On the V8 Sleuth Podcast this week, the following question was asked by David Zitterbart:
"Where did the incentive come from to Americanise the Championship structure? It seems weird considering we had a compelling championship this year and the American fan base doesn't like the structure and are demanding change."
- David Zitterbart, to the V8 Sleuth Podcast - Episode 487.
https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/podcasts/
What I found particularly disheartening about the way that this question was answered, is that it didn't actually answer the question. Admittedly, it is rather impossible to look inwards at a somewhat opaque organisation like V8 Supercars Holdings Pty Ltd; especially when it is majority owned by overseas investors.
The actual answer as to why Supercars' management decided to change to a Finals Series, is purely commercial. This is about selling advertising space and generating ad dollars. As it must be. Motor Racing is an expensive business; so from a business perspective, business always does what business does.
However the way that this question was answered, apart from not actually answering the question, seemed very dismissive of the underlying worry, that the Finals Series in NASCAR is hated by the fans because it is unbelievably stupid. From the outside and as a member of the peanut gallery, this looks like a case of people who have a vested interest inside the business, telling us the customer, that our opinions about the product that they want to sell, are irrelevant. Never mind the fact that it is us who buy the tickets to races, buy subscriptions for pay-TV like Kayo, and ultimately it is us the race fans who decide where out dollars go. Alienate the fans too much, and what you get is what NASCAR is suffering from which is a long tail of declining ticket sales, and ad revenues. Smash the race fans in the teeth with a cricket bat enough, and they will eventually get the idea that they are not wanted and that their dollars aren't good enough; so they will take them elsewhere.
But to address the elephant in the room: the reason why NASCAR fans have been complaining loudly and longly about the confected NASCAR Finals Serieses (the Chase, the Playoffs etc), is because the NASCAR Finals Series are irredeemably stupid. Now going on for 20 years of complaints and decisions which have actively delegitimised the championship in the name of 'entertainment' which just isn't very entertaining, have rendered the crowning of a NASCAR Champion ever more and more ridiculous. When Joey Logano was crowned champion with an average finish of 17.1; which wouldn't have even put him into the points of a Formula One race, the irredeemable stupidity of the NASCAR Finals Series was only yelled into the kosmos ever more loudly. Somehow, Supercars management, in a series of acts which look like they also want an irredeemably stupid championship, have decided that they want that in Australia.
However, Finals Series in Australian sports have existed for more than 120 years. We have come to expect them but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are good or even fit for purpose. Initially, the decision to have Finals Series was quite pragmatic. The reason why Australia has finals systems at all, stems from the fact that the initial seasons of top-flight football across various codes would have otherwise been too short. There were only 9 teams in the very first NSW Rugby League season in 1908, and the 1897 Victorian Football League season only had 8 teams. Likewise the current incarnation of the A-League also only started with 8 teams. At most, a full home and away season with 9 teams, is only 16 weeks; which is only just longer than one yearly/temperate season. 16 weeks before the last week in September, is only Jun 10; which is bang in winter. It is just not sensible to have a sporting season that short.
However, if you want a practical demonstration of just how unbelievably stupid a Finals Series is in principle, look no further than this year's Australian Rules football season. Part way through the 2024 AFL Season, the Sydney Swans went on a tear and established themselves clear at the top of the ladder by 12 points. You know what? Had there just been a simple league format, where the team with the most points at the end of the season wins, then nobody would have questioned that the Swans deserved a Premiership.
And no, the existence of Finals Series in other sports, like Australian Rules, Rugby League, and Football, does not prove that in principle that a Finals Series is in any way good. If anything, the Australian Rules Grand Final also serves to prove that Finals Series in principle are irredeemably stupid. The fact that you have an imperfect round robin system, where everyone does not play everyone else twice, does not of itself justify the goodness of a Finals System.
In fact, the pre-season competition and the Finals Series could and should both be dumped; with those weeks reclaimed for regular matches. Assuming that we get to a 20-team competition, then a home/away series of matches would result in a 38 Round competition. If that sounds too gruelling for the players, then ditch reserve grade and play the squads with deeper rotation. The argument that someone coming tenth, who has no chance of winning the title in a league competition, should magically be able to win one, is based upon... pub quiz rules where the points don't matter and anyone can win? I just don't know.
But the unspoken thing here is that the fundamental difference between motorsport and other sports is that instead of having two teams go head to head, you have many teams going head to head, in every race. A motor race is a thing where the win condition is that in order to win, you have to beat everyone else; all the time. Over the course of a season, a champion should emerge; which is of course the point of holding a championship series. In any league system, where a champion is crowned as the result of being the best team over the course of a season, more or less proves inherently the fitness of purpose of a league. Perhaps the best example of this is the 1970 Formula One Season where Jochen Rindt had been so dominant, that even after he was killed during qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, had already earned enough championship points that no other driver managed to overtake his total. In a Finals Series, the best driver that season, would not have won the championship.
The excuse that the rules are the same for everyone, is unfortunately not good enough. That kind of reasoning, actually justifies the incident in 1981 when the Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell instructed his brother Trevor to bowl the last ball of a one-day match against New Zealand underarm. Yes, the rules are the same for everyone but if the rules are stupid, you get stupid results.
In fact, had a simple league system where a champion is crowned as the result of being the best over the course of a season, then there would have been 12 different champions in NASCAR, to what we have now. That's 12 times out of 21, or a 57% failure rate. Has it made championships more exciting? Not really. If anything NASCAR proves that if you start chucking mortars at the Dam of Legitimacy, eventually the dam bursts.
It is unbelievably stupid that Supercars want that for Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NofX3DXtAU
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