A few weeks ago, it was reported that Racing Team Alliance (RTA), the organization founded by NASCAR team owners, had hired Curtis Polk, the financial advisor of Michael Jordan, to get a better hand in the upcoming broadcasting deal. Polk had called NASCAR, “a sleeping giant” in terms of untapped economic potential, and team owners need to address the current model of revenue distribution.
Recently, NASCAR spotter Brett Griffin further explained what this situation is really about in the recent episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast.
“What the RTA was truly formed for was to go to NASCAR and get more of the media money, the TV money,” Griffin said. “And essentially NASCAR went from signing one-year deals with tracks to five-year deals with tracks, to lock all that money up so the team owners could not get it.”
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“The question for me here is, ‘Will Rick Hendrick, will Roger Penske, will Gene Haas, will Matt Kaulig, will Michael Jordan…will the billionaires truly stand up and fight this time to get their piece of the revenue share?'”
Curtis Polk, the associate of Michael Jordan suggests the NBA model in NASCAR
Griffin continued to describe the revenue distribution in the current model. He revealed how team owners get 10-15% of the total split.
But that 10-15% is split up amongst all the teams, something which isn’t really “a big rake.”
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Michael Jordan's advisor Curtis Polk says that he and Jordan believe that @NASCAR teams would benefit from an @NBA-like model that is less reliant on sponsors and more on media dollars, "so that’s what we’ve been working on a lot with [@DennyHamlin]."
📰: https://t.co/HjzGWj6Wi6 pic.twitter.com/qLMaUIlMft
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) March 1, 2022
“What Michael Jordan’s guy is saying is, ‘When you see these NBA players going out and signing 40-50 million dollar a year deal, it’s because the teams are getting a major rake from the profit share rake from the league,” Griffin continued.
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“This is just a shot across the bow to say, ‘We want more money. We want you guys to stop being so greedy and share a piece of the pie.'”
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