On April 05, the governing body scheduled its quarterly meeting with the NASCAR teams. However, according to reports, as a sign of displeasure due to the ongoing impasse regarding the revenue model, all NASCAR team owners boycotted the meeting.
In the recent “Spot on, Spot off” segment of Door Bumper Clear, co-host Casey Boat questioned her fellow hosts about their views on the matter. Citing how many of the reports are claiming that the boycott is a result of teams being unhappy with the state of discussion, Boat asked if the issue is about the way television revenue will be divided up in the future seasons.
And while answering Boat, Bubba Wallace’s spotter, Freddie Kraft quoted an interesting statement by Michael Jordan‘s longtime financial advisor.
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Freddie Kraft quotes Michael Jordan’s right-hand man
Explaining his views on the conflict between NASCAR and the team owners, Freddie Kraft said,
“It sounded like the teams met separately from NASCAR and they were pretty much worried [about] one thing. It’s coming down to worrying about the charter system. The teams obviously wanna make these charters permanent and lock in like ‘We’ve got these charters for as long as we want.’
“And obviously, right now, NASCAR can revoke a charter based on performance.”
Furthermore, he explained what exactly must be troubling the team owners. Quoting 23XI Racing owner Michael Jordan’s business partner Curtis Polk, Kraft said,
“I think some team owners trying to just say ‘Listen, this is the foundation of everything we’ve built it on. And this is our whole business model right here, these charters.’ So, I think Curtis Polk had a great quote. He said, ‘If they gave you the moon but they are able to take it away from you periodically, what’s the point of having the moon?”
NASCAR issues a statement after teams boycott meeting
There is a high probability that the boycott of the meeting by team owners was a way of showing frustration over the slow negotiations surrounding the consideration of a new business model. Irrespective of the reasons, the act depicted a lack of faith by the team owner towards the governing body, pitting NASCAR in a bad light.
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As a result of the boycott, the governing body issued a public statement assuring the teams that NASCAR is willing to have an open conversation about the issues faced by the team owners.
.@NASCAR: "NASCAR is committed to open and productive dialogue on a regular basis with all industry stakeholders. We remain committed to continuing discussions in the spirit of collaboration and with the shared goal of growing our sport for the benefit of all stakeholders." pic.twitter.com/KJbVYF8pCO
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) April 5, 2023
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Over the past months, the teams have been demanding the governing body consider a new media rights deal for 2025. Moreover, the Team Negotiation Committee hasalso proposed a new revenue model that focuses on strengthening the NASCAR teams financially through TV rights.