re: #5 Justanotherhuman

No different than NASCAR car sponsorship and fly-overs at their races.

The National Guard used to put out a big chunk of money to sponsor an Indycar team, and when the sponsorship was fought over by two teams it lead to a big exposure of the actual behind the scene workings and speculation of dollar amounts. That made the National Guard reconsider and they dropped it all.

Overall, the money spent on Auto Racing makes the NFL look like a good buy. And I say that as a fan of auto racing. But I am also realistic. As a former fan of the nearly ruined Indycar side of the sport, that was a ridiculous amount of money to spend on Indycar. It doesn’t even have the following the sport had before ego got in the way back in 1995, split the sport and just about killed it off for good.

Here some info/links on all that crap.

From a February 2014 article.

Road & Track - Inside the fight for a $17M IndyCar sponsorship

Top-level racing sponsorship negotiations are rarely made public, but due to efforts by one IndyCar team to keep another from obtaining funding from its former sponsor, race fans have been given a rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain.

At the center of it all is two-time IRL champion Panther Racing, which received Army National Guard (ANG) funding from 2008-2013. After soliciting bids for a new contract, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLLR) was awarded ANG sponsorship in October, but an immediate protest by Panther put the confirmation on hold while the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed the protest.

Panther’s protest ultimately proved unsuccessful, and a formal denial was issued in January, solidifying RLLR’s winning proposal. Other than a simply worded finding on January 17, the GAO kept the details of its decision private—until Monday night.

The 9-page brief includes some staggering facts. (see brief at link)
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From an August 2014 article.

Las Vegas Review-Journal - National Guard ending sponsorship for NASCAR, IndyCar

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The National Guard is ending its sponsorship of both NASCAR’s most popular driver and one of the most recognizable names in IndyCar.

It’s not clear when the guard is leaving motorsports. It said in a Wednesday statement on its web site that its contracts to sponsor Dale Earnhardt Jr. in NASCAR and Graham Rahal in IndyCar run through the end of the year. Typically, government contracts are reviewed annually.

But, Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement it has a contract with the guard through 2015.

“We have not been approached by the guard about potential changes and plan to honor our current agreement,” the team said.

Bobby Rahal, co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, said he learned of the guard’s decision on Wednesday. He called it disappointing news “given the significant incremental brand exposure we have worked to produce for the National Guard in our first season together, including various off-track marketing and advertising programs focused on supporting the mission set forth.”

The guard said it spent $32 million on its NASCAR sponsorship and $12 million on its IndyCar sponsorship this year, and noted that “sports sponsorships have played an important role in helping the guard build strong brand awareness.” But, the guard statement said its sponsorship contracts in NASCAR and IndyCar “are set to expire at the end of the current season,” which contradicts the Hendrick claim.

“Significantly constrained resources and the likelihood of further reductions in the future call for more innovative and cost-effective ways of doing business,” Maj. Gen. Judd H. Lyons, acting director of the Army National Guard, said in the statement.

Military funding has come under increased scrutiny in Congress. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri has called the sponsorship “wasting a bunch of money on a very expensive sports sponsorship.”

A spokesman for McCaskill noted Thursday the guard had followed the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard in all ending motor sports sponsorships.

“Claire is a NASCAR fan, and loves the National Guard — but spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a recruitment program that signed up zero recruits, and that has been abandoned by the other service branches as ineffective, just makes no sense,” said spokesman John LaBombard.

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