If it ain't broke, fix it anyway: NASCAR 2017 Thread

I would love for that to happen. Brian France's brain would explode.

 

Seems pretty unlikely, no? He's sixth right now, I think.

I don't think it would be much of a PR hit. He's going to be the most popular driver in the series for the next 20 years.

 

Brian France would get into the fetal position and realize that his 15-year effort to manipulate the Cup winner ruined the series.

 

2014 Ryan Newman sees nothing wrong with this.
Same deal then: He made the playoffs and finished second without ever having won a race that year. His average finish was Top-15.

 

You're assuming if he has a brain. In all the one-on-one interviews I did with him, I'm still not certain someone on Madison Avenue was talking out loud as his lips were moving.

 

NASCAR's TV money split won't change for 2015

"NASCAR won’t change the formula for how it distributes television money from its current split among tracks, teams and the sanctioning body when its new television deal kicks in next year, a deal that likely will be worth nearly 4 percent more in 2015 than in 2014.

"In a news release to announce the impact of the schedule changes and the new 10-year television deal that goes into effect next season, track operator International Speedway Corp. said the split will remain at 65 percent to the tracks, 25 percent to the teams through the purse and 10 percent to NASCAR."

Here's the math.

The FOX/NBC deal is approximately $820 million a year, 10 years at $8.2 billion. The 23 tracks split $533 million, so they never have to sell a single ticket to make a profit, especially since ISC and SMI own all but a couple. Don't cry for their completely empty seats.

For 40 cars, that's $5,125,000 per year per car, although I'm guessing Monster adds something to the championship purse as title sponsor. EDITED: There used to be an 85-10-5 percentage between "Cup," "Busch" and "Trucks." (Forgive me for not caring about who sponsors what any more.) So those amounts could vary.

NASCAR pockets $82 million. Which is basically Brian, Liza, Jim and a bevy of lawyers and PR people.

Nobody's going out of business ... AS LONG AS FOX and NBC don't have an "early exit/minimum audience" clause. If they didn't add as a rider, they're dumber than a doorknob and deserve to lose millions.

 

The franchise move was dumb, IMO.

Sure, it guaranteed the regulars a payout, but it killed the idea of a smaller team coming up through the ranks. (I like underdogs, so my glasses are rose-colored on this.)

Once upon a time, Childress, Hendrick, Roush, etc., were those teams.

 

Wait - tracks get TV money? Does it go into the race purse? And why wouldn't you adjust the split when you clearly need more money to keep teams afloat and offset sponsor losses and I'm sure the France family will survive and the admin costs haven't skyrocketed to the degree team expenses have.

 

This simply can't be true. In 2016 SMI reported $224M in broadcasting revenues and a net income of only $39M.

 

The breakdown when the first big TV deal was signed was 65 (teams)/25 (tracks)/10 (NASCAR).