Teams Not “Head Over Heels” With NASCAR’s Latest Deal as Charter Negotiations Still at a Halt

It is no secret how NASCAR has been involved in carrying out several negotiations behind the scenes. With the $7.7 billion media rights deal, it has surely brought more clarity to its fanbase. However, with the charter negotiations still not progressing anywhere, it has been a cause for concern for many Cup Series teams.

Like NASCAR’s television package, even the current charters expire in the 2024 season. While the sanctioning body has successfully closed the former, there’s nothing more the Cup Series teams would love than to close the charter deals.

NASCAR Cup Series teams are not entirely pleased with the new media rights deal

As per the Sports Business Journal, NASCAR sealed the $7.7 billion deal over seven years. While it means getting an average annual revenue of $1.1 billion a year, it also means getting 40% more than what the governing body is receiving in the existing media rights deal.

This certainly should be a pleasing aspect for the teams involved. Recently, Adam Stern from Sports Business Journal joined the Dirty Mo Live podcast to give his input on the feedback received with the new media rights deal. Stern then explained how some felt that NASCAR could have ended with a bigger and better deal.

As per him, a few others felt that the sport could have benefited better by getting some more races on the broadcast. While Stern accepted that there were some reservations from teams, not everyone was “head over heels” happy with the multi-billion-dollar media rights deal. The SBJ journalist also pointed out how NASCAR has lost over 50% of its ratings since it last negotiated the charter deal. Despite this fact, being able to get a 40% increase in media rights revenue deserves some appreciation on NASCAR’s part.

Overall, Stern believed that NASCAR did a fair job, if not a great job, from the teams’ perspective when it came to the media rights deal. He even indicated that this would see teams demand more money from the governing body in the pending charter negotiations, especially after what sports’ president Steve Phelps recently said.

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In a recent Zoom meeting during Race Industry Week, he said, “Our race teams by and large are losing money at the Cup level and that is something we need to solve for them. We can solve that with two key pillars. One is to make sure that they are getting additional revenue. They are interested in getting more money from the sanctioning body and the tracks through the purse, and that is something we need to do.”

Phelps certainly had an emphatic approach toward the teams involved. However, he remains uncertain as to how the new money will be split in extending the charter agreement.

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NASCAR President Steve Phelps gives an update on the charter agreement renewal

With the new media rights deal closed, NASCAR could now sit with teams and structure how it could pay them as part of a new charter agreement. Generally, the sanctioning body guarantees a set amount to each charter team for the season and rewards them based on their performance.

Historically, NASCAR has allocated 25% of the media rights revenue to the teams involved, keeping 10% to itself. The balance 65% goes to tracks owned by either NASCAR or Speedway Motorsports. However, with the new media rights deal, sports President Steve Phelps remains uncertain how they would go about things with the additional money.

As reported by Fox Sports, he said, “Nothing to report at this particular time about how the dollars will be distributed. That will be between our teams and us in the coming couple of months as we get our charters extended. I don’t know exactly when we are going to get it [charter agreement] done. The teams and ourselves are committed to doing that.”

READ MORE – NASCAR Might Have Just Saved Themselves With the $7.7 Billion Media Rights Deal

Now that the NASCAR media rights deal is closed, it is only about time that the charter agreement negotiations are done and closed. However, it remains to be seen what the teams expect and how NASCAR goes about its business this time around.