There are weight lifters, wrestlers, runners and rowers. Cyclists, pole vaulters, fencers and boxers. Archers, kayakers, sprinters and water polo players. And don't forget the tae kwon do and judo fighters.
In all, some 137 athletes work at the Home Depot part time and train the rest of the time as Olympic hopefuls. But as these athletes attempt to make the U.S. Olympic team that will compete this summer in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Home Depot is pondering whether to keep the program.
The Olympics job program is a flame the home improvement retailer has kept alive since it first sponsored the 1996 Games in Atlanta, the company's headquarters. The jobs — in which the athletes work 20 hours a week at Home Depot but get paid for 40 — are just one piece of Home Depot's Olympics sponsorship. Another is a large advertising buy during the Games' broadcast on NBC in August, plus the right to use the Olympic rings.
But at a time when many retailers are suffering from the economic downturn (Home Depot recently announced it would be closing 15 stores), companies such as Home Depot are looking harder at where they spend their sports sponsorship and advertising dollars.
Home Depot's U.S. Olympic Committee sponsorship expires after the Beijing Games, and the company is in talks with Olympic officials about sponsoring future games.
"We are in negotiations with them," confirmed John Ross, Home Depot's vice president of advertising. "I can't discuss a negotiation in progress, as that gives us no benefit and could hurt our negotiation leverage long term, so I'm not going to do that."
A decision could come before the 2008 Summer Games, which will begin Aug. 8 in Beijing....
...But one thing is certain: With a virtually year-round season and five-hour races, NASCAR sponsors get a lot of rev for their marketing buck.
All NASCAR sponsors combined get $6.5 billion in value for getting their logos on screen and names announced on air during races, according to sports marketing research firm Joyce Julius & Associates in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"There are 90 total telecasts to the NASCAR cup series, including replays," said Eric Wright, vice president of research and development at Joyce Julius. "The total exposure time was 734 hours, 17 minutes and 17 seconds. Brands were mentioned 13,285 times."
Home Depot and rival Lowe's (which owns a team and a racetrack) both came in the top 10 of brands mentioned during the telecasts.
It's difficult, of course, to compare NASCAR — a nearly year-round racing franchise and one of the fastest-growing sports in America — with the Olympics, a three-week competition that comes every two years....