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13 Feb 2018, 04:41 (Ref:3800858) | #1 | |||
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NASCAR For Sale?
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- This would involve the sale of NASCAR, SMI, and ISC as a single entity for $3-5B - Comcast is rumored to be interested - NASCAR kind of knows they are in a tough spot after their TV contract expires in 2022 I still don't know where IMSA, Road Atlanta, and Sebring ownership fits into this whole structure. However, I would guess that it was bought and is still solely owned by Jim France. No one is really positive what the NASCAR ownership structure actually looks like. There are a lot of rumors that certain members of the family named "Brian" have sold out. Anyways, this would drastically shake up the Motorsports picture in the United States if it were to happen and as far as M&A deals go, it makes a lot of sense for all three entities in play at this point in time. NASCAR needs a shakeup and this would certainly be that. |
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13 Feb 2018, 15:41 (Ref:3800978) | #2 | ||
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Comcast would buy Nascar? I think it might.
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Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
13 Feb 2018, 21:17 (Ref:3801112) | #3 | ||
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"Knowing that it's in you and you never let it out Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have." -Mike Cooley |
14 Feb 2018, 03:07 (Ref:3801163) | #4 | ||
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It would go a long way to losing my interest in the sport if Road Atlanta went away, despite Petit Le Mans being such a major event. And yes, when I saw "Nascar for Sale?" in thread titles, I immediately went right to this thought too. Road Atlanta should be above this concern at this point. |
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14 Feb 2018, 03:39 (Ref:3801166) | #5 | |||
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Sebring has nothing but orange groves and the 12 hrs. Daytona is beaches, bike week, the speedway, air brush t-shirts and beaches (yes, x2). There's many more factors at play around Flowery Branch and Braselton and I don't think we can compare to the other locations. If someone needs to sell, anyone can buy. That's my concern. I can't fret over what I can't control and I don't see the next 5 to 10 an issue... after that? Riverside was very strong a one point. Sprawl eventually got it. Very few places on the planet are sprawling like the I-85 corridor. One can hope that it's foundations are solid enough... |
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"Knowing that it's in you and you never let it out Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have." -Mike Cooley |
14 Feb 2018, 12:54 (Ref:3801276) | #6 | ||
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14 Feb 2018, 17:07 (Ref:3801309) | #7 | |
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Do any of you realize that Road Atlanta pretty much says busy all year. It's not just the Petit LeMans that keeps it going. Literally, if they only had they Petit, they would have been out of business many years ago. The business structure for racetracks in the US has improved greatly in the last 30 years. There was the gloom and doom where classic places were shut down but that was literally because the tracks sat dormant for 48 weeks per year. Thus, homes were built and the land just got too valuable. Today, these places stay busy 48 weeks per year, thus they create tax revenue along with all of those racers that need to eat and sleep.
People need to stop using the 1980 mindset. It's a PIA to tear down a racetrack plus the environmental issues that pop up (which all racetracks have) make it something nobody wants to touch. I grew up in STL and our local track MAR was shut down in 1983 and it took about 30 years for them to finally start building on it. They even ran just the drag strip for another 20 just waiting for all of those homes to move in. Even at that, half the track is still there. Just like where I am today. Nazareth Speedway was shut down in 2004 but the only activity has been to move the stands to Watkins Glen. Other than that, it sits and is an eyesore. Why is this? Simple, lots of level farmland with no EPA issues. Why spend the money to try to demolish an old racetrack and then deal with all of the environmental surprises that lay underneath. Guess who owns the track? ISC. They bought it to shut it down and sell to a developer for $18M who was to put in a Wal Mart, 700 homes and expand the Brown Daub Dealership. None of that happened. We all cry about the old tracks that have shut down but the reality is that we got a boatload more today. I can tell you that in 1985, we all thought all sportscar tracks were doomed. Boy, were we wrong about that prediction. Even ISC was wrong when they bought PPIR. That corridor was booming in CO with all of this real estate. So, ISC shut the track down and it sat. Finally a group bought it and opened it back up again. So that shutting the track down because of the I-25 corridor was exploding with growth back in 2005, never really panned out like ISC thought it was going to. |
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14 Feb 2018, 17:25 (Ref:3801315) | #8 | |||||
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ISC is a publicly traded company where several members of the France family serve on the board. SMI is also a publicly traded company with no one from Nascar on the board. Neither of these companies could be part of a single sale. I think this would actually discourage a sale of Nascar. Quote:
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14 Feb 2018, 17:52 (Ref:3801318) | #9 | ||
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And I know it has more variables than Sebring and Daytona, but I hate the pins and needles feeling I get about Road Atlanta every time a potential sale is talked about. It's my home track, always will be no matter where I'm living, and I am sentimental to it. Plus it has one the best and biggest races of the year there and is picturesque. I would be heartbroken to see it gone. |
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14 Feb 2018, 17:54 (Ref:3801320) | #10 | ||
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-Nate |
14 Feb 2018, 23:10 (Ref:3801394) | #11 | |
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Nascar for sale? Why not? The organization has been flat line with growth for years, time to pop chute and cash out for a few billion.
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Wolverines! |
15 Feb 2018, 00:13 (Ref:3801400) | #12 | ||
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Where's Loganville? I understand, I grew up on dirt road in Stone Mountain.
I feel the same way. I work for one of the larger developers near Road Atlanta but they grew up there and seem to understand it's importance. Either way, I'm first to chain myself to a bulldozer if needed. I'll save you a spot. |
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15 Feb 2018, 04:24 (Ref:3801425) | #13 | ||
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I'll be there. Don't ask me to chain myself to a tree, but I'll chain myself to road Atlanta. |
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15 Feb 2018, 04:29 (Ref:3801426) | #14 | ||||
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Quote:
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To the OPs point, I don't give a damn what happens to NASCAR as long as my track stays as solid as it is now. A shake up at the top have impacts elsewhere. I don't think it will, but things are better than they've been in quite some time there. Lets not throw a wrench in it. Last edited by fieldodreams79; 15 Feb 2018 at 04:34. |
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"Knowing that it's in you and you never let it out Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have." -Mike Cooley |
15 Feb 2018, 18:53 (Ref:3801647) | #15 | |
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I think my schedule for just spectator events was 20-25 for 2017. Most of those are track days for clubs but it seems like they are open for fans, one of the Chin events last year had a Reventon and the owner also has one of the special edition Aventadors in his stable. And those events aren't including mid-week testing and photo events closed to the public.
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16 Feb 2018, 21:47 (Ref:3801915) | #16 | ||
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Maybe it's not busy for 365 days per year but that is a lot of events as compared to let's say 1980. There are 27 car track days and 4 motorcycle, NASA, drifting, gridlife and LeMons. Those didn't exist back then. So, all of those days those groups rent the track out, keep it busy thus money keeps coming in. Back in the day, the track sat empty for months, thus no income, no racers spending money and no noise. So, it was easy to look at it like a nuisance back then. Tracks like VIR and WG are nowhere near any homes and growth yet both failed. Today, they thrive and only because they can stay busy. A friend of mine runs three separate track events at WG and he even tells me, the track is 100% full from when they open to close. When the track had to repave and shut down, the town took a hit because of no racers in town spending money. I wouldn't worry about Road Atlanta closing down. If it does, there are lots of other tracks to run that 10hr event at. So, it's no big deal. |
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16 Feb 2018, 22:54 (Ref:3801930) | #17 | |||
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I don't worry about much and I'm not worrying about this; just saying it's more possible than others previously listed in this thread. To your point of having a 10 hr race elsewhere being "no big deal"; I beg to differ!!! I live 40 mins from the track and PLM is my "fall break", so moving it elsewhere would be a big deal for me. Just today, I've seen another improvement to the facilities by adding a walking lane around turn 10. I'd like to see some comfort station improvement and grass seeding in some locations, but the point being, they are doing some decent investments to the facility and hopefully, adding some more races. To this subject, I'd love to see the Busch/Xfinity/Insert Sponsor series have a race there. |
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"Knowing that it's in you and you never let it out Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have." -Mike Cooley |
16 Feb 2018, 23:24 (Ref:3801933) | #18 | ||
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And yes, actually consistently flushing attached to the floor would be SPECTACULAR. And I'm always torn about the junior series. I'd be there in a second to watch, but what would they do to the track? I kind of like the no garage paddock, bring your truck, trailer and awning. I'll have to check out the turn 10 pavement at SVRA Saturday of Easter weekend. Historic cars and Trans Am Friday and Sat, no racing on Easter. |
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19 Feb 2018, 20:16 (Ref:3802473) | #19 | |
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This is what will happen if NASCAR gets sold (it'll follow what happens to every company the gets bought).
1. Sale announced and upper management will be grinning so much you'd think that it was photo shopped. 2. Actual sale will go through 3-6 months later. 3. During that 3-6 months, all upper and middle management will be offered a retention bonus. This will literally make their yearly pay double than what it is now. The key is, it gets payed out in installments for 1-2 years after the official purchase goes through. Quit early, the bonuses stop. It gets bigger when you get closer to that 1-2 years. They stay on board because it makes no sense to walk away from that money. 4. New Captain will run the NASCAR ship and he is announced. This all comes with glowing reports from all current NASCAR employees in every division. 5. Changes happen within the company but nobody on the outside will know or even care. 6. Then we start to see changes because the new captain brings in lots of his guys and they question many things. For example, Do we really need to be owning all of these racetracks? Can't we sell that division to someone else (i.e. investment firm)? or Do we really need to be doing sportscar racing? Can we sell it too? Don't be surprised to see divisions of NASCAR being put up for sale or spun off into their own wholly owned subsidiary in hopes someone buys it then. 7. After year one is done, you'll see some management and officials go work elsewhere. Same for the end of year two. We won't care unless it's PWC because then we can theorize about it all day long. 8. Something will get sold off. If it does, then we can theorize about it too. It's obvious that only Road Atlanta matters and the Petit race. If ISC gets sold, then we can have this same conversation again in 2 years. Hopefully someone old enough is left at ISC to remember when they attempted to buy racetracks, shut them down and sell them to developers for them to be bulldozed for homes along with various retail stores built in it's place. As we all know, that didn't work out too well. 9. Aliens come in and make the human race their slaves. We then just work for them and talk about how much fun racing was. |
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20 Feb 2018, 01:12 (Ref:3802507) | #20 | ||
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Whatever the asking price for NASCAR, it's too much and I don't think any smart investor will buy it right now. It's probably worth a third of what it was 10 years ago, unless you can allocate some value in the Monster Energy Girls.
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"Knowing that it's in you and you never let it out Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have." -Mike Cooley |
20 Feb 2018, 01:13 (Ref:3802508) | #21 | |||
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They need to tear down the bridge over the front stretch and do a tunnel, to add to my ever-growing honey do list. But 40 plus Stockcars screaming down the back stretch moves the needle for me! I commend your efforts to grow grass on rocks, sir! |
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"Knowing that it's in you and you never let it out Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have." -Mike Cooley |
20 Feb 2018, 01:28 (Ref:3802511) | #22 | ||
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IMSA isn't NASCAR's core business. It isn't even close. If (big if) NASCAR gets sold, while the impact on NASCAR is unclear, the impact on IMSA is really, really unclear.
Big companies don't like playing around with little sideline activities. I could easily imagine a NASCAR buyer eventually selling IMSA off (could Scott Atherton raise enough money to take it over, maybe with a partner? ACO? SRO?) or, depending on how the ownership is structured, maybe leave it with the France family. |
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“Sometimes there’s no poison like a dream.” — Tanya Donelly |
20 Feb 2018, 15:33 (Ref:3802676) | #23 | ||
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(background info: https://svra.com/news/tony-parella-a...nership-group/) |
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21 Feb 2018, 14:34 (Ref:3802919) | #24 | |
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If someone bought NASCAR and decided to sell off ISC, I could see tracks actually get better.
Let's look at Road Atlanta. I don't see why they couldn't do a setup like you have at NJMP or VIR. That's where you have a clubhouse and somewhere on the track (i.e back straight) a row of town homes. Then take the new pits and make them just like in Europe (i.e. COTA). With garages, a removable pit wall and suites above pit road. That way, you all of a sudden become a track that can run a Creventic or WEC event. Who wouldn't want a Creventic race there? They run it at COTA and split it up (14hr on Sat and 10 on Sun) because of the sound ordnance. It could also run that 8hr event they currently do at Laguna. I'd think that even motorcycles would run a big event at the track. Again, because it would be set up like most tracks in Europe (remember European teams don;t come with the dog an pony show like we have in the US, it's basic and meant to set up in a garage on pit road). There's enough land out by the street that they could lease some out to something like a big gas station/convenience mart. In the end, instead of looking at the gloom and doom of Road Atlanta, it could literally be still be there but better than ever. Along with more world class events. I currently don't see ISC ever spending any more money on the track but a new owner could look at it as an opportunity to make it even more profitable through investment. |
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21 Feb 2018, 17:45 (Ref:3802978) | #25 | |
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Thanks but hopefully none of that at Road Atlanta. That would price the groups who do use the track right out the door. Plus there is VERY little room outside of the track walls and work areas that they could buy. Believe the property edge is within feet of the walls from 2 out to 7 so no expansion there. There has been off track construction behind 8 for other events that was just completed recently to use the extra space they had. And the track runs in a shoe string budget as it is.
And ISC has spent a TON of money in the last couple of years around the track and they have a list of things to improve that's years long already. |
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