HELLO DARKNESS MY OLD FRIEND
General
Tim, I no longer have any idea what a Cup sponsorship costs.... way too much. In 1982, when we (Wrangler Jeans) moved Dale Earnhardt from the temporary 1981 Richard Childress situation, $800,000 was our direct sponsorship payment to Bud Moore. We also had parameters to spend $3 on advertising and promotion of the motorsports program for every dollar we spent on direct car sponsorship. Our entire ad budget at Wrangler for 1982 was $17 million. How times have changed. Quite frankly, I don't see how you justify a $30 million racing sponsorship to shareholders. That figure may be reasonable, but it makes me choke. We don't need teams with 300-700 employees. It has ruined racing as we knew and enjoyed it.
