My Conspiracy Theory Rant

[grampahol]

(02-12-2016, 05:50 PM)WychesWarrior Wrote: Agree so damn much, it's not even funny, wish I could rep this 100 times over.

Being a gearhead and general tinkerer, I am into motorsports of all sorts.  I saw this EXACT same scenario play out with Brian France and NA$CAR.  The sport boomed in the late 90s and early 00s.  Tracks everywhere were adding seats, and everywhere else, new tracks were going in.  Some venues had waiting lists for tickets that were several years out. You wanted to go to Bristol?  Wait five years for a seat to open.

Soon, they too became obsessed with the casual fan and the Johnny Come Latelys.  So much so, that they begin closing up storied venues, changing rules seemingly at a whim, and constantly pushing out the old guard drivers with character for fresh faces and corporate spokesmen robots.  They completely alienated the hardcore fans like myself.  Now?  You can buy a ticket to the famed Bristol night race at the gate.  Daytona International Speedway, and Richmond International Raceway are removing tens of thousands of seats.  Everywhere you look, seats are becoming emptier and emptier, except for the old traditional venues like Darlington Raceway and Martinsville Speedway where hard core fans still gather in support of the hallowed grounds.  I hope the NFL doesn't succumb to this fate, but I see the parallels, and they are eerily similar.

Baseball also fell from grace in the public eye as well for different reasons, but it was still the undoing by people who believed themselves above everything.
I can remember a time when all summer just about every kid in the neighborhood would be out playing baseball all day long. I know we certainly did, but now come summer it's tough to find a kid with a bat and if you do the first thought that might come to mind is he's going to go hurt someone..