NASCAR Sponsor Battles

As potential suitors line up to replace Anheuser-Busch as the title sponsor of NASCAR's second-tier series, Sprint Nextel has this warning: Buyer beware.

When Nextel paid $700 million to replace R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s Winston brand as the title sponsor of NASCAR's premier series, it believed it was receiving a fertile platform to peddle its cell phones and service. Now its attention is divided between racing and the federal courts.

So, should a title sponsor that pays $70 million per year to help finance and promote the sport expect some protection against its rivals? NASCAR believes so, and it's willing to go to court to prove it.

"Exclusivity isn't new in sports. AT&T has done the same thing with American Idol. They have done the same thing with the NCAA Final Four. You pay a premium for that, and there are rights and privileges that go back to you."

Sponsor conflicts aren't new to NASCAR, but none has been at the $750 million level.
Two years ago, NASCAR and International Speedway Corp. had competing sponsorships from Gatorade and Powerade. Although NASCAR and ISC are owned by the same family, Gatorade was the official drink in Victory Lane at all ISC tracks, and Powerade was the official sports drink of NASCAR. That meant every car pulling into Victory Lane at half of the racetracks in the sport had to display Powerade bottles and Gatorade banners.

Jimmie Johnson, who represents Gatorade, once was fined $10,000 for knocking Powerade bottles off the top of his car in Victory Lane, and Jeff Gordon was warned for not driving to Victory Lane at Indianapolis Motor Speedway - presumably to avoid having any Powerade bottles placed on his car until television cameras were turned off. Powerade became tired of the controversy and dropped its deal with NASCAR last year. (Ouch, and that was nice piece of insight that, to the common, watch on weekends fan, did not know about.)

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NEXTEL & AT and T (Bruce's Opinion)

When all is said and done, with NEXTEL having paid large amounts of money for being the exclusive official sponsor of NASCAR events, AT & T should know, as they came into this, that they would be facing an uphill battle, if any at all would be allowed, being that NEXTEL apprised all parties, companies & teams concerned how this was going to play out for everyone concerning name changes.

So AT & T may be just going for the publicity, or they may have something up their sleeve to get what they want. Heck, NEXTEL is changing it's name to SPRINT via a merger, so are there clauses about that in the sponsorship contracts?

But the bottom line for me is that we all know who the official sponsor of NASCAR is, and I don't see the other wireless sponsors impacting that status in my eyes, while NEXTEL's exclusivity is harming the race teams by limiting who they can have for sponsors, in a sport where it can be difficult to get quality sponsors that can support the race teams at the level of funding they need so they can be competitive.

Additionally, competitive sponsors are good for the sport / industry. Albeit, Budweiser, Miller & Coors seem to be doing ok with their respective presences on the track.

NEXTEL, let AT &T in. We still know who the big guns are supporting our sport.

Opinion - NASCAR's EXCLUSIVITY with SPONSORS

With all the exclusivity for sponsors that we are seeing, bewteen NASCAR and some companies could get out of hand as NASCAR looks to increase it's own purse strings while having the exclusive contracts limits the sponsors that can come on board.

Exclusivity helps the sponsors who pay money, IE: NEXTEL paid $700 million for it's 10 year stretch, so they sure can expect no competition in it's own race series BUT in the long run, how long can this go on before it starts to hurt the individual teams scrambling to get a sponsor?

What happens to Jeff Burton's team if AT&T can't advertise on his hood? Or Robby Gordon when... oh never mind, it's Robby Gordon. But do see that? It doesn't matter who it is because there are people out there that do like Robby and want to see him in the field, not doing spot interviews explaining why he's not on the track.

This is becoming a pricey sport, and if NACAR is not careful, the exclusivity is going to start hurting the teams trying to survive financially in this industry & hurting the teams, hurts us, the fans.