It's been a long time coming but you can see the fruits of decades of managing the sport as a business (and an extractive one at that) instead of as a sport.

You see the fruits in the empty grandstands each week. The lackluster (or outright dismal) TV ratings. And the exodus of so many of us hardcore fans or team members from the sport.

We could argue the "whys" and "hows" of when they crossed over to the dark side but those aren't as important as confirming that yes, they are headed downhill. And rebuilding the kind of rabid fanbase they had in the 70s and 80s won't be easy. I'm not sure it is even possible. In my opinion it is simply a situation where running racing as a sport required some things capitalism to take a back seat... or even take a hike. It never happened. Whenever a tradeoff was needed it was the sport that took the hit, never the wallet of the owners or sponsors.

Enough years of that and you have a sport that is as exciting to watch as two strangers playing a card game that you don't know the first thing about. It hurts me to say this TBH.

Will