Owners boycott regular meeting with NASCAR as business model negotiations boil
Race team owners boycotted a regularly scheduled meeting with NASCAR on Wednesday, a show of frustration as negotiations for a new business model between the two entities come to a boil.
A report from Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press asserts that race teams decided to collectively skip the quarterly meeting because they believe NASCAR isn’t negotiating in good faith.
NASCAR team executives first publicly expressed in October that they needed additional revenue streams to fix the sport’s financial model. Among the teams’ biggest grievances then: 93% of the sport’s value resides with NASCAR and the tracks, with the remaining 7% going to the teams. Team executives also said that the teams and NASCAR have a similarly inadequate deal with the sport’s TV revenue-sharing model. (About 65% of the TV money goes to the tracks; 25% goes to teams and 10% goes to NASCAR.)
Per The AP report, NASCAR maintains that teams receive about 40% of industry-wide generated revenue.
This has helped cause a system where teams are heavily dependent on sponsorships for revenue, and teams argue that more revenue streams should be available to them.
Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reported Wednesday that one of the biggest issues stalling business model negotiations is that race teams and NASCAR haven’t come to a consensus on whether or not the existing charter system should be permanent.
The charter system, which was instituted in 2016, essentially makes each race team a franchise — much like the New York Yankees is a franchise belonging to Major League Baseball. In doing so, the charter system guarantees race teams spots in the field each Cup Series race and subsequently offers owners more security and a larger financial stake in the series.
One executive told The Athletic, per the publication’s report, that NASCAR chairman Jim France is against making the deal permanent.
The current charter agreement between NASCAR and teams expires at the end of the 2024 season. NASCAR’s current television deal expires then, too.
In a statement shared to The Charlotte Observer and other outlets, NASCAR said the sanctioning body is open to “productive dialogue on a regular basis with all industry stakeholders.”
NASCAR added: “We remain committed to continuing discussions in the spirit of collaboration and with the shared goal of growing our sport for the benefit of all stakeholders.”
Per The AP report, team representatives want NASCAR chairman Jim France and executive vice chair Lesa France Kennedy at future meetings.
This story was originally published April 5, 2023 at 3:39 PM.
