‘Class of 2007′ Welcomed to Future Stars Academy
Written by John Davison · January 22, 2007
Who needs reality shows
Comments
2 Responses to “‘Class of 2007′ Welcomed to Future Stars Academy”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This one of those really great programs that comes along too infrequently.
I keep thinking how different my own life might have been if these opportunities had been available forty years ago (!).
Thanks for posting. I hope some kid, or parent, reads it and realizes a dream.
Allan
Learning PR skills and how to present to sponsors doesn’t even include half of what it takes to draw in a sponsor. It seems that most of these kids are in their teens, which means about 90% of the companies they pitch to won’t give them the time of day. And the 10% who do wouldn’t ever take a serious marketing pitch from a teen.
Luckily, many of these drivers won’t be making their own pitches. If they have the funds to take part in legends, ASA and other late model series, they can easily afford a marketing firm to acquire funding for them.
But I think it comes down to one thing that many people fail to remember - and I know I did as well. If you owned a business, would a $55,000 sponsorship investment in a 14 year old kid make sense? I think it could if the kid had a press following like Joey Lagono, Chase Austin, etc. But this isn’t the case for most kids, including the ones mentioned above.
Modern day auto racing has sunken to this level: if you’re not rich, you look for sponsorship. And it’s not just young people we’re talking about. Morgan Shepherd, Kirk Shelmerdine, Buddy Rice, Ryan Hunter-Reay, etc. all need funding. And I can guarantee you that their managers/PR coordinators are in this rat race too.
What many racers fail to realize is that sponsorship is not your only asset. I think if a driver wants to race bad enough, he’ll look at every possible business venture to acquire funds. I’m not trying to bash sponsorship, but the ROI is not there at these low levels.