| 22 June 2007
In normal sports, supporting your team in pretty straight forward. You buy their shirts, hats, beer cozies, and underwear. The chances of any of that changing save a move to a different city is slim to none. The only time this occurred in recent memory was when the Oilers moved to Tennessee for a year or two until they changed to the Titans.
Things are different in NASCAR. Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently announced a team changed, and it’s still not clear if he will be switching numbers and/or sponsors. This is a little more important that you’d think (or care to think).
Little E’s pull in the $500 million NASCAR merchandise industry is around 30%, or $150 million. And that’s when 90% of fans already own a bunch of his crap. Now, with a new team and number, the industry could experience quite a surge.
Imagine if you will, you favorite football team switched everything about their team: the logo, the name, and the colors. Let’s say the Steelers suddenly became the 49ers one day. Now, you have a ton of useless Steeler stuff. You can’t wear it and be nostalgic, because you’ll be supporting the team now playing in San Francisco!
So now there’s going to be a ton of support out there for Johnny Noname driving the number 8 Budweiser car. People will need to replace flags, window stickers, their babies’ onsie, everything. And NASCAR will be laughing all the way to the bank, assuming they don’t already do that every Sunday.
Things are different in NASCAR. Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently announced a team changed, and it’s still not clear if he will be switching numbers and/or sponsors. This is a little more important that you’d think (or care to think).
Little E’s pull in the $500 million NASCAR merchandise industry is around 30%, or $150 million. And that’s when 90% of fans already own a bunch of his crap. Now, with a new team and number, the industry could experience quite a surge.
Imagine if you will, you favorite football team switched everything about their team: the logo, the name, and the colors. Let’s say the Steelers suddenly became the 49ers one day. Now, you have a ton of useless Steeler stuff. You can’t wear it and be nostalgic, because you’ll be supporting the team now playing in San Francisco!
So now there’s going to be a ton of support out there for Johnny Noname driving the number 8 Budweiser car. People will need to replace flags, window stickers, their babies’ onsie, everything. And NASCAR will be laughing all the way to the bank, assuming they don’t already do that every Sunday.
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