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NASCAR Notebook Costs continue to rise for Winston Cup notoriety
By Mike Fish, CNNSI.com ATLANTA -- Like everything else these days, the cost of racing keeps going up. The proof is in the $15 million Atlanta-based United Parcel Service is reportedly paying to sponsor former Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett's No. 88 car this season. UPS undoubtedly has some spare cash after dropping out of the Olympic sponsorship business. And, of course, they'll get some immediate bang for their buck with a hot ad campaign -- including a couple funny TV spots playing on Jarrett's apprehension to drive the brown delivery truck. "We'd been approached by NASCAR in the past, but it just really made sense now," said Susan Rosenberg, a UPS spokesperson. "The sport is spanning markets across the U.S. It's no longer this historical southeast sport." Thus, it costs more to be a player. Insiders harken back to the early 1960s and Fred Lorenzen, the Dale Earnhardt of his day, who was one of the first drivers to stumble upon the idea of signing up a car sponsor. He brokered a package with a Fayetteville, N.C., Ford dealer, to pay $6,000 for the 29-race season -- or a tad more than $200 a race. By the late 1980s, Junior Johnson figured that he needed $3 million in sponsorship dollars to break even over a 30-race season -- or $100,000 a race. Almost 40 years after the first sponsorship, the breakdown on the UPS deal stands to average more than $400,000 per race. "Now it's a different world," said Tom Cotter, founder of the sports marketing Cotter Group. "There was no TV back in the '60s. You just had a bunch of car dealer and tire dealer (decals) on cars. With these sponsorship deals, you can see the economics of the business changing." Where's it all headed? Cotter predicts the primary sponsorship deals will become monumentally more expensive over this decade, in part because a company -- say like Ford or UPS -- will buy into a complete package. It won't be the helter-skelter mess of cutting a deal with a team owner, then going to the track owners to negotiate purchase of a suite and billboard signage, followed by a trip to the networks to buy ad time. It'll be one-stop shopping through an agency, or perhaps even NASCAR itself. "If you want a new car you wouldn't go to the Ford parts department and say, 'Give me a chassis four wheels and sun visors,'" Cotter said. "You're going to buy a package that is a car. Right now, in the sport, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. "In the future, somebody is going to act as the intermediary and the team owners will register the products they have to sell -- associate sponsor, main sponsor, etc. Then, the networks will register what they have to sell -- inventory and what it cost. The tracks will be part of it. Whatever agency or bureau this is, they will know what locations on what cars are available, what time buys are available, what in-car cameras are available, what races, what TV spots unspoken for."
Daytona happeningsBill Elliott is the only Dodge driver eligible to run Feb. 11 in the pre-season Budweiser Shootout. The special Daytona non-points race features pole winners from last season and past winners of the event that had been called the "Busch Clash" until last year. ...O-Town, the newest boy band on the pop music scene, is booked to perform the National Anthem prior to the Daytona 500. The group's first single, "Liquid Dreams," recently debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard single sales chart. No hard feelingsThe easy thing would be for Ford bosses to say it's no big deal, that Bill Elliott is just another driver. That's not the case. His defection to Dodge was a significant hit -- and they admit it. "Oh, it has an impact on us," said Sam Scott, Ford racing division manager. "GM lost several of their drivers to Dodge, and Bill may been the only one of the top tier we lost. But Bill is huge icon. He's been voted the most popular driver almost every year. Bill has been a huge asset to our program, and it's a big plus for [Dodge] picking him up. A lot of people still perceive him as Ford person, and hopefully deep down inside he still is." Mike Fish covers NASCAR for CNNSI.com
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