Hey Guys,
I was looking around on the ESPN sight for motocross information. Needless to say I wasn't too impressed that it was a subcatagory of a subcatagory in the RPM section of their page. However, when I was looking over the recap of Bubba's win in NY (in March?!) I came across this "rant" by ESPN's Whit Whatson; http://espn.go.com/rpm/others/2002/0307/1347357.html Here's the story if the link doesn't work.
NASCAR, CART dominate the posts
By Whit Watson
ESPN.com
Every so often, I like to hop on to the RPM message boards at ESPN.com, just to see what racing fans are talking about that week. It's hardly scientific research, but I have found it to be a valuable tool in preparing for the RPM television double-dip on Sundays.
I have also found that many of you -- and don't take this personally -- could REALLY benefit from using the "Spell-Check" function on your home computers. A refresher course in punctuation wouldn't hurt, either. And one other thing -- SEE THAT BUTTON OVER THERE MARKED "CAPS LOCK?" TAKE A SCREWDRIVER AND PRY THAT SUCKER OFF. THANK YOU.
But I digress.
It should come as no surprise to anyone here that the NASCAR board is by far the most-posted, with more than three times as many messages as its closest competitor, which happens to be CART. At the time of this writing, the NASCAR board was lapping the Champ Cars by a score of 32,129 to 9,947.
Sure, NASCAR is big business, but I submit that the events of the last few weeks have created a spike in Internet arguments. Each of the first three Winston Cup events featured some sort of controversy sparked by a subjective call on the part of the series' governors -- the red flag at Daytona and Sterling Marlin's impromptu repair job, the absence of a red flag at Rockingham and Matt Kenseth's incredible shrinking Taurus, and the much-discussed "pit road infraction that wasn't" at Vegas, again involving Marlin.
On that last one, the camps were distinctly divided. Just about every posting I read fell into one of the following categories:
1. Marlin cheated.
2. NASCAR "gave him one" after his bizarre situations at Daytona and the Rock -- alternate version, they "gave one to Dodge," for reasons not clearly explained.
3. NASCAR screwed up, and it ain't Marlin's fault.
4. NASCAR never would have done the same thing if it was (insert name of your favorite driver here) instead of Marlin.
5. At least it wasn't Jeff Gordon who won.
Proponents of Category Five, I am happy to report, are becoming less and less vocal. The Gordon haters seem to be losing steam.
Hey, he's young, rich, handsome, married to Miss Winston, and has four championships. Stuart Scott would say "don't playa-hate," or something to that effect.
As for the other racing series, CART's message board traffic is generally quite technical in nature and largely dismissive of stock car racing if and when it comes up, which befits the series' image. Not surprised at all that so many CART fans are computer-literate. And the technical knowledge displayed by the fans is very impressive.
The next most popular board is the IRL, which, at this point in the season, is filled with dreams of Indianapolis. Again, not surprising. Indy is where it's at, after all. There are the occasional darts tossed back and forth between CART and the IRL, but those, too, are dwindling, just as the differences between the cars themselves are disappearing. And if we are to believe Roger Penske (see story on RPM.ESPN.com), those differences may vanish altogether in the near future.
If that were to happen, I assume that the RPM.ESPN.com guys will have to consolidate the two message boards, in the spirit of understanding and goodwill.
But the numbers that shocked me were from the NHRA and Supercross. Postings on both boards combined were less than half that of Formula One -- again, at the time of this writing.
How is this possible?
The NHRA does terrific ratings on ESPN and ESPN2 throughout the season, so much so that the bosses here were thrilled to lock up the dragsters to a five-year television contract AND add "NHRA 2Day" to your Sunday morning TV menu. In fact, NHRA national events are routinely the highest-rated Sunday shows on ESPN2 in season.
As for Supercross, well, just watch the highlights. Sold-out venues everywhere they go -- indoors, outdoors, everywhere. 70,000-plus in Atlanta, the second-highest attended event in the history of the sport. 60,000-plus at Edison International Field in Anaheim, the same park where the Angels play to just about nobody -- trust me on this one, I've seen Disney's stock prices.
And the stories! James Stewart, winnin' races and wearin' braces! Can Ricky Carmichael dominate again? Can Jeremy McGrath ever find the old touch? How DO you pronounce "Vuillemin," anyway?
Speaking of the Flying Frenchman, he actually got into a fight a couple of weeks ago! In the Georgia Dome! On the track! On TV! Of course, his opponent, Stefane Roncada, never threw a punch, never took his helmet off, and never laid his bike down. Momma Roncada didn't raise no dummies.
Point being, where are all you people?
As for the NHRA, my theory is, there's not much to argue about. My guy was faster than your guy. It's all about the clock. Not much room for subjectivity.
Supercross? I don't know -- maybe you're all too exhausted after attending the event to log on. Perhaps the mud on your hands clogs up the keyboard. But it's gut-check time, people. We want to hear you. You and the dragster boosters.
This is a call to action -- don't let those stock car fans dominate the boards. I want traffic, dang it, and I want it straight away. If a quarter of those who attend NHRA and Supercross events on a given weekend would go home and vent their feelings on the RPM.ESPN.com message boards, that would be ... well ... a LOT of postings. You know what I mean. Don't make me turn this computer around.
In all seriousness, keep writing, all of you. We love to know what you're thinking. Just keep it clean, huh?
And USE THAT SPELL-CHECK. Thank you.
To some extent this guy's correct in so much as we all flame about the lack of same day coverage of many nationals and/or a race being dropped in place of "Hatian Ice Sculpting" or something. Maybe this has already been addressed, but it still wouldn't hurt for us to rehash it and drop them another earful about OUR sport! Thanks for your time.
-Moose95
I was looking around on the ESPN sight for motocross information. Needless to say I wasn't too impressed that it was a subcatagory of a subcatagory in the RPM section of their page. However, when I was looking over the recap of Bubba's win in NY (in March?!) I came across this "rant" by ESPN's Whit Whatson; http://espn.go.com/rpm/others/2002/0307/1347357.html Here's the story if the link doesn't work.
NASCAR, CART dominate the posts
By Whit Watson
ESPN.com
Every so often, I like to hop on to the RPM message boards at ESPN.com, just to see what racing fans are talking about that week. It's hardly scientific research, but I have found it to be a valuable tool in preparing for the RPM television double-dip on Sundays.
I have also found that many of you -- and don't take this personally -- could REALLY benefit from using the "Spell-Check" function on your home computers. A refresher course in punctuation wouldn't hurt, either. And one other thing -- SEE THAT BUTTON OVER THERE MARKED "CAPS LOCK?" TAKE A SCREWDRIVER AND PRY THAT SUCKER OFF. THANK YOU.
But I digress.
It should come as no surprise to anyone here that the NASCAR board is by far the most-posted, with more than three times as many messages as its closest competitor, which happens to be CART. At the time of this writing, the NASCAR board was lapping the Champ Cars by a score of 32,129 to 9,947.
Sure, NASCAR is big business, but I submit that the events of the last few weeks have created a spike in Internet arguments. Each of the first three Winston Cup events featured some sort of controversy sparked by a subjective call on the part of the series' governors -- the red flag at Daytona and Sterling Marlin's impromptu repair job, the absence of a red flag at Rockingham and Matt Kenseth's incredible shrinking Taurus, and the much-discussed "pit road infraction that wasn't" at Vegas, again involving Marlin.
On that last one, the camps were distinctly divided. Just about every posting I read fell into one of the following categories:
1. Marlin cheated.
2. NASCAR "gave him one" after his bizarre situations at Daytona and the Rock -- alternate version, they "gave one to Dodge," for reasons not clearly explained.
3. NASCAR screwed up, and it ain't Marlin's fault.
4. NASCAR never would have done the same thing if it was (insert name of your favorite driver here) instead of Marlin.
5. At least it wasn't Jeff Gordon who won.
Proponents of Category Five, I am happy to report, are becoming less and less vocal. The Gordon haters seem to be losing steam.
Hey, he's young, rich, handsome, married to Miss Winston, and has four championships. Stuart Scott would say "don't playa-hate," or something to that effect.
As for the other racing series, CART's message board traffic is generally quite technical in nature and largely dismissive of stock car racing if and when it comes up, which befits the series' image. Not surprised at all that so many CART fans are computer-literate. And the technical knowledge displayed by the fans is very impressive.
The next most popular board is the IRL, which, at this point in the season, is filled with dreams of Indianapolis. Again, not surprising. Indy is where it's at, after all. There are the occasional darts tossed back and forth between CART and the IRL, but those, too, are dwindling, just as the differences between the cars themselves are disappearing. And if we are to believe Roger Penske (see story on RPM.ESPN.com), those differences may vanish altogether in the near future.
If that were to happen, I assume that the RPM.ESPN.com guys will have to consolidate the two message boards, in the spirit of understanding and goodwill.
But the numbers that shocked me were from the NHRA and Supercross. Postings on both boards combined were less than half that of Formula One -- again, at the time of this writing.
How is this possible?
The NHRA does terrific ratings on ESPN and ESPN2 throughout the season, so much so that the bosses here were thrilled to lock up the dragsters to a five-year television contract AND add "NHRA 2Day" to your Sunday morning TV menu. In fact, NHRA national events are routinely the highest-rated Sunday shows on ESPN2 in season.
As for Supercross, well, just watch the highlights. Sold-out venues everywhere they go -- indoors, outdoors, everywhere. 70,000-plus in Atlanta, the second-highest attended event in the history of the sport. 60,000-plus at Edison International Field in Anaheim, the same park where the Angels play to just about nobody -- trust me on this one, I've seen Disney's stock prices.
And the stories! James Stewart, winnin' races and wearin' braces! Can Ricky Carmichael dominate again? Can Jeremy McGrath ever find the old touch? How DO you pronounce "Vuillemin," anyway?
Speaking of the Flying Frenchman, he actually got into a fight a couple of weeks ago! In the Georgia Dome! On the track! On TV! Of course, his opponent, Stefane Roncada, never threw a punch, never took his helmet off, and never laid his bike down. Momma Roncada didn't raise no dummies.
Point being, where are all you people?
As for the NHRA, my theory is, there's not much to argue about. My guy was faster than your guy. It's all about the clock. Not much room for subjectivity.
Supercross? I don't know -- maybe you're all too exhausted after attending the event to log on. Perhaps the mud on your hands clogs up the keyboard. But it's gut-check time, people. We want to hear you. You and the dragster boosters.
This is a call to action -- don't let those stock car fans dominate the boards. I want traffic, dang it, and I want it straight away. If a quarter of those who attend NHRA and Supercross events on a given weekend would go home and vent their feelings on the RPM.ESPN.com message boards, that would be ... well ... a LOT of postings. You know what I mean. Don't make me turn this computer around.
In all seriousness, keep writing, all of you. We love to know what you're thinking. Just keep it clean, huh?
And USE THAT SPELL-CHECK. Thank you.
To some extent this guy's correct in so much as we all flame about the lack of same day coverage of many nationals and/or a race being dropped in place of "Hatian Ice Sculpting" or something. Maybe this has already been addressed, but it still wouldn't hurt for us to rehash it and drop them another earful about OUR sport! Thanks for your time.
-Moose95
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