RCR wants AT&T to stay in NASCAR beyond ‘08, NASCAR doesn’t
Quote selected text Published February 4th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Hold the phone. AT&T has not given up on NASCAR, despite its agreement to exit the Sprint Cup Series at the end of the 2008 season, sources told SportsBusiness Journal.
The telecommunications turf war that raged throughout much of 2007 between AT&T and series sponsor Sprint supposedly was settled last September with an agreement — mediated by NASCAR — that allowed AT&T to keep its marks on Jeff Burton’s No. 31 car. In exchange, AT&T agreed to leave Sprint Cup, NASCAR’s top series, after the 2008 season.
But that hasn’t stopped team owner Richard Childress from lobbying NASCAR to keep AT&T in Cup racing, sources say, and Sprint’s continuing financial woes are only adding to the sense that AT&T’s sponsorship might not be dead yet.
Also, AT&T is in the first year of a three-year contract with Richard Childress Racing to sponsor the No. 31 car, and there are no exit provisions or refunds for AT&T in the deal, sources said, which obligates AT&T for the sponsorship fee through the 2010 season. AT&T agreed to the deal last June before the settlement was reached with NASCAR and Sprint in September. The deal between AT&T and Childress did not require NASCAR’s approval.
If it eventually leaves, AT&T has said it will work with Childress to find new sponsorship. AT&T’s annual costs for the sponsorship are believed to be $16 million to $18 million.
RCR officials said they’ve had no formal talks with AT&T about its plans beyond this season and offered no further comment. NASCAR reiterated that the door is not open for AT&T’s return.
“Nothing has changed,” said Ramsey Poston, NASCAR’s managing director of communications. “The fans certainly don’t want to hear any more of this. This is a closed issue. Agreements were made, and we expect all sides to live up to them.”
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Kenneth - ARS Editor wrote:
You sure about that Ramsey??
If AT&T Wants to stay in NASCAR then they can go down to the Nationwide series or the Truck series, or heck even try to get the rights to Sponsor the Truck series.
But the funny thing in this is the fact that if the roles were reversed, AT&T would want Sprint to get out of the series that AT&T sponsors.
the AT&T truck series
hey that has a ring to it
Sprint will probably pull out before it’s 10 years is up because they suck and lost some money last year…
So kicking a good, long time sponsor in AT&T out of the series because of a company that will more than likely make more changes, is insane.
Sprint changing the name of the series is very hypocritical. They don’t want AT&T in the sport because they switched from Cingular… however in the industry they’re in… sometimes change is required.
Sprint should just stop worrying about this.
Lets see…France family vs. Childress. Richard take the hit, but what a shame. It is increasingly harder to aquire sponsorship commitment at this level and NASCAR shows them the door. How many jobs does this have an impact on if the sponsorship is not replaced? Is Brian stepping up to the plate for the families that this could affect? How about the RCR and Jeff Burton fans? Yeah Ramsey, I’m sure NASCAR doesn’t want to hear any more on this, as for the fans…keep it up NASCAR and what you will hear is a deafening silence in the stands.
Greg wrote:
No, it was a provision in the contract stating that they were allowed one name change in the 10 year term.
sprint sucks balls. i saw a thing today while doin research that they lost 109,000 customers while at&t an verizon an all they were gaining numbers in the millions. now what does that say bout nextel?? id laugh if nextel dropped out an at&t took over and let other companies in all except nextel sprint. hahaha. that would be funny. remember when sunoco had problems wit kevin harvicks colors wit the shell penzoil thing? we heard bout that maybe twice then it was done. lol. nextel is gay and nascar is gettin to that point. theyre sealing up their own demise. hahaha it would suck but they bringing it on themselves.
The problem with the Shell/Pennzoil car was that the car was sponsored by Pennzoil which is allowed, but they had the Shell logo on the car bigger then the Pennzoil logo, which with Sunoco as the official fuel is, was not allowed, so RCR had to change the size of the logos.
Winston did the same thing, Busch did the same thing, Craftsman does the same thing, Re/Max does the same thing in ARCA, Powerade did the same thing with the NHRA, etc… Its not a new thing, and it will never disappear, and I can guarantee you that if your company was spending millions of dollars to have your brand out there you would not want a competing brand in that series.