subject: North West 200 [print this page] North West 200 North West 200
Hit has been heard this week that Simon Andrews from Ice Valley BMW could miss the north west 200 for the second year in a row. The North West 200, the annual race week festival may miss out on the presence of Andrews after his team (Ice Valley BMW) have been let down by a big sponsor.
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This will be a major blow to Andrews who missed the event in 2010 after a crash in Valencia saw him miss most of the British Superbike race season. So missing the event this year due to financial constraints will upset him and his team massively.
A contact from inside the team commented that the team had secured all of the funding required to cover the next two events but have lost this money at the last possible moment. They also confirmed that without this sponsorship money they may be able to appear at the next two events. This draws attention to the current economic climate and makes you wonder how this will effect motorsport in 2011 and beyond.
Companies are clearly looking at their sponsorship spend and essentially will be critically looking at return on investment. So team may have to look at how they can add more value to potential sponsors, or risk losing their ability to compete. I think that sports have become very used to sponsorship flowing in and may need to look at the product they offer to sponsors. It looks like having the name of the company on the equipment may not be enough for companies in the future.
This could however be a dawn of new sponsorship agreements. If teams can work out a value added strategy that they can put to sponsors it could bring a whole new range of potential sponsors into the arena. And whilst there is a recession going on and many companies are reducing their size and marketing spend. Many companies will be flourishing and this is where the potential for the teams comes.
Whilst this may provide much harder work for teams like I said above it could be a real opportunity to gain new relationships for the future. Then when the traditional sponsors return the sports will be flush with companies which will lead to a better sport in the long term.
Simon Andrews from the team also said he didn't want people to think that they need huge amounts of money from a sponsor to be able to attend meetings. Which again is quite a powerful message to any potential sponsors, now could be a good time to work with other companies and secure some good sponsorship space for a lower amount than a few years ago. I think there needs to be a meeting of strategies and the teams need to work a little harder to gain some interest and companies that are interested in doing some sponsorship need to ask the question "how much do you need" as I'm sure they may be surprised.
So the future whilst instantly looks uncertain for the team could end up well. We hope that they manage to hit the amount they need and can attend both race meetings. Plus if there are any potential sponsors out there now might be the time to step forward.
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