Trent Please!
T2x,
The times have not been released but by deduction it will be Saturdays between 12-3. Reasoning: CBS carries the NFL on Sundays and has had a long standing contract with the SEC conference to carry a game on Saturdays. The college game has always started 3-3:30 and the NFL has sun totaly blocked out from 12-7. I think the exact time will be released down in Marathon this weekend and I am sure Frank, Pat, or the new guy umm Coach will post.
Trent
I'm in this for the racers, and a great race in Clearwater Beach, that's my agenda! If JC can't work up a program to put a sincere competition in the water in Clearwater it won't be because I didn't do my best to follow through for everyone....
Sincerely
Coach
(Not an Apologist)
Here's the explanation from our back channel sources:
While I am not directly involved in the SBI/CBS deal, I do know someone who is and I have a call into him to make sure that the info that I have is accurate (99% sure at this point, but I like 100%...lol)
A time buy works like this...You approach the network about your programming idea (a boat race, for example) and you already have some sponsors lined up, and you negotiate the time period that you want, and the dollars that it is going to cost.
Once this is completed, you now "own" the time period (and all of the national inventory that comes with it). So YOU are in control of finding your sponsors and selling your television spots, billboards, etc...
Many of the college BCS bowl games are done this way, because they package up so many sponsorships into the games themselves...It has its good points and its bad points....
If your sport or sanctioning body does very well packaging and selling your sponsorships, then it can be quite lucrative...Even more so than the traditional model where networks paid rights fees...You also maintain a tremendous amount of control over your frmat, production, talent, etc...
This can also sink you too....You really need to be proficient in selling your packages because any short falls between what you raise and the costs to air are your responsibility BEFORE the event hits TV...so, unless you can justify the expense being effective in helping gate receipts tremendously at the events, its very hard to go there...
The NHRA on ESPN is a time-buy....That annual cost is in excess of $10,000,000 PLUS production costs...(Another $2,500,000+) It adds up REAL quick....
Without violating any confidences and going into specifics, I can tell you that many people can build a damn nice house for the cost of one hour of NON-primetime airtime on any of the big 4 networks.
But you better have your sponsors lined up, because it is CASH UP FRONT to the networks to get on the air....
l personally don't know Mr. Carbonnell, but I would wonder if he has sponsors in place to cover over $2,000,000 worth of airtime & production costs...And if it isn't produced in HD, then a lot of people will tune right out...This can cost $50,000+ per event by itself...I haven't heard that he signed a monster series sponsor yet, big six-figure race sponsors, etc...It seems a bit interesting to me that without these sponsors already in place for a while at the races, that he can step up to this level of TV...We'll have to wait and see...
If he pulls this off, it will be great for the sport!