National Guard's NASCAR deal leads to virtually no recruits

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SpeedPagan

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The Guard received 24,800 recruiting prospects from the program in 2012, documents show. In those cases, potential recruits indicated the NASCAR affiliation prompted them to seek more information about joining. Of that group, only 20 met the Guard's qualifications for entry into the service, and not one of them joined.

In 2013, the number of prospects associated with NASCAR dropped to 7,500, according to briefing materials for the Senate subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight led by McCaskill. The National Guard needs 1 million leads to meet its annual recruiting goal of 50,000 soldiers.
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I guess this is part of the reason why Nationwide will be sponsoring Jr. in 2015 instead of the National Guard?
 
They can still re-sign. National Guard didn't re-sign until October of last year, and I think it was @ToyYoda who mentioned armed forces sponsorships can last only one year at a time.
 
FLRacingFan said:
They can still re-sign. National Guard didn't re-sign until October of last year, and I think it was @ToyYoda who mentioned armed forces sponsorships can last only one year at a time.
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I'm sure they will re-sign. If there's one thing the Military Information Industrial Complex is good at is wasting money. Yes, this is a waste of money seeing how NG's sponsorship of Jr.'s ride isn't yielding any result, or very very insignificant result.

Honestly, I'm kinda surprised Hendrick just doesn't use the money they make from selling Jr.'s merchandise to fund the race team.
 
Military orders toilet paper more expensive than that, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the **** that is wasted.
 
I would expect them to not renew.
"The Army, the Navy, the Marines and the Coast Guard all canceled their sponsorships with NASCAR due to cost, ineffectiveness and difficulty in measuring results,"
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However, this illustrates a much bigger problem for NASCAR. The young people that Sponsors crave have deserted.
 
One of the problems the National Guard has now is - they used to keep you in the U.S. almost exclusively. Now they will send you off to Afghanistan. That's not to say NG guys aren't patriotic by ANY means...but if you want to go overseas you may as well just join one of the other four primary services.

...and as far as length of sponsorship goes...it's a regulation (maybe even a law - not 100% sure) that you can't "forward fund" ...obligating the government for expenditures in future fiscal years. They sort of get around it by doing contracts with option years, but there is always a clause giving the government an "out"...and the money is actually obligated year-to-year. One would think that it is a rule/law that prevents the government from overspending...but we all know better than that :rolleyes:.
 
DUN24 said:
24,800 recruits.... And only 20 met the qualifications to join? That doesn't add up.
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Agreed, but we don't know how they define "prospects".

The Guard received 24,800 recruiting prospects from the program in 2012...

It could be that anybody who gave their name and took one of the pamphlets was counted as a "prospect"...plus, guys on recruiting duty are notorious for inflating their "contacts" and oftentimes they may just be taking names out of the phone book to fill out their monthly reports.
 
Tony1930 said:
Agreed, but we don't know how they define "prospects".

The Guard received 24,800 recruiting prospects from the program in 2012...

It could be that anybody who gave their name and took one of the pamphlets was counted as a "prospect"...plus, guys on recruiting duty are notorious for inflating their "contacts" and oftentimes they may just be taking names out of the phone book to fill out their monthly reports.
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True. Any kid who signed up for a newsletter at any random job fair is on that list probably.
 
Tony1930 said:
One of the problems the National Guard has now is - they used to keep you in the U.S. almost exclusively. Now they will send you off to Afghanistan. That's not to say NG guys aren't patriotic by ANY means...but if you want to go overseas you may as well just join one of the other four primary services.

...and as far as length of sponsorship goes...it's a regulation (maybe even a law - not 100% sure) that you can't "forward fund" ...obligating the government for expenditures in future fiscal years. They sort of get around it by doing contracts with option years, but there is always a clause giving the government an "out"...and the money is actually obligated year-to-year. One would think that it is a rule/law that prevents the government from overspending...but we all know better than that :rolleyes:.
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Got that right, it was full to overflowing with fortunate sons during Nam, little George was one of them. now when called up, there is no date on when you get to come home. Uncle sugar and little George changed all that.
 
drive to end hunger........what's that pay ta hms / yr ?
lotsa meals i bet ?
 
hawg dawg said:
drive to end hunger........what's that pay ta hms / yr ?
lotsa meals i bet ?
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Haha I see what you did there.


All corporate sponsorship in sports is really "a waste of money" if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty. Spend all that money for what? A suite at a few races to entertain clients?
 
Camping World's business doubled since they started sponsoring the truck series.
 
"All corporate sponsorship in sports is really "a waste of money"..."
Not for corporations that take advantage of opportunities, and as long as they sponsor professionals who do everything they can to gain exposure for their sponsors. Bean counters wouldn't allow continued sponsorships if it was a waste of money.
 
24,800 is a good result, it seems to me. The sponsorship got that many there, isn't that success? Does jr need to go be the recruiter as well? Jeez....
 
I know that over the years the military has relaxed their standards but just 20 qualified applicants out of 24,800 just doesn't sound right.
 
hawg dawg said:
drive to end hunger........what's that pay ta hms / yr ?
lotsa meals i bet ?
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I've wondered about this one too. I wonder if HMS is giving AARP some kind of reduced rate on the sponsorship in exchange for claiming some kind of charitable donation for tax purposes.

Like when Michael Waltrip ran the Sandy Hook relief charity at Daytona or whatever race that was, or whenever you see a charity on a race car. The skeptical part of me wonders if these race teams are claiming that putting charities on the cars are "donations" for taxes.
 
KevinWI said:
I've wondered about this one too. I wonder if HMS is giving AARP some kind of reduced rate on the sponsorship in exchange for claiming some kind of charitable donation for tax purposes.

Like when Michael Waltrip ran the Sandy Hook relief charity at Daytona or whatever race that was, or whenever you see a charity on a race car. The skeptical part of me wonders if these race teams are claiming that putting charities on the cars are "donations" for taxes.
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On the other hand , if charities didn't advertise , how would anyone know about them ? We suffer from infomation overload as it is .
 
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