in the article about NASCAR in USA Today. It talks about the mergers going on with team owners to try and stay competitive. I guess the group that owns the Boston Red Sox bought 1/2 of Roush for 62Mil !! Another owner was quoted as saying it would take a new investor 30-40 mil just to start a new team, and that wouldn't necessarily guarantee success. On top of that, TV ratings are still falling. I bring this up because while I really don't think drag racing could, or should, for that matter, be as big as NASCAR, I think there is still an opportunity to be bigger and more profitable to owners and drivers than it currently is. Not sure if this HDP acquisition is THE answer, but now is certainly the time for something to happen. It just blows my mind to read about these numbers in NASCAR, yet drag racers at the pro level continue to scrape together enough to stay out there.
Interesting Numbers... (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Nunz
- Start date
Buddy
Nitro Member
... thats a lot of money to own half of a team... I can't believe it costs that much to start a team... If it is hard to get a few million from a sponsor to be a pro in NHRA, how hard is it to ask for 30 million just to start? I don't understand how they can keep that sport up with that much money being needed...
CJ Curtsinger
CJ Curtsinger
club
Nitro Member
NASCAR is chump change compared to F1 where budgets for a team can run as high as $500 million for 1 year with 700-900 employees. Now that is for a top team, you can do it for less but you run 20th in most if not all the races.
On the food chain for sponsor dollars drag racing is on the low end.
On the food chain for sponsor dollars drag racing is on the low end.
Buddy
Nitro Member
It makes me feel sick that they can spend in one you what a good drag team can spend in 100 years...
CJ Curtsinger
club
Nitro Member
It does boggle the mind with these kind of numbers. Could you imagine a NHRA team with 800 employees and a staff of engineers working full time. TF would be in the mid 3's
I could see the headline now "NHRA reduces Nitro to 2%"
blackbeard
Nitro Member
great post
Buddy
Nitro Member
It could never happen given the current sponsorship/purse situstion. Teams are struggling to make 23 events, and every year someone gets parked. Again, I don't want to see drag racing become NASCAR, but somehow a better formula for sponsor dollars being more available combined with some kind of ceiling on costs needs to be figured out. The catch 22 is that if the floodgates ever open up for drag racing, meaning we see Tide, Target & Cheerios fuel cars, somehow the costs need to not ramp up at the same time, otherwise it will still be a losing proposition. However, if the costs can be contained, and we can attract some more non-automotive sponsorships, than the sport will attract more people willing to invest in starting new teams, because there will be a much better chance to actually MAKE MONEY.
The Counterfeiter
Nitro Member
That 62 million did not buy half of one team - more like twelve teams in three different series and some HUGE marketing agreements. Roush has a very large and very sophisticated division in place that has been very successful in landing major corporations by providing solid information on sponsorship benefits. Toyota reportedly spent $100 million to enter NEXTEL racing - only to be very embaressed. Let's face facts - the salaries of several NASCAR teams marketing departments could fund all of NHRA's fuel teams. NHRA's new owners are probably bringing a knife to a gunfight - JMHO
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