Well, I look at all of the jets, the hundreds of employees, the mansions the drivers live in and the lifestyles that Nascar has provided for the families. Nascar started out on a beach at Daytona, they built most of the fields of dreams that are raced on unlike outside billionaires who soak the taxpayers to build their stick and ball stadiums. I am proud to be a life time fan. Like Larry Mac, I don't appreciate a newcomer coming in and saying what is fair or not. I don't appreciate what it is doing for the sport although publicity of any kind is publicity. I think many of the so called Nascar fans are jealous of the success that Nascar has had. I'm not one of them.
Now it is your turn, just why do you think these two organizations merit more money than their contract provided, and why are they trying to bring that about by going around the issue which is the contract and trying to prove a meritless anti trust suit?
@SOI, thank you for that thoughtful reply. I don't agree with all of it, but I now have a better idea where you're coming from. It's certainly true that Big Bill France recognized a market opportunity and organized and nurtured an industry that has provided good income and wealth generation for thousands of stakeholders over the decades. France made a sizable fortune. Car owners and drivers did too, at least the best of them did. The Nascar industry was a good ol' American success story, a meritocracy based on talent and work ethic and a consistent guiding vision of what this stock car racing thing could become.
In the 1990's, Nascar suddenly and rather inexplicably became a white hot cultural fad. Millions of new fans had an insatiable thirst for everything Nascar. It was fueled primarily by a lifestyle fantasy. No one knew it at the time, but it couldn't possibly last.
And it didn't last. Nascar's fan base peaked circa 2005-07, and then quite suddenly the fad fans moved on to graze in a new pasture, leaving the grandstands and TV audience populated by the genuine niche racing fans who had been there all along. Many nostalgia buffs like to attribute the departure of the fad fans to various examples of Nascar mismanagement (primarily led by Brian France), but I believe the dominant reason is just that fads come and fads go... and this one went.
At least there was a hefty pile of TV money to soften the blow. Nascar the sanctioning body skimmed 10%, which is over $100 million per year... not too shabby. The race teams got 25% via race purses, and after the 2015 charter agreement this money was paid primarily to the charters plus a few nickels and dimes for open cars. It wasn't enough for the teams to operate... they continued to depend on increasingly difficult-to-obtain sponsorships. And the tracks were awarded 65%, which overcame the decline in ticket sales. As I wrote earlier in this thread, this was a gold mine for the tracks.
In this new economic environment that has existed for the last ~15 years, the sanctioning body remains fat and happy. The track owners remain fat and happy. But the race teams, the true racers that put on the weekly show, are facing a borderline non-viable business model. About half of the original 36 charter holders have gone bust. The best teams have become highly sophisticated and thoroughly modern - comparable to F1 teams in their professionalism and sophisticated race preparation and execution (not in engineering design and fabrication, however). And their sources of sponsorship revenue have dwindled. It is a double whammy cost and revenue squeeze.
Nascar team ownership is not an attractive investment opportunity. We currently have some great, great owners, primarily fueled by passion more than economic sense - gotta love 'em for that - but most of them are well past retirement age. A few new owners have invested, such as 23XI, Trackhouse, and Kaulig. I think that is terrific, but we need more. I support the efforts of 23XI and Front Row to improve the economic viability of team ownership because I believe the legitimacy of stock car racing as a sport depends upon it. The France and Smith families are too greedy and need to be taken down a notch. That's my dos centavos, and sorry to run on longer than the World 600..
