One word explains why NASCAR shifted the sponsorship of its Winston Cup series to Nextel: Television.
"Nextel can advertise on TV," explained Mark Dyer, vice president of licensing and consumer products for the Daytona Beach stock car racing circuit. "The growth of every major national professional sport has been tied to television coverage. Given the ever-tightening restrictions and marketing budgets confronting tobacco companies, we had to part company with R.J. Reynolds and Winston."
Dyer offered more on the 10-year, $700-million deal at a symposium staged last week by the University of Florida David A. Miller Center for Retailing and Research.
"Nextel is national," Dyer said. "It has a database of more than 9-million wireless customers. It links us to a high-tech company, which we hope will connect us to younger generations."
Not that Winston Cup languished. Among sports, TV ratings for the 36-race series last year were second only to the National Football League.
The two other big suitors for the sponsorship were Visa International and Eastman Kodak Co.
NASCAR walks a tightrope with TV networks that want a national audience. That means more races in places such as California and less emphasis on the Carolinas.
About 38 percent of NASCAR fans live in the South, home to 35 percent of U.S. population. But the West, which houses 21 percent of the population, provides only 19 percent of the NASCAR fan base. It's the only region of the country left where NASCAR's fan base lags the region's share of the U.S. population.
The most pressure for a bigger NASCAR presence is in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado. NASCAR sanctions races in upstate New York, but struck out getting closer to New York City.
"That's why people in New York City just don't get NASCAR as much as the rest of the country," Dyer said.
