Ahead of Sprint stepping down as NASCAR’s Cup Series title sponsor next year, track operators are preparing for a shift in their video board model, which has long been offset by the sport’s naming-rights partner.
When Nextel came into the sport in 2004, it — and its eventual purchaser Sprint — continued a program first started by its predecessor, Winston, to bring a screen from track to track to enhance the fan viewing experience. That led to the development of Sprint Vision, which shows content such as race action, interviews and promotions on video boards around the track. The expenditure costs Sprint in the seven figures annually and the system is used at 31 points races on NASCAR’s schedule.
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Sprint pays for a video system used at most of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup races.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Sprint Vision is a trackside asset, despite the fact that the title sponsors of it have all been the series’ title sponsors. But given how much has changed in the ways sponsors deliver their messages since 2004, and the notion that the new title sponsor may not be interested in those rights, tracks got the green light from NASCAR to get a jump-start on selling the inventory.
International Speedway Corp., for example, hit the market in recent weeks to try to find a new partner.
“It’s collaboration — I think [NASCAR executives] know what an asset [Sprint Vision] is for them, obviously, but for us, what a guest-experience piece this is,” said Chris Schwartz, managing director of broadcast and integrated marketing of ISC, which owns 12 tracks that host a combined 19 Cup Series points races each year. “I think they’ve arrived at a place where they’ve said, ‘These promoters, they’ve got to run their business, too, so we’ve got to give them every opportunity to address the revenue loss and expense that goes with this.’ When you look at Sprint’s departure, it has that direct impact on it.”
NASCAR declined to comment.
ISC is asking seven figures annually for video board naming rights across its properties. Schwartz said that given the dearth of open inventory at ISC tracks that would be considered prime territory, the opening presents a unique opportunity that could be alluring to brands.
“We always get questions from partners, ‘Hey, we want TV-visible signage,’” he said. “Well, in a lot of places, that’s sold out or they don’t have it. So this becomes a real opportunity.”
As part of the current arrangement, NASCAR Productions produces Sprint Vision, and the telecommunications carrier brings a screen attached to a multipurpose hauler to every race. Tracks are responsible for the cost of bringing in any other temporary screens, or building permanent ones.
With that, ISC and fellow track operator Speedway Motorsports Inc. have taken different approaches. While ISC is focused on a strategy of using mostly temporary screens moving forward, SMI has built permanent — and very large — screens at multiple venues, including Bristol Motor Speedway’s new center-hung video board, which is named Colossus TV and cost roughly $6 million.
The three tracks that don’t use Sprint Vision are SMI-owned Texas Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, plus independently owned Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Texas and Charlotte tracks have their own production teams, while Indianapolis works with IMS Productions. Bristol’s Colossus TV has its own production team, too, but is using Sprint Vision for the remainder of this year before moving to its in-house team in 2017.
Schwartz said ISC will continue to work with NASCAR Productions after this year.
SMI will look at continuing to work with NASCAR Productions after this year at five of its eight venues, with the three not participating being Charlotte, Texas and Bristol.
“We’re very pleased with what NASCAR Productions has done at our tracks,” said Mike Burch, SMI’s senior vice president of national sales and marketing. “We plan to talk to them about what the relationship is going to look like going forward at the facilities we have available.”
ISC’s internal data has shown that 70 percent of fans consider video board content to be very or extremely important. To that point, Sprint says it has benefited from sponsoring the Vision program, despite the difficulties in measuring consumption.
“Sprint Vision has evolved significantly in its time … and because it is a flexible platform, we were able to adjust it year over year,” said Kimberly Meesters, Sprint’s general manager of NASCAR Sprint Cup sponsorship. “The product has delivered for us in varying ways. Originally, it was just a fan amenity and we simply wanted the fans to know we brought the service to them. Over time, we started using it as another way to deliver our priority messages or interact with the audience directly.”
