SMI's Bruton Smith proposes blackouts for races that do not sell out
CONCORD, N.C. – The possibility that attendance might lag this season has caught the attention of Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman Bruton Smith, and one of his potential solutions might not be popular with some fans.
Asked if an National Football League-style local television blackout should be imposed on areas that don’t sell out their races, Smith said yes immediately.
“I have not [talked to NASCAR], but that’s exactly what should happen,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s worked for the NFL, so you’ve had somebody who’s been a forerunner there that’s done it. And they’ve done it successfully, so why not go ahead and match it?”
In the NFL, teams that do not sell out their home games are subject to a local blackout – meaning fans in the immediate area cannot watch the event on TV.
If Smith’s NASCAR blackout idea were put into place, a market such as Los Angeles would not be able to see the race when Auto Club Speedway still had tickets available. The idea is to prompt more fans to come to the track and buy tickets instead of watch it on TV.
Smith was asked if that would alienate fans.
“Let’s go back to the NFL – do they alienate [the fans]? I don’t think they do,” he said. “Speedways are not funded by cities or states – we’re funded by what we can do. So you should not lose sight of that.”
NASCAR races often draw fans from several hours away, but Smith said he didn’t know how big of an area should be subject to a blackout.
Told of his father’s proposal, son Marcus Smith – president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway – said blackouts were “worth considering.”
“Nobody ever wants to have a blackout,” Marcus Smith said. “You want to sell all your tickets and be able to turn the TV on and be able to see the race in the home market as well. ... It’s a natural motivator that you’d rather not have your event out there for other people to see if you don’t have a sellout.”
Some tracks used to have blackouts, but when NASCAR negotiated its TV deal with all the tracks as one group, blackouts were universally eliminated.
