Trey’s Two Cents Worth: Don’t forget to Ad on

Every night I like to look over the results from all the fantastic harness racing tracks around Canada and the United States. I often enjoy listening to music while I do so because it can be very therapeutic.

Lately, I have been vibing to the newest album by country music singer Morgan Wallen. His new music has been taking the country music scene by storm, and his one new song really got me thinking.

His single title, “’98 Braves,” tells the story of how a particular relationship was not meant to be, just like how it was not meant to be for the ’98 Atlanta Braves. The famous baseball team from Atlanta was favourites to win the World Series that year but fell short to the “damn Padres,” as Wallen states in the lyrics.

This song made me think about how cool it would be to have a piece comparing a love story to the near perfection of Somebeachsomewhere. However, harness racing is not woven into our society’s fabric like baseball is.

I continued heading down this rabbit hole while reading my colleague John Berry’s latest Mane Attraction column about adverting in sports. He responded excellently to my last column, so I will return the favour and give him one of my own.

Mr. Berry believes that it’s time for harness racing to finally break through and become the major player it can be. I wholeheartedly agree with him, and this is how we can do it.

The is nothing more woven into the fabric of our society than advertising, especially concerning sports.

Images of past Super Bowl commercials will forever be etched into my mind. I still think back to the GoDaddy.com commercials that had famous models partying with average, nerdy-looking computer programmers. I am almost 28 years old, and I still have no clue what GoDaddy.com is or does, but their name is forever chiselled in my mind because of their well-done ads.

For harness racing to grow and become a staple in our society, advertising is the best way to do it, but we have to think outside the box regarding young people in 2023.

What would it mean for the sport if, one day, a driver like Tim Tetrick had a GoDaddy.com patch sewn onto his silks? For many, the silks are a sacred artifact, and the colours are passed down from generation to generation.

But the same thing was said about the iconic New York Yankee stripes or the blue and white Toronto Maple Leaf sweaters. Sports like baseball and hockey now have advertising on their jerseys night in and night out.

I remember when I went to pick up my first Winnipeg Blue Bomber jersey as a young lad. When it was time to pay for it at the cash register, the friendly cashier asked if I wanted to add the sponsorship patch to it for an additional $19.99 so I could look exactly like how the pros do. So, of course, an eight-year-old me couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to have the old-style Canad Inns patch added to my jersey.

Canad Inns is a Manitoba-based hotel chain and was the namesake of the old stadium where the team used to play. So it was a no-brainer that I also needed to have that patch.

The advertising even goes further than that these days. I watched UFC 286 last week, and the whole octagon was covered in ads. The traditional red and blue corners have even changed to being sponsored by Prime, which is a sports drink company that YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI partially own.

Even before the great announcer, Bruce Buffer, announces the fighter, he has to mention who the lead sponsor of the evening’s event is. It does not deflate the hype of the fight by much. Even if it does, he can restore it using his “REIGNING, DEFENDING, UNDISPUTED UFC CHAMPION” line.

This should be easy to incorporate at the track. I spent the last few summers being the local track announcer for Miami Fair here in Manitoba, and I can speak from experience. It is easy to add certain things to the race call.

Something as simple as providing a sponsorship for the backstretch can be easily added.