Coke Zero 400 should have been run on Fourth of July
DAYTONA BEACH — It’s no secret television has been a boon for everybody associated with sports — fans, athletes, coaches, commissioners and, of course, the billionaires who own and operate sports teams and leagues.
Television networks pay sports leagues billions for the right to televise their events. This windfall of money is why the Orlando Magic’s Tobias Harris — a 22-year-old NBA player who hasn’t really accomplished anything yet — just signed a $16 million-a-year contract with the Orlando Magic. It’s why Jimbo Fisher makes more than $5 million a year to coach Florida State. It’s why Bobby Bonilla still gets a $1.2-million check every year from the New York Mets even though he hasn’t played Major League Baseball since 2001.
But sometimes TV ruins the sports experience for fans who actually invest their hard-earned money to attend these events. Tonight’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway is Exhibit A.
For more than a quartercentury, NASCAR’s traditional Fourth of July race has been run on the first Saturday of July. The fact that the Fourth of July fell on Saturday this year made it a no-brainer to continue the tradition of running the race on Saturday night under the lights.
Instead, NBC — which tonight will be televising its first NASCAR race in a decade — told NASCAR to move the race from Saturday night because many more Americans are at home watching TV on Sunday night. Unfortunately for many race fans who traditionally attend the Saturday night race in Daytona, they, too, will be staying home and watching on TV.
Question: How many racing fans, after a long Fourth of July weekend of family, food and fun, are going to attend a late Sunday night race in Daytona before heading back to work Monday morning? Answer: The fewest amount in history.
Tonight’s Coke Zero will be the lowest attended Fourth of July race of the modern era — partly because many of the prime grandstand seats are unavailable due to the ongoing $400-million renovation at the track, but mainly because of the Sunday night start. If all of the 50,000 available seats for tonight’s race are occupied, it’ll be the biggest upset in NASCAR since Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500.
Of course, NASCAR is no different than any other sport. College football teams, for instance, jack around their ticket buyers, too, by moving their traditional Saturday games to Thursday night, Wednesday night, Tuesday night or whatever night the networks mandate. Iconic FSU coach Bobby Bowden put it best years ago when asked about the influence of TV network executives on his sport: “Put it this way,” Bowden said. “When they ask me to kick off at 2 o’clock, I ask them, ‘a.m. or p.m.?’ “
Joie Chitwood, president of Daytona International Speedway, is one of the most likable and charismatic executives in professional sports, but even he can’t convincingly sell this. As much as he tries to put a happy face on it, he knows many racing fans are disappointed with the move evidenced by the plethora of tickets that were still available for the race as of Saturday afternoon.
“NBC and Fox are huge parts of our sport, and for them to really make the investment we have to make sure they’re happy,” Chitwood said. “NBC is coming back to NASCAR after 10 years and for them this is a huge investment. NBC has a great property in Sunday Night Football and, for them, I think they want to sprinkle some of that Sunday Night Football magic on the Coke Zero.”
Unfortunately, the ratings for NBC’s inaugural foray back into NASCAR won’t be anything close to Sunday Night Football. In fact, Sunday Night Fútbol — tonight’s Women’s World Cup Final between the United States and Japan — will crush the Coke Zero in the ratings.
Chitwood says the move to Sunday night is “just for this year,” and I hope he’s right. The corporatizing of NASCAR already has done enough to rob the Fourth of July race of its identity. It started years ago when the traditional name of the race — the Firecracker 400 — was jettisoned because NASCAR sold the naming rights.
As I’ve written many times, the Firecracker 400 was the most perfectly named event in sports. It evoked memories of the Fourth of July in Florida, of hot days and cold watermelon and Dad churning the homemade ice cream and Mom in a red-andwhite checkered dress baking apple pie. And the real beauty of the name was that it had a double meaning because drivers such as Pearson and Petty and Yarborough and Earnhardt truly were firecrackers who scraped and rubbed and turned their cars into a full-scale fireworks display.
Now the Firecracker is named after a diet soft drink and isn’t even run on the Fourth of July anymore.
Once again, let’s cue the patriotic music.
“My Country ’Tis of Thee, sell your soul to network TV.”