ALMS sees a slight uptick in popularity

In an era where television ratings and attendance at many sporting events are showing declines, the American Le Mans Series is moving the needle appreciably. Any way you cut it or count it, attendance and television viewing for the Series is up significantly.

Attendance at American Le Mans Series first three rounds is averaging more than 106,000 per race while television viewers increased more than four and a half fold. The attendance mark is a 3.2 percent increase over the same period last year. Reported estimated attendances this season are Sebring 170,000; St. Petersburg 45,000; and Long Beach 105,000. Sunday attendances for the IRL races at St. Petersburg and Long Beach are not taken into account.

Last season, SPEED telecast the first three races of the year to more than 156,000 television viewers per race. This season, two of the American Le Mans Series races have been on ABC, while the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring remained on SPEED. The two network telecasts have shown a 37 percent increase over network telecasts last season, while Sebring's viewership increased 14 percent, giving the Series an average of more than 710,333 viewers per race for the three telecasts, a four and one-half times increase from 2007.

Last weekend's Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach telecast on ABC generated an 0.8 ABC rating, the Series' highest rated network show since a similar 0.8 CBS rating at Lime Rock in 2006.