I was at the races last week and realized that the NASCAR is one of the most popular sporting events. I had never been to race before but was given tickets to a NEXTEL Cup race in New Hampshire last week.
Three things struck me:
1) The tickets were more than $100 Each
I had never realized that going to the races was so expensive. In addition to purchasing tickets fans also have to pay for meals, lodging and travel costs.
2) There were a lot of people there… I mean a real lot of people.
One of my friends that follows NASCAR said most races have 100's of Thousands of people in attendance… and some of the major events have over 1 million fans at the race.
3) The fans have a lot of gadgets
Radios, Scanners, Cell Phones, PDA's, Handheld TV's & Laptops… these people are "wired"…or maybe I should say "wired-less".
Put those three things together and you have a lot of people with a significant amount of disposable income that can be easily reached….and that is just the people at the race (never mind the people watching on TV or following the race results in various sports websites).
Not only is this potentially a good niche market… but since fans know drivers by their sponsor as much as by their name or number… then this also provides a great advertising opportunity.
Now I realize that sponsoring a NEXTEL Cup racecar is well beyond the budget of most websites, but there are a whole group of local & regional racing series. A website could easily sponsor one of those cars, build immediate brand recognition and connect with this fastest growing segment of sporting fans.
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