mick
Nitro Member
geico is a wholly owned subsidiary of berkshire hathaway
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geico is a wholly owned subsidiary of berkshire hathaway
robslob
Nitro Member
Tongue-in-cheek comment
mick
Nitro Member
sorry robertTongue-in-cheek comment
....got it!, little slow today
StockersRock
Nitro Member
We just recently had our United Way drive at work. An option was to direct your donation to the U.W. supported charity of your choice. There's only a 5% loss in overhead fees when done that way. I felt much better about that.
Jimbo
Nitro Member
Many great comments on why sponsors appear to be rethinking how they spend their advertising dollars and where!
I do not believe any one thing or group is the problem but more a host of things right now that all contribute to declining revenues, spectators at some event but not all events, sponsors and drag racers.
Part of it is the economy and peoples interests are changing to other things from drag racing and other forms of racing and that is just the way it is like it or not.
This exact same problem is going on right now in many other forms of racing and other types of sports events so drag racers are not alone in what's happening.
Just my opinion but we appear to be in a transitional phase from what drag racing as been for years into something different and who knows maybe it just might take us to the next level if some very smart people put their thinking caps on!
I like to look at cars counts at the National Events and if you look at enough of them you start to see trends of which class are full and which classes are not.
I for one think there have been a number of positive comments made on how the program could be changed to become for spectator friendly and maybe it's time to start thinking outside of the box on ways to do that.
Jim Hill
I do not believe any one thing or group is the problem but more a host of things right now that all contribute to declining revenues, spectators at some event but not all events, sponsors and drag racers.
Part of it is the economy and peoples interests are changing to other things from drag racing and other forms of racing and that is just the way it is like it or not.
This exact same problem is going on right now in many other forms of racing and other types of sports events so drag racers are not alone in what's happening.
Just my opinion but we appear to be in a transitional phase from what drag racing as been for years into something different and who knows maybe it just might take us to the next level if some very smart people put their thinking caps on!
I like to look at cars counts at the National Events and if you look at enough of them you start to see trends of which class are full and which classes are not.
I for one think there have been a number of positive comments made on how the program could be changed to become for spectator friendly and maybe it's time to start thinking outside of the box on ways to do that.
Jim Hill
One of the biggest things all sponsors look at, is something called CPI, or "cost per impression". They want to know how many people are going to see their product or logo, per dollar spent. CPI brings the whole sponsorship problem down to it's most basic core, and if you spend a few minutes to think about it, you'll understand that not as many people see sponsor products or logos at any type of racing event, in comparison to a few years back.
Take a minute and really digest what all of that bare aluminum really means when you see empty bleacher seats on TV. Empty seats scream lack of interest, maybe more than anything else you'll see around racing. And trust me, it's all forms of racing. I've got a distant cousin that's been a sports cameraman for many years, and those guys are given specific instructions on how to avoid showing empty seats on a TV broadcast. Empty seats are very bad for sponsors, and face it, sponsors run the show.
Nascar has the same problem, maybe even on a larger scale. I watch a fair amount of racing, and I keep an eye on how many seats are empty.....and every year there are more of them. Heck, I was watching a Gran Prix race from Germany a few weeks back, and even their announcers were commenting on the empty seats that were so obvious around the course. Spectators just don't go to major races like they used to. We could debate for days on the reasons why, but if I'm a major sponsor I'd be going to the head weenies at NHRA, and asking them what they were going to to about lowering ticket prices, and increasing the draw for spectators to fill all of those empty seats.
The bottom line, is that most sponsors look at the big picture, and their advertising dollar spent in racing(and really, sponsor dollars are nothing more than advertising dollars) just aren't putting their product and logo in front of as many people as they used to. I sure don't have all of the answers, but I think one of the first places to start helping the sponsor get more bang for his buck, would be to fill more of those empty seats we see on TV every weekend.
Take a minute and really digest what all of that bare aluminum really means when you see empty bleacher seats on TV. Empty seats scream lack of interest, maybe more than anything else you'll see around racing. And trust me, it's all forms of racing. I've got a distant cousin that's been a sports cameraman for many years, and those guys are given specific instructions on how to avoid showing empty seats on a TV broadcast. Empty seats are very bad for sponsors, and face it, sponsors run the show.
Nascar has the same problem, maybe even on a larger scale. I watch a fair amount of racing, and I keep an eye on how many seats are empty.....and every year there are more of them. Heck, I was watching a Gran Prix race from Germany a few weeks back, and even their announcers were commenting on the empty seats that were so obvious around the course. Spectators just don't go to major races like they used to. We could debate for days on the reasons why, but if I'm a major sponsor I'd be going to the head weenies at NHRA, and asking them what they were going to to about lowering ticket prices, and increasing the draw for spectators to fill all of those empty seats.
The bottom line, is that most sponsors look at the big picture, and their advertising dollar spent in racing(and really, sponsor dollars are nothing more than advertising dollars) just aren't putting their product and logo in front of as many people as they used to. I sure don't have all of the answers, but I think one of the first places to start helping the sponsor get more bang for his buck, would be to fill more of those empty seats we see on TV every weekend.
Ice Bucket
Nitro Member
It comes down to ROI, companies need to actually sell products and services as a result of their sponsorship. In addition to the cost of the sponsorship (what is paid to the team) in order to do it right a company has to invest more to activate. This is the cost of promotion like in store signage, print ads, at track promotion, commercials and such. I think the rule of thumb is to spend the same amount in activation as you do with sponsorship. So if a sponsor is paying $2.5 mil to a team, their all in cost could be as high as $5 mil. So if a company's net margin is 5%, they will need to have $100mil in sales as a direct result of the sponsorship. With the race attendance (which is not a major factor in sponsorship consideration) and TV viewership (the main factor in sponsorship consideration) the NHRA is not a good investment. Like mentioned earlier, the CPI is high compared to other advertising options.
So what do you do about this? The fix is make it cost less to race. By doing this team can approach sponsor for less money making it closer in cost to traditional advertising. Not to mention race earnings would have a bigger impact on funding. For example if you could run for a championship for $1.5 mil per year it could look like this, $750K from a major sponsor, $350K from winnings, $300K from rich car owner and 100K from various associates. Now if you are JFR or DSR up the major sponsorship to $1.1 mil and it is a profit center. With current cost there is about an extra million in cost that can't be overcome.
How do you lower cost? I am not 100% sure, but I am shocked there are not more rules in place to calm these thing down. No reason to run on kill at all times. While I dont know what the right answer is, things like fuel volume, over-drive / blower size, down force and tire specs are just a few things that would address it. A prime example of an unnecessary cost is the set back blower. While I totally understand it is much more efficient and helps even out fuel to the front holes, but now it is not an advantage since everyone uses them. So, we are at the same point as before the setback came out, but the teams had to spend a ton of money to convert their current setups. Between parts and testing I would guess it cost anywhere from 50K-100K per car just to make the change. It also seems every year there is a change is the hot setup in # of clutch disc. Once again between parts and testing it has to be a real financial drain to learn a new clutch setup. If there were rules in place for specs on a lot of these parts it would immediately address cost.
So what do you do about this? The fix is make it cost less to race. By doing this team can approach sponsor for less money making it closer in cost to traditional advertising. Not to mention race earnings would have a bigger impact on funding. For example if you could run for a championship for $1.5 mil per year it could look like this, $750K from a major sponsor, $350K from winnings, $300K from rich car owner and 100K from various associates. Now if you are JFR or DSR up the major sponsorship to $1.1 mil and it is a profit center. With current cost there is about an extra million in cost that can't be overcome.
How do you lower cost? I am not 100% sure, but I am shocked there are not more rules in place to calm these thing down. No reason to run on kill at all times. While I dont know what the right answer is, things like fuel volume, over-drive / blower size, down force and tire specs are just a few things that would address it. A prime example of an unnecessary cost is the set back blower. While I totally understand it is much more efficient and helps even out fuel to the front holes, but now it is not an advantage since everyone uses them. So, we are at the same point as before the setback came out, but the teams had to spend a ton of money to convert their current setups. Between parts and testing I would guess it cost anywhere from 50K-100K per car just to make the change. It also seems every year there is a change is the hot setup in # of clutch disc. Once again between parts and testing it has to be a real financial drain to learn a new clutch setup. If there were rules in place for specs on a lot of these parts it would immediately address cost.
I totally agree that the sponsors just don't get a very good return on their dollars invested in drag racing, and that the cost to go racing needs to drop in order to make the necessary sponsor packages more palatable to corporate America.
It seems that most of us "get" the fact that the cars could be slowed down with some rules changes, and the associated costs to run them would also be reduced. My question is, would slightly slower Fuel cars be less attractive to the average NHRA fan? I don't know. What I do know, is that I really liked the show back in the day when the cars weren't set on kill like they are now.....and could do some serious burnouts, dry hops, and all sorts of other cool stuff that got the crowd into the show. My Gosh, now they don't even whack the throttles on warm up in the Fuel pits!
There are a lot of great ideas on how to secure sponsors at a workable dollar level, and how to put on a show that is more fun and exciting for the average spectator. I'm sure NHRA knows this......but who will have the balls to actually step up and propose serious changes?
It seems that most of us "get" the fact that the cars could be slowed down with some rules changes, and the associated costs to run them would also be reduced. My question is, would slightly slower Fuel cars be less attractive to the average NHRA fan? I don't know. What I do know, is that I really liked the show back in the day when the cars weren't set on kill like they are now.....and could do some serious burnouts, dry hops, and all sorts of other cool stuff that got the crowd into the show. My Gosh, now they don't even whack the throttles on warm up in the Fuel pits!
There are a lot of great ideas on how to secure sponsors at a workable dollar level, and how to put on a show that is more fun and exciting for the average spectator. I'm sure NHRA knows this......but who will have the balls to actually step up and propose serious changes?
Big Daddy
Nitro Member
FABMAN
Nitro Member
NFL, all Ball sports are going to see a down turn, family of 4 cost close to $900 to see Cowboys game. All motorsports need to take serious look at what they are charging at the gates. I think that's a big factor in attendance. Now it would also help lowering cost of running race teams, I don't think it would deter the performance, hell the madman called crew chiefs tuners they will always find the power.
.
Nitro Member
Exactly! I don't even bother setting up the DVR if it's on late because I know it'll be delayed anyway and I'll miss half of the show. If they want me to watch then they better find a decent time-slot to air it.
I don't know about that.
My Bills season tickets run about $8,500 for four club seats. The stadium is sold almost every week, and we have sucked for years. Same with the Sabres. Good luck getting a ticket that isn't in the nose bleeds.
stitcherbob
Nitro Member
NHRA will just hire a CGI group to computer animate full grandstands for TV......wave to the cameras all you little robots!
FABMAN
Nitro Member
You might be right on the Bills, last Sunday one of the sports channels were taking about ticket prices and how the Cowboys were the highest in the league. Every home game for Chiefs is sold out, it just surprising how people keep spending the money
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