Quote:
Originally Posted by 340Cuda
Be careful what you wish for, even with the poor scheduling for qualifying I don't see how NHRA could possibly get more exposure than on ESPN2.
Bill
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I don't see how they could get much less exposure, or the quality of the coverage could get much lower.
ESPN is
exactly why so many teams cannot get sponsors.
If you had $6M to spend on motorsports sponsorship for advertisement purposes, would you put your money on a car that
might get 2 minutes of "prime time" exposure on the second string network for ESPN? Especially given that the "prime time" might not even happen if it rains at some stick and ball sports stadium.
Honestly, if you look at it, the winning Pro Stock car might be on TV for a total of maybe two minutes. That is one car out of a minimum of sixteen that you need to find $5M a year sponsorship for.
If you've ever wondered why great guys like Davey Connolly can't get a sponsor to make a Pro Stock ride happen, there it is. Hell, Erica Enders can't get a sponsor, and she's a pretty successful female driver, which is a rare commodity right now. Like him or not, John Force is a wildly popular and successful drag racer, and he's out hustling sponsorship money.
The fact is, NHRA professional drag racing simply does not offer a good return on sponsorship dollars, even for corporations that produce automotive products.
The ratings for NHRA on TV just plain suck. NHRA loves to blame it on racers and down time, and they love to complain that sportsman racers are in the way. But the truth is that their programming stinks, it's poorly done, and the air time is crap. They need a real professional production group, better on air personalities, and a contract for real air time.