Follow-Up to Due Dilligence with Sponsorships

Hi
We heard a lot of great things about NASCAR yesterday. Well, AT&T is suing NASCAR for some logo / sponsorship shennanigans.... Remember - sponsors should be able to retain control of the brand and work with event organizers to accomodate for changes.

AT&T says sues NASCAR over car logo
Reuters
Updated: 6:09 p.m. ET March 16, 2007

NEW YORK - AT&T Inc. said Friday it sued NASCAR, charging the motor sports association violated the telecommunications company's right to put its logo on a race car.

AT&T filed the lawsuit after NASCAR denied a plan to change the paint scheme for the No. 31 race car's rear quarter panel, the company said.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, accuses NASCAR of "attempting to force the company out of the sport," AT&T said in a statement. A spokesman for NASCAR said the racing association had not yet seen the suit.

AT&T is in the middle of an effort to rebrand its cell phone unit Cingular Wireless as AT&T. The changes on the race car would have featured AT&T's globe logo.

But a competing telecommunications company, Sprint Nextel , is the key sponsor for the premier racing circuit of NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

That sponsorship contract, according to the NASCAR spokesman, prohibits AT&T from rebranding the race car.

"In the telecommunications sector, only the Cingular and Alltel brands are permitted on cars competing in the Nextel Cup because our contract with Sprint grandfathered in those brands," he said.

In a statement, John Burbank, vice president of marketing for AT&T, said: "There is nothing in our contract that prevents us from changing the Cingular brand name to our new brand, AT&T, on the No. 31 car."

He added that the grandfather clause "states we can continue as a sponsor as long as we do not increase our brand position on the vehicle we sponsor and do not move to a different race team."