Toyota’s impending move of its U.S. headquarters from California to Texas won’t affect its long-running title sponsorship deal with the Grand Prix of Long Beach, as the two groups recently reached a multiyear extension.
The deal, set to be announced this week, extends a title sponsorship that began in 1980, continuing one of the longest-running title sponsorships in sports. Toyota has been involved in some capacity for every year of the race’s running, dating to 1975.
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The title sponsorship extension between Toyota and the Grand Prix of Long Beach continues a deal dating to 1980.
Photo by: JOHN BOSMA
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The precise length of the multiyear deal is not being disclosed, according to Jim Michaelian, president and CEO of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach. Michaelian declined to disclose financial details, but a source valued the deal at between $1 million and $1.5 million annually.
Toyota’s side of the deal is represented by Toyota Motor Sales USA and the Southern California Toyota Dealers Association.
Toyota, which is moving the vast majority of its U.S.-based
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Photo by: SCOTT & SUE GRASSO
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headquarters from Torrance, Calif. — near Long Beach — to Plano, Texas, will continue to receive assets including signage, hospitality and activation space. It also will continue to provide the cars for the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, an ancillary event held during the weekend that features celebrities racing FR-S models from Toyota brand Scion.
The company’s extension comes despite the absence of Toyota from the Verizon IndyCar Series, of which the Grand Prix of Long Beach is a part. Chevrolet and Honda are the series’ sole manufacturers.
Denise Morrissey, Toyota Motor Sales’ marketing communications manager of motorsports and engagement, said Toyota still anticipates numerous benefits from the partnership because it gives local dealers an asset to leverage and holds a large hospitality gathering during the event. Southern California is one of the company’s key sales markets.
“It’s one of the most popular, dynamic events in Southern California — and it’s a well-known street race, one of the only street races,” Morrissey said. “More significantly, it’s in Toyota’s backyard.”
The dealers’ association has seen benefits through offering special deals associated with the event. For example, last year the association’s dealerships ran a program in which drivers who brought their cars in for service costing about $80 got two race tickets valued at $235. That promotion drew significant redemption numbers, Michaelian said.
The race, which has seen big three-day crowds in recent years, including 181,000 last year, benefits from having “date equity,” Michaelian said. The event has been held in April every year since the 1970s.
The importance of consistency can be seen in the fallout over IndyCar’s decision to drop Auto Club Speedway from the 2016 schedule after the constantly changing race date in recent years led to small fan turnouts.
Michaelian, who has been with the event since its formation, takes particular pride in the fact that the association has continued despite at least seven to eight executive-leadership changes at Toyota over the duration of the deal.
“To see it go from one management team to the next to the next to the next, and for them to still recognize the value of this partnership with this event and this city,” Michaelian said, “I think it says a lot.”
