Anyone Seen Elliott Sadler on TV?

If a starting NFL quarterback was suddenly fired, TV crews would be camped-out in front of his house in a matter of hours.

If a Major League Baseball starting pitcher was let go right after signing a multi-year contract extension, the media would want answers from the owner, manager and player.

When ESPN's NASCAR Now Lead Reporter Marty Smith first broke the story of Elliott Sadler suddenly being replaced at GEM by AJ Allmendinger he gave us the facts. Allmendinger was in and Sadler was out even after just signing a contract extension.

Smith added that this was a shock to both the team members and even the sponsors. What he was unable to add was any words with either Sadler himself or team owner George Gillett. Smith's story is located here on the ESPN.com website.

TDP has been scanning ESPN, ESPNEWS and SPEED since this story first broke for any sightings of the principals involved in the story. We have been looking for follow-up or reporters digging for exactly why this situation occurred.

Sadler is a well-known spokesperson and a current SPEED on-air talent. He is a panelist on Trackside during the final seventeen Sprint Cup race weekends of the season. He is a media darling and a well-spoken sponsor representative with a history of successful product endorsements.

Checking the NASCAR sections of the SPEEDtv and ESPN websites, we find no video of Sadler being interviewed and no follow-up on this story. At Jayski, we find two updates with lots of information hinting at possible financial issues for Gillett.

Over at ElliottSadler.com, that website sits in stunned silence. The news stories are about Homestead in 2008 and Sadler's most recent Barn Party for charity. Meanwhile, the NASCAR blogs are buzzing and they all want to know the exact same thing. Why release a proven commodity with a valid contract and a good sponsor? What really happened?

When Petty Enterprises closed its doors, TV viewers could have searched all day long for video or interviews surrounding the end of that franchise. They would have found none. Now, combing the cable channels once again for an interview with or a report about Sadler will result in exactly the same frustration.

The NASCAR TV partners are either in this for the long haul or they are not. ESPN is on-air 24-hours a day with multiple networks, including one dedicated solely to sports news. SPEED chose once again to end all the motorsports news shows during the off-season, despite the fan backlash from last year.

As NASCAR enters perhaps the most critical January in the modern history of the sport, it will be up to the NASCAR TV partners to go above and beyond any efforts of the past to bring fans the news about one of the top professional sports in North America as it struggles to survive.

After being treated like Arena Football or Major Indoor Lacrosse for the last two months, no one can blame the NASCAR teams if they are a little bitter when the first TV reporter comes strolling in asking the same old questions about Daytona.

SPEED will break the ice first with The SPEED Report. There are timeslots allocated on January 4th and 11th for motorsports news at 7PM, but the SPEED website is notorious for the lack of updated information. Perhaps, since the Grand-Am cars are testing the network might turn the lights on in the studio once again. TDP will keep you posted.

It looks like February 2nd at 5PM Eastern Time will be the first edition of NASCAR Now on ESPN2 for the new season. No word yet on any possible changes in the on-air line-up or format.

This is the second year where SPEED and ESPN have dropped the NASCAR TV news ball during the off-season in sensational fashion. Website stories do not make-up for the lack of updated NASCAR news on TV. Especially, after a daily show on ESPN2 and extensive weekend programs on SPEED for ten months.

Things have become quite clear to the NASCAR fan base over the past six weeks where SPEED and ESPN are concerned. Either those two networks just don't get it or they just don't care when it comes to the off-season NASCAR stories that require time and effort to report on TV.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to drop by.

MLB Network Leaves NASCAR Another Step Behind

It is already on-the-air in preview mode, but it will be January 1, 2009 when the Major League Baseball TV Network officially debuts in homes across America.

The MLB Network took over the old MSNBC studios located at 40 Hartz Way in Secaucus, NJ. One look at Google Maps tells the tale of just how close to New York City that location really is. Eventually, the network will move into NYC proper.

Everything on the MLB Network is going to be in true High Definition. The league is doing things in a first class manner, following in the footsteps of the NFL Network in terms of on-air technology.

The executives are experienced, the on-air announcers are familiar to baseball fans and the programming line-up is diverse. The content pieces of this TV puzzle are in place.

Rolling this project out in an orderly manner with cooperation from the major cable TV companies has enabled the MLB Network to sign-on with the largest first day viewership in cable TV history.

While the official number has not yet been announced, it is expected that this brand-new network will be available in over 50 million homes from day one.

Like many pro sports, MLB has quietly been extending the length of the overall season. Spring training games start the last week of February and many are now televised. The regular season begins the first week of April and in 2009 for the first time the World Series will end in November.

NASCAR is racing in February and continues to do so until the third week of November. With the post-season reviews and the three banquets, the season spills-over into December. Even with official testing eliminated for 2009, January is a frenzy at the race shops as teams prepare for the season.

Where NASCAR is concerned, the entire year is packed full of some kind of activity either on the track or behind the scenes.

As the MLB Network takes to the air, eyes turn to NASCAR with the same question TDP has been asking for the past two years.

Where is the NASCAR TV Network?

The original NASCAR deal with the Fox Cable Networks group was for Speedvision to become a full-time NASCAR channel. Fox and NASCAR partnered-up to buy a TV production company they called NASCAR Images to produce programs for the new network.

Fox then moved the entire Speedvision network from Stamford, CT to Charlotte, NC and changed the name to SPEED. Everything was in place. Needless to say, things did not go according to plan.

Now, several years later, the story is radically different. SPEED continues to be the TV network for NASCAR's on-location weekend "support" programming and the Camping World Truck Series. The last remaining snippet of regular weekday programming is This Week In NASCAR on Monday nights.

Fox agreed to surrender the company's interest in NASCAR Images and was bought-out by NASCAR. The new company is now called The NASCAR Media Group. SPEED then changed leadership and moved in an entirely different direction where weekday programming was concerned.

Pinks, Unique Whips, Living the Low Life, Wrecked and many other "lifestyle reality" series sprang to life under the leadership of SPEED's VP of Programming Bob Ecker.

SPEED was interested in creating and then owning original TV shows. That was not possible where NASCAR was concerned. Like most pro sports, NASCAR retains the rights to the actual event footage. So, SPEED morphed into the current two-headed monster viewers see today.

During the NASCAR season on Friday, Saturday and Sunday SPEED is all about racing. On Monday through Thursday with one small exception, SPEED's primetime line-up is battling it out with A&E, truTV and Discovery for reality programming success.

Once united by shared ownership and strategic TV goals, SPEED and the NASCAR Media Group are now just two rival fraternities sharing NASCAR content in an uneasy truce.

SPEED is busy allocating significant financial resources to original lifestyle programming to build the network's library of content for a wide variety of purposes. SPEED wants "their" programs to be available on your cell phone, PDA and laptop.

Meanwhile, The NASCAR Media Group has no direct on-air capability to expand the NASCAR presence on TV. Think of this TV production company as a fantastic stereo system loaded with great tunes but without any speakers. You can turn it on and crank it up but there is no way to hear the music.

The solution to this problem might have been to simply put The NASCAR Media Group's vast collection of programs on an Internet site and then build-up an iTV network like Hulu. Bypass cable TV entirely and go right to the Internet with the video.

Unfortunately, NASCAR gave the online rights to all NASCAR content to the Turner Interactive Group in Atlanta, GA. That company pays NASCAR a hefty sum to run the NASCAR.com website as a "third party."

The Turner Interactive Group alone controls the sport's online image, official information and even fan interaction. NASCAR itself does not even have a public email address. In January of 2008, NASCAR executives extended the Turner deal through the year 2014.

In reality, there is truly only one solution to solving many of the current problems plaguing the sport. That is the creation of a cable television network to grow the NASCAR brand and present the sport as much more than a weekend pastime.

Having this media platform would open the door to an endless diversity of programming from original series to daily news. Groups like the Nationwide and Camping World Truck teams would finally get some TV exposure other than actual racing.

A NASCAR TV network would also allow the regional racing series a home where fans could begin to understand the different levels of NASCAR racing nationwide and interact with local and regional drivers and teams. Imagine that, finding out that NASCAR races in your area on a regular basis.

Both ISC and SMI tracks would be big beneficiaries of a full-time TV network. Just like the regional sports TV networks feature local college and pro teams, TV programs featuring the ISC and SMI tracks would offer a tremendous variety of regional subject matter.

These facilities host all kinds of racing series. Events like car shows and many other unique activities could also be exposed to motorsports fans through a NASCAR TV network. Needless to say, ticket sales for the NASCAR events could also be directly influenced.

Once again in 2009, NASCAR is poised to be represented on TV by third parties. ESPN, SPEED, TNT and Fox all have their own slant on presenting NASCAR news and approach the sport in general from completely different angles.

The NASCAR "financial pie" has been sliced-and-diced into profitable pieces with the single-minded goal of deriving the most potential revenue for the sport.

Left behind in the "money frenzy" has been the strategic partnership between NASCAR and its fans.

With Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association now having full-time dedicated TV networks there is little doubt that NASCAR must make such an investment for the good of the sport.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Still Waiting On NASCAR TV Changes

The last we heard, both Fox and ESPN were huddling with the bean counters and looking at the NASCAR TV production budgets. TDP talked (click here) about the fact that some adjustments were going to be made before the 2009 season got underway.

This week starts the official countdown to Daytona 2009 and it should be very interesting to see if the Hollywood Hotel, the ESPN Infield Pit Studio and the ESPN Tech Center all roll into the speedway with the rest of the TV gear.

Since the article talking about the potential cutbacks, there has not been a peep from either ESPN or Fox in that regard. Both networks are neck-deep in other sports at the moment and there is apparently little time to talk about NASCAR issues.

All this speculation began when Fox dropped the on-location pre-game show for the network's Major League Baseball Game of the Week. This put former NASCAR reporter Jeanne Zelasko on the sidelines. She has recently begun (click here) a campaign to have herself named the play-by-play announcer on the LA Dodgers baseball broadcasts. Thanks to a TDP reader for the correction.

If Fox will drop the on-site pre-game for baseball, will there be a change in the status of the Hollywood Hotel for 2009? This custom-built mobile production studio is the second version of this concept and did not start-off to (click here) rave reviews.

While the old version had a real window as a backdrop, the new model essentially cuts-out the outside world and exists as a closed studio. Pictures of the racetrack behind Chris Myers are actually inserted electronically.

It may well be that Fox decides the Hollywood Hotel is worth the cost this season because the network is telecasting Sprint Cup Series races. That moves us over to ESPN, a network that does not touch a Cup race until the Brickyard 400 in late summer. ESPN handles the final seventeen Sprint Cup Series events.

At Daytona and then long into the season, ESPN will only be telecasting the Nationwide Series races. The last two seasons have seen ESPN bring the Infield Pit Studio and Tim Brewer's Tech Center to both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series weekends right from the start.

Perhaps, ESPN might be considering saving some dollars and reducing the level of TV production elements on the Nationwide Series races. They could always return the Tech Center and the Infield Studio in July when the Cup coverage begins.

As fans may remember, ESPN also has an infield studio crew that appears only on the Nationwide races all the way up to July. Allen Bestwick, Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty and sometimes Ray Evernham were on-hand to cover the Nationwide companion races on Cup weekends.

Originally, this approach of using ESPN's full Sprint Cup crew to handle the Nationwide Series races was considered good practice time. Now, after two seasons the practice is over. ESPN has indicated they want to come out of the box lean-and-mean with the economy drastically slowing down the TV advertising dollars in NASCAR telecasts.

We should be learning shortly what NASCAR TV elements will continue to travel for Fox and ESPN as they begin the year in Daytona. Whether those decisions affect the on-air announcers will only be known when those two networks issue their first NASCAR press release of the season. TDP will keep you updated.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.