but NASCAR got away from their formula. It used to be points driven, now they have the Chase. It used to be an American legacy, now they have Toyota. It used to be a Southern sport along with some Northeast redneck boys, but now it's overrun with Californian kids with no charisma. The cars used to look different with Ford, Mercury, Dodge, Chevy and Pontiac. Now you can't tell the difference between any of the NextGen cars no matter what the make. NASCAR now has more races in California (4 per year) than in the Carolinas (3). No more Rockingham, only one race in Darlington... where the real race fans live. And for close to a decade, NASCAR made the mistake of being on ESPN where the coverage was vanilla and getting politically correct. And it used to be the WINSTON Cup where men celebrated with beer, not Coca Cola.

So yeah, tickets hurt the sport, but there's so much more.

And I've never been a Dale Jr fan. But once he retires, the sport will lose even more fans next year.

So to your point, greed kills a lot of sports. I hope college football and basketball learns some lessons. Already, rivalries are going to the wayside in trade for large 14-team conferences in the name of "media markets." Athletic scholarships are no longer enough and the kids "need" stippends. Recruiting seasons are all fuzzy and run all year long. Recruiting starts as early as Middle School now. Over-the-top concerns on safety are trickling down to the high school level and we're seeing the death of some HS football programs because they can't afford the equipment. Social media turns the sport into a carnival akin to WWF.