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NASCAR and Senator Go Head to Head Over Funding

Posted 15 months ago|5 comments|887 views
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Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the NASCAR track, along comes a Senator who thinks the government should stop funding them. Unfortunately, there are way too many "good old boys" who seem to disagree with that decision.

It seems that Democratic U.S. Representative Betty McCollum from St. Paul Minnesota has been getting death threats concerning an amendment she introduced. The Senator's amendment would stop the Pentagon from funding $7 million to NASCAR annually for advertising the U.S. Army on various NASCAR races. The Senator believes that in her bill that the money spent on advertising would be better spent in these tough economic on veterans instead.

The threat to Senator McCollum was a flier sent to her office that said "Yo, Slut Betty, Shut Your Phucking Pie Hole! Marxists are enemies of the Constitution, Death To All Marxists, Foreign and Domestic!"

In a time where Congress is being pushed by the American people to stop spending money, someone in the South had the audacity to send a message that they want Congress to continue to fund NASCAR. How do you justify $7 million to have a sticker on the bumper of racecar?

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COMMENTS
Out Of The Box
Out Of The Box
 Moderator
15 months ago: How do you reckon it was someone in the south? Don't they have NASCAR fans in the north and in the west? There isn't really an east. As I recall, NASCAR tracks are in Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, California, Illinois, Quebec, Delaware, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New York. Looks like about a 50/50 shot it was someone from the north.

markbyrn
markbyrn
 Moderator
15 months ago: With the Tea Party screaming about fiscal restraint, you'd think having the Army scrapping a 7 million dollar sponsorship of NASCAR would be a no-brainer. Instead, the suggestion is met with racist hate mail and death threats.

Of course the military has to spend some dollars to recruit but sponsoring professional sports teams is absurd. I can understand the Army sponsoring youth sports programs such as Hoop Stars:

http://www.thesportsflash.com/HOOPSTARS-...
Out Of The Box
Out Of The Box
 Moderator
15 months ago: Markbyrn

I agree. It might be slightly different if the three NASCAR teams were Army personnel based. That is expensive advertising. But when you run a $700 million combined branches annual ad campaign, (not counting recruitment costs), $7 million probably doesn't seem like all that much money. Studies have shown that the current campaigns have increased new recruitment to acceptable levels of cost effectiveness.
markbyrn
markbyrn
 Moderator
15 months ago: Perhaps when you compare 7 million to 7 hundred million, it's taxpayer chump change but I'd like to see the money used effectively and sponsoring professional sports teams is dubious. I'd like to see the Army show the numbers here, especially since the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard all dropped their previous NASCAR team sponsorships. Where are these studies that show otherwise?

Sponsoring a particular team is gambling with taxpayer money; if that team doesn't perform well or has integrity issues, their advertising visibility is severely diminished or tarnished respectively. For example, I noticed how the US Postal Service sponsored Lance Armstrong and the USA cycling team. Considering his poor performance and tarnished image due to stronger allegations of performance enhancing drugs, I think the US Postal service got burned on that one but even if he had done well, what's the point? Are more people going to use the Post Office because of team cycling sponsorships?

General advertising at pro sports events that youth attend is great. Sponsoring youth sports is even better because the participants are likely recruiting material. The point here is for the military is to efficiently their advertising dollars to help meet their recruiting quotas with the best qualified applicants and sponsoring one professional team within a sport doesn't make sense or cents.

Look at another way. What if MLB decided to allow commercial sponsorship of teams with logos on their uniforms, and the Army spent big bucks to sponsor the New York Yankees and they tanked? Even if they didn't, the Boston youth might not want to join the agency that's sponsoring their rivals. The same applies in NASCAR - racing fans typically root for their favorite drivers and the Army shouldn't be playing favorites.
justlogic
justlogic
15 months ago: Television and Internet is the only advertising the military needs, that is where the bulk of the audience is.

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