Sports Rock ‘n Roll
Monday Night Football has Hank Williams Jr., and his cast of country, rock and hip-hop stars who accompany him on a new version of his All My Rowdy Friends are Coming Over Monday Night intro to the games on ESPN this season.
The Indy Racing League has Gene Simmons, the Kiss founder whose Simmons Abramson Marketing signed on to help market the sport last season. Simmons co-wrote I Am Indy, a rock anthem meant to capture the spirit of the open wheel series. The marketing partnership is expected to continue next season.
And now NASCAR will have Aerosmith. The band recorded a new version of its Back in the Saddle in Las Vegas earlier this month that will be played during broadcasts next year on ABC/ESPN. ABC and ESPN will broadcast the final 17 races of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series in 2007 as part of the sport’s new eight-year television deal estimated at $4.48 billion that spreads races across ESPN and ABC, Fox and TNT. ESPN2 will broadcast Busch Series races.
Aerosmith is no stranger to NASCAR. The band members are said to be fans and in 1999, Kenny Wallace drove the Aerosmith-sponsored No. 55 Chevrolet in the Nextel Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway.
Rock on…
CRAIG DAVIS In more than 33 years at the Sun Sentinel, Craig Davis has written about a wide variety of sports topics from baseball to yachting, fishing to triathlons, and also worked as a copy editor and page designer. Recently he reported on local sports, including running, swimming, cycling, equestrian and beach volleyball. He enjoys sports as a participant as well as a spectator, is active in the South Florida running scene plays in the curling club at Saveology Iceplex. This blog offers a glimpse at the business side of sports in the interest of enhancing enjoyment of the games and sporting options as a spectator as well as a participant.
