Yet Another Merger Making Big News In Racing
Due to tough economic times for both teams, Chip Ganassi Racing and Dale Earnhardt Incorporated have decided to merge for the upcoming 2009 season. Both are having sponsorship troubles.
What came to much surprise was that Dodge Motorsports was a key supporter for the merge. Many thought since there are two years left on Ganassi’s deal with Dodge that problems would most likely surface since both teams would have to come to a common ground on several different things when it comes to contract issues. I personally thought this would lead to much speculation since the economic times have come around to affect everyone and anyone in some sort of way. However, rare support has come from Mike Delahanty, the senior manager of Dodge Motorsports.
“Number one, we want all of our business partners to be healthy like we want to be healthy,” said Delahanty. “Under these unprecedented times there are business solutions that no one ever thought possible.” (ESPN.com)
I believe that sponsorship trouble with Ganassi might have to do with Dario Franchitti’s NASCAR meltdown last year. As race fans, we know that performance and sponsorship come hand-in-hand. With that said, I think the problems they had last year with Franchitti’s performance caused them financial problems that are starting to linger outside of last season.
I think this is something we are going to see more of due to the economic crisis in this country. This is because the number one goal of all these different sports leagues, NASCAR, IRL, NFL, NBA and etc is to make money. It accounts for all those involved from the executives to the athletes themselves.
With racing being a small market compared to other sports, I believe finanacial trouble is going to merge racing from a Florida freeway to a narrow dirt road somewhere on the North Carolina countryside. Hopefully it’s later rather than sooner.
