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Why are the attendance numbers a mystery? Only if you don't read. There are many papers on the topic, including an excellent prediction model developed by Dr. Craig Depken at UNCC; go to their web site, then Dr Depken's page and read:
Outcome Uncertainty, Attendance, and Television Audience in NASCAR
with Jason Berkowitz and Dennis Wilson
The numbers in the grandstands are not a surprise, the low and declining TV ratings are; we've been plotting TV numbers since 2002, the viewing audience peaked in 2006 and has been going down ever since,...currently almost 25% off from the 2006 crest.
There's a lost generation of non-fans for motorsports, people 20 to 45 or so, who never became racing fans, so it isn't a matter of getting that demographic back, NASCAR never had them. This is a real problem for the motorsports industry, the core fans are getting old, and their numbers are diminishing.
NASCAR, and all motorsports, needs a new generation of fans.
Prof pi