Enough With the “Entitlement Sponsor” Crap!
It’s far past time for NASCAR to tell NEXTEL to take a long walk off a short pier.
By now everyone has heard of the “NEXTEL Whine” with regards to Jeff Burton’s #31 Cingular sponsored ride. AT&T finally had to move to their last resort and filed a civil lawsuit in an attempt to place their logos on the #31.
Hey NEXTEL, ya want me to call you a Whaaaaabulance?
Now another shoe has dropped in Atlanta. The Man in Black, (literally & figuratively) Robby Gordon, ran his #7 at Los Wages last week sans sponsorship. The literal part of The Man in Black.
This week as Robby rolled the #7 out of the transporter it was adorned with Motorola decals on the hood and fenders. For a hot second.
By the time practice rolled around NEXTEL wielded it’s version of Thor’s Hammer and the #7 was back in black (sorry AC DC) with the only visible signs of Motorola logos on the cars C-post.
“Nextel has said that Motorola is a competitor and has asked NASCAR to remove Motorola decals off the No. 7 Ford,” Gordon said. “I don’t understand why it can be an associate sponsor but they can’t be a primary. As you can see, there are still Motorola decals on the C post.”
As an entitlement sponsor, Nextel’s contract takes precedence, according to NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp.
“As the sanctioning body, it is NASCAR’s responsibility to police the sport,” Tharp said. “There are certain contractual agreements that must be abided by as they pertain to paint schemes and sponsorships and how they are utilized. This was one of those cases.”
“Responsibility to police the sport” Tharp says. Excuse me a moment…
BAWhhhhaaaaaaaa….!! And a quick wipe of the monitor with my spittle rag I’m back.
Another victim of the “NEXTEL Whine.”
Let me pose a quick question or two and formulated by an arm chair lawyer who has never set eyes on the NASCAR/NEXTEL contractual agreement.
What happens to the NEXTEL Cup Series in 2008? Will it be the Sprint Cup? The Sprint-NEXTEL Cup? The Sprint, formerly known as the “NEXTEL Whine,” Cup?
The point being because of a corporate merger Sprint feels no remorse in sending NASCAR’s premier series ass over tea kettle by forcing a change to the entire marketing campaign. And HWSBO has cast off his normal dictatorial nature and has laid down like an obedient puppy.
Oh, and did I mention the subject merger occurred long after the NEXTEL contract was agreed to and signed.
This arm chair lawyer sees that as an out. Assuming someone had the testicular fortitude.
NEXTEL, their new corporate minders Sprint and their bevy of overpriced shysters need to be told in no uncertain terms… screw off.
Settle the Burton issue, even if they have to stick on the AT&T logos on the #31, and the Motorola logos on the #7 themselves and let the shysters do what they do best, collect retainer fees and question why the defendants and judge are wearing the same tie.
Follow that up with announcing drivers during the 2008 season will be vying for the 2008 Bill France Championship in honor of the sports roots. And as quickly as possible commission a new championship cup along the lines of the NHL’s Stanley Cup.
It would include an actual “cup,” not something that looks like the survivor of a mid-western tornado and a list of all past winners of the championship and updated with each years winning driver and team.
If Sprint doesn’t like it, screw’em. Let’em they can take their cash somewhere else. There are other Fortune 500 companies that will step into the breech.
Did anyone notice there was actual racing Friday? And no lawyers were in the starting line-up.
Mike Skinner followed up his Thursday appearance on Fox’s morning show with his 31st NCTS win Friday night. And the usual, if not surprising with his recent performance, Rocket Ryan Newman won the pole for Sunday’s [Bill France] Cup event.
And finally, someone has noticed the Tasmanian Devil. Congrats Monte, ’bout time someone in the MSM woke up.
UPDATE: I should have known putting too much stock in what Robby Gordon had to say in the quotes provided above. Lee Spencer reports Gordon stretched the credibility envelope:
Gordon hoped for resolution as well. Gordon submitted his application with Motorola on March 1 and says NASCAR requested the paint scheme on March 8. The transporter with the cars and logos left Charlotte on Thursday before NASCAR warned Gordon he could not run “Motorola” on the hood.
So Gordon and crew took the chance, and lost. The team could have easily remained “in black” and gotten the final ruling at Atlanta and if allowed placed Motorola logos on the car. But they didn’t and a week after leaving Las Vegas a roll of the dice cost them.
UPDATE II: That Man is Black is no longer ebony. NASCAR has brokered a deal where Gordon can use a paint scheme that features a digital audio player sold by Motorola.
NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Sports, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
I’m dumbfounded…
If Nextel can become Sprint in FranceCar,
why can’t Cingular become AT&T.
Isn’t greed one of the big sins?
The explanation is simple. Both Cingular, and AllTel in the case of Newman’s sponsor, was grandfathered into the NEXTEL contract when it was signed.
I don’t really have a problem with NASCAR’s decision, at least not much, their just living up to a signed contract.
However as is the norm they seem to have handled this in a ham-handed way. (based on Gordon’s comments of not knowing about the Motorola restriction.)
They could preempt this type of situation by ensuring all teams had a list of companies that are restricted in whatever form from sponsorship.
And as I already noted, the Sprint/NEXTEL change is what I question.
I want to know if NASCAR and NEXTEL discussed the possibility of a Sprint takeover during talks to become the series sponsor.
If so they screwed up big time. If not, and I lean this way, they had no idea Sprint was in the market for NEXEL.
Most of these large scale mergers happen fairly fast, 6 months or so, so it’s very possible it wasn’t an issue.
Whatever the cause NASCAR needs to fix the problem fast.
Corporate America cracks me up. They say they believe in free enterprise and competition except when they face free enterprise and real competition.
What’s not to understand about big business protecting their interest? When a company spends millions for an “exclusive” advertising/marketing position, why should they then roll over and let the competition change their name and allow them to feed off my investment? Keep your name and brand, you are welcome to play: Change at your own peril and risk.
How many competing cigarette brands sponsored cars when the series was called the Winston Cup?
‘Nuff said.
Is it an “exclusive” deal as title series sponsor??
In F1 it isn’t, you have the Fosters British GP but there are other brands on the signage & on the cars. I just watcheg the ING Australian GP but Allianz & other banks were visible.
Wow, what does France charge Nextel for sole rights!!!
Great insight as always marc… Greed is a sin and we are all sinners but giving is so much better feeling than taking
I don’t wear Robby-goggles after all. While we know how ridiculous the whole debacle has been, what with NASCAR changing their story a couple times, it ultimately fell on Robby to make sure the scheme was approved before they left.
He didn’t.
And that makes two weeks in a row his i’s weren’t dotted, his t’s weren’t crossed and, because of it, they had to pull decals off the car.
Not impressed.
The placement of Robby-goggles doesn’t prohibit clear, unpartisan thinking from occurring.
They just tilt the scales in the wrong direction when events can easily and honestly interpreted with two divergent directions.
Stealing from Prince, I can see the new series name will no longer be a name but a symbol and since the symbol won’t have a name we’ll all have to call it “The Series Formerly Known as The NASCAR Nextel Cup”.
Marc said:
It’s the golden rule, it’s my gold I’ll change the name to whatever I want to call it. To answer Peter’s question, didn’t Nextel sign up for 5 years at 250 million total dollars?
They signed for ten years but off the top of my head I can’t recall the amount.
I don’t have a problem with the name change George. NEXTEL signed on in 2003, 2 1/2 or 3 years later Spint buys them out and NEXTEL will be no more in 2008. Allegedly.
The only difference from the AT&T - Cingular thing is that grand father clause.
In consideration of both mergers that no one foresaw (apparently) Sprint needs to unbunch their panties, wave the clause and move on.