Just What Am I Paying For Again

The Car Guy of Benchfield

Home + TCGOB NASCAR! + Photo Garage + Links + Mad Mad Automotive World + Driving Songs + Humor Pages + Reader's Rides+ All About TCGOB + Contact Us

"Now What Is It I'm Paying For Again?"

by Vonda Masters, guest contributor

I'll admit it up front ~ the minute I heard about the new television deal for NASCAR, I hated it. I didn't even wait to hear the details ~ I decided right then and there that it was the end of the sport as I knew it. Turning coverage over to anyone but ESPN was a mistake of colossal proportions. I have watched my first weekend of coverage on the FOX family of networks and I hate to say my feelings have not changed.

While watching FOX's coverage of the Budweiser Shootout, I noticed that when the top five in the running order were shown upon returning from commercial, FOX used the standard picture, car number and car graphic format. They even used the car number as it is painted on the side of the car and in the car colors for a nice touch. While chuckling at the worst picture I have ever seen of Dale Earnhardt ~ did that look like a mug shot or what? ~ I noticed that his black #3 was just a solid black car. No Goodwrench, no Oreo, no logo of any kind on the hood of the car. My curiosity was sufficiently peaked and I began looking at all the little cars as they were shown. I saw tiny little logos for Budweiser, Home Depot, UPS, Havoline, Dodge, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and something on Mark Martin's car (I never did figure out what the logo on the hood of his car was). All the others were blank. I quickly realized that the cars that had logos also had commercials running during the broadcast. No Miller Lite commercials meant no Miller Lite logo on Rusty Wallace's car and so on down the line. I also realized that not a single announcer made any mention of a sponsor when referring to a car or driver. I know anyone who has watched racing for any amount of time can close their eyes and mentally hear Benny Parsons saying "Tony Stewart brings the Home Depot Pontiac down pit road for service". I do recall Mike Joy referring to Martin's black #6 car once yesterday, but that was as close as it got. I wondered how many sponsors were going to be ticked off at essentially being "blackmailed" into buying commercial time during a race by this new policy. I didn't realize at the time that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

I tuned into NASCAR Victory Lane last night and when they gave the final finishing order Tony Stewart had the little red Pontiac chevron by his name, Dale Earnhardt had a little blue Chevrolet bow tie by his and Bill Elliott had the little Dodge Ram logo by his name. Guess what the Ford drivers had by their names? No little blue oval, nothing at all. I thought for a moment and realized ~ yep ~ no Ford commercials ran during any of the coverage I saw yesterday. When I watched RPM2Night, *they* had blue ovals by the Ford driver's names. Obviously even the manufacturers aren't exempt from this new trend. Then this morning I read online that during the broadcast of the ARCA race that FOX referred to it as the ARCA/REMAX 200, not the Discount Parts 200. Why ~ because Discount Parts had not bought the full commercial package so they were only mentioned once an hour. FOX stated this could happen during Winston Cup races, also.

I read this afternoon that NASCAR was supposedly unaware of the logo free car graphics until after the fact and a meeting was being held to address the issue. FOX claims that these car graphics were only on the air for a few seconds and they are not obscuring the logos on the cars while on the track or on driver uniforms. The simple fact that they mentioned those things makes you wonder if air brushed hoods and requiring drivers to wear a plain white shirt during interviews haven't occurred to these guys already. Keep in mind, also, that this whole situation is irrelevant to the folks in Philadelphia who are not getting any NASCAR coverage from their FSN affiliate, or the people in Des Moines who didn't get to see qualifying because their FOX affiliate opted not to show it. Let's not even mention the people who don't get FSN or FX on their cable systems.

In light of this new "Show me even more money" era, the guys I feel sorriest for are the teams that are looking for a sponsor. Can you imagine being Eel River Racing or Roush Racing right now? You approach a potential sponsor and is this what you say: "Well, here's the deal. The top-notch teams are getting around $15 million these days, but we can make do on a few million less. Now, I have to warn you ~ that money only applies to putting your name on the car. If you want to be sure your logo is seen during a race ~ cause we can't guarantee just yet that we will be running up front all the time and well, for that matter we can't even guarantee you that FOX will show the logo even if we are ~ you have to buy commercial time during the race. I hear that 30 second spots now run about $225 thousand, so tack on ~ let's see a quarter million times 36 ~ okay, add another $9 million to the $10-12 million we need to even have a shot at being competitive ~ that's $19-21 million to start with. As it stands now, we can still wear caps and uniforms with logos on them during interviews free of charge, so we'll make sure we have the driver jump in front of the camera a lot. Now if you want to sponsor a race, in addition to the million or so you have to pay NASCAR, you'll have to buy another $2-3 million in commercials so FOX won't call it the NASCAR 500 instead of the Company XYZ 500. So what do you say, fellows? You want to sponsor us?"

One of the reasons sponsors were attracted to NASCAR in the first place was the amount of exposure they were getting for the money. Winston Cup cars have been called "rolling billboards". A company could count on several mentions of their name in addition to the numerous visuals they received during the course of a four-hour race telecast. Purchasing commercial time during a race was just icing on the cake for sponsors and was not something that was required to put your name before the public. NASCAR was perfect for a company that didn't have the deep pockets that someone like Budweiser does. Now teams may have to tell the companies that are spending $15 million for sponsorship that even that amount of money is not a guarantee of anyone outside of the racetrack seeing their investment. How long before sponsors start asking teams, "Now what exactly am I paying for again?"

I sincerely hope these issues are miscues and "growing pains" with the FOX people covering this sport for the first time. If it's not though, I have say I knew this new television deal was going to be the end of the NASCAR world as I know it.

2001 Car Guy of Benchfield

Home + TCGOB NASCAR! + Photo Garage + Links + Mad Mad Automotive World + Driving Songs + Humor Pages + Reader's Rides+ All About TCGOB + Contact Us


	The Car Guy of Benchfield Home + TCGOB NASCAR! + Photo Garage + Links + Mad Mad Automotive World + Driving Songs + Humor Pages + Reader's Rides+ All About TCGOB + Contact Us "Now What Is It I'm Paying For Again?" by Vonda Masters, guest contributor I'll admit it up front ~ the minute I heard about the new television deal for NASCAR, I hated it. I didn't even wait to hear the details ~ I decided right then and there that it was the end of the sport as I knew it. Turning coverage over to anyone but ESPN was a mistake of colossal proportions. I have watched my first weekend of coverage on the FOX family of networks and I hate to say my feelings have not changed. While watching FOX's coverage of the Budweiser Shootout, I noticed that when the top five in the running order were shown upon returning from commercial, FOX used the standard picture, car number and car graphic format. They even used the car number as it is painted on the side of the car and in the car colors for a nice touch. While chuckling at the worst picture I have ever seen of Dale Earnhardt ~ did that look like a mug shot or what? ~ I noticed that his black #3 was just a solid black car. No Goodwrench, no Oreo, no logo of any kind on the hood of the car. My curiosity was sufficiently peaked and I began looking at all the little cars as they were shown. I saw tiny little logos for Budweiser, Home Depot, UPS, Havoline, Dodge, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and something on Mark Martin's car (I never did figure out what the logo on the hood of his car was). All the others were blank. I quickly realized that the cars that had logos also had commercials running during the broadcast. No Miller Lite commercials meant no Miller Lite logo on Rusty Wallace's car and so on down the line. I also realized that not a single announcer made any mention of a sponsor when referring to a car or driver. I know anyone who has watched racing for any amount of time can close their eyes and mentally hear Benny Parsons saying "Tony Stewart brings the Home Depot Pontiac down pit road for service". I do recall Mike Joy referring to Martin's black #6 car once yesterday, but that was as close as it got. I wondered how many sponsors were going to be ticked off at essentially being "blackmailed" into buying commercial time during a race by this new policy. I didn't realize at the time that this was just the tip of the iceberg. I tuned into NASCAR Victory Lane last night and when they gave the final finishing order Tony Stewart had the little red Pontiac chevron by his name, Dale Earnhardt had a little blue Chevrolet bow tie by his and Bill Elliott had the little Dodge Ram logo by his name. Guess what the Ford drivers had by their names? No little blue oval, nothing at all. I thought for a moment and realized ~ yep ~ no Ford commercials ran during any of the coverage I saw yesterday. When I watched RPM2Night, they had blue ovals by the Ford driver's names. Obviously even the manufacturers aren't exempt from this new trend. Then this morning I read online that during the broadcast of the ARCA race that FOX referred to it as the ARCA/REMAX 200, not the Discount Parts 200. Why ~ because Discount Parts had not bought the full commercial package so they were only mentioned once an hour. FOX stated this could happen during Winston Cup races, also. I read this afternoon that NASCAR was supposedly unaware of the logo free car graphics until after the fact and a meeting was being held to address the issue. FOX claims that these car graphics were only on the air for a few seconds and they are not obscuring the logos on the cars while on the track or on driver uniforms. The simple fact that they mentioned those things makes you wonder if air brushed hoods and requiring drivers to wear a plain white shirt during interviews haven't occurred to these guys already. Keep in mind, also, that this whole situation is irrelevant to the folks in Philadelphia who are not getting any NASCAR coverage from their FSN affiliate, or the people in Des Moines who didn't get to see qualifying because their FOX affiliate opted not to show it. Let's not even mention the people who don't get FSN or FX on their cable systems. In light of this new "Show me even more money" era, the guys I feel sorriest for are the teams that are looking for a sponsor. Can you imagine being Eel River Racing or Roush Racing right now? You approach a potential sponsor and is this what you say: "Well, here's the deal. The top-notch teams are getting around $15 million these days, but we can make do on a few million less. Now, I have to warn you ~ that money only applies to putting your name on the car. If you want to be sure your logo is seen during a race ~ cause we can't guarantee just yet that we will be running up front all the time and well, for that matter we can't even guarantee you that FOX will show the logo even if we are ~ you have to buy commercial time during the race. I hear that 30 second spots now run about $225 thousand, so tack on ~ let's see a quarter million times 36 ~ okay, add another $9 million to the $10-12 million we need to even have a shot at being competitive ~ that's $19-21 million to start with. As it stands now, we can still wear caps and uniforms with logos on them during interviews free of charge, so we'll make sure we have the driver jump in front of the camera a lot. Now if you want to sponsor a race, in addition to the million or so you have to pay NASCAR, you'll have to buy another $2-3 million in commercials so FOX won't call it the NASCAR 500 instead of the Company XYZ 500. So what do you say, fellows? You want to sponsor us?" One of the reasons sponsors were attracted to NASCAR in the first place was the amount of exposure they were getting for the money. Winston Cup cars have been called "rolling billboards". A company could count on several mentions of their name in addition to the numerous visuals they received during the course of a four-hour race telecast. Purchasing commercial time during a race was just icing on the cake for sponsors and was not something that was required to put your name before the public. NASCAR was perfect for a company that didn't have the deep pockets that someone like Budweiser does. Now teams may have to tell the companies that are spending $15 million for sponsorship that even that amount of money is not a guarantee of anyone outside of the racetrack seeing their investment. How long before sponsors start asking teams, "Now what exactly am I paying for again?" I sincerely hope these issues are miscues and "growing pains" with the FOX people covering this sport for the first time. If it's not though, I have say I knew this new television deal was going to be the end of the NASCAR world as I know it. 2001 Car Guy of Benchfield Home + TCGOB NASCAR! + Photo Garage + Links + Mad Mad Automotive World + Driving Songs + Humor Pages + Reader's Rides+ All About TCGOB + Contact Us