$15,000,000 bill for WPS........................

[retro]

Mr Gore claims in today's paper his v8 supercar bill is fifteen million dollars.

My question is *has he wasted his money*

($14,000,000 was probably for Larrys L1 )

[Trev Campbell]

Going on results. Yep. WPS would have got heaps of exposure at Sandown but the cars were so muddy you couldn't read the signage. Ha Ha Ha

[lowndes2b1]

So much for the budget he set himself at the start of the year. At the launch his brother said they would spend 10 Million Dollars over 3 years.

Now that the budget has well and truelly been blown, will we see WPS signage on the BRutes at Symmons Plains as he seems to have a car entered in every category so far.

[Sandgroper]

With their cars offroad so much, maybe those dollars would be better spent in Rally Australia

[Trevor P]

It's all a tax do.... anyways!

[Chucky]

Or money laundering scam.

Then again, who had heard of WPS before they did this? Perhaps it is mission accomplished.

Although I still don't know what they do!

[mayhem]

Does that include sponsoring the Safety cars, the cost of the Porsche, the AU for McFadyen, the Josh Hunt exercise etc?

[Chucky]

The safety cars was about 3mil (I think)
Porsche 500K
Josh Hunt approx. AUD800K-1mil (more like 1mil as he bent a lot of things)
McFadyen's AU 300K
To run two V8's would take about 5mil so where'd the other 5mil go?

venue sponsorship? I know the QR Tower is painted in WPS.

[aj_308]

ugh, the purchas eof LPR?

[manwell]

Originally posted by Chucky
The safety cars was about 3mil (I think)

I dunno..... I think $3 million is a bit rich for sponsoring a safety car.

You could get naming rights sponsorship of another entire team for that sort of money.

[lcfp2297]

...but which one gets to lead the field the most...

[retro]

The article is by Gordon Lomas - no link

A quote from Mr Gore "The difference between what I know now about v8's compared with the start of the year is that I am about $15.000,000 poorer"

[scr]

Just as well for Mr Gore there wont be any mud or grass at Indy, only concrete walls. uh oh, that could be trouble for them!!!

[marcus]

and the David besnard excercise which is coming up in a few weeks which apparently will cost over a million.

God it would be nice to have money

[MHDT]

To me there is something very odd about the whole WPS sponsorship deal.

How can a company that specialises in financial services and wealth creation so casually blow $15 million in 7 months on a motorsport passion?

Sure, WPS is a private company, and realistically their wheelings and dealings are nobody's business except theirs; but I hope the monies spent have been derived from their own earnings, and not sourced from other people's investments.

[Just Do It!]

Has anyone got a link to the article?

Mr Gore is resplendant when in full colour. If I have a bad day, I just re-read a page or two from his recent V8X interview. It has a knack of making me laugh.

$15 million is probably not an unfair price. If you look at his strategy, I would say that he has got great value for money.
As I understand it, Mr Gore had WPS only operating in NSW as of the start of this year. From the NSW base, the business was being touted as having $600 million a year in revenue. Now if you multiply that out by a factor of 4 or 5, given the fact that he wants to expand across Australia, then WPS could potentially generate between $2.4 and $3 billion a year in revenue.
Now remembering that we know nothing about the WPS marketshare of the NSW market, this is still damn impressive. For all his interesting ways, Gorey knows about business.
That's substantial value, as it would seem the products are fairly profitable. Of course, an IPO or a full ASX float would realise more still as the rule of thumb is that a private company that is worth, for example, $10 million is usually worth somewhere between $12.5 and $16.5 million when fully floated.

Furthermore, he is investing in and/or developing property in QLD and no doubt that is reasonably substantial too.

Now working out how that sum of money spent is probably a stab in the dark, but here goes:

Assets of 00 Motorsport - $1.5-$2 million
QLD Team Base - Unknown, but apparently a nice facility
Purchase of Noske Operation - Unknown
Sponsorship of QLD Raceway Tower - Unknown
Sponsorship of the WPS team: Perhaps $5 million inc. Noske payout and Yoong hiring at a guess
Sponsorship of the WPS Safety Cars: Let's stick with the $3 million, but it sounds a tad rich
The Carrera Cup car: $200-250k
Bezzy's WPS Indy Testing and QLD Indy drive: $250-500k
Josh Hunt's campaign: Probably close to $1 million, maybe more

That's somewhere between $11 and $12 million, so if that is excluding the buyout of the Noske operation, sponsorship of QLD Raceway's Tower, and the cost of the WPS Team Base in QLD, means that it is probably fair.

Just a fair guess, from a guy who is more than giving it his all, but more imprtantly showing to all of corporate Australia what a great marketing platform the sport that we all love is.

Now all we need is for others to see the big picture and follow suit.

Gorey has my admiration!

[Camaroz]

JDI,

I need you to do my budgets and profit forcasts!!!!

Well done.

Gorey isn't building a resort or buying a TV Channel is he?

[Just Do It!]

Hey it was just a guess-timate....don't slaughter me!

What Gorey has done, whilst at an event as a spectator, is realise the values and the marketability of motorsport. He saw the opportunity that was presented to use motorsport - now a fairly mainstream sport in Australasia - to market the expansion of WPS. He has said this publicly and he has proven that it works.

Gorey, for all his ways, is a great ambassador for the sport as an example of a sponsor who has made it work. Sure, he wants to win, but in a championship this competitive, he has realised that being there is everything.

Hopefully, as time goes by, Gorey will tell us all more about his experience in using motorsport as his main medium of advertising the WPS brand.

[GTRMagic]

A pity that the dreams of winning (and winning consistently!)will never be realised with the current equipment..... and there appears very little strtategic planning to improve that situation.

$15m would buy full-car sponsorship on 5 or 6 cars in the series for the year.. competitive cars too, race winners and all... with an existing profile WPS could have built upon to "legitimise" the brand far quicker...

But its not the team's fault, in accordance with the prophesy.

Whilst all of this keeps him busy, he also sits on the board of directors for some 160 other companies.

[Matthew Ronke]

If WPS is purely a business decision and that what was suggested in newspaper article earlier in the year. Gore would be looking for a return on the investment. The usualy rate of return that investers look for is around the 10% range If this is the case then Gore would be looking for around $150,000,000 return form his investment. I personaly hope he makes this sort of return as it would show the marketing power of motorsport, but unfortunately these sort of numbers will be hard to acheive.

[MHDT]

Originally posted by Matthew Ronke
The usualy rate of return that investers look for is around the 10% range If this is the case then Gore would be looking for around $150,000,000 return form his investment.

A 10% return on $15M is $1.5M. A tenfold return on $15m is $150M.
It is possible that the exposure gained thus far could be worth $1.5M. Tony Quinn from VIP Petfoods would mostly concur: VIP Pet Foods Link

[silvervsix]

JDI you forgot to include the purchase of Speedys L2 and equipment as well from eariler in the year which would have been around 500,000.

[Just Do It!]

Ooooops, well it was late - we Kiwis are on Daylight Saving Time here, so we are now 3 hours ahead of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, etc.

Thanks for the correction - I try to be accurate, but it doesn't always work. You deserve a beer for that too.

MHDT: Mate, to expect a ten-fold return is somewhat unrealistic. Go to your local TV station and demand a 10-fold return on a TV ad.....it wont happen. What a 10-fold return effectively means is that if you spend $1 million on a TV campaign, you will get a $10 million increase in sales! Not likely!

How Gorey measures his return is up to him, but I am sure that he wouldn't expect a 10-fold return - find me a sport that gives it! Now!!!

Gorey has chosen what he perceives to be the best for him. Of course, its clear that some of the $15 million isn't being spent in V8 Supercars, and that a fair amount of that could well have been capital expenditure....which is still a cost! Ok, accountants, it's a one-off.

I am an avid supporter of what the WPS brand is trying to achieve. Its better than backing the gee-gee set and WOW, what a promotion opportunity away from the track.