In 2000, the IRL's corporate sponsorship earnings up to $200m
Thu, 27/09/2001 - 23:00
The Indy Racing League is set this year to steal its largest share of sponsorship dollars from Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), analysts predict.
In 2000, the IRL's corporate sponsorship earnings were projected to jump to $143m from $121m - a one percent gain in the total share of motorsports sponsorship.
Meanwhile, CART was expected to drop one per cent in its total share but still take in $492m.
That was the projection of IEG Sponsorship Report, a bi-weekly newsletter covering sports entertainment and marketing.
But Bob Reif, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the IRL and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, disputes IEG's projections and says IRL's assets have doubled in the past 17 months, with corporate sponsorship dollars exceeding $200m in 2000.
CART spokesman Ron Richards declined to discuss specific dollar amounts for his series.
CART has reason to be cautious with analysts describing the series as sluggish. There are also rumors it stands to lose the contract with its largest sponsor, FedEx.
Many believe the IRL's improvement started in January 2000, when Reif came on board to oversee a program to seek sponsors aggressively. His first move was to hire 30 more people to devote to customer service. Before that, there had only been three.
Racing is expected to pull in $1.5B in corporate sponsorships this year. Most sponsorships in CART and IRL cost $500,000 to $6M. In NASCAR, that figure can reach up to $17M.