Military Sponsorships on Chopping Block?

[Pinocchio]

If they want cut motorsports sponsorship money from the budget, how about closing down all the military sports teams?
Army/Navy football game...doesn't keep us any safer, does it? I sure didn't join the Army in '64 cuz I was motivated by the cadets at West Point in their blue and gold uniforms.

 

[SundayNiagara]

I just wish the USAF could get involved in a big way!

 

[.]

If they want cut motorsports sponsorship money from the budget, how about closing down all the military sports teams?
Army/Navy football game...doesn't keep us any safer, does it? I sure didn't join the Army in '64 cuz I was motivated by the cadets at West Point in their blue and gold uniforms.

does that cost 10 mil a year?

 

[SundayNiagara]

does that cost 10 mil a year?

I am reasonably sure that the military sports budgets far exceed $10m.

 

[.]

I am reasonably sure that the military sports budgets far exceed $10m.

I get that part.

But, do we really have to pay for some millionaire to have some fun? He has money, just wont spend his own.

 

[clwill]

I think it's clear that, in the era of an all-volunteer military, some outreach, promotion, and advertising for recruits is required. It is also probably the case that the top leaders have devoted some number ($100m/year?) to those efforts and left it to smart marketing people to decide exactly how to spend it. They in turn look at the various options and make decisions based on effectiveness. I think the fact that they choose drag racing is a good thing, demonstrating that it is a good value, and not a bad thing.

 

[Adam]

I get that part.

But, do we really have to pay for some millionaire to have some fun? He has money, just wont spend his own.

Greg, your just pissed cuz he has more money then you.
Would you feel better if he closed his doors? Would not all the folks on his racing payroll be out of work? Do you really beleive that if the funding was cut that the soiders/veterans would see any of it, any benefit at all?

He doesnt pay for it because he is a businessman, and a smart one at that. Thats why he's a millionaire. He does more for the economy and this country then just about anyone on this board. That millionaire keeps alot of people employed through Shumacher Electric and the Race teams.

Oh, do you enjoy having to pay for all the deadbeats that are out playing golf on workmans comp? Do you enjoy having to pay for all the murders and rapists and child molesters that are in federal prison? Do you enjoy having to pay for illegal immigrants? and on and on and on........

 

[Rajunz]

I get that part.

But, do we really have to pay for some millionaire to have some fun? He has money, just wont spend his own.

It's more than his fun, what about the millions and millions of fans (and soldiers) that are entertained by the ARMY team? Sorry that you're not entertained.

Let's not forget that Tony Shumacher is an excellent representative for the ARMY, he appeals to alot of young people and delivers their message extremely well. They are definitely getting a return on those advertising dollars.

You haven't once discussed eliminating all of the ARMY's TV, radio, newspaper advetisements either. Why are these acceptable? Don't believe for one second that the McCann Erickson firm is not owned by millionares. They provided a service just as DSR has.

McCann Erickson wins $1.35bn US Army advertising account - Brand Republic News

 

[Marchboom]

Its not a large company. It is my money, your money, and government money. Do not confuse the two.

There is no such thing as gov't money although the dems would like you to think so. It is OUR money...tax payer money.

 

[.]

There is no such thing as gov't money although the dems would like you to think so. It is OUR money...tax payer money.

No. Its Schumachers money now. Not yours.

 

[Marchboom]

does that cost 10 mil a year?

Yep, probably more than that.

When the AF academy goes to play at another location the Air Force provides at least 2 large aircraft to transport them. They take the AF academy band too. KC-135 tankers cost at least $4000 an hour to operate, not to mention the aircrew costs, hotels, food, car rentals, etc.

If there is money to be saved, cut the military football teams and everything associated with them. After all, that's not what our military is hired to do, right?

 

[mick]

............Don't believe for one second that the McCann Erickson firm is not owned by millionares. They provided a service just as DSR has............

lance, that's an interesting article, especially towards the end talking
about the firm's losses and accounts lost.

also mentions this recruiting statistic

The new campaign is looking to make up for poor numbers of recruits signing up to the US military. At the end of September the Army was 7,000 short of its target of 80,000 new recruits to start basic training.

almost 10% - would be interesting to know a 10 - 15 year history of
recruiting numbers

read online yesterday army annual adv't. budget approx. 250M, now this article states a figure of 1.35B; those two numbers are not even close

-article states army's goal is 80k annual new recruits
- army also states motorsports marketing generated 46k qualified leads
in one year (2010?)
- the real question i guess would be what is success % of those 46k leads?
do 5% join? 10%?.........i'd be surprised if the number was higher than 10%,
which in that case means motorsports marketing has a success rate of
about 5% of annual goal.
- if the dollars spent on motorsports marketing is 5% or less of annual budget
then the program is a success
- if the real adv't. budget for army is 1.35b, then if motorsports marketing
spends let's say 20M, that is less than 2% of budget
- if the real adv't. budget for army is 250M, and motorsports marketing
spends 20M, that is 8% of budget
- wonder what the real numbers are?

 

[Marchboom]

No. Its Schumachers money now. Not yours.

But some of it WAS my money. The advertising people called me and asked where my share of the Army ad money should go and I said, "I want it to go to DSR". Apparently they called a lot of other people too and got the same answer.

They didn't call you?

Bottom line: The advertising people have decided that DSR is a good way to get the Army message out. And it has been for 10 yrs. If you don't like it, complain to your political hacks. Nothing will get accomplished on this forum.

 

[Gipraw]

If the military is going to be allowed to spend money on advertisement, they should be able to spend it however they think necessary, as long as they get the desired results.

The military needs to advertise. The sports sponsorships allow them to be on premises, talking face to face with interested potential recruits. Very few other forms of advertising allow them that capability.

If they don't advertise, then numbers drop. If numbers drop, it means longer deployments for those already serving, which results in more turn over and it becomes a never ending slide into an understaffed military.

The combination of effective advertisement and the moral boost it provides makes it enough of a success in my mind.

If they cut this out of the budget, the money won't go to a different section of the military, it will go to some pet project somewhere, and do no one but the politician supporting it and their friends any good.

 

[.]

Very few people in this thread should ever complain about their taxes.

 

[BigDaddyB]

I think those who mentioned the athletic programs might need to realize the service academies are part of NCAA Div 1 and share in the TV revenues so basically they might break even or make some money

 

[clwill]

read online yesterday army annual adv't. budget approx. 250M, now this article states a figure of 1.35B; those two numbers are not even close

It's safe to assume the contract with the advertising agency was a multi-year contract.

 

[clwill]

This money is not your money any more than the money you spend at Wal*Mart is your money after you hand it to them. It's probably not even Schumacher's money any more as he's most certainly spent most of it on employees and with vendors (who in turn have sent it on...).

If you don't like what the people you give your money to do with it, be it a company or whomever, you have a few choices: you can give it to different people (different companies, different governments), you can express your concerns and try to change their spending (lobby, boycott, protest, write letters), or you can change the management (vote your shares or at the ballot box). I'm pretty sure "pissing and moaning on the 'Mater" isn't one of the most effective.

 

[clwill]

Very few people in this thread should ever complain about their taxes.

It's not clear what that means.

• Are you making some assumption about the financial status of people here? That seems awfully presumptuous since the cost of entry here is all of $1.
• Are you saying the people here don't pay taxes and therefore don't have a right to disagree with the expenditures? How would you know that?
• Are you somehow denying people here the fundamental human right to complain about their government? That seems patently unfair.

Rather, it seems simply like a snide shot and not at all constructive.

 

[BigDaddyB]

I think that the sponsorship of race teams is a very small part of what the military spends on recruitment. The effectiveness of the sponsorships of these teams is to me very small in the the big picure of the things. I would like to see a study done. Let's ask the soldiers and not just any soldier the soldiers in 1st Cavalry Div, 101st Airmobile Div, 4th Infantry Div, 24th Infantry Div, 3rd Infantry Div, because the bulk of these recruits you talk about spend their time in these units. I can speak to this issue from the expierences I had with these young men when I was in the military from 1980 to 1989. The equipment you use may change but the poeple pretty much stay the same. Bottom line whether these sponsorships continue or be discontinued it does not make any difference in the big picture. Additionally, if the sponsorship of these teams was an important tool to get young men/women to join, I might be wrong, but I've seen a lot of Army commercials (Army Strong) not one time have I seen a race car. So if the sponsorships went away it just means that DSR and Stewart-Haas would have find someone else to fund them or fold up tent get by with what they could afford to do. Don Prudhomme is perfect example. It takes big dollars to race and if you don't have it you don't race.