NASCAR response to formation of Racing Team Alliance:
“We are aware of the alliance concept
the team owners have announced, but have very few specifics on its structure or
purpose. It is apparently still in development and we’re still learning about
the details so it would be inappropriate to comment right now. NASCAR’s mission,
as it has always been, is to create a fair playing field where anyone can come
and compete. Our job is to support and strengthen all of the teams, large and
small, across all of our series and we’ll continue to do that. NASCAR is a
unique community with hundreds of stakeholders. They all have a voice and always
will.”
- Brett Jewkes, NASCAR
VP/CCO
so in other words... it's still Brian France and his cronies game, ball and court and we will take your group under "advisement",,, but don't expect us to listen to you
ReplyDelete$8 billon reasons this happened. The purses got smaller since '08 while TV rights fees increased year by year. Now with an influx of NBC cash (i.e. cable tv subscriber fees) the have's are trying to get a larger piece of the pie. Make no doubt about this. This is all about the TV money. Attendance and viewership are down. The teams are trying to maintain/create a franchise like value that currently does not exist. As SMI's last financials showed at Texas, 65% of all income was from TV rights fees. This is the largest and currently only growing part of the sport. What really interests me is that only the 7 organizations plus two 2 satellites are included when the largest benefit of collaboration would directly help the teams excluded from the RTA. Why are they excluded in the first place? There is a lot more to this story that I hope will come out soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's more than just the TV money - the big teams no doubt are trying for a bigger portion, but the sport's issues are primarily about spendaholism - KMart quit the sport and publically stated they were leaving because "NASCAR is a bottomless pit of spending," echoing the words of Purolator chairman Roman Boruta in 1993 - and it might be that car owners are beginning to realize the spending is out of control. The RTA had better work with NASCAR and everyone else, because spending controls are more necessary than ever.
DeleteBe careful, NASCAR has done a very good job promoting and running this sport. Greed by all involved can ruin what they already have. The pro sports are a perfect example, a bunch of millionaires sitting around arguing over who gets the bigger share of the billions that fans pay each year. I've written all those sports off because of it, and as a long time fan I would stop supporting racing as well.
ReplyDeleteRemember, all the demands for more money gets passed along to the fans; and is probably why attendance has declined, it is too expensive.
Actually the cost of going to races has declined the last seven or eight years for fans. The issue is the sport's spendaholism is out of control.
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