Just a Thought: Pocono

by Chris Leone, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I do weekly Fantasy Pick'Em columns here at OPR, as well as the occasional opinion and analysis piece. I also provide the IZOD IndyCar Series coverage. For more on that, head to my site, OpenWheelAmerica.com. My Twitter handle is @christopherlion.

August 2, 2009 12:42 pm UTC 7 Comments

This week’s race at Pocono marks the second week of ESPN/ABC‘s Sprint Cup coverage for the year. ESPN is probably the most criticized of NASCAR’s broadcasting partners, with Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, and Tim Brewer often taking a lot of heat.

There are also calls to put Allen Bestwick back in the commentary booth and move Dr. Jerry Punch back down to pit road, “where he belongs.” (That’s in no way a sleight against Dr. Punch; many simply feel that he was one of the best pit reporters in the business, and that he ought to return to the job that made him one of the most well-respected NASCAR broadcasters of the 1990s.)

But I’ve got a different gripe with ESPN’s coverage of the sport.

Here is ESPN’s schedule page for the Sprint Cup Series. Notice that the races go by their actual names in only a few instances. Instead, they often go by “NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at (insert track here) presented by (insert sponsor here).” The Nationwide Series page is the same way.

The Camping World Truck Series page, however, is quite different. In all instances, the races are listed with their official names and presenting sponsors.

Why the discrepancy? ESPN and ABC show Sprint Cup and Nationwide races, but not Camping World races. They don’t care about presenting the names of truck races in a factual manner… but with the other two major series, somebody obviously saw a money-grubbing opportunity to sell more advertising space on the telecast while circumventing the official race sponsors – unless they pony up to ESPN as well.

Robbing the race title sponsors of TV time – one of the most important factors in a company’s decision to pay millions of dollars to sponsor a race – is not just only an instance of questionable ethics on ESPN’s part, it’s also factually incorrect reporting. As a news site, and occasionally a news channel, ESPN has an obligation to present the facts about sporting events, and that includes the name of an event. In ESPN’s eyes, Tony Stewart wouldn’t have won the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, as presented above – he’d have won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Daytona presented by Pennzoil or something. That’s revisionist history, and that’s a problem.

It’d be like calling the Super Bowl broadcast “NFL Football presented by GoDaddy.com,” and preceding to only refer to the event as such on their website. Something sound wrong about that to you?

It’ll also be interesting to see if one of the final 17 races of the Sprint Cup season becomes sponsored by a company that wants to change the race length (e.g. the Shelby 427 at Las Vegas or the Lenox Tools 301 at New Hampshire). How will ESPN handle the lap change – will they reference it in passing on the broadcast without explaining it, or will they entice the race sponsor to pay extra to see its name on TV?

Either way, ESPN’s policy of holding out from race presenting sponsors needs to come to an end. I’m sure that if I paid millions of dollars to become title sponsor of a race, I’d be fuming. Have a little integrity, ESPN. Just a thought.

Enjoy today’s Sunoco Red Cross 500 at Pennsylvania – I mean, today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Pocono presented by Old Spice.

Filed under: NASCAR

Tagged with: ESPN, Just a Thought, Pocono Raceway, Sunoco Red Cross 500

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Comments

7 Responses to “Just a Thought: Pocono”

Marc on August 2nd, 2009 4:12 pm

“one of the most important factors in a company’s decision to pay millions of dollars to sponsor a race – is not just only an instance of questionable ethics on ESPN’s part, it’s also factually incorrect reporting.”

All that assumes each network is being paid by each sponsor for naming rights.

It may be a reasonable assumption to make but it just as easily not be true and you’ve Jumped the Shark about the size of a Great White.
Chris Leone on August 2nd, 2009 7:09 pm

I think you might have misread me – I was referring to the sponsors that pay the track to put their names on the races themselves. Of course sponsors pay ESPN for the naming rights to the telecast, but only sometimes are they the presenting sponsors of the races themselves.

On average, a NASCAR race on FOX drew in 8.5 million viewers this year. On TNT, it was about 5.5 million. Last year on ESPN they had a 5.5 million viewer average, and ABC had about 6 million viewers. A lot of NASCAR tracks only hold around 100,000-200,000 people. Keep that in mind – the amount of viewers that can be reached on television can be exponentially more.

The entire reason companies get involved with the sport is for brand exposure, and television is a huge part of that. According to Sports Business Journal, the average amount of exposure per race is about $46 million. I guess the real question is, does the presenting sponsor of the race deserve a cut of that $46 million without being circumvented by shady telecast procedures? I say yes.

I think of it as akin to if ESPN were to block out all of the Lowe’s logos on Jimmie Johnson’s car just because Lowe’s wouldn’t pay ESPN extra to show them on TV. I’m sure there’d be an outcry then, and I see no difference between this and that.
Eric McClung on August 3rd, 2009 8:11 am

ESPN does have the upcoming races at Michigan, Richmond, California, Talladega, Texas and Homestead listed correctly.

It could just be laziness. ESPN has a page to submit corrections > http://espn.go.com/espn/corrections

This is also good feedback for their ombudsman > http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?id=2826900
Eric McClung on August 3rd, 2009 8:39 am

I looked into this further- ESPN will only post the title sponsor if they buy TV ads from ESPN, otherwise it’s only “presented by…”
Charlie Turner on August 3rd, 2009 10:18 pm

All good stuff you guys.

But I’m wondering where Steve is when it comes to your comment..

“calls to put Allen Bestwick back in the commentary booth and move Dr. Jerry Punch back down to pit road, “where he belongs.”

Steve is no Bestwick fan. But he called for the doctor’s removal On Pit Row last week. I wonder who he’d rather have on the play-by-play?

I’ll take Bestwick.
Chris Leone on August 4th, 2009 7:25 pm

Eric, that’s exactly what I was calling out, specifically in the sixth paragraph. They list those races correctly because the sponsors have bought ad space from ESPN – an extra monetary commitment that they shouldn’t be forced to make just because some executive with the Worldwide Leader in Sports wants a little extra dough.

And Charlie, I’ll take Bestwick too. At least he doesn’t call the moon a planet (god I miss Bill Weber… not).
Bruce Simmons on August 6th, 2009 12:49 pm

ESPN seems to only do things the way they want to do them, and no one is going to tell Mickey Mouse differently. That elite attitude of not adhering to race titles because they haven’t bought ad time on their network seems to throw a big diss at NASCAR, the sponsors and their arrangements.

Where’s NASCAR in all this? Why aren’t they stepping up and making it right. The sponsors pay big bucks for a reason, why make them pay more big bucks just to have the title of race stated properly.

Eesh. My head hurts.

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