*See New Info in Red Below*
The Indy Racing League will announce Thursday that IZOD has stepped up to become title sponsor of the IndyCar Series. Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star first reported the story in Gannett sister publication USA Today.
Cavin reports that the "asking price" was $10 million per season for a duration of at least five seasons. It is interesting that the money will be distributed to:
1. The IRL
2. IndyCar television partners
3. IZOD's activation campaign
Terry Angstadt should be congratulated. He is indeed a fine salesman.
The question that I would askis this: how much of this is "new money"? IZOD already had a multi-year deal in place with the IRL. We can probably assume that some of the new money came from IZOD's reduced payment for 2010 naming rights of the former Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey. The New Jersey Nets will move out of that facility in the near future.
Roggespierre
Excellent. IZOD has referred to the Indy Racing Series as a 'diamond in the rough'. Indianapolis radio reprts that 2-3 other major series sponsors will be announced in December or early next year.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that the new "sponsors" do not come with strings attached. The league is already planning to race in Japan and Brazil for the sake of acquiring sponsorship.
Best Regards,
Roggespierre
Sounds like everything gonna be alright.
ReplyDelete(sorry)
My fear has been that there would be a lack of money to affect change based on the poor reaction of the market to the ICS product (i.e. total rejection). This at least brings in money that can then be used to spur on change. The next step is to see as to whether or not change is brought about in some form (radical or minor) and what it brings to the marketplace.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that anything that Monsieur R has said has proven to be untrue through this transaction. The willingness of Izod/Van Heusen to invest money does not in and of itself prove nor disprove the assertions that the public is unwilling to embrace the IRL. It does, however, give me the impression that certain contributors and external (to this forum) pundits beliefs regarding the ICS will be tested in the coming months and years. Of this, of course, I am eluding to ideas regarding promotion of Indycar (that it is the primary problem, and not the product itself) or that Versus is the logical vehicle of growth (through the potential purchase of NBC).
I'm not at all sure a "wait and see" approach is the best one to the problem, but it seems to be the one we'll get. That does not diminish what the purpose is of this forum.
VirtualBalboa,
ReplyDeleteThis deal does not appear to bring much in the way of "new money". IZOD was already in at $6 million per year. Apparently, Title Sponsorship is worth an additional commitment of up to $4 million. That's not nothing, but it's also not a lot.
It also seems that the money is going to be spread pretty thin. Cavin indicated that the $10 million will be divided into 1) cash to the IRL, 2) seed money for Hunter-Reay, 3) a significant TV buy on ESPN/ABC and Versus, and 4) activation.
I see nothing wrong with any of those expenditures. Each is a worthy activity, IMO. But let's assume that Hunter-Reay is getting $1 million. That would leave $3 million for each of the other activities. That isn't much when you consider that the IRL loses about $1.5 million on the Long Beach race. The Hulman George family is therefore still very much on the hook to prop-up the league.
In addition, the TV commitment makes both the ESPN/ABC and Versus deals appear to be little more than glorified time buys. No wonder the IRL is not interested in buying more network time. A quick look at the cash flows suggests that it's already buying whatever time it gets.
I think that your analysis is solid. The IRL might really get lucky if Comcast buys NBC. Still, Comcast is not going to put unwanted events on network television. The IRL will have to demonstrate that something approaching a mass audience actually wants this product. Otherwise, we might be looking at the 500 on NBC and everything else on Versus. That, too, wouldn't be so bad because Versus would quickly become a significant player.
Best Regards,
Roggespierre