NASCAR evaluating souvenir row

Marcingak said:
I think having one trailer per team instead of per driver makes the most sense.
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Most teams do that nowadays.. Other than maybe 6 or 8 of the top dogs.. I think Jr and DP have two lol.. No seriously.


I enjoy the Souvenir haulers... I'll be sad to see em go.
 
IF underfunded drivers can get their stuff to the track as part of this, then okay. IF this gets ALL of the drivers represented in places like Fontana where not all souvenir haulers go, okay. The part I will miss is hanging with my people. You will never find a Kyle hater in line at the Kyle souvenir hauler.
 
Allenbaba said:
You guys would get sick if you knew all the behind the scenes to this merch trailers (eh, maybe not...you'd probably come to expect as much from NASCAR). The greed is abysmal. NASCAR double dips, sometimes triple dips into sales depending on the track and agreement. Motorsports Authentics and Chase Authentics (basically "companies" that NASCAR holds the puppet strings to) are really your only ticket to the dance if you want to sell at track. The "taxes" (joining the trust, NASCAR's cut and working with a group like MA) make a single trailer's break even point something like $15,000-$20,000 in sales for one weekend. That's BREAK EVEN. The way NASCAR has a strangle hold on licensing and selling at the track, it's just not worth it for teams other than HMS (and Jimmie and Jeff sell less than half of what Jr sells).

I was able to look at multiple years worth of sales trends before last season (we were getting Furniture Row Racing into a trailer for the first time ever) and couldn't believe how far the numbers were dipping. To the point that it made little sense for 75% of the trailers to even be there.

HERE'S THE THING: If NASCAR were to treat track merchandise as nothing more than a customer service to fans, and allow vendors to come in on their terms, and open the doors to a competitive free marketplace (including negotiating their own rights with drivers and teams, and a fair/nominal fee for the NASCAR logo), the merchandising system would thrive. But there's zero chance of that happening. NASCAR will never be in favor of anything that doesn't see NASCAR paid first. I've never seen a company this poorly run. Honestly. I know a lot of people's opinions about how greedy NASCAR is seems like hyperbole - but it's not. It's that awful. And the clock is truly ticking...
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Great insight. Their greed knows no bounds. Unbelievable.

I was wondering why the selection has gotten a bit "cheaper"(quality)... This is probably why...
 
DUN24 said:
Great insight. Their greed knows no bounds. Unbelievable.

I was wondering why the selection has gotten a bit "cheaper"(quality)... This is probably why...
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The quality has gone down for sure. The only justification I would accept for NASCAR's greed would be in maintaining quality for the money. That's gone. Now it's just greed.
 
Allenbaba said:
You guys would get sick if you knew all the behind the scenes to this merch trailers (eh, maybe not...you'd probably come to expect as much from NASCAR). The greed is abysmal. NASCAR double dips, sometimes triple dips into sales depending on the track and agreement. Motorsports Authentics and Chase Authentics (basically "companies" that NASCAR holds the puppet strings to) are really your only ticket to the dance if you want to sell at track. The "taxes" (joining the trust, NASCAR's cut and working with a group like MA) make a single trailer's break even point something like $15,000-$20,000 in sales for one weekend. That's BREAK EVEN. The way NASCAR has a strangle hold on licensing and selling at the track, it's just not worth it for teams other than HMS (and Jimmie and Jeff sell less than half of what Jr sells).

I was able to look at multiple years worth of sales trends before last season (we were getting Furniture Row Racing into a trailer for the first time ever) and couldn't believe how far the numbers were dipping. To the point that it made little sense for 75% of the trailers to even be there.

HERE'S THE THING: If NASCAR were to treat track merchandise as nothing more than a customer service to fans, and allow vendors to come in on their terms, and open the doors to a competitive free marketplace (including negotiating their own rights with drivers and teams, and a fair/nominal fee for the NASCAR logo), the merchandising system would thrive. But there's zero chance of that happening. NASCAR will never be in favor of anything that doesn't see NASCAR paid first. I've never seen a company this poorly run. Honestly. I know a lot of people's opinions about how greedy NASCAR is seems like hyperbole - but it's not. It's that awful. And the clock is truly ticking...
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wonder if teams have threatened online only .....pullin vendor contracts ....etc ....if no better equitable terms ??
ie---big tent.
note--no idea how contracts worded.
 
if souvenirs ever go by-bye, Jr wouldn't be on a top team
 
I doubt his souvenir sale royalties total more than $1 million per year.
 
Marcingak said:
I doubt his souvenir sale royalties total more than $1 million per year.
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i say they do. i remember reading when he was with DEI, and Budweiser, his merchandise sales was over 50 million
 
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wasn't Jr's Michigan batman car the highest selling diecast in nascar...what about 65.00 a diecast.
 
I know a lot of the Forbes article includes endorsements, but Dale Jr has got to make more than a mil in merch sales.
Another article says his driver income is 5 mil and the rest is earnings from endorsements and merchandise.
 
Drivers only get about 10% of merchandise sales. He gets more money from doing endorsements and commercials.
 
Well I hate to hear this is even being considered. When we go to the races, one of our favorite things to do is visiting the trucks, heck, we even like to go through all of them and take pictures of the different haulers and such. It really adds to the experience.
 
i knew a guy that worked for rcca, before it became lionel and he said Jr got the most percentage and also was the hardest to please before he would sign off on any diecast made. not meaning being an a-hole, just wanting the car to be right, said Rusty Wallace was the same way.
 
pudge said:
i say they do. i remember reading when he was with DEI, and Budweiser, his merchandise sales was over 50 million
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seems i remember big E sr was in 30-40 mill range before then. ?
he / rusty were 1st into ownin swag rights . ?
rcr got profit cut too.
 
hawg dawg said:
seems i remember big E sr was in 30-40 mill range before then. ?
he / rusty were 1st into ownin swag rights . ?
rcr got profit cut too.
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i remember Sr talking about sitting in his car before a race, counting how many people were wearing hats and shirts with a 3 on them and that's when he got his merchandise rights.

Teresa turn over Sr's name and rights pretty quick to Jr after he left DEI, which was a surprise to me
 
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pudge said:
i remember Sr talking about sitting in his car before a race, counting how many people were wearing hats and shirts with a 3 on them and that's when he got his merchandise rights.

Teresa turn over Sr's name and right pretty quick to Jr after he left DEI, which was a surprise to me
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i'm thinkin she was push ta get big e into it initially . sig too.
he dang sure didn't learn that in cursive 303 ! ha!
 
pudge said:
i knew a guy that worked for rcca, before it became lionel and he said Jr got the most percentage and also was the hardest to please before he would sign off on any diecast made. not meaning being an a-hole, just wanting the car to be right, said Rusty Wallace was the same way.
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That is freakin' cool to me that a driver would give a ****. I love die cast. WTH that they take so much longer to come to market these days?
 
pudge said:
i remember Sr talking about sitting in his car before a race, counting how many people were wearing hats and shirts with a 3 on them and that's when he got his merchandise rights.

Teresa turn over Sr's name and rights pretty quick to Jr after he left DEI, which was a surprise to me
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I'd prefer that the cash go to the driver. It's their asses.
 
hawg dawg said:
wonder if teams have threatened online only .....pullin vendor contracts ....etc ....if no better equitable terms ??
ie---big tent.
note--no idea how contracts worded.
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They know better they dont want to get railroaded off to Siberia.
 
Nascar will slap the vanilla on the items too. Nascar should go into the neuturing buisness.
 
A lot of good folks make a living off the merchandise trailers, nothing wrong with things the way they are right now. Changing stuff all the time doesnt appeal to me much, Nascar seems to be searching for fans that will never be, LEAVE STUFF ALONE NASCAR
 
BOWTIE GUY said:
why is nascar trying to reverent the wheel? fans like what they know. Looks like the old fans are out they need some thing new.
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Just look at their website, they even made a mess out of that. I have gotten used to round wheels they are all I know and they seem to function fairly well IMO
 
Kyle18fan said:
A lot of good folks make a living off the merchandise trailers, nothing wrong with things the way they are right now. Changing stuff all the time doesnt appeal to me much, Nascar seems to be searching for fans that will never be, LEAVE STUFF ALONE NASCAR
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They're not making money, kylefan, that's why they're discussing changing it. I guess th
 
pudge said:
i remember Sr talking about sitting in his car before a race, counting how many people were wearing hats and shirts with a 3 on them and that's when he got his merchandise rights.

Teresa turn over Sr's name and rights pretty quick to Jr after he left DEI, which was a surprise to me
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nascar +Earnhardt = license to print money. sports illustrated did a story on Dale in the ninety's that he was doing almost a hundred million a year.
 
Kyle18fan said:
They charge a lot of money for their stuff, if they arent making money they need to figure out why and fix it, someones cut is too big
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This....and those people working the trailers are some of the most courteous vendors I have ever encountered. It's like they can tell how jacked I am to be there, and that my purchasing experience is part of it.
 
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pudge said:
i can't see that.
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It is an awful lot of money but auto racing claims at least a few lives every year, driving 200 mph is risky any way you look at it. It does puzzle me that Indy car drivers make so much less then the Nascar guys
 
jws926 said:
I wonder if this is the whole reason this idea is being considered , this is the company that does all the souvenir trailers, and FYI MA’s 50-50 owners, International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Inc
Motorsports Authentics scrambles to avoid bankruptcy
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/Motorsports-Authentics-looks-to-avoid-bankruptcy-122209
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Sure would seem to be so. How does the diecast thing fit into all of this Lionel makes them, but MA is not the sole distributor. You can go straight to Lionel. Thing is.....it's like almost next season these days before you can get stuff.
 
BOWTIE GUY said:
nascar +Earnhardt = license to print money. sports illustrated did a story on Dale in the ninety's that he was doing almost a hundred million a year.
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Wow.
 
Kyle18fan said:
It is an awful lot of money but auto racing claims at least a few lives every year, driving 200 mph is risky any way you look at it. It does puzzle me that Indy car drivers make so much less then the Nascar guys
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Indy cars arent blanketed in sponsors
 
jws926 said:
I wonder if this is the whole reason this idea is being considered , this is the company that does all the souvenir trailers, and FYI MA’s 50-50 owners, International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Inc
Motorsports Authentics scrambles to avoid bankruptcy
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/Motorsports-Authentics-looks-to-avoid-bankruptcy-122209
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good read jws !
sounds like smi / isc bought at tha top....paid way too much .....for soon ta be declining biz model back then.
same folks were adding new seats at their tracks every year back then too.
 
Being a fan of NASCAR since I was 5(27now) I have always enjoyed the souvenir rigs. If they were to go it would be difficult but understandable with profit, being to whomever it goes to, as the importance. I've only been to races in Fontana Vegas Phoenix Sonoma and Texas so I can't speak for all tracks here. I remember when they use to let even private vendors sell items. I enjoyed finding the rare item I missed I few years back(mark Martin) and getting the chance to get it from them. Sure MOST new fans want the current items but TRUE fans/collectors like old things too, ie jr fans want #8 and Kyle fans want #5 items to complete THEIR collections. Let those people back. Here some quick bullet points I think should happen.
1. Bring back independent sellers.
2. Don't have such universal items for all drivers(diversify the shirts/hats/stickers/sweatshirts) this use to be common.
3. Do NOT have just one big tent for all drivers, if going this way break it down per team(JGR/RCR/HMS/PENSKE/SHR)
4. Make ONE tent for items of the lower budget teams too(FRR/GERMAIN/FRM/RPM/JTG/etc)
5. Have one tent available at every cup race that also carries nationwide(til sponsor change) & camping world drivers.
6. Also have one tent that offers past years items at a heavily discounted price based on year. Example, 2013 is 50% off 2012 65% off so on so on. People really do like past items too.
7. Continue to have driver autograph sessions at the tents!!!! This drives sales way up, prime example Robby Gordon. He knew being there made sales heavily increase. This will dramatically have an increase in sales. But make it so they possibly can sign on Saturdays not Sundays and ask the drivers to ALL (jr, Gordon, johnson,etc) for at least hour and half.
8. Also offer a discount or free item if spending over "X" amount. Free things always works.
9. Better rewards system then what is currently offered.

I was trying to think of 10 but couldn't lol. I think if these or some of these things can be done sales will improve especially number 7, heck I've never been a Gordon fan but if he was there signing a hat would be my first purchase.

Go Bad Brad, Happy Harvick & Shy Guy Kasey Kahne(who I named 1st born son after)
 
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pudge said:
if souvenirs ever go by-bye, Jr wouldn't be on a top team
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Driver merchandise will never go bye-bye. nascar gets a cut form the sale of every piece.

This change, if it happens doesn't bother me. It doesn't affect the racing for once so I'm glad for that. I never bought driver merchandise at the track anyway. You can always find it cheaper online. The only merchandise I was ever interested in at the track was track merchandise, like the Martinsville Speedway T-shirts I have or the Charlotte Motor Speedway hat I have.

Driver merchandise will still be sold at the track, so it seems like much to do about nothing to me.
 
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