Despite a report from Steve O’Donnell claiming NASCAR and the teams are “very close” on a new charter agreement, it isn’t so clear. Cup Series team owners Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski have disputed that report this weekend at Talladega.
The NASCAR Cup Series team owners are looking for more share of the TV revenue. NASCAR signed a new deal worth $7.7 billion over seven years. Things have gone far enough that the teams have hired an anti-trust attorney to represent them in the matter.
Last week at Texas, Jimmie Johnson said he believes that the negotiations are going to go “deep in the year.” Then O’Donnell came out in a Sports Business Journal conference and made the comment about being “very close.”
Denny Hamlin has no reason to believe it is anything but trying to generate positive publicity.
“There’s still the four key elements that I haven’t seen NASCAR brought up, and what our ask has been they haven’t addressed those, or haven’t conceded to any of those,” Hamlin said, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “So, I think it’s positive messaging more than it’s actually real.”
Brad Keselowski more or less echoed that same sentiment. He isn’t aware of any further negotiations that have gone on.
“There’s nothing I’m aware of, but maybe there’s something going on behind the scenes,” Keselowski said.
The Cup Series team owners seem to want to move toward a revenue-sharing model more similar to other professional sports leagues. In the NBA and NFL, you essentially have a 50-50 revenue split. There are also more branding opportunities those leagues cut their teams in on that NASCAR has been reluctant to do with the Cup teams.
This will take more time it appears. No one wants to budge. It’s simple, teams want more money, NASCAR wants to keep the money.
NASCAR charter negotiations have stalled, or have they?
Now, the negotiations are more complicated than I made it seem. But at the end of the day, that is the balance of power between the two. Each party involved has its own leverage over the other, it’s a matter of who has more leverage and who is willing to give up a little bit to make it all work out in the end.
Optimists believed the deal would be finished by the start of the season. Then it moved to surely, during Daytona 500 weekend. Well, things have not moved all that quickly and here we are more than two months into the season with no answers.
Taking into account NASCAR, the teams, the tracks, there is a lot of money to go around but not infinite money. If the teams want more, then NASCAR or the tracks will have to give up some of their share.
Hopefully, once the charter agreement is in place it will unify the sport. There is no reason why NASCAR should be cutting licensing and branding deals without also including the teams in on that action. Let’s get some synergy going between all the parties involved and make the sport healthier and more productive moving forward.
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