Question for Canadians

[FRANKY]

(or anyone else)

So why doesn't Paul Tracy have a sponsor? Champion, colorful personality. First Canadian Champ Car Champion in almost a decade.

What gives? What Canadian firms aren't stepping up to the plate and why?

[solpadeine]

I can't speak as a Canadian, but if I were a corporate sponsor, I wouldn't get near OWRS right now. Money's tight enough, I'd need more solid proof of getting ROI than I think OWRS can offer. I'd look elsewhere to reach my demographics.

[datachicane]

Can we recruit some more subtle trolls around here?
FRANKY hardly does the genre justice.
:rolleyes:

[FRANKY]

I was reading http://www.paultracy.com/PaulTracy.html and they said "Forsythe Racing told the media it is struggling to find a sponsor to replace Players for PT's car and also for Patrick. When PT told reporters last year in Toronto that the loss of these sponsorships would hurt Canadian racing and set it back 10 years he was dead right." I want to hear from Canadians. South of the border there are plenty of sponsors and cars. I just want to know what gives? Canada suffering a major recession or something?

[FRANKY]

I can't speak as a Canadian, but if I were a corporate sponsor, I wouldn't get near OWRS right now. Money's tight enough, I'd need more solid proof of getting ROI than I think OWRS can offer. I'd look elsewhere to reach my demographics.

That's dumb.

The Canadian races are packed, Paul is always winning or in the limelight. The media build up weeks before the race is great. There is nothing but solid proof that he is marketable. ROI for Canadian firms and Mexican firms shouldn't be questioned, they have the highest attended races.

[Insomniac]

Why hasn't Molson sponsored a team yet? I would think they would be the first to sponsor a team.

[ShickStift]

gee, maybe because they already sponsor three races? :rolleyes:

[Insomniac]

gee, maybe because they already sponsor three races? :rolleyes:

I know that. A car is year round.

[Jay]

As someone in Canada who has gone looking for sponsorship for university teams and at the moment a major festival...it's just plain difficult to find sponsorship right now (the govt scandal hasn't helped either...), regardless of who you are or what your exposure is...it's an almost impossible game. Forsythe is probably asking for a few million to even have one of his cars painted in your company's colours... When you look at Champ Car's exposure (TV ratings in Canada namely...), as sad as it is, you'd get much more exposure for your buck by sponsoring a curling event (like Nokia and Scott Paper), or putting your ad on the boards or the ice of an NHL arena...both of which cost a small fraction of what becoming a title sponsor at Forsythe would for a much greater exposure.

That said, as Franky was discussing, he shouldn't have any trouble finding sponsors for the cars at the Canadian events... I'm sure there are sponsors out there that would pay for the 2-3 Canadian events that get huge national exposure. The rest of the season OTOH...well...again, if you run a company it's pretty hard to justify the huge bill for the exposure.

[Wabbit]

"you'd get much more exposure for your buck by sponsoring a curling event"

Now you know that it is getting bad... :D

[Robstar]

I also think that it would be hard (dollar-wise) to match up to a ciggie company...
These guys, I assume, gave GF somewhat of a blank cheque ?
It would be hard (regardless of whether or not sponsors are out there) to keep Forsythe in the lifestyle to which they've become accustomed... maybe.. I don't know...
MHO

;)

[Jay]

ahhh crap...that reminds me... goodbye Player's hospitality area next year... at least Corona will still be around.

[JT265]

"you'd get much more exposure for your buck by sponsoring a curling event"

Now you know that it is getting bad... :D

No sheet. :eek:

[RJC1]

As Jay said, the market for selling sponsorships in Canada right now is just brutal. I really hope it's at the bottom end of its swing, I can't imagine it being any worse than it is right now.

However, I do agree that Forsythe should be able to put a Canadian sponsor on the three Canadian races if he's asking for a reasonable price. He'd need somebody up here in the market flogging it though, and I don't believe he has anybody.

And yes, you would get more exposure from sponsoring a curling event. Which is BS. CRTC regulations caused Canadian sports channels to dedicate, oh, I don't know, about 23.5 hours a day to broadcasting "non-professional Canadian athletes". The channels chose to dedicate about 23.25 of those hours to curling. Now the sport is hugely succesful, never mind the fact that nobody ever wanted to watch it in the first place, there is still hardly anybody who likes it, but since it gets such huge coverage everybody just assumes it's a "big thing". In motorsports we don't get breaks like that.

[TedN]

This discussion on corporate sponsorship reminded me of a Norris McDonald article in the Toronto Star last August. I found it not only interesting reading but a compelling look at the behind-the-scenes activity that goes in to securing corporate support.

Here is an extract from that piece. A link is not possible as it is archived on the Star site and costs money to get.

Ted

================================================== ===
Saturday, August 23, 2003
Two roads to take to make racing pay
Big leagues are costly for hopefuls to compete in
Potential investors need to be able to see solid returns
by Norris McDonald
Toronto Star

.... On the other hand, Eric Jensen, who owns a successful two-car team that runs in the Toyota Atlantic series, is convinced that the only way people or corporations will put money into auto racing is to guarantee a healthy return on their investment immediately- not three or four years down the line (if then).

To cut to the chase on this one, Jensen is sponsored by Starwood Hotels (which owns the Westin and Sheraton hotel chains) and he has- in return for their sponsorship- drummed up more than $10 million in hotel room business for them in the past three years.

Jensen is a team owner, race-car driver, public speaker, host, race-track guide and promotions and public-relations adviser. He attracts business to his company, Starwood Team Jensen, by offering himself up as a complete package.

His presence is in demand these days away from the circuits because he is a race driver (and can talk about that), a team owner (he knows a lot of people in the sport) a businessman (who can talk about growing a company) and an enthusiastic guy (who can talk about- well, just about everything). For example, the Tourist Board of Montreal had him in recently to address a group of event planners, and he was hired to guide Rob Walton (Mr. Wal-Mart U.S.A.) around the Grand Prix of Monaco.

"We will have $2 million in revenues this year," he said earlier this week from Newcastle before leaving for Montreal and the Molson Indy races this weekend. "I expect we will be taking in between $5- and $10 million in the next two or three years. The growth potential is there and if I don't reach that target, I will be quite disappointed."

Unlike most drivers in the Atlantic series (their race goes later this afternoon at Ile Notre-Dame), Jensen started late. He's 33 now and didn't actually start racing until he was 20. And even when he started driving, it was as a means to a business end. He had (and has) no ambition to become world champion.

"I grew up around race tracks," he said. "My dad is Bruce Jensen, who raced in the Atlantic series back in the '70s.

"I'll be honest, I wasn't a big fan of car racing at that age- 5, 6, 7- because I was afraid that my dad was going to get hurt. I didn't like it because of that. I was 12 when I heard that Gilles Villeneuve had died and it really affected me. My dad had raced against Gilles."

As he got older, however, Jensen realized that auto racing had a wonderful commercial potential. "I'd gone to the (University of Toronto) to study finance and economics and was interested in going into business. I knew car racing (by this time, he had taken a race-driving course) and I understood the basics of sales and sponsorship."

Jensen says there are four ways car racing and corporations can make a commercial sponsorship work:

Branding: "PaySystems Corp. is one of our sponsors this year. They are a credit-card processing company and are interested in name recognition. A race-car sponsorship is not much different from a 30-second TV commercial in a major market except that with the race car their message is in 12 markets rather than one. Also, and this is important, if their name is on a major-league racing car, which is not inexpensive, they will be perceived by other companies as being big enough to do business with."

Promotions: "Take the Molson Indy Toronto. They get 180,000 people there over three days. Starwood Team Jensen gets a marquee location at the track for promotion purposes. Columbia TriStar worked with us to promote Men In Black two years ago. Right now, we're creating a contest for Westin where the winner will win a trip to a race."

VIP Guest Hospitality: "If you buy a Gold Partnership with Starship Team Jensen (for $185,000 Canadian, by the way), you receive, in addition to the brand signage on the car and the property for promotions and marketing, 15 pit passes with VIP hospitality at every race.

"This way, you can take your important clients right down to where the action is. If you take someone important to a box at a Leaf game, you're with them for three hours; if you take them to a box at a car race, you're with them for three days. Which do you think is the greater value?"

Business to business: "Racing is a high-end sport, so it attracts corporate support and the people who come to the races are usually the top guys at those corporations. Put them together and big things can happen."

With Jensen being so involved in the business side of things, it's not really surprising that if his presence in the cockpit proved to be an impediment to the growth of the company, he would be out of it like a shot. "I'm not out there to put my life on the line," he said. "I'm out there because it's my company and I'm the front man.

"Racing is my business; race driving is not."

[Sean O'Gorman]

"Racing is my business; race driving is not."

Jensen certainly got that one right! If he was serious about that though, he'd put the best driver possible in the car instead of himself.

[Insomniac]

Jensen certainly got that one right! If he was serious about that though, he'd put the best driver possible in the car instead of himself.

Then he'd have to pay them which means less profit. I guess the days of doing it for fun AND making money are long gone.

[Jay]

I don't think you'd have to pay a driver to take a Toyota Atlantic ride considering how many of them (good ones too) are bringing their own money or are merely having their expenses covered. That said, if you're paying the money to run a team, I see no reason you shouldn't be able to put yourself behind the wheel. Your money = your fun.