Employees receive memo touting the France family's dedication to "long term growth of our sport."
DAYTONA BEACH — A day after widespread media reports of a possible NASCAR sale, the racing community and its ancillaries turned to speculation, trying to decipher how it all might play out and what it means to the sport of stock-car racing.
Within the walls of the Daytona Beach-based racing organization Tuesday morning, NASCAR President Brent Dewar addressed the issue with employees, in writing and in general terms.
The Associated Press obtained the memo Dewar sent to NASCAR employees, regarding fallout from Monday’s story — first reported by the Reuters news agency — that NASCAR has asked investment firm Goldman Sachs to investigate a potential sale.
“For over 70 years, the France family has worked hard to invest in the sport of NASCAR ...” wrote Dewar, who also told employees that NASCAR’s ruling France family “remains dedicated to the long term growth of our sport.”
A NASCAR executive did not refute the AP report, but declined to provide The News-Journal with a copy of the memo.
“We cannot send any employee communications externally, as a matter of company policy,” the executive told The News-Journal.
NASCAR began in 1948 under the direction of Bill France Sr., who formed the idea of organized stock-car racing during meetings in Daytona Beach in December 1947. The organization remains private and in family control.
The family also controls the publicly traded International Speedway Corp., parent to Daytona International Speedway and 11 other speedways nationwide that are hosts to 19 NASCAR Cup Series races, among other events.
ISC’s stock price (NASDAQ: ISCA), which rose 20 cents on Monday when the Reuters report came out, rose an additional 35 cents to close at $42.25 a share in Wall Street trading Tuesday.
Stock analyst Jaime Katz of Morningstar Inc. in Chicago said the France family’s hiring of Goldman Sachs to explore the possibility of selling a majority stake in NASCAR does not mean a deal is imminent.
“There’s a lot of ways this could shake out,” she said, adding that the media speculation “is just noise right now."
“I think they’re only going to sell at the right price,” Katz said. “If the (France family) kids don’t want to take over the business, the timing is right to look into a possible sale. But none of this means a deal has to happen now.”
One of NASCAR’s biggest attributes to a potential buyer is its current network television contract with NBC and Fox, which runs through 2024 and will eventually pay a reported total of $8.2 billion to NASCAR. That money is split among the race tracks (65 percent), race purses (25 percent) and the home office (10 percent).
That TV deal, put together in 2012-13, was an increase from previous TV deals even though it came at a time when NASCAR’s TV ratings and at-track attendance numbers were on a downward trend. That trend has continued in the years since.
ISC, in its annual report, acknowledged that while ratings on Fox declined in the 2017 season compared to 2016, last year’s Daytona 500 had a 5-percent year-over-year gain in viewers, with an average of 11.9 million viewers per minute.
This year’s Daytona 500 broadcast drew an average of 11.5 million viewers, according to ISC’s first-quarter 2018 earnings report. The 2017 Coke Zero 400 broadcast on NBC drew 5.7 million viewers, the strongest numbers for that race since 2011.
Two years ago, Liberty Media, which counts the Atlanta Braves and Sirius XM Radio among its holdings, put together a package totaling a reported $8 billion to buy Formula One racing, the world’s most popular racing series. Liberty’s purchase means much of the early speculation has focused on other worldwide media giants.
One former racing-industry fixture, Humpy Wheeler, was among those suggesting NASCAR should draw potential interest not only from media companies, but from large investment firms.
“Wall Street is like a huge colony of hawks, always hungry,” said Wheeler, who retired in 2008 after 33 years as president of Charlotte Motor Speedway. “And if anything moves below them, they strike.
“I imagine that NASCAR looks like a great buy for future TV content. The right people would take it to Europe, the Mideast and Asia. Then they’d have worldwide television and could even usurp our major stick-and-ball sports.”