NASCAR’s Lack Of Title Sponsor Already Negatively Impacting Others
October has come and gone and NASCAR has yet to announce a new title sponsor for their top series as Sprint will be departing after the 2016 season. The lack of an announcement is already starting to have an impact around the sport.
NASCAR has said for most of the 2016 calendar year that they would have a title sponsor in place (or they at least hoped to have one in place) come late in the season. That timeline became more specific during the summer when they said they hoped to announce something in September or October.
Well, it’s now November and while the process is being described as “entering the late stages” there doesn’t seem to be an announcement coming anytime in the immediate future.
NASCAR spoke about their self-imposed deadline this week and they made it clear that the right fit is more important than sticking to a deadline that they created for themselves.
.@brentdewar tells @sbjsbd search still on schedule, @NASCAR in talks w/ multiple companies “at an advanced stage" — https://t.co/na7Pf86Gmr pic.twitter.com/8SPBscEMmC
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) October 31, 2016
In this week's SBJ: An update on @NASCAR's hunt to replace @sprint as the final month of the season starts — https://t.co/na7Pf86Gmr pic.twitter.com/bcPU7UmDyG
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) October 31, 2016
Is the world going to come crashing down because NASCAR missed a deadline that they set for themselves? No, probably not. However, not naming a title sponsor this late in the season and this close to the start of the 2017 season (less than four months) is starting to negatively impact others, namely Lionel Racing.
Lionel is the official diecast provider for NASCAR and they are already gearing up for the 2017 season and all of the orders that NASCAR fans will soon be placing. The only issue is that they don’t have a logo for a title sponsor to place on the model cars. Lionel has always strived to provide fans with the most accurate cars possible and this is a pretty big deal for them.
Should an announcement not come soon, some of the early cars for next season will have the NASCAR logo in place of where the title sponsor logo should be.
Lionel's diecasts at the '17 #Daytona500 may have to have @NASCAR bar logo on them rather than new Cup Series logo — https://t.co/na7Pf86Gmr pic.twitter.com/4I2BCpPW26
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) October 31, 2016
Again, is it the end of the world? No, but Lionel is a big part of the NASCAR universe and the lack of a title sponsor is having an adverse impact on them and that’s unfortunate. The lack of a sponsor announcement is also fueling speculation that NASCAR is having a difficult time getting a sponsor at the price they want or feel is fair.
Of course this is pure speculation and that could possibly not be the case at all. However, if I were negotiating with NASCAR and knew their TV and attendance numbers, I would probably feel pretty confident about getting closer to my number than whatever their number is.
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At the time of this writing there is no timetable for an announcement about a title sponsor. In the meantime, be aware of any diecast cars that you might be looking to pick up early next season.