Side-By-Side Advertising

I posted this on the TrackForum.com site earlier. It was in response to a poster calling for everyone to get a hold of ABC, ESPN and the IRL to keep the side-by-side and in-car coverage going on the IRL broadcasts:I really did enjoy both the side-by-side coverage and the all in-car coverage on the ESPN's.But let me play devil's advocate for a second. Advertisers are essential the growth of the league. Let's face it, the IRL ain't surviving on the gate alone. Right now, in my estimation the league and yes, even Indy, have a purse problem as in it is too low. The more advertising dollars, sponsor dollars and television money thrown at the league helps increase the purses.Last month's Daytona 500 had a purse of > $17 million. Indy last year was just over $10 million. While people can debate the importance of Daytona v. Indy in today's terms, there really is no argument that the tradition and overall importance is all Indy's.Last year it was said that TG raided the pot to help finance the efforts of some teams to bring the field number up to 33. Be that as it may, the purse for Indy is not high enough. With today's costs it seems like a top 5 finish is needed to cover your expenses, especially when talking about the one off efforts that always show up in May. Basically it tells me it is simply too expensive to throw good money after a long shot. Granted, if TG is going to subsidize the effort costs go down.But all of that aside and back to the advertisers. These are league and team sponsors and other entities who feel their product is best promoted on televised sporting events in general and IRL races in particular.If you give the race fan what they want there would be no commercials on both stations with one doing all in-car. But ABC has to sell that commercial time to cover their contract to the league and their shareholders.It just seems to me that the advertisers are going to watch the race and they will realize how little people will actually see their product advertised. When they figure that out, and it won't take long, Madison Ave. has all the angles covered, how long will they continue to put money into the IRL? In my opinion they would honor their contracts then bail leaving less money for contracts and purses leading closer to the drain.Like I said, I loved the ESPN's coverage two weeks ago and want it from now on, but my guess is that there is a reason this hasn't been done full-time in the past and that reason is the advertisers.I love the product the IRL puts on the track and can not for the life of me figure out why more companies don't want to be involved on a driver or team basis, but it seems to me that the TV ads are as crucial to the IRL right now as they are likely to ever be. This league is going to stand strong some day soon or fail in that same time period, but it can not continue to plug along with paltry TV ratings and lousy attendance much longer.