"....I guess you can equate the UAE sponsorship
just like Pepsi, Easyboot, AT&T, I CAN'T, I have a hard time see two
as the same. What do they have to advertise that requires all the banners,
bags, hats t-shirts etc........"
People and organizations sponsor things for a
number of reasons. Lets not use our ethnocentric prejudice to attribute
nefarious motives to the people from the UAE.
Fact: The people from the UAE have a lot of
money. The amount they spent on Tevis is not large in their
eyes.
Fact: The people from the UAE like horses, horse
racing and endurance rides.
Fact: They are undoubtedly aware that many people
in the United States of America do not like them.
Fact: Some advertising money, or sponsorship money
is spent just to make people think good things about the organization or
person. The theory is that if you like an organization, you will be more
likely to do things that benefit the org. Also, everyone likes to be
liked.
My personal feeling is that the UAE just wants to
support a sport that they like, and would like Americans to like them. We
do not have to look for deep conspiracies to change North American endurance or
anything like that.
We should also remember that sponsorship and
athletics has a long history. It is my recollection that in United States
baseball, pitchers warm up in the "bull pen". The common belief is that
that name dates back to the early days of the sport (sometime in the last half
of the 19th century) when a tobacco advertisement for "Bull Durham" was placed
on the fence.
Sponsorships, advertisements etc. provide part of
the money that allows us to enjoy things we like with much less expenditure of
our personal income. On the whole this is a good thing.
Advertisement and sponsorship are part of capitalism. Capitalism is a
good thing.
Ed
Ed and Wendy
Hauser 2994 Mittower Road Victor, MT 59875
