More Videos
- Moon Hopes To Complete Amazing Story
- These Poker Stories Are No Bluff
- Did Matsui Make Contract Money Last Night?
- Adidas Out At UCF After MJ's Son Wears Jordans
- If Yanks Win, Merchandise Will Fly Off Shelves
- Final World Series Games Big Money Makers
- What I Got Wrong About Keflezighi
- Marathon's Headline Win Is Empty
- New Cubs Owner Tom Ricketts Goes One-on-One With "SportsBiz"
- Roger Federer Signs With Chocolate Brand Deal
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Future of Marketing
- Dow Up Over 100 After G20 Stimulus Pledge
- Can Apple Top Microsoft as Most Valuable Tech Firm?
- Oil Tomorrow
- Dow Industrials at New Highs—But Other Indices Lag
- Obama Says Will Raise Currency Issue with China
- Priceline Crushes Profit Forecasts; Shares Jump
- Trial of Ex-Bear Stearns Managers Goes to Jury
- A Year on, China's Stimulus Postpones its Problems
- Why Google is Paying $750 Million for Ad Mob
- Warren Buffett to Sell Stakes In Union Pacific & Norfolk Southern
- Nov. 9: Unusual Volume Leaders
- The Battered Businesses Behind Housing
- Modern Warfare 2's Record-Breaking Launch
- Merck’s Mega-Monday Morning
- Why are Traders Bullish on This Food Company?
- Profiting From Natural Gas: Strategists
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- European Commission Objects to Sun Micro-Oracle Deal
- Obama Says Will Raise Currency Issue with China
- Can Apple Top Microsoft as Most Valuable Tech Firm?
- Buffett to Sell Stakes in Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific
- Cramer: 5 Stocks to Play the Next Bull Run
- Do You Know Your Coca-Cola Myths?
- Electronic Arts Beats Street, Announces 1,500 Job Cuts
- Time Is Here to Look at Overseas Stocks: Bill Gross
- Home Prices Start to Stabilize In the US as Sales Pick Up
Sports Biz
Text Size 
 |
AP Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
The statistics on Earnhardt are scary. In his last 114 real races, Earnhardt has won only twice. That's a winning percentage of 1.75 percent. Anyone else who has that winning percentage in sports isn't even close to marketable.
But Earnhardt still has the juice. How do I know? I was stupid enough to ask that question in November and 85 percent of readers told me that his lack of wins didn't hurt his marketability.
But I do believe his absence from victory lane has hurt NASCAR. Take a look at NASCAR's average television audience below:
YEAR VIEWERS
2004 10.4M
2005 10.7M
2006 7.9M
2007 7.3M
Ratings are down everywhere, so to say in a vacuum that NASCAR viewership is down doesn't really mean much. But last year NASCAR chairman and CEO attributed some of the decline to Earnhardt.
"It would have helped if he would have been competitive," France said last November. "He didn't win an event and he certainly didn't make our playoffs. And that's unhelpful if you're trying to build ratings."
The are several others counting on "Little E." Adidas is a big player. They're making Climacool gear and other merchandise that they will begin selling at Sports Authority stores across the country today.
It will test if fans will buy anything Dale Jr., as none of the adidas stuff has any of the sponsor logos on it.
Then there's the sponsors of course. We'll be keeping a close eye on Amp, the energy drink owned by PepsiCo [PEP
Loading...
()
] . Here's the market share data as of now, according to Beverage Digest:
Energy Drink Market--2007
Monster 28 percent
Red Bull 25 percent
Rockstar 15 percent
Full Throttle 8 percent
Amp 6.5 percent
Amp is in the exact same place it was when it signed Earnhardt in September. So what would be considered a major victory for 2008?
Said Beverage Digest publisher John Sicher: "In a fast growing category like energy drinks, if they gain a point or two (in market share), that's a major accomplishment."
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes