Tokyo,
Well those TV ratings numbers are something to consider in that case. I wonder if there could be some explanation besides, "NASCAR is losing popularity" or "has ended it's growth phase", respectfully I believe there is proabably a viable explanation, but that's purely my guess. FWIW I think all of TV suffers from the internet robbing it of viewers. Football has been said to have had similar ratings fall off's.
I'm not sure what to make of the Small Soldiers promotion if it did in fact fall through in some regard. I do know for a fact that they sold Small Soldier merchandies. So I'm not sure which promotion was cancelled.
As for the Daytona 500, yes unfortunately Florida caught fire and the race was rescheduled. I find it hard to hold Action responsible for that. Once again this is a one time occurance, at least lets hope so. Although races do suffer from inclement weather, since they cannot race in the rain. Often this means a return date and I would view it as positive for Action since they still have the trailers setup and selling merchandise, during any rained out event, then upon it's reschedule they sell more merchandise when the fans return a second time. When possible the race is run on Monday, but there have been times when the race was rescheduled to a later date setting up this double dip scenario for the merchandise trailers.
You are defiantely wrong about Daytona in October. It will be run under the lights, during prime time. Sure it will have college and other sports in competition, but it won't have the holiday weekend in competition, I see it as a net 0 and maybe a boost to the viewing audience. But Action is selling at the track. I don't see how the TV situation realy impacts them, aside from our previously discussed popularity meter. One thing to consider is that Action never advertises on TV anyway, other than direct marketing on QVC which is always a big hit.
Another promotion you may wish to consider is the Batman and Joker cars driven by Dale Jarrett and Kenny Irwin Jr. in October at the Charlotte race. Dale Jarrett is another enormously popular driver. I already have both die casts, they are very cool.
We could also speculate on Alex Zenardi and his new F1 ride announced yesterday. An immensly popular driver moving into the world premier racing division. Lets hope Actions recent European aquisition inks him to a contract. F1 is followed world wide and to the dismay of many a pure NASCAR fan, is simply the biggest form of racing in the world. Followed on every continent. Wouldn't you agree that Action is now a global company?
Scott |
