Why are NHRA sponsorships becoming a tough sell? (1 Viewer)

[HEMI6point1]

Don't know if it was here or an another board, but someone made a remark that NHRA sponsorships are becoming a tough sell.

This puzzles me. Sure I may be biased because drag racing is my primary motorsport, but really, what gives?

A NASCAR sponsership is about 30 million dollars. To sponsor a championship caliber dragster or funny car is only about 3 million, and if you want to go lean an NHRA pro stocker is about 1 million.

Not to mention fan friendlyness - at a NASCAR event you better bring high-power binoculars to see the drivers. At an NHRA race it's sooooooo much more accessible it's not even funny.

If I was a racing team owner, I would invite a couple of the bigwigs from a company I was looking to court to a weekend just to see what we're about.

If I could blame the tough time NHRA team owners are having at getting sponsors, it's because NASCAR is broadcast live on a few networks while NHRA has to settle for same-day tape delay on ESPN2 (and oftentimes get preempted). Not to mention the seating capacity is much higher at a NASCAR event.

 

[Nunz]

Unfortunately, I think it has always been a tough sell. Most of the deals that happen are because someone knows someone, who likes racing, or is willing to give a program a chance based on a relationship. I may be wrong...

 

[Rollout96]

I certainly don't know any of the answers but I really don't think we can compare NHRA to NASCAR favorably. They simply have too large of attendance and TV ratings numbers. In "middle America" NASCAR is so huge that corporations simply CANNOT ignore them. Drag Racing is definitely a take it or leave it proposition for them (JMO).

 

[Joker]

You pay for what you get and nothing against NHRA and the teams b/c I know several have awesome sponsor/team relationships but a company gets way more advertisement in Nascar than in NHRA. You just have to see if you can spend another $25 million on advertising and thats a year. Ofcourse I would do NHRA in a heartbeat if I could afford it but Nascar is unmatched really. We have 23, 24 races they have 36. Were on tape delay for a couple of hours when they are live and on for hours upon hours. Plus qualifying and everything else is live too. They have a million people watch a race and we have 100,000 people watch our coverage. I dont know the official numbers on that but I am sure they have 10 times as many viewers. Ofcourse I would rather spend $20 million in NHRA over 4 years or so than spend $20 in one year in Nascar. I would think you would reach the same amt of people that way. One Nascar year vs 3,4 NHRA years. Plus Nascar is a marketing machine. NHRA, unless you know about it, they could come to your hometown and you wouldnt even know. All they do here in Houston is advertise in newspaper and radio about 2 weeks or so before the event gets here and the news covers it once its in town but thats it.

 

[Dale]

EXPOSURE - EXPOSURE - EXPOSURE !!!
I don't recall seeing golf, women's softball, bass fishing or poker tournaments broadcasts run long into a NASCAR time slot. If the NHRA would try to land a deal with CBS, ABC, NBC or FOX and the event would televised LIVE and start ON TIME without being held up by a poker game (NOT A SPORT) that happened a week ago, then I feel you would see a lot more big name sponsors taking a look and getting on board. Lets face it folks, if your a big company contemplating a sponsorship on an NHRA team/ride and you see the coverage that they do/don't get......... ESPN 2, Not even the mother ship channel ESPN but ESPN 2. Then they look at big dogs like LUCAS OIL that sponsor a whole race but never see the intro to the race that says "Welcome to the Lucas Oil Nationals from......" because the women's softball game between N.C. & Duke is running late - still in the 6th inning - and the score is
8 - 1. Yea, there's a market source I want to chance my millions on !!
Just my observation.........however FILLED with COMMON SENSE it may be!
We now return you to your regular broadcast, a replay of "The 2005 Bass Masters Classic, sponsored by Goodys headache powders..........JEEZ !!

 

[PJ]

a fake points scam like we'll have next year sure will not help in brining in sponsors.


There seems to be a great lack of vision and marketing skills. Unless I'm already watching Drag Racing I have never seen an ad promoting our sport. People can't go race at a nascar track. Every weekend people can take thier daily driver to the local track and race. They should promote that.

Think back to when you were a kid, you could play baseball or basketball down the street somewhere which made you a bigger fan and lead to you following that sport. If we get people to the drag strip participating they would surely get hooked.

 

[afx421]

nascar has it right, they promote the drivers not the cars. 90 percent of the nascar fans refer to the cars as- the 8 car, the 24 car, the 43 car ect ect. the performance is erelavant to the nascar fan, the cars all look alike . the drivers are personalities. the fights , the contravercy, the great commercials ect. nhra needs to market the drivers more not the performace. who can relate to going 0-330 in 4.5 seconds? no one but the fuel drivers! have more commercials, more driver profiles, can we get more than a 1/2 hr a week of nhra today? on speed nascar gets probably 8 hrs a day at least. we need more fights, more brand loyalty and more drivers being noticed.

 

[vegasnitro]

It seems to me that there are more sponsored cars now than there ever have been. Funny Car is getting down-right ridiculous with the teams and sponsors. There are always 1 or 2 teams at each event that has to make a very tough phone call explaining to one of these sponsors why they didn't qualify. And with Kenny Bernstein coming back to Funny Car next year well funded, it is just going to get tougher.

From a marketing perspective, you get what you pay for. $3 million is a nice associate spoonsorship in NASCAR that could get you alot more exposure than having a whole fuel car to yourself. It all depends on your objectives and who you are trying to reach. If you are trying to reach soccer moms and dads in their 30s with 2.3 kids, your money is going to NASCAR.

 

[Toejam]

Nascar sponsorships aren't 30 million.....yet! But NHRA's fly in the ointment is it's constant low TV ratings.

 

[pete]

Yesterday's Charlotte Observer had a story about the falling ratings of the NASCAR races. The last race, I have no idea which one, dropped 17% from last year. Not bashing NASCAR, just telling you what I read.

 

[Dale]

Hmmmm......down 17 %...... "Race-To-The-Chase" system maybe ? A point system that is not well received by fans or SPONSORS !?! Yet the NHRA "copy-cats" and adopts this system....?!?
Yea, Good call Tom Compton !!

 

[rocketman]

I know it's not Top Fuel but I just renewed my title sponsor for the eighth year in a row. Everyone can have a sponsor if they do what needs to be done. The problem is a lot of racers would rather just race the car and think that's enough to attract a sponsor or keep them happy. NO WAY. If that's the case the sponsor may as well buy a boat or something for his own gratification.

I'll be doing a column on sportsman sponsorships some time soon on our web site at www.capracing.com. I'll tell you what Ernie Saxon won't!

 

[Toejam]

Rich, I think if every racer went all out for sponsors as you do, there would be more sponsor involvement.

 

[HEMI6point1]

What stinks about sponsors going to NASCAR is that they don't realize (or want to realize) that the majority of NASCAR's "fans" just watch the races to see the crashes.

There are a few people on other places that say I'm offbase. Well if I'm offbase, then why have crashes in NASCAR increased 3 fold the last 3 years?

 

[rocketman]

Yep Joe, that's my point.

 

[BB]

I hope NHRA never starts promoting the drivers instead of the cars and performance. If you do that just to go after the Nascar crowd then you're just a step away from having WJ assault Greg Anderson with a bedpan or Angelle and Karen pulling hair and rollling around in the staging lanes. All the crews will have to carry folding chairs to the starting line to wack the other crews.
I will watch or participate in anything that has wheels and an engine but I have no interest in Nascar at all anymore. It's too much like wrestling.

 

[Angelo]

I know it's not Top Fuel but I just renewed my title sponsor for the eighth year in a row. Everyone can have a sponsor if they do what needs to be done. The problem is a lot of racers would rather just race the car and think that's enough to attract a sponsor or keep them happy. NO WAY. If that's the case the sponsor may as well buy a boat or something for his own gratification.QUOTE]

Very well said, and I agree. As racers, its our job to perform well and work as smart and hard as we can to do so. On the flip side, we can never forget about the people (sponsors) who brought us to the dance and give us the opportunity to perform.

There is no question that racers owe it to their sponsors to put equal or sometimes greater energy into getting their sponsors the exposure and representation they are paying for.

If every racer maintained the mindset of, "Give back $10 in value for every sponsor dollar that is invested in your team", the sponsors would be coming to us rather than us having to chase them. (JMO)

 

[Bobby]

we've already had a thread on 'will the race be on espn2 when it's supposed to be this weekend' I really dont' care anymore. I 'm much too busy to sit around waiting and wondering.

there's one reason. here's another. the nascabs are big roving billboards. the signage is huge. the #'s on the car are colored to fit with the sponsors logo. they have consistency. sponsors stay for years in many cases.
try watching a top fuel race and knowing who the sponsor is . not that easy sometimes. Bud King is obvious the Miller Lite car was good but you know what I'm saying. no offense to anyone but who and what is skull gear? If I didn't know already , seeing the car on tv wouldnt' help.

Nascabs are easy to use as moving billboards, corporate america saw that and took advantage of it.

what could we do? well, eliminate top fuel and go to one class - funny car. have the races on tv on time. show the whole process of a run, from starting the motor to the burnout to chutes out.

talk about the sponsors name on the air, refer to the car as the skull shine car etc etc.


other than that I don't know. nhra sponsorships have always been a tough sell haven't they ? is this anything new? as long as they keep racing I 'll keep going every year. Nhra doesn't need to be nascar to survive.

 

[vegasnitro]

Well if I'm offbase, then why have crashes in NASCAR increased 3 fold the last 3 years?

Not to hi-jack this thread ... but since you brought it up

The data for NASCAR crashes is somewhat skewed. There was a dramatic DECREASE in crashes after the deaths of Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Dale Earnhardt Sr. Everyone realized their mortality and NASCAR put them on their best behavior for the new network TV contract. Now, a lot of new, aggressive young blood has come into Cup racing, and the old guys aren't afraid to give a little back. Secondly, safety has come a long way since February '01. HANS, SAFER Barriers, Seat Technology are three things developed/mandated since '01 and would most assuredly have saved all 3 lives mentioned above. When you create a bubble/illusion of safety, drivers are going to take more risks than they otherwise would have. Lastly, the level of competition in NASCAR is so tight, and the cars so even and aerodynamically dependant, that the only way you are going to get past somebody is to "take air off their spoiler to get them loose" or side draft them to give them an "aero push", or maybe even just bump them out of the way, any of the 3 is a recipe for a wreck. NASCAR says the car of tomorrow will fix these issues, we shall see.

I now return you to your everything is NHRA's fault bashing thread.

 

[Rajunz]

What stinks about sponsors going to NASCAR is that they don't realize (or want to realize) that the majority of NASCAR's "fans" just watch the races to see the crashes.

There are a few people on other places that say I'm offbase..................

You're way off base...........

..............Nascabs are easy to use as moving billboards, corporate america saw that and took advantage of it. ...............

Go take a drive through Virginia, the Carolinas, the Midwest, half of the cars on the road are sporting a sticker of their favorite driver, NASCAR is literally in just about every houshold, that's what they are taking advantage of........