NASCAR Team Values, Sport Funds, Bruce's Thoughts

Well, I've seen this floating around for some time now, so I thought I'd share in the proliferation of the info, heck, my readers deserve it, right?

It's an article over on Forbes about the values of the NASCAR teams, and in itself, here's a teaser paragraph to set you over there, because they have graphs and charts, and that's what makes it more understandable if you don't want to read all the pesky words..

-Overall, however, licensing is on the decline in NASCAR, and sponsorship rates have flattened out since 2003. Looking ahead, its new eight-year, $4.48 billion TV contract with ABC, ESPN, Fox and TNT (beginning this year) pays less in the near term. Throw in the fast-rising cost of competing (budgets have grown at a double-digit clip since the '90s) and it’s no wonder that we estimate 20% of the sport’s most valuable teams are losing money.-

See the whole article at forbes.com

Call me emotional, but this initially worries me about my favorite sport!! With NASCAR inviting exclusive sponsorships, potentially eliminating competition, what's the draw for other companies, if all they are going to do is get into legel battles about their logo exposure? As it is, AT&T got to show their logo for a few weeks, but now they are defending themselves from NASCAR in a $100 million lawsuit.

And obviously, TV coverage more than likely went to the highest bidder, but I for one, have yet to be happily converted to the ESPN covervage of the second tier level of competition, the Busch Series, which that too is changing, as the long time series sponsore, Busch, is leaving at the end of this year.

We the fan, are seeing much change in recent years. Winston to NEXTEL, to Sprint. The Busch Series, to (TBD) Series. The Truck Series, so far, is still the Craftsman Truck Series. And that's the thing I'm thinking about as I write this, all the change, and all the money. Hopefully, I don't get priced out of being able to go to a race, or buying another diecast. (Oh, don't get me going about my diecast collection!!)

by
Bruce Simmons, The Fan Reporter