NASCAR teams hire antitrust lawyer over charter negotiations
NASCAR teams have hired antitrust lawyer Jeffrey Kessler to advise them as terms of a new revenue sharing model have not yet been agreed upon.
The Associated Press reported Kessler’s hiring on Sunday night. There was a meeting between NASCAR team owners earlier in the day after the 66th Daytona 500 was postponed until Monday afternoon.
Kessler is a partner and co-executive chair of Winston & Strawn LLP. Among his most recent involvements in sports negotiations was representing the U.S. Women’s National soccer team in its fight for equal pay.
NASCAR and the owners, led by the team negotiating committee, have been in discussions since last year on a new charter agreement. The current agreement expires at the end of this season. One of the biggest sticking points for the teams is more money, or what they say would be a fair deal, from media rights.
NASCAR and the owners, led by the team negotiating committee, have been in discussions since last year on a new charter agreement. The current agreement expires at the end of this season. One of the biggest sticking points for the teams is more money, or what they say would be a fair deal, from media rights.
“I think the sport is a sleeping giant, but we all have to get the interest aligned because we need to grow it together,” Curtis Polk, an investor in 23XI Racing, said in late 2022. “We need to grow more revenue, and we need to create great sharing and an arrangement where every dollar that is created benefits the drivers, benefits the teams, benefits the tracks, benefits NASCAR. That’s not how it’s set up right now.”
Other team executives like Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon and RFK Racing president Steve Newman have made it known teams are not sustainable under the current business model. Gordon admitted Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t turned a profit in 10 years.
NASCAR announced its 2025 media rights deal in December, which is reportedly worth over $7 billion dollars. There will be four different broadcast partners with Fox Sports and NBC Sports remaining in the fold and the addition of Amazon Prime video and TNT Sports.
NASCAR was not present at the Sunday meeting.
“We’re going to get it done,” NASCAR president Steve Phelps told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio during Daytona 500 media day. “The only question is when. I’ve said this for two years, we are going to do a fair deal, and the fair deal is going to provide more money to the race teams. We’ll give them a path toward profitability, which is what they want, and an opportunity to increase the enterprise value of their charters.
“It’s alleged the last charter sold for $40 million… I won’t confirm or deny that, but I’ll say this, that’s pretty close to what the number is. So, enterprise value of what the charter is over the last three years has soared 10, 11 times what they were trading at. I think it will continue to increase significantly once this deal is done.”
“Race fans don’t care about charters, and they shouldn’t. This is about putting the best product on the racetrack. But we care about charters because it leads to healthy race teams. Healthy teams leads to better racing. So, do I think we’re going to get it done? I absolutely believe we’re going to get it done. What that timing is, I’m not sure, but we’re continuing to have dialogue with our race teams. We’ll have dialogue with our race teams some today, tomorrow, and this weekend. We’re eager to get it done.”
For more information: www.racer.com
For more information: www.racer.com
