Definitive proof Industry is hurting!

Read this on FoxSports today:

TKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) - Watkins Glen International needs a title sponsor for its NASCAR Sprint Cup race after Centurion Boats opted out of the final year of its contract.

Company officials said the decision was based on the downturn in the national economy. Centurion spokesman Les Clark said the company has cut production 50 percent and laid off half its work force at its North Carolina manufacturing facility.

"The economy is not going to make this easy. It is having an effect on our sport; it's going to have an effect on our year. These are tough times," Watkins Glen International president Craig Rust said Friday. "I don't think we ever expected it to get this bad. I haven't seen it this bad in sports from a sponsorship standpoint in a long time."

The value of a Cup title sponsorship can exceed a million dollars, but Rust would not put a figure on the Watkins Glen race.

"A title sponsor is important, because it gives us a marketing partner to promote the race," Rust said. "We're working hard on it, but no matter what, it's important for fans to know we'll have a Sprint Cup race in 2009."

Centurion Boats will continue to have a presence at Watkins Glen but in a reduced role, Rust said.



(Message edited by prostar205v on December 17, 2008)

Why dont you think NASCA will lower the ticket cost to try and bring up atendance. Last time I peeked at it the stands looked pretty empty

In elementary school we learned what goes up most come down. Corporate America is in deep denial. Eventually even they will see that their "product" will not produce the same revenue and be forced back to market willingness or suffer the consequences. I thought this was interesting only because it seems the inboard manufactures are playing it very close to the vest in terms of how they are fairing in this economy. In this case, Nascar brought to light something I am sure Centurion did not want to volunteer. This industry is all privately owned, unless you are an insider the true nature of this business will be kept "secret". I have watched Brunswick (Sea-Ray, Hatteras, Merc etc) fall from the graces on the stock market with the future outlook being bleak at best. It is my opinion that the inboard market is much like our housing market here in Fl, and like yours in CA, the highs are in the past and there is nothing to support it in the future......my .02

this is why I said the mastercrft rebate was simply to prop up over inflated prices....they should(and will) lower their prices.

The equity line boat buyer is outta here.

thats who was buyin all those boats puttin em on the old second mortgage/equity lines. (tax deductible interest)

(Message edited by bftskir on December 17, 2008)

Andy,

You hit the nail on the head there for sure. There is a very small market of boat buyers right now. In my town, we had a huge housing boom and every weenie used an overinflated home price to get a big second mortgage and build a pool and buy a boat. My lakes were a lot less crowded this year, so that was good. Most of the people here are involved in the housing industry, now they are struggling to get gas money.

Only people who can just cut a check for the full amount are buying. There are not many of those folks, so the competition is intense.

This is not only the boat industry, but the sport of racing as well. For those that dont fallow NASCAR, Charlotte NC is the hub of the sport, most of the teams for the 2 main series, are located around the area here in North Carolina. In the past few months, we have lost 600+ jobs in the sport. These are team members that work and live in the Charlotte area. These are 600+ paychecks that are gone from the local economy. Part of this is due to NASCAR themselves by growing to fast and pricing themselves right out of the core market. The rest is a result of the economy, the avg fan can no longer afford to travel to races so ticket sales have suffered.

Every industry has it's ups and downs: clearly it is a downturn right now. This past summer there was a thread that asked which boat manufactures would survive a tough economy.. I chimed in that only the boat manufactures that reinvested their profits in future boat building technology would be able to survive because I thought inflation would make it very difficult for new manufacturers to enter the market: however, I think I was wrong (I had no idea how bad it could get at the time). The boat manufactures that survive this down turn will have done the best they could to pay off plant and infrastructure. The manufactures that can run with a skeleton crew and low overhead will be around when our economy picks back up. I have a feeling that not many manufactures will be around by the end of next summer: It's going to be a sad year for wakeboarding. I would not purchase a new boat this coming season: boat dealers (if the dealer is still around) will start finding that the manufacturers are hard to work with on warranty repairs, and some might just not pay (bankruptcy and your warranty is gone).

We can look at the plus side: lakes will be less crowded, and used boats will be cheap (if you have the money).

"The equity line boat buyer is outta here. Thats who was buyin all those boats puttin em on the old second mortgage/equity lines. (tax deductible interest)"

This will make the biggest impact on the boat industry IMO. The evaporation of "housing wealth" is crushing certain areas right now.

Hmm so i guess if these guys are in survival mode, they wont be spending too much on R&D for new wakesurf tech....

They are all in survival mode!

"Only people who can just cut a check for the full amount are buying. There are not many of those folks, so the competition is intense."

This isn't true. I am buying a new boat this season and plan to finance 85% of it. I am getting a much lower rate this time around so my new boat payment will be cheaper than what I am paying now. Granted I lose the 16 months I have already paid down on my current loan when starting a new one.

Less boats will be sold this year, of course. But not all buyers will be paying cash.

Even people that can buy with cash or finance may not.

Sanger will weather the market no proplem, they've never grown too big for their britches, the sell every boat they make which is only around 400 a year, every Sanger owner knows he's got a custom ride.

Yeah but they are looking for things to keep busy they went sor far as to build outboards that they quit building 15 or so years ago

just cleaning up the shop...some spare parts were layin around...you know how the barefooters covet those outboards. I think they both are sold at least one is...pretty cool for whoever gets em

Yeah but 3 years ago they did not have the time to clean up the shop

over on barefoot.org Calabria has just posted that they want to reintroduce the Brendella Barefooter...what the heck is going on?

Thats not hard it was easy to ignore building just a few outboards when your production line is sold out with High dollar V drives. When things get slow they start thinking building a few Outboards sounds pretty good