Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR
Monday’s news that Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers has apparently been unable to come to terms with Speedway Motorsports Inc., to retain the title name for Lowe’s Motor Speedway saddens me.
I’m not a big fan of racetracks, sports arenas or stadiums named after companies or those that sell “naming rights” to companies that can plaster their name and logo all over the facility.
But for the last 11 years, what we used to simply call Charlotte Motor Speedway, its new corporate name actually grew on me and I liked it.
How often would we call the 1.5-mile track in Concord, N.C., simply “Lowe’s” or “LMS”? It got to the point that some people believed the facility has always been known as Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
And while reports claim that negotiations are still continuing, SMI chairman and feisty octogenarian Bruton Smith told the Associated Press on Monday that there’s little hope and that the track will revert to its former name of Charlotte Motor Speedway for 2010.
Some reports indicate that SMI allegedly wanted $9 million per year, a huge jump from the former $35 million, 10-year agreement forged in 1998 that brought us a newly renamed facility that proudly carried the Lowe’s name, logo and reputation for doing things the right way.
Some of those same reports indicated that the $9 million per year figure was nothing more than a starting off point, that SMI was reportedly willing to go downward in price (while Lowe’s supposedly was willing to go up in price somewhat, as well), and that SMI and Lowe’s continued to try and reach a mid-point that was agreeable to both sides.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that will happen.
Another concern is what will Lowe’s do with Jimmie Johnson, who reportedly has the home improvement giant as his chief sponsor for one more season, through 2010.
But what about after that? Johnson has given Lowe’s Sprint Cup championships the last three years, which is one more than Tony Stewart earned for the rival Home Depot home improvement chain in 2002 and 2005.
Given how much publicity and notoriety Johnson’s on-track exploits have brought Lowe’s, it’s a good bet that Hendrick Motorsports is going to want a huge increase in the reported $20 million-plus per year sponsorship it gets from Lowe’s.
Maybe Lowe’s needs to save the money it would give to SMI so that it’ll be able to redistribute that money to HMS to keep Johnson wearing its colors and logo.
Like I said earlier, I’m really saddened that Lowe’s may no longer have naming rights to what is a great racetrack in suburban Charlotte.
In my mind, SMI is foolish to let Lowe’s and its wallet walk away. Certainly, several million dollars – while not necessarily the $9 million SMI reportedly wanted – is better than zero dollars. That’s pretty bad business in my mind, particularly when Smith is acknowledged as a business whiz in the sport.
Or maybe Smith is doing what he does best: posturing and threatening to get what he wants, much like he did with the city of Concord when it came time to build his multi-million dollar dragstrip last year. If Concord wasn’t willing to give Smith what he wanted, he called the city fathers’ bluff that he’d move away from LMS and Concord. It didn’t take long for those same city fathers to cave in and give Bruton what he wanted in the first place.
And Bruton typically gets what Bruton wants. That’s one of the advantages of being a billionaire.
But getting back to no longer referring to the place as Lowe’s Motor Speedway after this season, I don’t know about you, but Charlotte Motor Speedway just isn’t going to have the same ring to it compared to what we’ve called the place the last 11 years.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08/03 at 08:25 PMBruton will be Bruton.
Like most millionaire / billionaire types, if you don’t want to play by his rules, he takes his stick and ball and goes home. My guess, Lowe’s will not come back as the named sponsor for the track because Lowe’s will not “cave” to what Bruton wants.
I don’t know, maybe Bruton has another possible sponsor waiting in the wings, and is just trying a power play to see where it goes.
The value of NASCAR is declining. Corporate sponsors aren’t going to spend big $. The fans aren’t spending the $ either.
Maybe it’s a good thing. If NASCAR and the track owners aren’t paying so much attention to making corporate sponsors happy, maybe they will pay more attention to the fans. What a concept.
Bring back the World 600!
Matthew Mark
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