Reality is a bitch that does not want us to have any fun.
I come from a corporate sponsorship background as a former VP of marketing and sales.
While we would all like to see a healthy pile of cash for purses available to draw more unlimited aircraft into the game, I don't ever see it happening at the level required. There are two reasons corporations and individuals sponsor events;
1. An individual or corporation with deep pockets has a soft spot for the event, and they support it with sponsorship cash or services. Think about the "dream" money a Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Jay Leno level celebrity might throw at the event...or if the owner of Coca Cola was an air race fan or participant. In this case R.O.I. , “return on investment” is not the primary reason for the sponsorship.
2. Corporations will sponsor events to promote their product or service to an events audience. This is done generally for purely positive financial or "goodwill" promotional reasons. Think local casinos/hotels, Aviation manufacturers, Champion, Brietling, Stihl, etc.... For it to make economic sense to support any event, the “cost per contact” must be appropriate to the perceived R.O.I. The air racing community and fan base is pretty darn small. So this makes air racing sponsorship a hard sell to a board of directors who are beholden to stockholders at the end of the day.
And then to the elephant-in-the-hanger few are willing to speak about, Air racing has an extreme element of danger to it. There are now decades of statistics on just how dangerous air racing is. This is the major roadblock to high level corporate sponsorship in my humble opinion, as I don’t have a clue how to overcome the sh!t storm created by accidents and the inevitable resultant negative press and public perception associated with any major accident. For a major corporation to be willing to accept that calculated risk in 2018 and beyond, is, well, risky.
Agree, disagree, delete it if this offends you, but truth is truth, and sometimes it hurts.
I come from a corporate sponsorship background as a former VP of marketing and sales.
While we would all like to see a healthy pile of cash for purses available to draw more unlimited aircraft into the game, I don't ever see it happening at the level required. There are two reasons corporations and individuals sponsor events;
1. An individual or corporation with deep pockets has a soft spot for the event, and they support it with sponsorship cash or services. Think about the "dream" money a Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Jay Leno level celebrity might throw at the event...or if the owner of Coca Cola was an air race fan or participant. In this case R.O.I. , “return on investment” is not the primary reason for the sponsorship.
2. Corporations will sponsor events to promote their product or service to an events audience. This is done generally for purely positive financial or "goodwill" promotional reasons. Think local casinos/hotels, Aviation manufacturers, Champion, Brietling, Stihl, etc.... For it to make economic sense to support any event, the “cost per contact” must be appropriate to the perceived R.O.I. The air racing community and fan base is pretty darn small. So this makes air racing sponsorship a hard sell to a board of directors who are beholden to stockholders at the end of the day.
And then to the elephant-in-the-hanger few are willing to speak about, Air racing has an extreme element of danger to it. There are now decades of statistics on just how dangerous air racing is. This is the major roadblock to high level corporate sponsorship in my humble opinion, as I don’t have a clue how to overcome the sh!t storm created by accidents and the inevitable resultant negative press and public perception associated with any major accident. For a major corporation to be willing to accept that calculated risk in 2018 and beyond, is, well, risky.
Agree, disagree, delete it if this offends you, but truth is truth, and sometimes it hurts.
If red bull wants to pitch a hissyfit because I said they stole the idea.. I've got the predated non-disclosure agreement and message digests that spelled out the concept.. Guy's name is Sam Bousfield... a TRUE dreamer and innovator who's brilliant ideas have not yet made it to complete fruition... he is onto something pretty damn cool though.. 
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