Talladega Superspeedway, which once boasted some of the largest crowds to see NASCAR races, will see its seating capacity reduced to approximately 80,000 seats by next season, tracks officials confirmed on Wednesday. The largest change will come from the recent demolition of the Allison Grandstands, a large swath of seats located on the backstretch of the 2.66-mile speedway which had a seating capacity this season of 18,000. In recent seasons, many of the tracks frontstretch seats have been tarped over while the speedway still sold tickets – usually at lower price – for the backstretch. ‘The changes are simply a reflection of our current attendance trends’ track spokesman Russell Branham told The Observer. ‘The goal will be a better fan experience and that will be entirely on the frontstretch from now on.” As recently as 2007, track attendance estimates had more than 307,000 fans attending Talladegas two Sprint Cup Series race weekends. At the time, the tracks listed capacity was 147,000 grandstand seats. This season, the tracks listed capacity was listed at 109,000.( Charlotte Observer )
