Geico Sues SBI

[Matt Trulio]

http://www.boats.com/boat-content/20...international/.

I'll continue to follow this story as it develops.

[Geronimo36]

Interesting..... Is that why Geico choose to do SBI races last year as opposed to some of the OPA events?

[OldSchool]

Hmmmmm....

[cigdaze]

I have a gut feeling that this will be a pretty hot thread here shortly. Let's all please ensure that we keep this informative, factual, and respectful to one another.

[Ted]

Interesting..... Is that why Geico choose to do SBI races last year as opposed to some of the OPA events?

GEICO changed a significant portion of their schedule last year as soon as the SBI TV deal was announced. I would think that the 150k might be just a small portion of what they spent in anticipation of CBS TV coverage.

[Ratickle]

I wonder what the final deal was. Geico ran almost every SBI race after the TV announcement. I believe they even missed some of their own triple crown events due to conflict.


Attorneys for Geico filed the case over the payment of $150,000 by Geico for CBS television coverage of SBI races.

Geico’s complaint against SBI alleges:


“On August 20, John Carbonell, as president of SBI and Deana Carbonell, as vice president of SBI made false representations regarding the Miss Geico Racing Team boat participating in races organized by SBI. At that time, it was represented to the Plaintiff that the SBI races would be shown on CBS television on Saturday afternoons from October, 2009 through December 2009. Additionally, Geico was provided with a press release regarding the fact that SBI racing would be broadcast on the CBS Television Network.

[cigdaze]

FYI
Court info:
http://courtcon.co.palm-beach.fl.us/...trpt_setup_idx
Case ID: 502010CA004746XXXXMB

[LaughingCat]

Let me see if I have this correct: SBI makes a deal with CBS to carry the races, etc on a weekly basis.

(Normally, networks pay the promoters for the rights to carry the races, but in this case, it sounds like SBI had to pay CBS to carry the races. That's curious.)

SBI was behind on their payments most likely because they lack the money. SBI gets Geico to make a generous contribution, most likely to get featured airtime on the CBS programming. However, SBI doesn't use the money to shore up their obligation to CBS (which still doesn't make sense.). Now Geico, who like anyone, can turn on a TV and see that the races were not broadcasted, finds out that SBI never paid CBS. So Geico has to sue SBI. Does this sound like an accurate depiction?

I'm not making any speculations, just trying to understand the flow.

[Fast Shafts]

Laughing Cat-I think you nailed it.

[Sea-Dated]

Interesting......

[rchevelle71]

(Normally, networks pay the promoters for the rights to carry the races, but in this case, it sounds like SBI had to pay CBS to carry the races. That's curious.)

I believe it was a time buy thing.

[LaughingCat]

I believe it was a time buy thing.

That makes perfect sense. It's just a shame our sport is not yet at the level where the networks would pay to cover it.

Please don't anyone throw mud at me for saying this, but. . .maybe the outcome of a situation like this will be the consolidation of the offshore racing scene so the marketing efforts can be focused to produce a higher level of awareness among potential fans.

[Sean H]

(Normally, networks pay the promoters for the rights to carry the races, but in this case, it sounds like SBI had to pay CBS to carry the races. That's curious.)

Not unusual, especially for fringe sports. Geico (among others) is paying Versus to carry this season. No network in their right mind would pay for offshore racing right now.

[Tank]

Sounds like good grounds for a legit lawsuit.

[phragle]

whats a versus???

[cigdaze]

Verses "VS" Channel on Cable/Satellite. Good catch.

[chewiekw]

will geico race on the sbi schedule this year?

[LaughingCat]

Should make for an interested handshake photo op after their victories.

[Sean H]

Verses "VS" Channel on Cable/Satellite. Good catch.

no catch needed....

http://www.versus.com/

[cigdaze]

Nevermind. My bad.