That's exactly what it is. Charter values increasing has nothing to do with the cost of the spec parts. It's about securing an asset. And the reason why charters will continue to be justifyable purchased at higher and higher prices is because it's like buying property. You're not relying on the charter level purse payouts to make back that investment, you're holding an asset that you can always put on the market to make your money back regardless, and likely profit from unless the sport literally collapses which isn't going to happen.
You sound like that famous quote from Will Rogers about the stock market...
Will Rogers: Making money in the stock market is simple. You buy stock. When it goes up in value, you sell it. Simple.
Set Up Man: What if it doesn't go up?
Will Rogers: Then you don't buy it!
Yes, a charter is an asset, like owning a piece of property. And the market value of the property is determined by supply and demand. Demand for charters is based on the economic attractiveness of owning and operating a Nascar cup team. Future demand will reflect a wide array of factors. Certainly the outlook for the next TV deal is one major factor in the projected revenue stream. "A bigger slice of a bigger pie" seems to be the current thinking that's baked into current charter asking prices. That will work out exactly as forecast, or better, or worse.
Operating costs are a huge factor as well. You seem to recognize this in post #5887 above, then in post #5888 you claim costs don't matter. Which is it? You can't have it both ways.
Of course costs matter. Scraping some year-old chassis components is more costly than reusing them for a second year. My point is, this scrappage cost is not new, it has been going on for years. Before Next Gen, major teams have been building 15 to 20 new chassis per year. Now they are building seven, and each one costs less than previously. That is a very large improvement in the cost structure, even if all seven chassis are scraped at year-end.
To say the operating cost structure doesn't affect charter market values is naive and ridiculous. There are statements out there - I can't vouch for the accuracy and neither can you, but the teams have reams of actual data - statements that imply Next Gen has reduced the cost of fielding a competitive front-running car by $5 to $7 million per year excluding cost of the driver. That's big... really big.
The current TV money is $820 million per year for 10 years, starting lower and increasing each year. It may be ~$1 billion now, toward the end of that 10-year cycle. The 36 chartered teams collectively receive 25%, so call it ~$7 million per charter. Improving that number by $5 to $7 million would also be big... really big.
These are the two biggest factors in rising charter market values.
