It seems like a great solution to a growing need - Sponsoring the financial needs of Sports Travel Teams. With all the emphasis on sports and competitive conditions, being on a travel sport team includes a great amount of driving in cars, SUVs and mini-vans. Where do we get these vehicles - Automotive dealers. Who is most likely to benefit monetarily more and more from these activities - Automotive dealers. Who markets their product through advertising more than most industries - Automotive dealers. This would be a win-win situation for all parties involved.
My friend Martha told me she just returned on a round trip from Cleveland to Indiana to transport and watch her daughter play in a basketball tournament only to leave when she returned, for another daughter's tournament in Columbus - another travel event. This is not so unusual. I have 2 children in travel sports teams too! Often many vehicles are necessary for the equipment, changes of clothes, coolers, first aid and lest we forget, food and snacks, and that's just for the fans. Did I mention folding chairs? Many, many miles are put on vehicles just for this commitment.
Let's do the math. A family leases a vehicle with the 12,000-mile limit with an option to purchase more mileage if needed. Figuring 2 children playing a several sports a year, participating in regular games, tournaments, etc. about 5,500 miles a year of the 12,000-mile lease is consumed by this activity. At this rate, a leased vehicle is being driven about half of its annual miles for these activities.
While some Automotive dealers may already be involved with community programs, let's see the big names not just on our front grills, back trunk or license plate bracket, but how about seeing them as patrons of our parks, our equipment and uniforms required to keep these activities at a high level. Automotive dealers can play a vital part in serving our youth through altruistic donations while advertising their product with a potentially great dollar return. If small local businesses can sponsor youth athletics, why not the Toyotas and the Hondas, the BMWs, Ford, Chrysler, and GM.
I asked my new friend Joe, a truly professional automotive salesman, that the brand his company represented, announced a profit of 45.5 billion dollars (that's a lot of yen) last year, why he couldn't cut me a better deal. His response was that they make that kind of profit because they sell a lot of (good) cars. Precisely my point. They sell a lot of cars to people who also support travel sports and who are using those annual lease miles for that purpose.
The way I see it, if there were no travel teams, people would be buying cars half as often and the brand manufacturers may not be making so much profit - and then I'd get a better deal. Sounds pretty logical to me.
On another point, advertising using these competitive teams will provide additional visibility to spectators as well as the subliminal residual value to whole new generation - one who no doubt will be driving their kids to games too! I could already imagine my son's dugout finished in Honda's “Eternal Blue Pearl” or maybe a scoreboard featuring the instrument lighted panel of the Grand Am. Yeh…Gee, this is getting fun. You try it! Bleachers with BMW bucket seats.
How about donating a vehicle for a team raffle? Players would find great satisfaction in writing thank you notes to these great benefactors.
I like that raffle idea. If it were for my son's baseball team, we'd even hang a sign on it - “Get a grand slam - win a New Toyota Highlander” --Oh! how sweet it is.
So, how about it Joe? Just don't give us a lemon.
