Audience Survey #4: Mixed Signals
The fourth Audience Sentiment Survey of RACER reader’s outlook on the pandemic returned a group of mixed signals. Total respondents for this survey taken from June 4-7 dipped to 762, which might be a sign that the pandemic is weighing less on reader’s minds or perhaps they were all busy watching IndyCar, NASCAR and Supercross events taking place during the weekend.
Overall, audience optimism continues to trend mostly upward reaching a new high mark of nearly 63% saying that they are as optimistic as ever about motorsports. Additional steep gains were made in the number of respondents who say it’s appropriate for major series to get back to racing with proper social distancing climbing to nearly 70%.
We also see that the number of respondents who believe that racing is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic normal this season has fallen below 50% for the first time while those who think it is somewhat likely has risen to match it’s original high of 30% when the survey first began.
A new question in this survey asked whether race events should take place with full spectators, limited spectators or no spectators at all. Limited spectators was the option taken by nearly half of the respondents with full spectators edging no spectators by 6 percentage points.
However, despite the fact that a little over three-quarters of respondents feel that some level of spectators attending events is practical, the number who said they will definitely attend an event as soon as spectators are allowed dipped by 10 points to 50%. The question was updated slightly in this survey. Originally it asked if respondents would attend a racing event when the pandemic was over. The added urgency of changing it to when spectators are allowed tempered the response, which saw large gains in the options that allowed for more caution and even doubting whether they would at all.
In another new question, respondents were asked if the type of venue would influence their concerns about attending an event. Half said that the type of venue did not matter with events that rely on reserved grandstand seating being cited by 36% while more open venues that feature general admission viewing only concerned 13%.
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