Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel, NASCAR and Scanners- Watch Out Bearcat Fans!

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2003 22:47:23 -0400

Motorsports
Nextel, NASCAR and Scanners- Watch Out Bearcat Fans!
Nextel must find ways to connect with racing
fans

Major changes lie ahead as firm becomes NASCAR's top title sponsor.
By BRANT JAMES, Times Staff Writer
St. Petersburg Times
published August 1, 2003

Lee Dyer hates to see his old friend go. He'll be missed, but Dyer knows it's time
to move on.
The 30-year-old Athens, Ga., native, plastered in Dale Earnhardt Jr. gear and
meandering through the garage area at Daytona International Speedway last month,
said he felt a pang of regret in June when NASCAR announced that RJ Reynolds
Tobacco was being replaced as title sponsor of its top stock car series after 33
years.

For Dyer it was a familiarity issue. But how Nextel Communications' $700-million,
10-year deal will affect NASCAR's fan base remains unclear.  Perhaps memorizing
the new name will be the only inconvenience. Perhaps the company's ability to
market to children will open new revenue streams and further grow the sport.
Theoretically, you might even be able to listen to races on a cell phone
resembling your favorite driver's car.

For now, there is enough to get used to. "It's a family thing," Dyer said. "And
it's like part of the family is splitting up."
Dyer grew up watching NASCAR racing and made the brand association with Winston
from the beginning.
But now that his own children can begin to make the connection between smoking and
their favorite sport, it's different.
"The cigarette situation kind of changes things," said Dyer, who smokes, but
prefers Marlboros. "Kids see a cigarette brand and they think it's big to do it
because NASCAR is the biggest thing in the world."

Ken and Jill Smart, from Naples, represent the demographic both NASCAR and Nextel
hope to harvest in the coming years.
Well-educated, middle-class, they have loyalties to be won and money to spend - if
they consider the product suitable for their three young boys."As a parent, I'm a
lot more comfortable with cigarettes not being part of big-time NASCAR," Jill
Smart said.
NASCAR president Mike Helton said last week that banning tobacco products from
sponsorship of any NASCAR event is an issue "on our radar for next year."

NASCAR's appeal to Nextel is its massive fan base. The second-most watched
professional sport on television behind the NFL, it boasts an estimated 75-million
fans, many of them children RJ Reynolds was forbidden by law from targeting.
That's the upside most agree on. The concern for many fans is how Nextel's
agreement will affect the use of popular scanners.

Fans pay as much as $300 for the radio devices, then purchase frequency sheets on
race day so they can listen live to conversations between drivers and crew chiefs.
The introduction of a communications company has prompted speculation that those
devices could be phased out when Nextel's deal commences next year.

Tim Kelly, Nextel's executive vice president and chief operating officer, told the
Sporting News his company wanted to complete the deal early "so we could use the
time between now and 2004 to figure out not so much the technology but what kind
of content will be available."

He added: "Today, Nextel's network is able to deliver lots of different content
through lots of different formats and provides content through lots of different
venues, whether it be through a Web site or whether it be direct.

"There may be 100,000 fans in the stands, but there's another 75-million fans at
home who can watch it on TV, and through our network, there are ways that you can
be listening in to conversations, including their favorite driver, even though
that fan may not be at the race."

Dyer and the Smarts, who are Nextel subscribers and rent their scanners, applaud
the idea. Companies like Racing Electronics, which sells scanners at numerous
booths around tracks, have taken a defensive posture.

The company posted a message on its Web site from an unnamed Nextel spokesman on
June 24 claiming no decisions have been made regarding scanners. A Nextel
spokesman said Wednesday the issue "is still in the planning stages."
Either way, major change is coming.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/01/Sports/Nextel_must_find_ways.shtml

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 02:14:38 -0400

------- Original Message --------
From: RAFman <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Nextel, NASCAR and Scanners- Watch Out Bearcat Fans!

In my opinion, Nextel will fix ALL the communications problems associated
with NASCAR & EMS (((wink)))

Some of you may think this is all to do about nothing but some see a trend
in Nextel "strategy" to push when others would normally pull. Their response
to iDEN interference perpetrated & demonstrated on adjacent public service
frequencies nationwide was not to fix or even address the rampant
interference but rather they propose to shuffle public services away from
current frequencies & their dirty iDEN signals. This "shuffle plan" is
pending & hopefully will be defeated at the source. Everything about Nextel
& its' past maneuvering makes me think that marketing conspiracy will reign
supreme & will have a great influence over scanners in the sport.

Just wait till teams start to "secure" their strategy using "Push To Talk"

Why carry an HT & a cell phone when you can just carry one?

I think Racing Radios are going to be eclipsed out along with scanners &
much of the cellular competition & their sponsorship. The conflict has
already started with Atlanta Speedway & their relationship with another
longtime sponsor, Southern Company, (who just happen to own another
competing & far superior iDEN system called SouthernLinc) whose use of the
facility's luxury suites is already in question & Winston hasn't even
withdrawn yet.

Mark my words, it is going to be a long 10 years with Nextel sponsorship.
NASCAR hurt itself in rushing into such a long-term contract with such a
nefarious entity. The nation's most popular sport & its' embrace of open
scanning will be forced to change whether the fans like it or not. In
NASCAR's defense, how are they to know or judge how Nextel does business but
they sure should have taken their time to find out. Nextel is NOT just
another cell phone company. They are an Enhanced Specialized Mobile Radio
(ESMR) operator, masquerading as a cell phone company...

Money talks & fans just might walk... with their scanners...

Raf

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