AT&T suing NASCAR for right to sponsor car

To Sprint/Nextel- The only reason you won't let any other telecom companies sponsor cars is because YOU want to get all of the publicity in the races so people will see YOUR brand. It doesn't matter. You will NEVER catch up to Cingular/at&t in customer totals because Cingular/at&t has about 40 Million more customers. Give it up, and don't be .

To Sunoco- Well, if everyone is going to be about sponsorships, then how about just getting rid of them. Shell, like Cingular/at&t, has a LOT more gas stations then you do. Give it up, don't about it.

 

I am glad they are doing this, I think NASCAR has been going in the wrong direction lately with the sponsor's & are starting to tick off a lot of fans.

Besides these 2 battles, they made Robby Gordon of the 07 team remove the Motorola decal due to a sponsor issue.

What makes this even worst is the contract with Cingular ends at the end of this racing season & they CAN sponsor him in the Bush series next year.
Burton is 3rd in points this year & has won back to back Bush races both last weekend & today.
AT&T I believe wants to get their new name on the car now while he has been running so well & I can't blame them.

I guess Ryan Newman is going to be looking for a sponsor if Alltel sells to another carrier & gets a name change as well.

 

Motorola? They make almost ALL of Nextel's phones and some Sprint phones. Its not like they advertised a carrier's phone...

 

I think it is ridiculous not allowing the name change period. Nascar has always been about sponsorships to support the drivers. It is not like AT&T would be getting top billing for the races. I love the new back at you commercials by AT&T.

 

It's corporate sour grapes and Sprint needs to get over it. I hope they get hit with a huge damage amount in court for not settling this.

 

They must have settled this, since his car had Motorola as the main sponsor.

As for NASCAR, they do need to stop the craziness they have been doing with the sponsors on the cars vs who is sponsoring the race or fuel.

Oh and Congradulation to Burton for a great 4th place finish today & back to # 2 in the points.

 

Eh, Nextel paid serious cash to be the title sponsor. Nascar signed the contract, and the rules were spelled out beforehand.

 

Exactly, the rules don't allow them to have monopolistic control over the sponsors. ATT isn't a new sponsor, it is a name change following a merger/reorg.

BTW: I flipped on the race for a moment and they were showing the Cingular car....they flashed a banner at the bottom with the Cingular, The New ATT logo.

 

Uh, yes, Nextel did pay for a monopoly. They grandfathered the Cingular and Alltel sponsorships. Nowhere did they agree to an AT&T sponsorship. For the amount Nextel paid, they have the right to place limits on sponsorships that compete with them.




Nascar knew the bed they were getting into when Nextel bought the sponsorship rights. If they wanted to avoid these problems, they shouldn't have signed the contract and taken the money. Nextel is just enforcing the contract.

 

I think the point is that the sponsor isn't changing, just their name it's still the same company.

I do understand Nextel paid a fortune for the rights & NASCAR was in a spot at the time since they were forced into getting rid of Winston as their sponsor.

I do think AT&T can win this, because of the fact they are the same company & it's just a name change vs someone else buying out the company & then trying to change the name on the car.

We will see for sure when the ruling gets handed down.

 

Nextel has the right to change the name of the cup to the Sprint cup if they choose...

 

If Nextel was the pre-merger Nextel then they would probably allow the name change. They won't allow it because the tard CEOs at Sprint want to make it hard for Cingular.

 

I agree with you...if the agreement is in place, Nextel (Sprint) has every right to object. This is not about Sprint/Nextel being evil, it is about corporate sponsorship run amock. Anyone that doesn't think if the situation was reversed, and this was the Cingular Cup and a Nextel car was going to be rebranded as a Sprint car, and Cingular wouldn't object is fooling themselves.

I suspect AT&T will come out ok so long as the logos match the size of the Cingular logos on the car and so long as there are not any more logos/names anywhere.

Still, to say that Cingular was "bought out" (as sorta claimed by the AT&T spokesperson) is a bit of a misnomer in this case. SBC/ATT just went from being a 60% owner (i think) to 100%.

Everyone would probably be better off if they just stopped watching NASCAR and tuned in to a real sport...like bowling.

 

I don't know, I guess I am still old school when anyone that wanted to sponsor the car could & would.
There were other cigarette manufactures that sponsored cars when it was the Winston cup, when 76 was the official fuel, other fuel companies were able to sponsor the cars & there was not "The logo is too big" or you can't sponsor them because we sponsor the race talk.

I guess since NASCAR has the largest viewing audience in the country & is one of the biggest advertising media's that these companies use, they are getting to the point of these fights, which in my opinion is sad & will ruin the future for them.

Again I just must be old school & don't understand the problem, especially for a short period of time that the name will be changed (around 7 months)

 

at&t itself is stuck in a contract and wants to break the contract, so they are sueing to get their name changed. Now they know how customers feel when they are stuck in a contract and want to get out.

 

Actually, Cingular's sponsorship contract expires at the end of this season with Richard Childress Racing. They want to be able to renew the contract, except with the at&t name instead of the Cingular name. I think they will win this since it is essentially the same company, just different name.

 

It does sound like AT&T tried to do this in a small way & not as bold as changing the entire car. Also in this article is about Shell & Motorola & what had to be done.


NASCAR, teams rubbing fenders in bid for sponsors

From headache medicine to spaghetti sauce, NASCAR counts 68 brands among its "Family of Sponsors" and it is protective of those relatives — especially Nextel, which serves as the title sponsor of the Cup series.
Just reach out and touch AT&T.

The telecommunications giant filed a lawsuit against NASCAR last week after attempts to broker a deal to modify the paint scheme of the car it sponsors in Nextel Cup failed.


Meanwhile, Motorola and Shell-Pennzoil were forced to alter their logos to conform to NASCAR's contracts with Nextel and Sunoco, respectively.

"If the perception emerges that sponsoring NASCAR is too cumbersome to navigate and, in fact, could include litigation, its pristine image in the eyes of corporate partners may be compromised," said David Carter, executive director of the USC's Sports Business Institute.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta claims that NASCAR is causing "substantial and irreparable" harm to AT&T, which claims to have spent $100 million since entering NASCAR in 2001. The No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driven by Jeff Burton currently carries a paint scheme for Cingular, a wireless brand AT&T is phasing out since the completion of a merger with BellSouth.

AT&T submitted a mock-up of the paint scheme in January that kept the car's orange paint scheme and Cingular's logo on the hood. The only AT&T branding was its trademark blue and white globe on the quarter panels.

But NASCAR rejected the design.

Nextel, which has since merged with Sprint, replaced Winston cigarettes as the title sponsor of the Cup series in 2004. Cingular and Alltel, sponsor of the Penske Racing South No. 12 Dodge driven by Ryan Newman, were grandfathered in at that point. AT&T claims that grandfather clause allows it to switch the brand on the No. 31 car.

While it can't display AT&T branding on the track, it can on the airwaves. AT&T has advertised heavily this season on Fox, trying to get the word out that Cingular is morphing into AT&T.

"Our agreement with Fox gave us a great opportunity to explain our brand transition to the NASCAR audience with none of the restrictions placed upon us by NASCAR," AT&T spokesman Clay Owen said. "We identified that opportunity early, and have done our best to take advantage of it."

NASCAR Vice President Jim Hunter wouldn't comment on the lawsuit, although he said the sponsorship landscape has "become more complex" as the popularity of the sport has risen in recent years.

"Actually, I think it speaks well of the sport that so many companies want to participate," Hunter said.

NASCAR came down on Shell-Pennzoil after RCR driver Kevin Harvick won the Daytona 500 last month. The size of the Shell logo was reduced on everything from the car to its hauler.

"We believe that we are all working toward the same goal, success for the sport," Shell said in a release. "We are working hard to promote the Shell and Pennzoil brands while at the same time working within the parameters originally set by NASCAR. There is room for everyone as long as we respect one another's right to participate."

Motorola had to tout its MP3 players — not its cellphones — on Robby Gordon Motorsports' No. 7 entry last weekend in Atlanta so it didn't violate NASCAR's contract with Nextel. That deal gives the wireless carrier "category exclusivity" for both service and handsets.

"I disagree that they're competitors and think of them more as partners," said Gordon, who then pointed to a Nextel magazine ad showcasing a Motorola phone. "I also want to say I appreciate Nextel being a sponsor because we have a good prize money fund here. There are some great things they do marketing-wise to promote the sport."

Gordon was allowed to keep his Busch Series car, sponsored by Verizon Wireless, unchanged.

RCR's contract with AT&T expires at season's end, but Owen said the company wants to be part of NASCAR well into the future — as long as it is as AT&T.

"I think we can come to a reasonable solution," Hunter said.


Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor/nascar/2007-03-19-sponsorship_N.htm

 

To AT&t WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA get over it!! Makes no sense to me...Didnt Cingular used to be AT&T anyway? What was the point of changing from AT&T to Cingular and back to AT&T? NO sense to but oh well

 

Cingular bought the AT&T Wireless, and then SBC bought AT&T, changed it's name to at&t, and then bought Bellsouth. SBC (at&t) owned 60% of Cingular and Bellsouth owned 40%.

 

This is what you get when you put a bunch of rednecks incharge of something. How stupid can NASCAR get? They call Motorola a competitor to Nextel, while Motorola makes 99% of Nextel's phones? They need to lay off the booze.....

 

Cingular was never AT&T. They were two separate entities. It's a long complicated story but if you look up in Wikipedia you can understand what happened and see that it makes a lot of sense.

 

You can also search for the clip from the Colbert Report.

Well, that might not explain anything, but it is funny.

 

Actually I think the problem is they are not run by a bunch of rednecks, they wouldn't have minded. Now it is such a big business that it's not like the old days, heck 1 reason Tony Stewart is so liked is he still races old school.

 

The Motorola logo and sponsorship were allowed because Motorola makes a product that is not cellular related. An MP3 player, so it was the MP3 player that sponsored Robby Gordon's car not any body's RAZR or Q. Like it makes a difference.....grow up Bill France. At this rate you are going to end up like Gary Forsee and Sprint Nextel.....a huge mega company in the fast track to the bottom. With you both being blissfully blind all the way to the huge splat at the bottom.

 

I hear you. Harry Gant and the Skoal Bandit will go down in history as the coolest car of all time.

 

What is NASCAR?










































I keed :lmao:

 

AT&T asks for injunction in Cingular car case

AT&T Inc. has run into a bump in the road in trying to replace the Cingular logo with its blue globe on the Cingular No. 31 race car.

The San Antonio, Texas-based telecommunications giant (NYSE: T - News) said it has filed for an injunction against NASCAR so it can quickly modify the paint scheme of the No. 31 car, which has been sponsored by Atlanta-based Cingular since 2001 and is driven by veteran Jeff Burton. Cingular is in the process of rebranding itself as AT&T following AT&T's $85 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. in late 2006.


NASCAR has turned down a plan to change the paint scheme to introduce the AT&T globe on the car, and AT&T filed suit against NASCAR in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on March 16.

AT&T alleges NASCAR violated its rights to sponsor the car, noting grandfather clauses in the NASCAR agreements that were designed to protect its rights after Nextel assumed became title sponsor in 2003.

"We must bring this issue to resolution," said John Burbank, AT&T vice president of marketing. "The season is well under way and so are our rebranding efforts. This filing is a logical next step for us in the process, and it is one we must pursue so that we can simply move forward with our paint scheme -- something our relationship with NASCAR allows us to do."