While I was watching the race yesterday, I got to thinking it might be a good idea for us try and sponsor a NASCAR team for one race, possibly every season.
Before I get into cost and affordability, I’ll go over reasons for it:
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[*] NASCAR is the fastest growing sport in America and many reports cite it as the 2nd most watched in America, after the NFL. This would be excellent exposure for us, especially in our own region where NASCAR has its biggest following and also in our own city, which is regarded by many as the capitol of NASCAR. The level of exposure we would get in our own city would be unreal.
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[*] This would be excellent exposure (probably some of the best we could get) for our motorsports program. While this is not a major program at our school, it is one of the programs that is more unique to us and in a position (location wise) to excel.
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[*] This would be an extremely unique opportunity for us because it’s never been done (that I could find) and not many other schools could really do it because it wouldn’t make so much sense for them. Being in the heart of NASCAR land, this makes great sense for us and could kinda be [I]our[/I] thing.
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Some might say that NASCAR’s audience is not who we are targeting, but demographics show that the viewership of NASCAR is not the stereotype of rednecks in trailers drinking beer, but more typical of America in general with educated, employed, home owners. The highest age group is people who would be thinking about college or sending their kids to college. The image of NASCAR has changed a lot as well, and of course some not so scholarly activities are still associated with it (drinking obviously and others), they still really try to push the family friendly image that NASCAR has been moving to.
Of course the cost is the big catch. From the sources I found, many said a full sponsorship of a team for one race is between $350K-500K. Not chump change at all. For getting our name on a rear quarter panel or the rear lid, and on the uniform, it would be about $100K. And for just the quarter panel or lid, it would be about $50K.
However, with our location and connections, and being an academic institution, I think it might be possible for us to get a deal. One that came to mind quickly was Lowes and Hendrick. We have several people at the top of Lowes and Hendrick, who owns the team sponsored by Lowes, is also a big player in the city. Not to mention, if this would work out, being Jimmy Johnson’s sponsor for that one race would be perfect. He rarely wrecks so he’ll probably be in the whole race, he wins a lot so that’s a great chance for us, he is already very popular, and he has one of the cleanest images in the sport.
If we did primary sponsor for one race, I think that would be huge. Perhaps in years following we could go with the much more affordable associate sponsor.
Lemme know whatcha think. If you think it would be a good idea before the money aspect comes into play, please say that.
:49ers:
(cept UVA stinks.)
