NASCAR Begs You To Buy More Stuff From Its Sponsors
With the potential demise of the Big Three auto companies looming on the horizon and a general exodus of advertisers from sponsorship deals, NASCAR may be in trouble.
Race attendance is down and its fan base is shrinking, says Ad Age. Now NASCAR President Mike Helton is publicly begging fans to buy sponsor's products.
"And I would ask you, in the times that we're going through right now, that when you... when you are out shopping and you are on a mission to purchase something, consider the sponsors that are involved in the sport, if you would. Because they are here because of you and they also play a huge role in supporting our sport and so if you would at least give them a shot, and consideration when you're out doing your shopping during the holiday season," pleaded Helton.
Ad Age also said that NASCAR's fate lies largely on the shoulders of Congress, due to the fact that the sport is so heavily supported by the Big Three automakers. By bailing out the auto industry, Congress may also be bailing out NASCAR.
Nascar President Pleads With Fans to Support Sponsors [Ad Age]
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Look at it this way, imagine all the gas, rubber, oil, carbon emissions, noise and needless deaths this will save.
Add Nascar to the list of things I hope will die!
NASCAR and the big three really shot themselves in the foot (or head, as it appears to be fatal) when they did away with recognizable cars in favor of all drivers driving essentially the same car.
"Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" died.
I shop at Lowe's every weekend in spite of nascar, not because of it.
Don't need Viagra.
Don't like Tide (nod to Mitch Hedberg, RIP).
DeWalt tools are too expensive for my needs.
HomeDespot sucks.
And I thought about The Army; my dad said "son, you're f*cking high"
I'm chewing a whole can of Skoal right now.
This stuff makes my stomach feel funny.
Wow, if a Republican Nascar fan finds out their "sport" may die if they don't bail out the big 3 with all the evil unions, their heads might explode.
I think the article picture tells all.
When you have the same team and drivers win year after year, people (like me) who hate said driver (like me) become extremely bored after a short while. I haven't watched a full race in over two years.
Not to mention the sport's main sponsor, Sprint, are a bunch of d-bags. They won't allow ANYONE to describe past Winston [as in the cigarette] Cup winners to be titled as such; it must be "past 'Cup' winner". Anti-smoking-in-advertising laws have nothing to do with it.
I feel sorry to see such a great, and undeniably popular, sport fall by the wayside. The administration of NASCAR, and the quality of the drivers, teams, and especially competition have waned greatly over the past few years.
NASCAR, get some ganja sponsors and I'll be doing more than my part to support them.
You mean that soon I won't be able to watch cars go around and around in circles for hours, punctuated by the occasional spectacular crash?
What will I do?
Hmm, guess I'll have to go to the mall and watch the shoppers try to find a parking space.
@nsv: Going to walmart and watching overweight, middle-aged men wearing ridiculous sponsor jackets stock up on junk food and coors light will be sorely missed.
Why....sure.
I'll get up in the morning and shave with Gillette (Official Shaving Product), slap on some Old Spice (Official Antiperspirant, Deodorant & Bodywash), take my Prilosec OTC (Official Frequent Heartburn Remedy), have some Kellogg's cereal (Official Breakfast Food/Fruit Flavored Snacks), hop in my Chevrolet (Impala) (Official Pace Car, Official Passenger Car) and drive to work while listening to Sirius Satellite Radio (Official Satellite Radio Partner). The car is insured by Nationwide (Official Insurance). Well, work's tough, so I take a Tylenol (Official Partner) - I'd go grab a smoke, but thanks to NicoDerm (Proud Sponsor) I don't need to. But my business sucks thanks to places like Bank of America (Official Bank) making all these bad loans. So I got laid off from Office Depot (Official Office Supply/Products Provider), lost my house but managed to get a tent from Camping World (Official Outdoor and RV Retail Partner), so that's where I'm living now. Not in the infield. IN A FIELD. But I still support NASCAR sponsors! I eat out of a Domino's Pizza (Official Pizza) dumpster.
Don't believe me? take a look - [www.nascar.com]
If NASCAR goes away, we all win!
I'm having sex with my sister right now!
Also, in somewhat related news, Revell has announced that they are discontinuing their line of Nascar scale model kits - they will not produce any new kits of the current cars and will stop producing models of the older cars.
They cite the inability to come to terms with Nascar's licensing fees and producing an affordable model.
Eric
good riddance.
This "sport" is a monument with all that is wrong with America. I wouldn't shed a tear if it dies. In fact, certain entities would prosper greatly from its demise... expect an increase in dogfighting, tractorpull, and supercross attendance.
For a capitalism where natural economic selection is supposed to decide what fades away and what remains, we sure are spreading around the "bail out x to save it!" here lately.
Why don't we start bringing back all sorts of defunct stuff like the XFL or 8-Tracks and asking the government to prop it up? Weren't there lots of people employed by interests that are now defunct? Life moves on and we all have to go with it. (Speaking as someone whose immediate family has gone through a "our product is no longer popular" layoff, I don't say that lightly.)
I refuse to become a fan until they add right turns to the "sport"
@shadax: So is Grand Prix (read: real racing) a monument to all that is wrong with the rest of the world?
Money is tight nowadays. Beer and shotguns won't buy themselves. NASCAR, I'm sorry, you lose.
As someone who grew up on the sport, this has less to do with bailouts, capitalism, and Republicans and more to do with the past 10 years in the sport. Helton and the France family made their bed and now they have to lie in it. Closing off the smaller tracks, placing tracks in places not known for NASCAR, ignoring the history of the sport to make a quick buck, they and they alone have destroyed NASCAR
Apparently Mike forgot the old adage, you race with what brought you to the track.
The NASCAR teams have been laying people off like crazy (I live in NC, it makes the news here). Started when the gas prices went nuts and hasn't stopped. I think we're going to be watching lawnmower races before this is all over. Assuming we still have those.
@roche - NASCAR has two road coarse races on the schedule (Sonoma, CA and Watkins Glen, NY)
@kathyl: agreed. isn't that the gist of this whole capitalism thing--only the strong survive? or the best products, services, whatever.
...great. If we don't bailout the auto industry, we'll already have mass closures, layoffs, hysteria, etc. Now let's take NASCAR away from people at the same time. I see an apocalypse in the very near future. GTG...have to pick up several cases of ammo and spam so I can ride out the next few months...
I'll admit I would watch Nascar in the past if I was really bored and nothing els was on. Then they added all these points and stupid rules so I just quit watching.
@shadax: I'd argue that, in general, professional sports are a monument to all that is wrong with America. While I understand that economics doesn't work this way, I still wonder what effect could be had if all of the money that goes to supporting various sports franchises was diverted toward more productive uses?
@shadax: So F-1 is ok cause its filled with Eurotrash? Allow me to educate you. Without Nascar, there would be no Airlines or Airmail. All three were born out of prohibition. Moonshiners souped up cars to run booze up and down the east coast. Similarly, the first airmail/airline flights were the same way. Anyway, I hope you live in Europe or the third world if you are going to trash Americana like that.
NASCAR was doing fine 10-15 years ago when races were not held or often even televised outside the South. Sponsors were companies like Goody's, Thorn Apple Valley and AC Delco. Now with national TV revenues and huge corporate sponsors, they're struggling? Sounds like they've spent themselves into a corner with 50-man crews and multiple backup cars and 5-day race "weekends."
And I think their fans were much more likely to buy Winston or Busch products that anything Sprint or Nationwide.
@badgeman46: uh, what? even according to your statements, just because something developed concurrently (in this case nascar and airmail) doesn't mean there's any co-dependence. how exactly did airmail rely on moonshiners / nascar?
Apparently Arena Football has succumbed to the malaise and will suspend its '09 season, and I know all its fans are disappointed by that. The whole dozen.
link: [www.kansascity.com]
NASCAR is too big to fail!
We can let NASTruck go under though.
Just kidding, I hate them both equally.
@balthisar: Grand prix is real racing, with corners and shit.
Not "lets see how fast we can make these cars go - oh wait now they're going too fast, lets keep them from going that fast" around a circle "racing".
@nataku83: Airmail was subsidized by running moonshine. At its inception, the amount of mail carried was so small that aircraft owners operated at a loss. Once they realized they could cash in on prohibition, airmail carriers flourished. It is no coincidence that airlines and airmail showed up shortly after prohibition.
"Ad Age" clearly does not understand NASCAR. NASCAR could and, in fact, did survive with only one manufacturer supporting it. Plus, 26 of the 43 cars are already sponsered for next year with at least 20 more with partial sponsership.
Who actually gives a shit about Nascar? If anyone here does, I'm sorry (and by that I mean that's sad).
I could care less if NASCAR dies. Less demand for oil, cheaper gas for me.
Let 'em go. That way Times Square doesn't get traffic jams when they bring their noisemakers to strut around. And with no more races, the sponsors will have to find other hookers to hook up with so that their messages will be able to get out. Like we need more ads about ED and booze and laundry detergent.
/end of rant against naming rights and other sponsorship hookups.
@vastrightwing: Add restrictor plates and limits on new technology, and you have an incredibly BORING AND POINTLESS gigantic and unpatriotic waste of natural resources!
Well, that's that. I'm opposing the auto industry bailout.