Jeff

tell me this: If you are in a sanctioned king fish tournament and say have Mercs on your boat, have a Loadmaster trailer, have a certain kind of boat, certain kind of tackle you set a record or win tournament, you get paid. I'm talkin a possible $50-75K. WTF are racers not getting this money from say Mercury. The entry fees are about the same and I have done this a couple of times and it was more fun. We didn't win anything but at least there was a chance to win . Racers need to come out from under the ether believing how prize money will get better, BS. It could happen right now. How much tv time do you think these fishing boats get, they for the most part could care less, only the manufacturers do.

Ron P

That's my point. The sanctioning body takes the sponsorship money for themselves (it seems) and doesn't share any with the racers in the way of increased purse, tow money, decreased entry fees.

Please someone tell me I'm wrong! Also tell me at what point the next great motorsport will benifit the racers, or must they continue to get sponsor money on thier own?

Mercury pays to sponsor APBA - what did the racers get? Other than being mandated to run merc drives? I can see how Merc benifited, I can see how APBA benifited? How did the racers benifit from this relationship?

Same deal with SBI, they are no different.

Without the racers, there is no show. When will the racers get their fair share?

mr_velocity

I didn't mean you, I meant your PUBLIC statement "Its a sport for cowboys with money and most dont care if they had a sponsor or not. They are there to have fun,me included. " What you are do at the races is a great for the sport but that doesn't really match your initial statement. If more money was available then there would be more boats, a bigger show and more fans. When potential sponsors see comments like that they will never come to the sport. There is money out there if you know how to market the events and your team. Yup you need to take up the slack for the sanctioning bodies and sell the sport as much as you sell your team.

Raising money is not easy, not by a long shot. I can't tell you how many rejection letters I have sitting in my office at home. Most companies will respond with a no thanks letter, Sun Microsystems replied with a "if you want our money you need to do this" letter. Unfortunately our sport doesn't have much need for Sun products, but if you can figure out a way their servers and technology will help your team, you'll have a chance to get their money.

TYPHOON

Ron hit it on the head.It blows my mind to think that Merc. wouldnt give true race teams pricing under I mean way under OEM cost.They should be giving us product!We are there R&D and sales dept. Maybe the Vortec people will shake them up a little with there lease program.If Merc. doesnt follow there lead I think they may lose sales on race motors.
Randy

THEJOKER

Randy:

Louise says if you don't give her frying pan back she's gonna hurt you - haha - jk there Mr World Champion - BH

DONZI

iTrader: (2)

I think MikeV has some good points about getting all the info to the race fan. I believe you need to build the fan base before the sponsors will come. The sport has a lot of things in place that will attract many.I guess you would have to see the venue from the spectators viewpoint. Suggestion"s, i don"t know. I am sure many here could tell how to improve it for the race fan. Maybe a large floating barge with grand stands&food tents for infield,shuttle boats(calm seas of course).Scoreboard of some type. I really don"t know how you could harness 100,000 viewing tickets.The spectators choices are pretty limited now.

Panther

OK, I guess that I have to add my .02 here. From what I have seen this year, and the pissing matches here on the board between race teams, it is no wonder sponsors don't want to have anything to do with the sport. Would you sponsor anyone who is crying and protesting another team like a bunch of children? Personally, I would never put my name on any team who acts like that.

The "Sport" does not cater to the sponsors, it caters to the sport as a hobby. When interviews were done with various teams most of them never thanked their sponsors. Sponsors want to get national exposure, and the coverage is so poor that there is no use sponsoring a raceboat to market your company. Sponsors give money to race teams to market their company and thats just the way it is.

Have you ever noticed that when John Force wins a race, the first thing he does is put on his team hat and thanks his sponsors, then thanks his team. Also, whe a NASCAR winner goes to the winner circle they also pride their sponsors.

The sport will never grow unless it becomes;
1. More professional
2. Increase exposure of races on National TV, not just cable
3. APBA, SBI, OPA, etc. has to market their organizations to the public.
4. Other equipment companies need to get into the game. Mercury is a total Monopoly!!

There is many more things to list, but I don't think it is even worth it.

Panther

I guess there is nothing else to say???? Come on now.

mr_velocity

Yes merc has a Monopoly since they signed the deal with APBA. So they get the money and all the racers are forced to buy merc motors for the factory and drives for all classes. Sound like a great deal for Merc and the APBA. Again where are the racers?

Also why can't races be held at the same site multiple times during the year? That would be great in areas that already have a decent fan base, pit areas and gated viewing. St Pete comes to mind. Not only would that be beneficial to the host town, but it would help build the fan base. It may also give an incentive to local business to become more involved in the sport and more interested in sponsoring teams. Hopefully this is something the Jerzey Boys are thinking about. I'd like to see more local racing events her in NJ.

mr_velocity

Panther's $.02 is worth much more than that, in fact it's probably the most valuable info for racers I've seen posted here on OSO. His non-boating related high tech company was a sponsor of our's in 2001. People should listen to what "A REAL SPONSOR" has to say about the state of the sport and the teams.

Thanks again Panther