The modern NASCAR finds itself in a tricky spot. It has to attract new fans but also keep the old ones. While this may seem like a difficult thing to do, the new leadership of the sport under Steve O’Donnell and Ben Kennedy aims to do exactly that. And to do that, their strategy is pretty simple: listen. Kennedy, the new Chief Operating Officer of NASCAR, recently revealed the ways in which the leadership is connecting with fans in order to improve their experience of attending a race.
Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Kennedy touched on the ‘lot of things’ the events and venues team is trying to accomplish.
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“This came out of our Darlington Secret Shopper exercise, where we went as fans for a day, and we’re setting up another team to really focus on the fan experience at our tracks. So, how do we enhance that? We’ve heard a lot from a lot of our fans that we need to focus on egress at our tracks. We need to focus on the food and beverage. We call it vertical transportation. Escalators and elevators are really important in our facility. So we have another team that’s going to really hone in and focus on that. And then just the overall, you know, fan experience, hospitality, things we’re doing in the infield, how we partner our programming with our teams and drivers throughout the weekend. We’ve got a lot of irons in the fire from the events and venues side,” he described.
To his point, a lot of racetracks and venues in NASCAR are old facilities that have been updated over time, but haven’t exactly modernized. The aspects of upgrade Kennedy mentioned, transportation, elevators, and egress, are all elements that may seem insignificant from a macro level, but it is these small elements that make or break a fan’s experience.
Kennedy’s point would also come as a relief for loyal NASCAR fans who have complained in the past few years about the dwindling value of their experience for the price they pay for it. Following the reports of decreasing fan attendance at Bristol, it came to light that the cost of attending a NASCAR weekend for a family of four could cost as much as $4,000.
On top of that, with NASCAR earning a big chunk of revenue from its media rights deal worth over $7 billion, they were less incentivized to improve the fan experience at the track.
But the new NASCAR leadership’s ideas are a bit different. They want to improve the fan experience by talking to the fans about what needs to be improved in their experience. They want to listen, as NASCAR’s CEO Steve O’Donnell claimed.
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“To start out, we’re going to be listening, and that means genuinely listening before making any decisions … I think it’s important for us to go out there and spend the time listening to everyone in this industry … not just the leadership team but those who are out selling the tickets, those who are out interacting with the fans and can tell you what’s really happening and where we need the sport to go,” O’Donnell said.
Now that NASCAR is preparing to listen to the fans to improve their experience, it could lead to an increase in the appeal of attending a race, which would, in turn, help the sport on a larger level. After all, it all begins and ends with the fans for any sport, especially one like NASCAR.
Ben Kennedy backed by Dale Jr. as the future of NASCAR
When Steve O’Donnell was announced as NASCAR’s new CEO, it was a historic moment. For the first time, the leadership of the sport was no longer in the hands of a member of the France family.
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But Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes that won’t be the case in the future. The NASCAR Hall of Famer revealed that O’Donnell’s promotion wasn’t exactly a big one from President to CEO. The more significant upgrade was of Ben Kennedy, from Senior Vice President of Racing Development and Strategy to Chief Operating Officer.
Earnhardt claimed this suggests that Kennedy is ‘the guy’ for the future. “They’re positioning him to be the guy. He’s going to be the guy, and whatever this sport is in 25 years will be through the vision and eyes of Ben Kennedy. He will if he’s given that opportunity; he will run this business with all the best intentions. He’s a great guy,” he described on his podcast. Interestingly, Kennedy is the son of Lisa Kennedy, who is the daughter of Bill France Jr.
Therefore, NASCAR’s leadership would still more or less be in the hands of the France family in the future if Kennedy ascends to the top role. If that ends up happening, fans would be hoping he does so with a fan-first approach in mind.
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