Tim Morley <>
writes:

Once there was a person that had a small advertising business who
had a very good working relationship with the owner of a fast food franchise.
This franchise owner had a string of forty two stores and was the franchisees
representative on an advertising committee for the national parent organization
which was owned at the time by Pepsico, (can you say “run for the border”). This
owner had enough clout that he was able to get his son a sizable sponsorship to
fund a couple of seasons in the NASCAR Bush Series even though he couldn't race
his way out of a paper bag.


The advertising business owner spent a fair amount of time developing an idea
that would help hang gliding get national TV exposure. The idea was to set up a
racing series that consisted of a three part relay race involving windsurfing,
mountain biking, and hang gliding. The teams would consist of top competitors
from each of the three sports. The teams would be provided with a professional
sponsorship package to present to potential sponsors so that they could find
funding to compete just like auto racing.


The series would consist of six races at three different locations the first
year and if the series was successful it would be expanded nationally in
following years. The three locations would have to be located near lakes and
mountains and these sites were identified and potential courses were laid out.
In following years if the program expanded and lakes weren't available the
windsurfing would be substituted with a portable climbing wall.


A prize fund would be provided by the $1,000 entry fee from each team for each
race. The winning team at each race would win $30,000 with prize money paid down
to 20th place. The entry list would be limited to 100 teams. The title sponsor
would provide a prize fund for the series championship with the winners
receiving $150,000 and scaling down from there.


The key to all of this was TV coverage. At the time ESPN was covering downhill
bike racing and wind surfing separately. The whole idea was casually mentioned
to the franchise owner at meeting concerning other advertising and he was very
interested and asked that a complete plan be put in writing and presented. The
idea being that it would be sent up the chain and turned over to the fast food
companies advertising firm and developed into a program that would have major
company sponsorship with a TV series sold to a network. The plan probably had
about a 75-85 percent chance of going through with the franchise owners backing.


The advertising business owner mentioned the idea to the then current president
of the USHGA over dinner. He didn't tell the USHGA president the whole plan but
told him that work was being done on the idea.


A few weeks later while the advertising guy was over at a friend's house working
on a glider he got a call from the USHGA president. He had tracked him down and
the ad guy thought that it was a little strange that the president had spent the
effort to track him down when he could have left a message or called him later
as it was just a casual chat about nothing in particular, until the end of the
call.


Then the President let drop that he'd given the idea to a group that were trying
to get permission for a flying site at a potential ski resort. The local
authorities wanted there to be something besides snow skiing in the winter to
draw tourists. The local hang gliding group wanted something to present to the
developers so the USHGA president had given them the race series idea.


He informed the ad guy that a national beer company had signed a three year deal
for $100,000 per year to sponsor the races. The $100,000 was about five percent
of the budget that was envisioned for the fast food company involvement. At that
point the ad guy dumped the idea and washed his hands of USHGA.


Anybody ever hear of a series like that sponsored by a beer company? Nah, didn't
think so. Names and places withheld.