Economics of racing?

[zAr]

I enjoy watching the Vendee Globe, Volvo, etc. races but I'm puzzled by the economics behind the racing.

My understanding is that at the higher levels you have a corporate sponsor for a boat who gets to splash their name and logo across everything, and at lower levels you just have wealthy folk with privately owned boats who just fork over the cash and have crew along for the ride ("Other People's Boat Club").

So far, so good...but apart from a trophy, fame and your name on a list somewhere, what do the winners win? What does the captain and/or crew get? Are they under contracts, similar to other sports, where they get to take home some of the sponsorship money? If so, how much are we talking?

Is there financial reward for coming first in the Vendee Globe?

[smackdaddy]

From what I could see in researching it - there's no cash prize for the VOR. As for other back-end deals...who knows.

[paulk]

The quick answer is that it's not economical. If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it. In Europe, however, they get 40,000 people to go to the start of a race, and the advertisers figure they get their money's worth. News coverage of the boats they're sponsoring goes on for months in Around-The-World races. Getting their names out there is good product placement and must be cheaper than buying TV ads.

[artbyjody]

It is branding and sponsor recognition only. Rarely can one pull a profit from racing but a good team with good sponsors can even out at the end of the day...

[zz4gta]

Boat ownership is what will kill you financially. Crewing on a race boat can make you a little money, anywhere from 50-350 bucks per day. But making a living at it is rarely possible. This is why, in my opinion, that there isn't more top end racing and TV coverage. For the people racing, all that time and money invested leaves you with little more than bragging rights at the end of the day.

Inject serious prize money into the program, and more people will see it and want to do it. Of course you can't offer big prize money, when you only get 40 boats out for a regatta.

[Jeff_H]

Yacht racings is mostly a corinthian sport. We are amatuers doing if for the fun of it. I once sat down with a friend who was a golfer and we compared expenses for the past years vs hours spent doing the sport. Racing sailboats was a bargain.

Jeff

[zz4gta]

Originally Posted by Jeff_H

Yacht racings is mostly a corinthian sport. We are amatuers doing if for the fun of it. I once sat down with a friend who was a golfer and we compared expenses for the past years vs hours spent doing the sport. Racing sailboats was a bargain.

Jeff

A harsh reality is when I realized how much time I spent working on my old race car instead of racing it. My hobie turned into wrench work, instead of driving fast.

[jackdale]

If you want the vicarious experience of racing a sailboat:

Stand in a cold shower and tear up hundred dollar bills.

[smackdaddy]

Look, brand exposure in these sports is enormous. Look at the VOR...it had a cumulative global TV audience of over 2 BILLION! This means that over the 9 months - VOR brands were connected with consumers this many times via television alone. That's freakin' huge.

The question now is - how do you apply a Nascar or F1 model to the VOR or Vendee? The dynamics are very similar.

It's doable.

[xact]

not to mention effective for the major sponsors. If you follow the races think in your head about how many sponsors you can recall.