NASCAR means business
NASCAR racing is not a sport.
That’s what senior biology major David Reznick thought before he enrolled in “From Dirt Tracks to Madison Avenue: The Business of NASCAR,” an honors module that Michael Pitts and Robert Ackley of the Department of Management taught this semester.
NASCAR racing is not a sport.
That’s what senior biology major David Reznick thought before he enrolled in “From Dirt Tracks to Madison Avenue: The Business of NASCAR,” an honors module that Michael Pitts and Robert Ackley of the Department of Management taught this semester.
Now, after a month of learning about all things related to the racing association, Reznick said his perception has not changed.
“It’s hard for me to grasp the concept of people driving in circles all day and call that interesting and exciting,” he said.
But one thing has changed: Reznick said he now understands that the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is big business, worth $3 billion, according to Fortune magazine.
And that is precisely the message Pitts and Ackley, whose only affiliation to NASCAR is that they are fans, want students to take from the module, which has garnered national and international attention since they began teaching it in the fall 2004.
According to statistics on GoAndDoMichigan.com, courtesy of NASCAR, NASCAR made more than $2 billion in 2005 in licensed product sales. Its sponsors are said to annually make more than $5 billion in total exposure on TV, where NASCAR is the second-rated regular season sport in the United States.
“The major sponsors alone are Fortune 500 companies and beyond,” Pitts said. “This is some real serious money flowing in and out of this.”
Most students, however, do not realize this, the professors said.
75 million Americans, or one in three adults, follow NASCAR.
60 percent of NASCAR’s fans are male and 40 percent are female.
58 percent of children 7- to 11-years-old are NASCAR fans.
42 percent of the fan base earns $50,000-plus a year, making it more affluent than the U.S. population.
93 percent of fans say NASCAR is a sport that needs corporate sponsorship.
*Statistics from GoAndDoMichigan.com, courtesy of NASCAR
Pitts said a bell curve of students have enrolled in the module since he and Ackley began offering it. At one end is a small percentage that despises NASCAR; in the middle is a large “bell” that knows nothing about it; and at the other end is a small percentage of fans.
The large majority of those who don’t like or are indifferent toward NASCAR bring with them preconceived notions of the sport, the professors said.
“People who don’t know about NASCAR see it as a Southern sport. People who know about NASCAR, especially the executives in NASCAR, know it’s not a Southern sport,” Ackley said. “It’s a national sport. And it has the potential to have international impact.”
NASCAR’s potential in the international market appears to already exist. It is televised in more than 150 countries in 22 languages and sanctions races in Canada and Mexico. In the past, NASCAR has held exhibition races in Japan and Australia.
Pitts said he knows first hand the global potential of NASCAR. The Institute for International Marketing and Management at the Vienna
