Franchise model in NASCAR starting to come to fruition
This will be the sixth year that the NASCAR Cup Series has operated under a franchise model and Matt Weaver, veteran NASCAR journalist, offers his thoughts.
Simply stated, this ownership charter is the NASCAR equivalent to stick and ball franchises like the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Lakers. The idea is that every car number exists like a professional sports team.
There are 36 franchises in NASCAR.
Like stick and ball teams, these 36 race teams earn shared perks of competing under the NASCAR Cup Series umbrella. Most importantly, the cars that are paired with an ownership charter have guaranteed starting positions into every Cup Series race, regardless of the size of an entry list on any given weekend.
Similar to how stick and ball franchises receive shared revenue from television contracts or licensing agreements, NASCAR
Cup Series teams also receive similar benefits granted to them under the charter agreement.
First, understand that the value of all 36 charters are not equal.
The value of a charter is based on the historic significance of a team and the performance of its car over the
past several seasons. How much a team makes at the end of the year is determined by a formula that takes into account the value of the charter and where the team finished in the championship standings.
There is also a collective bargaining element to the charter system.
It works very similar to the Concorde Agreement in Formula 1, in which the sanctioning body cannot make unilateral competition decisions without first consulting the teams. A majority of the teams are also aligned under a union-like conglomerate called the Race Team Alliance.
The maximum field size for a NASCAR Cup Series race remains 40 cars, meaning that up to four teams without a charter can still take the green flag, but they receive considerably less purse money than those under the franchise model.
The creation of the
charter system created a demand for charters, resulting in an economic ecosystem.
From the very beginning, NASCAR and the RTA set out to create a model that created long-term value for owning a team, while also creating competition to acquire an ownership charter. The idea being, if there was value in possessing an ownership charter, there would be value upon needing to sell it.
It has taken five years, but there are the earliest signs that the NASCAR and RTA vision is starting to come to fruition.
While it was unfortunate to lose teams like Germain Racing and Leavine Family Racing, there was competition for the charters when 23XI Racing and Spire Motorsports purchased them.
In previous eras, when teams went out of business, they had nothing of value but the race shops. The cars quickly became outdated and equipment was sold for pennies on the dollars. The charter system intends to provide tangible value.
Unfortunately, too many teams are still having to shutdown due to the economic
challenges of operating a race team. That’s where the Next-Gen car, which has been designed as a cost-containing spec platform, could be the final piece to the charter system puzzle.
If the Next-Gen car reduces the cost of competition, and if the next broadcast rights agreement produces similar revenue opportunities, teams will be less reliant on sponsorship money to remain on track.
That’s the concept, at least.
Each ownership charter can be leased once within an agreement period to another organization, but it must be returned to its original owner after the end of one season.
The first charter agreement ran from 2016 to 2020. The current charter agreement runs from 2021 to 2024 through the current television broadcast agreement with FOX and NBC.
From the very start of the charter agreement, many charters have been sold or leased over the years.
***
Williams Grove Speedway
has its focus set on Opening Day 2021 coming up in just over a month on Sunday afternoon, March 14 at 2 pm.
Presented by Hoosier Tires, the season opener for the Lawrence Chevrolet 410 sprint cars will be a sprint car only program paying $5,500 to win with gates opening at noon.
And fans will be treated to a pleasing $15 adult general admission price for what is sure to be a great field of sprinters on hand for the lidlifter.
Youths ages 13 – 20 will be admitted for $10 while kids ages 12 and under are always FREE at Williams Grove Speedway.
March includes two other racing programs at the track on March 19 and 26, both featuring the 410 sprints and the super late models with the March 19 event sanctioned by the ULMS Late Model Series.
Selinsgrove Speedway has partnered with SprintCarUnlimited.TV to offer live Pay-Per-View coverage of 11 big events at the historic oval during this upcoming 75th anniversary
season.
Management inked the deal with SprintCarUnlimited.TV/DirtTrackDigest.TV on Friday.
After years of streaming modified events in the Northeast, DirtTRackDigest.TV recently announced a partnership with SprintCarUnlimited.com to branch out in the Pay-Per-View streaming media forum into the sprint car racing market.
Also slated to be on the covered racing cards are super late models, limited late models, 360 sprints and 305 sprint cars.
And perhaps the best news for potential viewers is that the broadcasts DO NOT require a membership to any website or broadcast media in order to dial-up the races from Selinsgrove or from any other SprintCarUnlimited.TV broadcasts at any track.
Viewers will simply log on to www.SprintCarUnlimited.TV and purchase the race in order to start watching all the action from Selinsgrove Speedway.
SprintCarUnlimited.TV will broadcast its first race
of the 2021 Selinsgrove Speedway season coming up on Sunday afternoon, March 28 when the oval presents March Madness for the Modern Heritage 410 sprints and the super late models at 2 pm.
With the 75th anniversary racing season looming, Selinsgrove Speedway is eyeing its season opener coming up on Saturday, March 20 at 2 pm when the Short Track Super Series Icebreaker for combined modified competition takes the stage.
The STSS Modifieds will race 40 laps for $5,000 to win, $1,000 for 10th and $400 to take the green flag from a purse totaling more than $25,570 on March 20. STSS Crate 602 Sportsman will take part in a 25-lap feature with $1,500 going to the winner and $100 to take the green flag.
The oval and Selinsgrove Ford in Selinsgrove will host Race Day At The Dealership from 10 am – 2 pm on Saturday, March 6 featuring season schedules and seat sales.
From coast to coast, states were scrambling Tuesday to catch up on vaccinations a week after winter storms battered a large swath of the U.S. and led to clinic closures, canceled appointments and shipment backlogs nationwide.
But limited supply of the two approved COVID-19 vaccines hampered the pace of vaccinations even before last week’s extreme weather delayed the delivery of about 6 million doses.
The White House promised on Tuesday that help is on the way.
States can expect about 14.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine this week, an almost 70% increase in distribution over the past month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. And White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told governors on Tuesday that the number of doses sent directly to pharmacies will increase by about 100,000 this week, Psaki said.
The stepped-up efforts come as the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. surpassed 500,000, far more than any other country.
Although average daily deaths and cases have been falling, some experts say not enough Americans have been inoculated for the vaccine to make enough of a difference.