NASCAR is OUT!

danpam1024

danpam1024

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I am so excited to see what they put in the space occupied by Nascar Cafe! Sports bars really don't interest me on vacation, I can do that at home. Not a particular fan of NC and glad to see the momentum in CW in full swing with no signs of slowing down!

FB POST: After fifteen years of highly successful operation, and as part of our ongoing commitment to bring new experiences to Universal CityWalk, NASCAR Sports Grille will close its doors November 1st. We are creating a great concept for this space to join all the other exciting, new venues we’ve been opening at CityWalk and will announce it soon.

Meanwhile, NASCAR Sports Grill will remain open for lunch and dinner through November 1st.
 
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Clyde

Clyde

Active Member
I was there last time we went to UOR. Not a bad spot, but like was said above it's reminiscent of every other sports bar in the world. I'm happy to see it go and hope it's replaced with something better.
 
R W B

R W B

Well-Known Member
Darn, I really liked this place when I went. I'm a huge sports guys so I enjoy sports bars no matter where and while at its core it may be the same thing I have at home, its also very different.

wdwfan4ver said:
I am not shocked. NASCAR's popularity isn't where it was when it was first opened at City Walk.
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Not exactly true. NASCAR has grown enormously over the last 10-15 years and It's still growing. What other sporting event can put 100k-250k (depending on track, not including infield passes) fans in their grand stands every week?
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
danpam1024 said:
I am so excited to see what they put in the space occupied by Nascar Cafe! Sports bars really don't interest me on vacation, I can do that at home. Not a particular fan of NC and glad to see the momentum in CW in full swing with no signs of slowing down!

FB POST: After fifteen years of highly successful operation, and as part of our ongoing commitment to bring new experiences to Universal CityWalk, NASCAR Sports Grille will close its doors November 1st. We are creating a great concept for this space to join all the other exciting, new venues we’ve been opening at CityWalk and will announce it soon.

Meanwhile, NASCAR Sports Grill will remain open for lunch and dinner through November 1st.
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Not really a big change... It will be NBC Sports bar/grille and Nascar goes to Daytona
 
W

wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
R W B said:
Darn, I really liked this place when I went. I'm a huge sports guys so I enjoy sports bars no matter where and while at its core it may be the same thing I have at home, its also very different.


Not exactly true. NASCAR has grown enormously over the last 10-15 years and It's still growing. What other sporting event can put 100k-250k (depending on track, not including infield passes) fans in their grand stands every week?
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You information is outdated because NASCAR after 2008 is no longer at its peak in attendance. You brought up the capacity of the race tracks, but that doesn't means the seats are sold out.

There has been empty seats on some of the tracks. Some Tracks that are on the cup schedule decreased the capacity of their tracks or is middle of doing that because of the amount of empty seat. The other thing is most race tracks haven't been released to the public since 2012. In 2012, It was proven that NASCAR attendance was down. There also is not other track out of Indianapolis Motor Speedway that has the capacity of 200,000 fans.

NASCAR hasn't gotten over 200,000 at Indianapolis Motor speedway since 2008. I don't know if you got it Mixed up with Indy Car having the Indy 500.It is very unlike NASCAR is going to reach over 200,000 fans at Indy again despite the Capacity.

The fact is the Brickyard 400 attendance isn't what it was before the 2008 tire Fiasco for the Brickyard 400. Source of this year's attendance: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2014/07/28/Events-and-Attractions/Brickyard.aspx

The seating Capacity of Daytona is going down from 168,000 to 100,000 for the 2016 season. Source: http://www.jayski.com/news/tracks/story/_/page/daytona-international-speedway

Michigan International Speedway had Capacity of 137,243 fans in 2006, but is now down to 72,000 after decreasing the Capacity 3 times. Source: http://www.jayski.com/news/tracks/story/_/page/michigan-international-speedway

Dover International Speedway only has the capacity 113,000 now compare to 135,000. This Spring, the track didn't appear to have 100,000 fans in the stands. On Jayski, Dover is even considering lowering their capacity even more since they have problems selling out.

Here is my source of the Capacity of Dover: http://www.jayski.com/news/tracks/story/_/page/dover-international-speedway.

Homestead, Talladega, Richmond, Chicagoland, California, Darlington, and Kansas had the tracks decrease in Capacity also. Sources: http://www.sportingnews.com/nascar/...ead-for-season-finale-but-where-will-they-sit

http://www.indystar.com/story/sport...s-attendance-problems-mirror-nascar/13150689/

Talladega matter is dropping their capacity from 143,000 to 80,000. Source: http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140726/SPORTS/140729704
 
W

wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
I hate to give out so many sources out, but NASCAR still is growing is false. Anytime a lot of racetracks are reduced seating, that speaks about the state of NASCAR. This is no different if Football or Baseball stadium is getting a rid of seating.

NASCAR hasn't recovered from the 2008 economy crash. It doesn't help matter that the people running NASCAR aren't exactly component. The people running NASCAR did make the mistake of overestimating the market of California by giving California Speedway 2 cup dates and had to get a rid of one of the 2 dates because California had problems selling out 2 dates even before 2008. It is now looking like the creation of the chase was a mistake that NASCAR has made changes to multiple times.
 
R W B

R W B

Well-Known Member
wdwfan4ver said:
I hate to give out so many sources out, but NASCAR still is growing is false. Anytime a lot of racetracks are reduced seating, that speaks about the state of NASCAR. This is no different if Football or Baseball stadium is getting a rid of seating.

NASCAR hasn't recovered from the 2008 economy crash. It doesn't help matter that the people running NASCAR aren't exactly component. The people running NASCAR did make the mistake of overestimating the market of California by giving California Speedway 2 cup dates and had to get a rid of one of the 2 dates because California had problems selling out 2 dates even before 2008. It is now looking like the creation of the chase was a mistake that NASCAR has made changes to multiple times.
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I understand what you're saying but that just means what they are currently saying makes sense. Just like MLB and NFL, they're all having issues keeping fans in the seats because all of the TV networks are adding more and more features to make leaving the comfort of your couch so hard to do to get out and deal with the sun, heat, drunks, parking and traffic just to name a few things.

I was wrong about the 100k-250k fan numbers, I guess when i read "sell out" they're not talking about full capacity, my fault.

At the end of the day though, money talks and with NBC and FOX paying over 8 Billion dollars for a 10yr (I think) TV deal starting next year, that's saying NASCAR isn't going anywhere IMO.
 
Chevross

Chevross

Active Member
Wow has it been a long time since I've made a post on this forum. Anywho, that's unimportant. As a former die-hard fan of the sport, I'm not going to miss the Nascar Sports Grill. In my opinion, it was on the lower end of the food service scale. Almost, in a sense, a glorified quick service in Universal. Whatever replaces it I hope is better, but if the WWE rumor is true I'm simply shaking my head.

Of course my last trip to Universal was in 2011. The last time I ate at the Nascar Cafe was in '08 or '07 one. It might have improved since then.
 
RadiatorSpringsRacer

RadiatorSpringsRacer

Well-Known Member
As a diehard NASCAR fan, I would dread this news more if the place was still uber-unique and unashamedly themed to NASCAR, instead of being practically a regular sports bar with the NASCAR logo on it. (...although I will give them some credit for at least keeping some things, including the hanging cars...) The current CEO of NASCAR (he took over in 2004) has a history of wanting to make NASCAR look like other sports.

Here's what it looked like before the renovation:

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W

wdwfan4ver

Well-Known Member
Corey P said:
MLB and the NFL have also had a huge price creep going on, I don't know what it costs to go to a NASCAR race but I do know a baseball game is expensive to go with the family. Not sure if NASCAR is having the same problem?
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I has been a while since I went to a NASCAR race, but I did for a time after 2008 that NASCAR actually had to cut prices.

I think it is deeper than prices since NASCAR tv ratings for most of the season has been on decline. Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...rd-nascar-sponsorships-social-media/13725141/

I know race fans not liking some of the changes by NASCAR or the people running the race tracks. I am saying the race tracks because Bristol Motor Speedway for a time sold out 160,000 fans with no problem, but it changed after they decided to reconfigure the banking of the track and the fans didn't like the new Bristol.

The attendance could be caused NASCAR saturated the market in some regions also besides how the CEO of NASCAR and his cronies is running NASCAR. I am saying that based the amount of Cup races the Midwest has. The truth is the Midwest back in 1994 only had 2 Michigan dates and a Brickyard 400 date for the cup series. Now the Midwest has 2 Michigan cup dates, 1 Chicagoland cup date, 2 Kansas dates, 1 Brickyard 400 cup date, and 1 Kentucky date.
 
HakunaMatata89

HakunaMatata89

Well-Known Member
i liked the NASCAR grill, next will be the NBA store im guessing.

With Uni's former hosting of TNA I really doubt that WWE would chose their property to put a HoF. Not to mention the state, i mean it would make a lot more sense if they put it in CT or NY, FL holds no significant historical value for them.

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