entertainment options may be less appealing to younger audiences. Each form of auto racing has different issues to consider. However, as we’ve seen little change in racing over the last 25 years, it doesn’t seem that the sport is adapting well to changing lifestyles.

IndyCar drivers are strong at engaging with fans on a one-to-one basis, but all forms of the sport need to make it easier to incorporate themselves into their audience's lifestyle. Motorsport Images

To determine if the product fits the fan lifestyle, the following factors can be considered:

1. . In my last RACER op-ed, I referenced that “Paddock Think” will prevent us from honestly assessing if the racing product is as good as we think it is. In reality, the industry’s opinion does not matter. It’s all about the person that buys the ticket or watches a race broadcast.
2. I’ll offer a quick example from baseball. Baseball stadiums are being redesigned to encourage fans to watch games from entertainment areas other than their seats. Attendees want to hang out with friends and family as a group rather than sit in a single line of seats. While I recognize the value of engine sound to the fan experience, it’s often difficult to have a conversation with anyone in the grandstands at most races. Racing purists can argue with me all they want about the true nature of motorsports. However, I’ll simply note that motorsport is probably losing out to sports like baseball, football, or basketball.
3. It’s expensive to attract new fans. However, it’s even more costly when a new fan tries the product and doesn’t return. To grow a sport, new fans must become regular fans. Privately, promoters have told me they experience high ‘churn’ because ticketholders don’t renew their seats for the coming year. Churn occurs for lots of reasons: a lackluster race, long concession lines, or inconvenient parking. No matter the reason, the motorsports industry must analyze this churn and find ways to retain customers.

Can the sport become enmeshed in the fans' lives?

The NFL owns Sunday. It feels like we dedicate an entire day each week to watching the game on TV, tailgating at a game, or going to the game. We may watch it with family at home, or friends at a sports bar. Every sport should want to become that intertwined in its fans’ lives. This level of attachment drives fan engagement at every level and promotes sport growth.

I don’t contend that a similar level of engagement doesn’t exist in motorsports. Just spend a weekend in a NASCAR campground, and you’ll see it. There’s just not enough of it in the sport as a whole. It involves following the sport’s and athletes’ social media, compelling stories (like the content found on RACER), engaging in fantasy leagues or legal wagering, and watching/attending events.

Sports usually engage the following strategies to increase fan connections:

1. Racing is filled with exciting action and technologies. However, to enjoy and appreciate the sport, promoters should consider ‘Racing 101’ events, trivia competitions, or other ways to make the sport more accessible to new and casual fans.
2. A hospitality suite or chalet should not be the only place for fans to gather with family, friends, and colleagues. Tracks should find ways to build social spaces into spectator areas, similar to their stick-and-ball counterparts.
3. Historically, motorsports has been diligent in connecting with charities, social groups, and local economic initiatives. Actually, NFL teams and others have ripped a page from racing’s playbook. However, I have seen these connections wane at racing events over the past decade. Fans recognize when a racing organization supports their community, and reciprocate with event ticket purchase and attendance.

Are there strong rooting interests?

When I first began working in racing, the fantastic rivalry between Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Sr was at its height. Many fans chose sides and would lose their minds cheering for their guy and against his opponent. This is the essence of the rooting interest at the heart of all professional sports. A strong rooting interest sells tickets, drives television ratings, and makes sponsors joyous.

Unfortunately, few, if any, rivalries in this decade have matched Gordon vs. Earnhardt. However, fans must be encouraged to be interested in their favorite driver, team, or automaker.

1. This is not a new suggestion. In fact, I’ve felt so strongly about it, I wrote a book on the subject in 2007. However, sanctioning bodies must commit to a sustained process of driver brand-building. Marketing research indicates that fans want athletes to be role models. This type of connection promotes a solid rooting interest.
2. All motorsports can deliver competition worthy of fan interest. Competitions can be driver vs. driver, team vs. team, automaker vs. automaker, or technology vs. technology. When fans pick a side, they connect to that side at the racetrack and on the broadcast.
3. When a sport inspires, it signals to a fan that it’s worthy of devotion. Inspiration is the heart of success for sports. Publicists and marketers would be well-served to tell stories of why a driver’s story should inspire us or how a team’s effort is worthy of our admiration. These are critical rooting connection points.

Can the industry promote like a challenger brand?

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the industry could not build racetracks fast enough. Since then, grandstand seats have been quietly removed, and short tracks have been sold to real estate developers. While motorsport has adjusted to shrinking markets, I don’t see the ambition and intensity to reset the sport and grow again.

In 2021, the motorsport industry could be described as a challenger brand. A challenger brand is positioned behind a category leader, aggressively marketing its product to displace the dominant industry players. Challenger brands take many forms depending on their level of irreverence, feistiness, or innovation. In business, Tesla, Uber, or Airbnb are challenger brands.

Can racing series give fans new reasons to root for drivers, teams and manufacturers? Harrelson/Motorsport Images

In sports, the UFC serves as a good challenger brand example. From its controversial no-holds-barred roots, the UFC assertively built a sport that many argue has displaced boxing. Their sport creatively engaged its fighters to create a social media following, structured its bouts into fast-paced and condensed events that fans wanted, and leveraged reality television (The Ultimate Fighter) into a multi-billion-dollar sport.

We can point to flashes of a challenger brand attitude in motorsports. (Kudos to F1 and Netflix for Drive to Survive). However, I don’t see a similar no-holds-barred perspective to build motorsports into the 21st century. In my view, motorsports as a challenger brand would promote some of the following:

1. Some drivers do a tremendous job of promoting their careers and sport. However, many drivers don’t want to be ‘distracted’ from their work on the track, and most teams fully support that position. Like every sport, athletes drive fan engagement. Without improving the driver’s notoriety with mainstream consumers, motorsport’s growth will be constrained.
2. Sanctioning bodies should adopt out-of-the-box marketing strategies to reposition what consumers think about racing. Uber changed the way people think about taxis, just like Airbnb became the bane of a hotel’s existence. Similarly, consumers can’t think of racing in the 21 century as they thought about it in the last century. Racing must be more than watching which car places first.
3. Spiritually, racetracks should return to their P.T. Barnum roots. Earlier in this article, I referenced several of the great promoters in the sport. They believed that promotion never ended, and there was always an opportunity to sell a ticket by any means possible. Digital marketing and emails won’t sell out grandstands alone. A fire in the belly always separated great promoters from mediocre ones.

Motorsports has many talented and ambitious professionals ready to build the sport to its fullest potential. My intention is not to critique them. I simply want to offer several roadmap elements, working for other businesses and sports, which could serve as a solid foundation for our children and grandchildren to enjoy motorsports well beyond this decade.