T.V. Sports Preferences

Background Research

    George and I did some extra research to help us find other peoples views and viewers ratings on Golf and NASCAR on TV. We also did some other research on statistics, on Golf or NASCAR, which we showed below.

    I visited the website http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-05-31-wednesday_x.htm to find out the ratings for the audience of some significant NASCAR races such as Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600. Sunday afternoon's 500 on ABC drew 5.2% of U.S. households while the Coca Cola 600 drew 4.7% of U.S. households. Fort the first time since 2001, the Indy 500 drew more viewers. In the past few years, race coverage continued on a split-screen while commercials aired. That could possibly enhance other sports such as golf. But it will only become more prevalent if advertisers conclude they can swallow shrinking their ads if its keeps viewers from channel-surfing.

     We also visited another website, http://www.performanceresearch.com/nascar-racestat.htm and found a study trying to determine if some sponsors are inappropriate for Winston Cup cars. In this study, where over 1,000 nationwide, random NASCAR fans were interviewed, over one-half (57%) indicated that they had a higher trust in products offered by NASCAR sponsors. In comparison, only 16% of the general public holds a "Higher" trust in Olympic sponsors and only 5% have a "Higher" trust in sponsors of World Cup Soccer. In addition, nearly three-fourths of the NASCAR audience (71%) reported that they "Almost always" or "Frequently" choose a product involved in NASCAR over one that is not, simply because of the sponsorship. In comparison, only 52% of professional tennis enthusiasts, and 47% of PGA golf enthusiasts "Almost always" or "Frequently" choose products based on sponsorships.

     We went to http://findarticles.com/p/articles and found an article that talks about how a NASCAR driver has accepted a sponsorship from a golf company. Rusty Wallace signed a multiyear endorsement agreement that will put the Company's logo on his uniform sleeve and make Callaway Golf a licensee of Wallace's racing team. Wallace will make promotional appearances on behalf of Callaway Golf as part of the agreement. Meanwhile, Callaway Golf will use Wallace's likeness, signature, driver number and car on products such as golf balls, golf bags and putters. NASCAR fans know Wallace as one of racing's most consistently outstanding drivers over the past two decades. Wallace, who has 54 career victories, has finished in the top 10 of the NASCAR points standings for 10 consecutive years driving his instantly recognizable #2 car. On the golf course, Wallace is an avid golfer who plays with custom-fit Callaway Golf(R) clubs and uses the Company's golf balls. Wallace joins baseball star Mike Piazza and music legend Alice Cooper as part of a long list of athletes and celebrities that act as ambassadors for Callaway Golf.

     After going on the most obvious website to find NASCAR statistics, http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/business/06/26/nascar.tv.ratings/index.html  we found out that NASCAR viewing has been decreasing in the recent years-even though there have been many attempts to increase it by showing it on ESPN and adding more time to it-but the number of young viewers has increased.  FOX reported a 7 percent improvement in the male 18-34 demo on its Nextel Cup broadcasts, and ESPN2's coverage of the Busch Series has produced a 2 percent for that group on cable.  The decline wasn’t a surprise to analysts because FOX's 5.8 average rating still represents a strong number when nearly every sport is dealing with a drop.

    We went to http://www.golftoday.co.uk/news/yeartodate/news04/tv.html and we figured out that golf and Tiger woods go hand-in-hand. When Tiger woods played people watched golf more than any other time.  This indicates that golf isn’t a real popular sport to watch on T.V. because most people know who Tiger Woods is, but don’t know anyone else.

    Our entire search showed that overall ratings for NASCAR and golf are down.