December 24, 2006
What Busch pulling out really means
By KEN WILLIS
MY TWO CENTS
For an entire generation of race fans, it has never been known as anything but the Busch Series.
The old-timers still might call it the Grand National Series. The old-timers' dads never got around to calling it anything other than the Sportsman class.
They'll all be in the same boat a year from now, when a new title sponsor takes over NASCAR's version of Triple-A baseball.
According to the industry trades (newspaper talk), Anheuser-Busch spends about $10 million a year for naming rights to the series, but NASCAR's asking price will triple or quadruple when the beer maker's contract runs out after '07.
This wasn't nearly as big as the Winston/Nextel swap-a-roo a few years ago, but it was still big enough for the Boys in Marketing -- led by Anheuser-Busch's Tony Ponturo and NASCAR's Andrew Giangola -- to launch a preemptive feel-good assault.
And, for your holiday enjoyment, it was just big enough for us to dust off our favorite play-at-home game: "What he said/What he meant."
WHAT TONY SAID: ". . .We felt it was important to alert NASCAR that we were not going to renew after '07, as a courtesy of our long-term relationship."
WHAT TONY MEANT: Forty million dollars? FORTY? You kiddin' me? Normally, we like to sleep on it before making a decision, but as soon as we realized they said 40 and not 14, we hopped the nearest Clydesdale and romped into the sunset.
WHAT TONY SAID: "We wanted to give them time to consider and look for a new sponsor."
WHAT TONY MEANT: Maybe some of their new booze-brewing buddies can foot the bill. I'm sure they have Mr. Smirnoff on speed dial.
For his part, Andrew Giangola had a unique sales pitch, because not only is NASCAR beating the bushes (sorry), but they're partnering with born-again broadcasting partner ESPN in the search.
WHAT ANDREW SAID: "No one could come up with another example of league and broadcast partner selling a sponsorship."
WHAT ANDREW MEANT: You know, I thought we were the ones who could sell ice to an Eskimo, but come on, those boys at ESPN can sell ads for poker and the WNBA. OK, poker.
WHAT ANDREW SAID: "It's a significant opportunity for a company to gain $100 million in brand exposure."
WHAT ANDREW MEANT: Must be true -- it says so on the press releases.
WHAT ANDREW SAID: "Clearly, we hope to have somebody in place before 2008."
WHAT ANDREW MEANT: I really don't want to see the word "former" in front of my title.
WHAT ANDREW SAID: "It's a unique situation, because the company is literally branded to the sport."
WHAT ANDREW MEANT: Make it $50 million, and I'll literally brand your logo on my left cheek. Yes, that one.
WHAT ANDREW SAID: "The Holy Grail seems to be about bringing in the casual sports fan. When you look at ESPN, it's a gathering place for a lot of casual sports fans."
WHAT ANDREW MEANT: My Aunt Marlene just loves that Tony Kornheiser.
ken.willis@news-jrnl.com