DOVER Motorsports for SALE ?!?!

[zerO]

Since most of us are suffering from a heat wave and a lull in racing induced boredom - let's try this topic for size.


The Dover Downs people who went from horse racing and slot machines into motorsport track ownership - have decided to send up a trial baloon = "DOVER Motorsports FOR SALE"

Dover owns 7 venues/tracks and 3 of them are currently on CART's schedule: Long Beach, Denver, and St.Pete !

Speculations are floating that either ISC or SMI might be interested. Actually TG could be interested as well. But, in all likelyhood - the Dover boys will be stuck with it for quite some time, best bet is for them to unload those tracks one by one. Just my 2 cents, mind you.

zerO

[macdaddy]

Excuse my ignorance, but I didn't think that any temporary circuit was "owned" by any conglomerate. Are you suggesting that Dover could "sell" the LBeach race to any series they so choose? Likewise Denver and St.Pete? Any sponsors, (let alone mayors) would be powerless? Hard to believe.

[Tailwind]

Whatever happens, I sure don't want to see ISC or IMS buy out Dover. That would just invite problems.

[zerO]

Originally posted by macdaddy
Excuse my ignorance, but I didn't think that any temporary circuit was "owned" by any conglomerate. Are you suggesting that Dover could "sell" the LBeach race to any series they so choose? Likewise Denver and St.Pete? Any sponsors, (let alone mayors) would be powerless? Hard to believe.

I agree with you on that, but evidently some form of "owning" is at play here. I presume that Dover Motorsports does have the capability to deny contract renewal to CART when the time comes and sell the race to another series. Lucky for us - all three of them have long term contracts in place.

Funny thing that you mentined this concept... are FIA the "owners" of Monte Carlo GP or Pau ?!

zerO

[Muzza]

The "owning" of the street races (actually it would be better to call it "temporary circuits", this also applies to races in airfields and similar locations) means "rights to commercial exploitation" - "promoting", is simpler terms.

These races are usually not run by an organizing body, like CART, for example, but by a promoting company, that owns the rights to the race. Exceptions occur, but this is the most common arrangement - and has been common practice in CART since its inception. Organizing bodies contract ("commission" is the term most employed in these cases) the race to another party, that foots the bill and grabs the profit. The organizing body provides technical, logistical and, to an extend (as with season-long media contracts, like tv), commercial support.

For CART fans - and open-wheel racing fans in general - the sale of Dover Motorsports is not good news at all. First of all, ISC and IMS are by far the most liking bidders - and both organizations have startegies that sideline open-wheel racing (I should better say "sideline any sort of serious racing, favouring entertainment rather than sport", as they prefer Daytona Prototypes to ALMS, IRL to CART, and NASCAR above all). Sorry Tailwind, but there is no question about it.

And if ISC and IMS are not enough, guess who is the third possible bidder? Yes, a consortium under Tony George himself. Tony George has reputedly been in contact with Henry Tippie for a while (if I am not mistaken, it was the Indianapolis Star that run a report on this a while ago).

Finally, after the buy-out of CART, the sale of Dover Motorsports may be the ultimate push to move Chris Pook into retirement. I have been a long-time admirer of Chris, and his retirement would be a major loss to the sport.

Muzza

[macdaddy]

For how long is CART contracted at these facilities?

[Tailwind]

I don't know about the others, but according to the Rocky Mountain News, C^RT has a contract to run the Denver Grand Prix on Labor Day weekend for the next 10 years.

[brightline]

St. Pete is 3 or 4 with an option for multiple years...I think.

[indycool]

Long Beach dates for '04 and '05 were just reported on AR1.

IMO, this is a floater on Dover's part to see what flies in its motorsports empire. A potential suitor is going to look at it this way:

Dover Downs has two NASCAR Winston Cup dates that carry the whole shebang. In any sale, Dover and a buyer would be looking at what those two dates are worth, period. An ISC or SMI would be looking to cannibalize those two dates in some way, much as Bahre and SMI split the North Wilkesboro dates after purchase.

The value of the rest of Dover's holdings is negligible. Gateway has been tossed out the window by both CART and IRL (a Pook fiasco venture). Nashville is growing smoothly and Long Beach makes them some money and is a "flagship" event. The St. Pete and Denver races are startup cash drains that have driven down Dover's stock price and won't be making money for a long time. They can't decide what they want Memphis to be and nobody else can, either.

So, out of the seven venues, only Dover and Long Beach are presently viable enterprises with profitable and consistent immediate futures, with a longterm predictable future for Nashville.

The rest have negligible value. Whatever Dover's worth is predicated on Dover's two Cup dates...and little else.