How F1’s Controversial Fan Treatment Highlights NASCAR Supremacy Over a Very Crucial Aspect?

This past weekend, Formula One played host to the Las Vegas Grand Prix after decades. With the new street circuit built on the Vegas Strip, as opposed to a parking lot at Caesar’s Palace, there were a few hiccups. It didn’t help matters that the race was much hyped, despite complaints from local residents. Free Practice 1 and 2 threatened to only prove the naysayers right, but eventually, the rest of the weekend played out smoothly.

Meanwhile, F1’s counterpart NASCAR, has been racing at Las Vegas for a while, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Now, for any sporting event, the fans are arguably one of the most important elements of the weekend that the sport needs to take into consideration. Sports venues depend on them for revenue, and the sport itself depends on them for the same. So it was an utter travesty when the fans at the Las Vegas Grand Prix were treated poorly. There were already warning signs with the ticket prices reaching four digits in the buildup to the race weekend. In addition to that, during construction, there were attempts to obscure the view of the track for non-paying consumers, a move that was received poorly.

What the NASCAR Veteran driver had to say about the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Since this race was much hyped, the who’s who of America showed up to witness the spectacle. Among them was a smattering of NASCAR drivers in attendance, including Las Vegas’ favorite sons, Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch. Others included Daniel Suarez, Denny Hamlin, and many more. Recently, Hamlin spoke to Autoweek and talked about how F1’s presence at Vegas could be a boon for NASCAR.

He said, “I mean, you hope so, right? Certainly, you would think that there’s going to be a lot of casual, first-time fans going to a motorsports event, fans going to F1 in Vegas because of how convenient it is, right? When I say convenient, I mean it’s right here in the States in a heavily populated area. You’ve got the whole West Coast. And if there’s just a handful—10, 12— people that go to that and then say, ‘When the NASCAR race comes to Vegas, I’m going to go to my very first NASCAR race,’ then that’s a good thing. I certainly think that there will be some of that that goes on, just because of people experiencing motorsports for the first time.”

Among many subjects, Hamlin talked about how fans are normally treated at NASCAR races. According to him, one of the stock car racing series’ biggest assets is its accessibility. Owing to this, he always likes encouraging people to attend races, and he observed that they always had positive reviews. At the end of the day, the Joe Gibbs Racing star simply wants to expose more fans to the joys of motor racing. With Formula One having an increased presence in the United States, it could also allow newer fans to broaden their horizons and be interested in NASCAR.

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What happened to the Formula One fans in Las Vegas?

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Fans were not happy after the opening practice session was halted after eight minutes. As it turned out, one of the manhole covers on the track was not welded properly. So the session was canceled while the circuit authorities fixed the issue and inspected the entire track for other weaknesses. The process took so long that the second practice session was held at 2:30 in the early morning.

What infuriated the fans was that they were all shooed out of the venue at around 1:30 in the morning. The track authorities cited the lack of security present at the track beyond 1:30 AM, so practice was held in front of empty stands. There was not even an apology from the Las Vegas organizers, and the only compensation they got was a $200 gift voucher.

Now, the latest news is that the organizers are facing lawsuits from irate fans. Their anger is justified because they all paid through the nose for a ticket, and lost a full day’s worth of on-track action. A measly little voucher is hardly going to make up for the loss of two sessions, so one couldn’t fault the fans’ anger. That second practice session also had to end by 4:00 AM to free up the roads for local commuters. On the bright side, despite the hiccups, the main race itself was fairly exciting.

Why are fans so important to NASCAR?

As per a Sports Business Journal report of 2020, there was a major drop in total ticket revenue for NASCAR. Apparently, it ranged between $150 million and $175 million for the season. Dover Motorsports Inc. reported that revenues for the fourth quarter of 2020 came to $185,000. This was a paltry figure, especially when compared to $20,794,000 in the same quarter of 2019. Since it was such a big loss for the sport, there is no debating the fact how important their live spectators are for them.

As mentioned before, the fans are the bread and butter for any sport. The year 2020 was more than enough proof of this when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Since people were confined at home, many sports had to either go on hiatus, kick-off behind closed doors or improvise. For NASCAR in particular, the lack of fans was particularly painful, as none of the race tracks saw any revenue that year. So even though the TV viewership has been taking hits for a while, the on-track experience is still reportedly top-notch.

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