Molson Ends Sponsorship of Montreal Event

[TedN]

Hope Champ Car finds someone else to step up.


Molson Canada to end sponsorship of Indy race
Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:17 PM EST

TORONTO (Reuters) - Molson Canada, a unit of Molson Coors Brewing Co., said on Monday it will end its title sponsorship of the annual Molson Indy Montreal car race.

In a statement, the brewer said it had reached the decision after an assessment of the brand's sponsorship activities and commercial agenda, and that it was evaluating other sponsorship opportunities to raise its profile in Montreal.

"We continuously evaluate the ongoing competitiveness of all of our activities and we came to the conclusion that we should focus our investments on activities that are more representative of the Molson Dry brand and of its consumers' interests," Richard Moisan, director of trade marketing and events for Molson in Quebec, said in a statement.

Molson Coors, the world's No. 5 brewer, was created in February when Canada's Molson and U.S.-based Coors merged.


Ted

[Skater_36]

Given the negative remarks coming out of the CCWS camp about the promoter and Molson pulling out as sponsor, I wouldn't be surprised to see Montreal go away in 07.

[cameraman]

That will be fun. Try finding someone to sign on to sponsor a race that has an unenthusiastic promoter and one year left on the contract :shakehead

I wonder if it will run in 2006 muchless 2007.

Well 2006 seems safe.


Legault says Molson's withdrawl will have no effect on next year's running of the race.

"The contract binding our group to Champ Car World Series anticipates the presentation of a round of this championship in Montreal in 2006, a round which was already announced when the schedule was released by the series organizers last August," he said.

"In the coming weeks, in co-operation with Champ Car series organizers, our team will be busy pursuing initial discussions with companies that would like to associate themselves with the event as a sponsor as of 2006.

"We intend to disclose as soon as possible the new name of the event, scheduled for August 25-27, 2006."

TSN.ca (http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story.asp?ID=143064&hubName=auto_racing)

[oddlycalm]

My take is that all of Legault's posturing is the reason why Molson pulled out, so I'm not really surprised.

oc

[Accipiter]

When a promoter does that poor a job of publicizing an event, it's no surprise when the sponsor walks away from it. If it was Legault's plan to undercut the Champ Car event to bring in NASCAR or the IRL, pocketing the Molson money while he did it, he just got severly burned.

[trauma1]

and now if he doesn't get a sponsor he has to pay the sanctioning fee out of his own pocket, serves him right, i bet kk has plan b already to go and is done dealing with this *******

[G.]

serves him right, i bet kk has plan b already to go and is done dealing with this *******Not to be all "crappy" and cheerleading,,,,, but I bet you're right.