Gotta love it..........

[John Thawley]

From my good friend Peter De Lorenzo over at Autoextremist.com

Corporate America, the Detroit Three. Attention marketing lemmings: Before you commit to that seven (or eight) figure NASCAR advertising/marketing/promotional budget for 2009 (since 2008 is already a done deal), we thought we'd provide an important message for you. NASCAR television ratings on ABC, ESPN, FOX and TNT are off 9% from last year, and down a full 21% from 2005. How much are you spending in NASCAR again? And when are you going to be asked by your bosses the $25 million question - Why? You're welcome.

[Hallen]

NASCAR is riding a bubble right now. It hasn't burst, but it will deflate. Like anything, there is the whole herd mentality thing that kicks in. Everybody else is watching it, I should too. But then after a while, you end up asking yourself why? I think for most of these newish fans, the ones that have put NASCAR on top of sporting events for a while now, are now reevaluating their participation. I think there are a lot of true, diehard fans out there and NASCAR will still dominate the racing scene in the US for many years to come.
However, I think that NASCAR may have brought in a bunch of race fans who are now disillusioned with NASCAR, but still crave good racing. These are the people that I think the ALMS can and should attract. I personally believe that many of these people fit right into the ALMS demographics.

Now, how to convince the manufacturers and the sponsors that this is the case?

[John Thawley]

Originally Posted by Hallen

NASCAR is riding a bubble right now. It hasn't burst, but it will deflate. Like anything, there is the whole herd mentality thing that kicks in. Everybody else is watching it, I should too. But then after a while, you end up asking yourself why? I think for most of these newish fans, the ones that have put NASCAR on top of sporting events for a while now, are now reevaluating their participation. I think there are a lot of true, diehard fans out there and NASCAR will still dominate the racing scene in the US for many years to come.
However, I think that NASCAR may have brought in a bunch of race fans who are now disillusioned with NASCAR, but still crave good racing. These are the people that I think the ALMS can and should attract. I personally believe that many of these people fit right into the ALMS demographics.

Now, how to convince the manufacturers and the sponsors that this is the case?

I also think that there is a sharing of audience numbers among the actual race broadcast and the multitude of wrap-around shows for NASCAR. So, the net result is they are still probably reaching more people than ever.

I think the shift from diehard to party-hard came in to play around the 50th Anniversary ... and ushered in yet another "modern era" for the NASCAR numbers game. Modern facilities, new mechanisms for reaching audiences, new and different levels of licensing and so on. What I'm saying is that there was the boom and then the ka-boom caused by their ability to activate and capitalize on the boom. As Posh Spice Beckham would say... it's "mega."

So, while I think Peter's comment's to the Big 3 are spot on, as the days of their need to participate as players is long gone... the day of being a consumer advertiser/marketer will linger for a long time to come. NASCAR still has plenty of soap and cereal selling days ahead of it. But, for car manufacturer's to think there is some relevance or need for them to be a player down on the field? No way.

JT

[mayk]

We still have too many maniacal people at the top of racing who conduct business with their personal greed meters as their only compass, so that the greater good of the sport - and of the fans - never enters into the discussion.

+1!!!!!!!