I was debating with a co-worker today about which series is more popular. We decided that the number of television viewers worldwide, any given race weekend, would be a good indication of "popularity." He says NASCAR, I say F1.

What do you guys think? And more importantly do you have any data to back it up?

 

I have heard that advertising dollar vs. advertising dollar, your best money spent is in NASCAR. This is due to the television audience and its loyalty - they go out and shop for the products that are stickered on to their favorite driver's car. Food for thought.

 

F1. Broadcast in over 200 countries, something that Nascar is not. I don't remember the exact statistic, but the number of viewers for F1 was ranked quite closely to World Cup soccer a few years ago. Nascar definitely was not on the short list.

 

I totally agree with you Ryan, but I feel that it really only takes place in one country, ours. I believe Formula 1 is more popular as a whole over the entire world. It is probably the most exspensive sport out there today. Michael Shumacher is the highest paid athlete in the world. More money is put into Formula One. Where do you think they get the money from? Mostly sponsers.

Just my opinion,

aj

 

This also brings up a good point. Formula one used to be the second most watched sporting event next to soccer. It is now currently the third most watched sport next to tennis and soccer. The reason for the decline is because of this past years political moves that hopefully shouldn't happen again (i.e. Austrian Gran Prix).

aj

 

That's like asking which sport is more popular, baseball or soccer. We have a one-sided view. Many Americans don't even know that F1 (or soccer for that matter) is televised.

 

I understand, just stating how much of a presence NASCAR has in the US over F1 (whats that?). Worldwide its no contest, the rest of the world probably thinks ovals are stupid.

 

word

Once the NASCAR generation dies off, hopefully we'll be in the clear

aj

 

I heard somewhere that the combined budget for a single F1 race is more than the entire combined budget for an entire season of NASCAR.

Either way, all these points don't matter. It's simply a case that NASCAR sucks an F1 doesn't.

 

Worldwide, Formula One no contest. I'm pretty sure (but not positive) that Formula One is second only to Soccer worldwide in popularity. In the United States it's another story, but NASCAR is kinda like football - outside of the U.S. nobody gives a damn. By the way, Michael Schumacher is the highest paid athlete in the world.

 

couldnt have said it any better.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was thinking. I even mentioned that soccer would be number one and he started muttering something about US Football... Oh well. He probably went home last night and posted on a NASCAR forum, and now they are all talking about how there is no way that F1 could be more popular...

Now all I need is some data.

 

"TV exposure of Formula One is enormous. This year, a collective 3 billion TV viewers worldwide watched at least one of the 16 Grand Prix races." Excerpt from Autoweek

I somehow doubt nascar (lower case intentional) has that kind of audience worldwide.

EDIT found these stats:
"NASCAR racing, the fastest growing spectator sport in the world with more than 250 million television viewers annually" Seems a little low, but it was taken from a marketing report dated 10/2002

For comparison, CART reached over 1 billion worldwide this year so even though the US viewership is down, Worldwide it has grown.


[Modified by StageOne, 8:47 AM 12/13/2002]

 

Well you are going to have a long time to wait, Nascar has grown more in the 20-30 age range than any sport in america, which is one of the reasons nascar has grown so much. I think F1 will die before nascar as the lasted stuff I have been reading about F1 says they may only be able to filed 16 cars per races since I think the Arrows team is going to go bankrupt. F1 is killing itself off since it takes Major Major companies to sponser them and Factory backing or owner ship. VW was talking about getting back into F1 but was turned off by the amount of money it would have to spend each year to compete.

 

Worldwide? Are you serious?!? F1, no contest.

But I'm with David, I feel F1 is about to self destruct. I recorded that old 70's-era F1 documentary on Speedvision a while ago, and I think they said that the entire season team budget was $10M. That would only pay Shumacher for 1/2 season today. Doesn't one F1 car comes close to that price now?

 

I think racing on ovals is really only popular here in the US. I thought I read somewhere that a few of the ovals built over in Europe were seeing dissappointing revenue and lack of interest. Like us, the Euros just love road racing...hell, they even race big rigs on road courses

 

[QUOTE]I think they said that the entire season team budget was $10M. QUOTE]
I think Williams spends that on catering.

 

Did anyone see the CART race from Rockingham England? Zero attendance practically.

[quote]You might think you're kidding, but I would not be surprised in the least if that cost well into 7 figures.

 

I wonder what will happen to the F1 budgets when tabacco companies can no longer sponsor the teams??? I used to think that internet companies would step in, but that probably won't happen. Who knows though, maybe we'll see "eBay" on the sides of the Ferrari's some day LOL.

 

As for the absence of tobacco money just look at Williams, they have zero. Other teams can do it. Besides there are only 4 title tobacco sponsors in F1; West, Lucky Strike, Marlboro, and Mild Seven.

F1 is very unlikely to dissolve because of money; there is plenty. Its main threat is the manufacturers pulling out to create their own series, which can't happen until the Concorde Agreement expires in 2007.

I think you'll see both series change a good bit in the next few years.

Anyone want to take a bet with me that a Brazilian will win a Winston Cup race, or Toyota will be in Winston Cup within 5 years?

 

True but Williams has Factory backing... It seems that you need to have factory backing and a great sponser to run in F1.. not just one or the other.

 

maybe not: http://speedtv.com/auto/?lvl=3a&cat=17&id=4487