Iditarod 37

Exxon will give Iditarod $1.25 million sponsorship

5-YEAR COMMITMENT: Race's educational program helps sway oil company.

By CRAIG MEDRED
cmedred@adn.com

Published: February 10th, 2009 09:55 PM
Last Modified: February 10th, 2009 09:56 PM

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Oil giant Exxon-Mobil has come to the aid of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race with the pledge of sponsorship worth $1.25 million over the next five years, race officials said Tuesday.

Click to enlarge

Stan Hooley

The contribution is on par with that of GCI and Anchorage Chrysler Dodge -- the two biggest, in-state sponsors, said Iditarod executive director Stan Hooley.

It is, he added, "very good news in these times.''

Exxon-Mobil has been associated with the Iditarod since 1978, but Hooley said his organization made a push to get the company to up its contribution after watching the Summer Olympics and noting Exxon-Mobil's apparent interest in using sports as a tool to promote education in science and technology.

"We have an educational component to our operation that is growing perhaps as much as anything associated with the organization,'' Hooley said.

Target stores sponsor an Iditarod "Teacher on the Trail'' each year in which schools around the country team up with the race to teach history, geography, math and social studies.

Hooley said the Iditarod approached Exxon about helping to expand the educational program.

"We thought it was an awfully good fit,'' he said, and Exxon obviously agreed.

"We've had so many teachers reach out to us over the years,'' Hooley said, that it only makes sense to expand Iditarod marketing through schools.

"For whatever reason, it seems to stimulate the learning process,'' he said. "It is one of the most positive things we could be doing.''

Hooley was glad Exxon helped back the program as part of its commitment to Alaska's biggest sporting event. But he said the race, largely run by volunteers, still faces a demanding future.

"We've got our challenges,'' he said. "Sponsorship is vital to this race,'' but 60 to 65 percent of the Iditarod's annual budget of more than a million dollars is funded by revenues generated from T-shirt sales, Iditarod memberships, race entry fees, raffles and subscriptions to the Iditarod Insider at www.iditarod.com.

"A lot of our operating budget comes from these things,'' Hooley said, and with the country in the midst of a recession there are worries.

He expects Iditarod tourism, which has grown, to level off or decline this year. But, he added, "That may mean more people who do it virtually. I think there's a keen interest in being able to follow the race.''

Ignored most of the year, the Iditarod rockets to prominence in March as hundreds of thousands of people around the globe rush to keep up with the race on their computers. Then it all but disappears from sight again.

For years, race organizers have wrestled with the idea of how they might build bigger shoulders on what is basically a three-week event.

Hooley remains optimistic about Iditarod finances for this year, but "unfortunately, we won't know how all of those things will pan out until we're half or three quarters of the way through this race.''

A lot of those T-shirts and other memorabilia get sold to tourists who come to watch the race, and the volume of the sale of Iditarod memberships and access to the Iditarod Insider doesn't really begin until just before the race.

It starts March 7 in downtown Anchorage.

Find Craig Medred online at adn.com/contact/cmedred or call 257-4588.

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