No Need For Speed: Molson Cancels Sponsorship Of Race

With Loss Of Vancouver, Molson Gearing Up For Montreal And Toronto Races

Molson Sports & Entertainment has “pulled the plug” on the Champ Car Molson Indy Vancouver after 15 years, according to the CP. Part of the course will be used for the athletes’ village for the 2010 Olympics, and with “no new location on the horizon,” Molson “couldn’t find enough corporate sponsorship to make the event viable.” Molson Sports & Entertainment President Jo-Ann McArthur: “The bottom line is the business model couldn’t work because of the short-term nature of the future of the event. We talked to a number of business partners over the last few months to try to make it happen.” The Molson Indy events in Montreal and Toronto will still be run in ’05 (CP, 11/19). In Vancouver, Lena Sin reports the race “needed major sponsors –- including the Insurance Corp. of B.C. [ICBC] and B.C. Lottery Corp.” B.C. Lottery spokesperson Greg Walker said that the company “had actually increased its sponsorship for 2005 and was prepared to spend ‘several hundred thousands of dollars’” on the race. But ICBC spokesperson Doug Henderson indicated that his company decided not to sponsor the race “because it didn’t fit with the objective of investing in events that directly help reduce crashes –- road-safety initiatives, for example” (Vancouver PROVINCE, 11/19). Also in Vancouver, Gary Kingston notes “major sponsors like Bell Canada have pulled out in recent years and re-directed their financial commitments to the Olympics and Canadian amateur sports teams” (VANCOUVER SUN, 11/19).