NASCAR: France Family Prepared to Offer Teams Bigger Cut of TV Revenue in Next Deal

NASCAR President Steve Phelps said that the sanctioning body is preparing to offer teams “a fair relationship” with the split of media rights dollars for the next deal that will start in 2025. The current split is 65% to tracks, 25% to teams and 10% to the sanctioning body, but those parameters were last affirmed in 2014 when the 10-year, $8.2B media rights agreement from 2015-24 was signed.

Teams have made clear in recent months that they are intent to have serious negotiations with NASCAR about increasing their share of the pie in the next agreement. That is because teams currently rely on sponsorship for about 75% of their annual income with only 25% coming from guaranteed league income.

Phelps told SBJ, “We’re not going to negotiate in the media — it doesn’t make sense to — but behind closed doors, we are going to do what we believe is fair and put forth what we believe is a fair relationship with our teams.”

Phelps said the talks with teams are “about how we collectively make this sport grow, and if we do that then I think growing the pie and the division of the pie would be — I wouldn’t say easier, but the key for us is about the growth of the pie because then you’re dealing at a position of strength.” NASCAR has already begun informal talks with Fox Sports and NBC Sports — that is why it has been experimenting with its schedule in recent years — but formal talks will begin next year.  Sports Business Journal