What I find funny is that Sprint/Nextel is doing the same thing. Sprint bought, merged, whatever with Nextel. Sprint......Nextel........same thing, same company. So now obviously they want to start dropping the Nextel name. That is why we are looking at the Sprint Cup....which by the way, I don't care for that name at all. I think of smaller race cars.
Now AT&T bought Cingular, basically. So they (AT&T) are in the mist of dropping the Cingular name and going with AT&T across the board. Smart move if you ask me. So soon there won't be a Cingualr name out there, there will only be AT&T. So there is no other name to put on the car other than AT&T. And by the way, they were smart signing a new deal as soon NASCAR came back at them with a law suite.
Why isn't NASCAR suing Nextel......uhhhmmm I mean Sprint. Didn't NASCAR make original contracts and what not with NEXTEL. HMMM. (yes that was sarcasim).
Anyway, the news story follows:
NASCAR and AT&T go back to court this week, at odds over the paint scheme on Jeff Burton's No. 31 Chevrolet. But the larger issue of exclusivity in the wireless category will loom over the proceedings.
Sprint Nextel, NASCAR's top series sponsor, bought the largest sports sponsorship ever sold, exclusivity included, and has spent close to $100 million a year since 2004. Cingular and Alltel were allowed to stay as team sponsors under certain restrictions.
But in a preliminary injunction ruling in May, a judge said AT&T could replace Cingular on the No. 31 Nextel Cup car because the restriction on rebranding wasn't spelled out in NASCAR's contract with Richard Childress Racing.
Those in the industry said it was widely known that Cingular and Alltel could not rebrand if one of them merged with another company in the volatile telecom world. But NASCAR didn't put it in writing, so AT&T's blue globe has been on the hood of the orange No. 31 for the past two-plus months.
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