Speedway Motorsports earnings benefit from Battle at Bristol

SMI this morning announced a mixed bag for its Q3 earnings report, as admissions revenue for core events was down but profit from non-core events was up sharply on the back of the Battle at Bristol college football game. For the quarter ended Sept. 30, total revenue was $170.7M, up 16% from last year's $144.41M, thanks to the Tennessee-Virginia Tech football game on Sept. 10 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

SMI reported in [Wednesday's] earnings that it profited between $5-6M from the game. SMI President & CEO Marcus Smith followed up in the earnings call by saying that SMI is ""pleased with the results of the game" and is "certainly working to that goal"" of adding more major, non-core events of this nature as a result.

Q3 admissions revenue from core events, which included eight races, was down about 6%, from $31.6M in Q3 last year to $29.7M this year. SMI noted that it has continued to be plagued by poor weather at some of its events this season, including Bristol's Sprint Cup race during Q3, which was postponed a day. As expected, broadcast revenue rose by $2M or 3.1%, as part of the track's take from NASCAR's media-rights deals. Sports Business Daily